The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-02-20

like an overburdened palfrey. the gems
congenial task. loathing the drudgery
and despising his vulgar associates.
Dragging himself home after midnight
from his squaid office, he had nothing
awaiting him but a filthy. cheerless
garret in the worst quarter of Dublin,
His only refuge from this wretched-
ness and misery was his love of read-
ing. He had no money to buy books.
Public libraries were not then as now
SO easy of access. He poured provoke
ingly long over the dusty dog cared
stalls. Hc strove tenaciously to stock
his memory with this precious infor-
mation. obtained at so great incon.
verience. Life dragged for him tor.
tuous length. until 1880, when some-
body induced him to join the jovial
Comet Club" consisting of 12 young
Irishmen. Samuel Lover ana DhfiioEh
OConnells son were among the num-
ber. The official organ of this blithe-
sonlo band was a newspaper, "Tho
Comet" Mangan contributed continu-
ally numerous prose essays, unique in
their quaint drollery, laconic wit, pithy
and pertinent reflections, undoubted
ability and undisputable originality.
These articles attracted the notice OF
t1,~ e., x,,31
Promoter of the Gaelic revival.
Through his patronage Mangan se-
cured employment more to his liking
II. tho ordnance survey.
1t was here that he met John
O'Donovan and Eugene O'Curry. those
passionate pilgrims to the jeweled
shrincs Of Celtic poetry. Fired by their
contagious and convincing enthusiasm,
Mangan began his sympathetic work
on Gaelic translations. In 1882 Petrie
and O'Donovan edited the now cele-
brated dublin Penny Journal" In
it Mangan published in terse, vigorous
English, preserving skilfully the fire
and passion of the originals, those
gems Of Celtic verse which are today
the admiration of Celtic experts. DR..
Todd, librarian Of Trinity college, was
Fascinated by Mangan's wondrous
and engaged him to catalogue the me-
elected treasures Of Trinity.
No more appropriate occupation
could have been offered to this biblio-
phile. How he enjoyed the long soli-
tary days passed in the constant So
cicty OF tho beloved books Rapt and
reticent, Mangan browsed for hours
over rare manuscripts and long -covet-
cd volumes. forgetting in his love for
learning the duties of a wage Garner.
In 1885 Charles Gavan Duffy, whose
personal memoirs recently published,
have inmortalized Mangan, edited
"rhe Nation" He induced Mangan
and VIII Carleton to collaborate with
him. Duffy paid Mangan his weekly
pound as an honorarium, firm in the
belief that the Irish poet would yet 4
chant deathless songs, rivaling Keats
and Shelley. Duffy was faithful In the
payment of the pound, but poor Nam
gan honored the confidence of his
friendly chief more in the breach than
in the observance.
Every Saturday night in the early
days of their friendship, Duffy and
Mangan met and made merry.
The barriers of taciturnity and cold 4
reserve, which the sensitive Mangan
erected to wall out everybody else, fell \
before the affectionate sympathy of 81
the genial Duffy. Mangan quoted
Shakespeare, Schiller, Byron, Burns;
and the Irish bards with the intimate
ease and fiuency Of a child coming q
it's alphabet. The reticent recluse felta
the second spring of boyhood. :S
Duffy's kind heart was moved to sin. L
cere affection for this young Irish sings
er whose soft. sympathetic voice, WIS.,
slSg3 S3i ;s;Ss3