Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1912-08-01

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strangers at railway
stations and street corners Although
often frigid and uncommunicative to
natives, the policeman is free enough WE
with strangers, and his information is W
apt to be reliable about the country INN
generally, for, as he is never kept W
long at any one place, his local knowl- 1W%OW
edge is extensive. It is true that he " ~
Is apt to be biased against the peas [ ~ ~
antryo because, although peasants wv
son himself, his training and employ us
ment have made the people hate him "
for the common people have no use - IN
Tor the "peeler," as the constabulary \ MON
are contemptuously called by them
imagine the policemen, the natural protectors
Of life and property, being hated by the neonlei
That is the condition in Ireland yet and has been
so almost from the beginning. That does not
mean that the Irish do not want to have life and
property protected, 1t means that they have so
long seen the policeman identified with the pro
lection OF particular kind Of life. to-wit. tbe
landlords and bailif's, and particular kind Of
property, to-wit: the landlords propertv In land
that they overlook his other useful public serv
ices 1t Is most unfortunate state of things
The policeman has been made the buffer betwaan
tne English Government and the Irish peope and
the efficient instrument of coercion of the lattor
and between the two his lot has not been hannv
one. When home rule becomes an Accomplished
fact, the Royal Irish Constabulary will he dis
banded 1t will no longer be necessary to keen
an English garrison" in Ireland
The arrangement between the police and tho
people Is indeed remarkable. In the lawless dis
tricts of which there still too many the peonlo
who could give information to the police will NOT
40 So Hence, there is good deal of unpunisbed
crime in those districts One of the worst conn
ties in this respect is the county of Clare the
historic constituency that first elected OConneII
to Parliament. Here the old wounds of the agra
rian war have never closed up. During nv stav
l saw In one of the papers pastoral letter Of
the Most Rev. DR.. Fogarty, Bishop of Killaloe CIV
ing Dlood-curdlng description Of outrages which
continued to be committed with impunity against
life and property in Clare l visited Ennis. the
capital OF the county was told that In one week
no less than three shooting outrages had been
perpNtrated on unofending men. One of the vic
tins was an ex-solder who was acting letter.
carrier, and who was shot in the highway In omen
day. Although many people passed his wounded
body ON the road, not one would comfort or re-
lieve him till the police several hours after.
wards. These passers by doubtless felt that IL
they gave any help to the victim they might meet
the same fate as himself So helpless has British
law become in the county Of Clare
SCATTERING round the narrow streets I fell in
with an old man who did not object to converse
ton. He proved to be ex-po!iceman. This
man did not mince matters In detailing his views
and experiences. Glare was the most peaceabe
county In Ireland" said he, when | Joined the
2orce, but the cursed Land League came upon u.s.
and since then things have been different. Most
of the men you meet on the road are Fenians or
R1bbanmen and many Of them are criminals"
I told him thought this was too strong de-
scription Of his countrymen. He however stuck
to his opinion and took me to an elevated spot at
tho back of the Court House. from which he
PORTED out the scenes of many as seventeen
asSassinations, all more or less successful but
fo7 which only one man was ever brought to
jvstice
It is not alone the malcontents and the secret
society men that refuse to tell the police what
they know about outrages. Even the relatives of
the injured persons are often known to adopt a
similarly uncommunicative attitude. To give In
formation to the police is to be branded as an
"informer," which is the most offensive epthet in
the Irishman's vocabulary, being worse than that
of "hangman." The stigma descends from father
to son, while there is any of the family left to
endure It, My ex-policeman friend told me that
he himself had heard Clare mother, whose son
was shot before her eyes, make the avowal that
she would rather see all her sons lying dead be-
side her than become hated "informer." She
brought the secret to the grave with her
l asked my friend for his opinion as to why the
force was so unpopular. He laid the blame I'm.
hesitatingly upon the English Government The
Government have employed the police almost ex
clushlvely at evictions and other such unpopular
tasks, when they might have employed the regu
Tar soldiers or the militia The result is that the