The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-05-08
The Landlord.


You are well. too, l tTust?
"In body, yes, your reverence, but in
mind I'm a bit annoyed. See here, your
reverence
well, Mr.. Reeves
I'VE shall never get the people TO quit
their old way of doing things. l got a
spraying machine for those tenants OF
mine over in Ballymoteen, and / went
there this morning to see how they were
getting on with il, and what do you
think 1 found?"
II cannot say, Mr.. Reeves"
THE spraying machine safely slowed
away in Peter Nolans barn. When !
asked him why in the name of thunder
he wasn't using it, he said TO me:
4" 'BegOrra, yer honor, / did, bud l
only used it on a perch or two ov me
pratie (potatoes) drills. Jimmy Rooney
was passin an whin he saw what l
was at, he laughed at me an said, II
ought to have better sinse an not to be
using haythen machines invinted be
the English governmint. We had cham
pion pTaties, and champion min afore
yer sprayers wOr inVinted, he said
Take ii home wud yeh, Jimmy Rooney,
or the people will be sayin ye're takin'
lave ov yer sinses. Begob, l wudn't ate
d pratie that was sprayed iv yeh gave
me Asiah Minor
i got that machine specially for my
tenants, and now they won't use it
Never mind Mr.. Reeves. I'll go over
there today and read the riot act over
them. You will find the next time you
pay them a visit that they viii be loud
in their praise of your gift to them
How on earth will you manage them,
Father Denise" and the perpleXed Mr..
Reeves leaned anxiously over his
'Oh, I'll manage them, and Father
Denis laughed. IN simply tell Jimmy
Rooney he's your chief tenant. I'll sim
ply tell him he did right not to use the
spraying machine. In religious matters
Rooney is my faithful follower. but
when ii comes to farming, he thinks I
know nothing about it. He said to me
once:
-" Yer, reverence. ye're a CRATE praich-
er, and a pillar oV the church, bud yeh
don't know a turnip from mangeL'
"I'll wager you, Mr.. Reeves, Rooney
viii be spraying away tomorrow simply
because told him not to, and the other
farmers viii follow his Lead
We'll, I never" and Mr.. Reeves lay
back in the saddle with the laughter.
IN be over the day after tomorrow to
see how your scheme worked. Don't
forget, Father Denis, that you and Fa-
Their Tom are to dine with me on Thurs
day. A roast joint and good claTet is
all III give you, and a game of whist
after. Goodbye, now, and if you have
the time at all tomorrow. come to the
hunt. The meet is at Clooneen, and I'll
enlarge the stag on Joe Moore's farm
You seldom meet in Ireland a good
type Of landlord, and the most of
them were rackrenters and ground
IL
the tenant made Improvements. the |
landlord raised the rent, and in case of |
non-payment, eviction was the remedy |
Many of those landlords were absentees. |
They had their residences in London |
and on the continent, and left the man. |
agement of their estates in the hands of |
agents whose cruelty to the tenants can !
never be written. The money wrune |
from the poor tenant was squandered |
abroad in gambling and horse racing. |
remember as many as twenty families |
cast out on the roadside in the course |
of single day, and some of these poor
people were in the last stages of con-
sumption. What the Irish race has suf-
fered at the hands of bad landlords can
never be written. but, thank God. their
day has gone and gone forever, and the
calling evil so long laid upon the Shout
ders Of the most patient, generous and
noble peasantry in the world is re-
moved. The landlord Of our village and
the surrounding district was Mr..
Reeves, and / never knew kinder
landlord in my life. His tenants loved
him, and in the course of his life he
never evicted a single one of them. /
though many of them never paid him a
penny of rent for years. In bad years,
he bought seed oats and potatoes for
them, gave them straw TO thatch their
houses with; in fact, his hand and
purse were ever ready and open to
those in need. He lived in an old
manor house below the village, and
with the exception of month spent in
London during Ascot week, he never
never left his home. He was as thor
ough sportsman as he was q kind
landlord, and well he fulfilled the
position of master of one of the fore
most pack of staghounds in Ireland
He loved racing and hunting, and it
would be hard TO find his equal as to
the knowledge of a horse He kept |.
four or five racers. and these were
trained by Tom Nolan, whom my read
er has met in one of my former
sketches. These horses captured many
important races in the course Of the /;
year, and there was no more prouder I
man in the breadth of the land than
Mr.. Reeves when the black jacket and
scarlet cap Chis colors) were carried
to victory. Great would be the re-
ioicing in the village over the victory, !
and even Peg the Barge would hang ;
but a scarlet petticoat whenever such
q thing happened. She had warm ,
spot in her heart for Mr. Reeves be-
cause when the fox made too free with ;
any of her geese Mr.. Reeves compen
sated her to about five times the
value. Though a Protestant, there
we're no better friends than Father
rom and Mr.. Reeves, and whenever
he chapel wanted repairs or any
,ther parish work was to be done Mr..
Reeves was always first with his do
nation.
see here. boys" Jim Scully re.
marked on more than one occasion.
his honor, Mr.. Reeves, would be J
catholic out an out iv he'd only give
10 atm mate on a Friday"
Jim worked with Mr. Reeves. that | ;
S. was in the latter's employment, for .
;cully. as far as l was aware, knew
lot the meaning of the word work, Z
hough to see him moving about the [
arrnyard you would be led to imag q
ne that he was doing ten mems work. o
i'm was always moving when he
hould be working and when he was c
OF moving he was either smoking or 7
hewinE straws and discussing all I
rz-o;-,, pro,,, he [