The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-28
SCRAP BOOK FOR TO-DAY

Irishmen everywhere will celebrate to-day the 134th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Moore, greatest and best loved of Ireland's many poets. The sons of the Emerald Isle. in their annual commemoration of the birth day of Moore, do more than to pay a just tribute to a literary genius They recognize in Moore Q patriot as well as a poet, a man who, though long dead, continues to exercise a profound influence for unity among Irishmen the world over. Moore was the great interpreter of the sentf- me1ts of his race. There have been greater bards than Tom Moore, but none of them with the possible ex- ception of Bobby Burns, have won in so large a measure the love and affec- ton. as well as the admiration, of their countrymen.
 Moore did not entertain any vast respect for Americans in general, and BermudianS in particular. The poet went to Bermuda in 1903 as registrar of the admiralty court of the isles of the lily and the onion. He was ex- cessively bored by .Bernudian society and by. his prosaic tasks, of which Mark Twain later wrote: '1 am not quite clear as to the functions of a. registrar of the admiralty of Bermuda, but I think 1t is to keep @ record of all the adnira1s born there. There was not much doing in adE1ira1s, and Moore got tired and went away" De- spite Moore's criticisms, the 'Mudfans have long since forgiven him, and the house in which he lived while in the islands is now one of the show places for tourists.
 Moore held the office in Bermuda for nearly two-seore years, and con tinued to draw the income derived from it, although he actively discharg- ed it's duties less than four months. On one occasion the embezz1ement of his deputy in Bermuda involved him in serious financial embarrassment.
 "The men of the island, confess. are not very civilized,'' wrote Moore, while in Bermuda, land the old phil osopher who imagined that, after this life, men would be changed into mules and women into turtle doves, would find the metanorphosis in some de- gree anticipated. at Bermuda" The poet ungallantly referred to 'MudianI women as ''poor creatures,' and in a letter to his mother remarked eff I were painter, and wished to preserve my ideas of beauty immaculate, would not suffer the brightest belle of Bermuda to be my house-maid.'
 Despite these reflections on 'Mudian womanhod, Moore had a love affair with a married woman, to whom, as tNea,'' he addressed passionate poems This lady has been idend fed as the fck1e wife of 8, St. Georges merchant, and it is a matter of record that the latter did not appreciate the attentions of the poet to his spouse.
 Moore went to Bermuda by way of Norfolk, Va, where he remained two months and returned to England by way of New York, Washington, Phil adelphia, Baltimore, Niagara Falls, Canada and Nova Scotia, sailing on a ship from Halifax He made many friends in all these p1aces, but was not particularly impressed with the country. In a letter dated New York he wrote: Such a place such people! barren and secluded as poor Bermuda is. think it is a paradise to any spot in America that I have seen" Quebec won his approval, however, and the voyage down the St. Lawrence arous- ed his enthusiasm, and suggested the beautiful Canadian Boat Song.'' ''4aOf Norfolk, Va, where Moore remained some time, he wrote: This Norfolk is a most strange place; nothing to be seen in the streets but dogs and ne- groes, and the few ladies that pass are to be sure the most unloveIy pieces' of crockery I ever set my eyes upon. It Is really most conical place."