The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-07-03
The News Agent.
(Continued.)

in these papers there We're interesting
staries, stories which deal for the
most part with the wars in Ireland
and the wondrous adventures of the
white man with the Indian in these
western states. The old people were
just as crazy about these stories as the
young, and it was laughable to see
how eagerly they drank in every word
from the readers lips and then con-
lecture how the. hero would pull
through the tight place in which the
writer left him each week 1t was the
peculiar thing with all these stories
that the most exciting part of them
was the end, and you were left in a
fever heat as ii were for the continue
ton. ! we'll remember how the old
people would crowd around one special
f1reside on the Thursday night with
eagerness Impressed upon their kind
ly faces to hear the stories. They
would light their pipes and then
draw their stools round about the
reader and you could hear a pin drop
during the reading When the reader
had finished you would hear such re-
marks as these:
Begob he'll never escape. Sitting
Bull will scalp him. "Arrah; whist
Wud yeh, Old RUDE will rescue him."
Il tell yez, Owen Roe and Sir Phelim
wor CRATE min. bud not aequal to
Myles. the slasher wud the sword"
I'D give the world, me boys Gt is Phil
Mcguire the tailor TO be in that
charge wud Sarsfield on the Duke
CBerwick). I'd have charged straight
for King William an aither have kilt
him or have made him me prisiner ov
war and won for the name ov Mcguire
immorthial glory, but I'll never git the
chance now, for l feel it in me bones
that I'll die in bed" Listen to him,
win yez. and Jim Scully points the
shank of his pipe scornfully at Ma
quire, why yez all know that Mcguire
wud lie in a pratie furrow until the
day he'd die iv he only saw a red coat.
Terry Geraghty that were after read
in about in Mick McQuaid, was a haro
compared to yeh. Phil Mcguire" and
Jim chuckles at the comparison.
Yes, dear reader, all Of US, old and
young were, to hear US talk as well ac-
Quaited with the following names and
places as if we knew them all our
lives. Sarsfield, Owen Roe and Ber-
wick. Limerick. Benburb and Landen, |
Sitting Bull, Texas Jack and Old RUDE, |
Colorado and Rio Grande, Deadwood |
and Carson City. We went fighting |
with the Irish brigade in Flanders,
Italy, France and America. We went |
trapping with Old RUDE, Carey and |
Leather Stockings We drove back the |
Indians with Buffalo Bill, Custer and |
Powell. We blazed paths across the
mountains with Kit Carson, Deadwood |
Dick and Colorado Joes We smoked the
pipe of peace with Sitting Bull, Red
Cloud and Uncas, and f1ayed Terry
Teraghty one week and laughted at
him the next. We did all these things
and more, and it was George Augustus
Ma gam, the news agent. who supplied
Us with the materials of war in the
shape Of the weekly papers. George
was about the crOssest the most polite
and most eXacting man that l ever
met With the young he insisted upon
being called Mr.. Magann, and with the
Did or grown up he was content, and
only content. when they called him
George Augustus
Jim Scully in moment of familiarity
once forgot himself and called the news
agent "Gusty," a thing which the lat
Ter never forgave. 1 see George seated
in his little shop. A copy of Shiers
speeches is in his hand. 1t was the only
book, if we except the prayer book, that
George read, and I verify believe that
ne had every word of that work COM
nitted to memory. When anyone en-
cred the shop for a paper, he gave one
/
les and before the visitor had time to
,pen his or her lips George would say:
All, the weekly news" or the name
# the paper the visitor was in the hab-
{ of getting, and then rising hastily
rom his seat. he would lay his hand at
nee upon the desired paper If you
we're young he never spoke to you, and
f you were old, it depended upon your
Ocial status and mental qualifications ,
whether he would condescend to address
-ou or not But if George was cOnserva-
i've as to his conversation, his sister
ane was not. The sound of a foot in
he shop brought her at once from the =
onfines of the kitchen and, putting her
lead into the shop, she accosted the r
-isitor In some such language as the
Glowing:
'Ah! God bless yeh, night. noon. an =
1onin'. Yeh have come for the week
y news, an CRATE dale ov news there r
; in it this week, holy religious news I
name, Tor never read any other kind.
here was a sarmin from me brother. z
ne priest yeh know me brother, the 7
riest'
"Yis, Miss Jane"
"Yeh wud never forgit him iv yeh
-anst saw him. He's a tall. distin-
uished looldn' man, an the youngest
our tamlIy ~ l except meself, so that
'ud lave him thirty-nine next August.
s I'm just turnin' thirty-seven Jane
as at least sixty-six years ODD. We Il
ad letter from him Yesterday. hadn't \
e, Augustus?" :,
George Augustus FUCKERS his mouth d
nd frowns a little and then, turning n
} his sister, replies: Q,
i told you often, Jane, an now fell m
GU once more an for the last time. that w
hin / am readin' 1 am not TO be in G;
srrupted. 1t shows a crate want oy G,
tanners on yer part, Jane, an yeh are b,
he only wan ov the Maganns that err z
this particular m
George Augustus" continues lame er
lt needing her brother. is the orIdesf ST
' our family. an ever since he was a
ossoon was always fond of book larn- m
=. Bartholomew Finnegan, the school- of
aster, tould me last week that his head bl
I'd burst afOre he died iv he kent on m
e way he does an to hear himself an pl
ather Tom talkin' gives me a spinnin' or
me head vi
George closes his book and taking off va
S spectacles he points with them in
e direction of the kitchen. saving as ed
does so: hi
a woman's sphere is the kitchen and he
tell thee, Sister Jane, with all the DIG as
ty an gravity i'm me power to denar+ ia
wanst to thy proper sphere an leave TO
e 10 attind to the duties ov this shon ,, slC