The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-08-09

1.-THE Exies." "She was an Irish girl,
and her name was Annie Freel, and her
cheeks were still as fresh as pinks from
the breezes Of Donegal"
make o. this GRIMM Jawn Of hers with
all his blether? I know him. He's the
mate of a lad that came acrost me the
first year l was out with his hat on the
corner OF his head an the dvil ms eye"
And Mary McShane, the cook. "her hair
| a greasy gray" her face the fiat nosed
type OF Irish that is so pathetically like
an apes" dreaming OF Ireland: Sure,
what fer? What's to go back to? Nav.
| nav. Whin yeh're ould there's no goin'
back to the young days-excipt while
yeh sleep. An it's the sorry wakin'
| yeh have"
What more wistful and tender q
romance to be found than that OF Mrs.
Doan, the old washcrwoman. shuffllng
along the asphalt Of Central Park In
the brightness of an April morning.
with her bundle of a Monday washing.
to come upon the lover of long ago and
to lose out of her pitiful old life the one
remaining illusion of remembered love?
And what more comic and dverting
| study of types than THE Devils
Doings." and the visit of Mrs. Cregan,
"as fat as Falstaff" and with features
as i'll suited for the expression of grief
as a circus clowns" and Mrs Byrne,
who enjoyed handling men and women
like a politician" to the clairvoyant?
Or what shrewder woman counsel than
that of Mrs. Byrne: "Yuhre a good
manager, Mrs. Cregan. but yuh've been
dang poor WIFE Think of yer man
first an yer house after, an yuh'll be a
happier woman"
His Mother" Is one of the most per-
feet stories Of motherhood that the Ian
guage boasts. 1t is IRISH to he sure.
but the heart of it is in the universal
language. That's what 1t is to be
mother" says Mrs. Regan. who is
Larrys mother. "'Taint only that yuh
can't leep yer hoy, but If yuh try 1t
v end by Gon down on yer bare knees
to the girl to marry him. . That's
what it is to be lookin' after the men all
| yer life--an' managin' them-an' feedin'
them-an seem they're KEEP full an
happy. Faith. 1 wish't I'd been born a
man meself. IT must be an easy life.
s'pose I'll be gran'mother
now. soon enough? There's no end to
it. Nothin' but trouble. A
gran'mother. Well. now"
Among the Irish of the tenements,"
says Mr.. O'Higgins, speaking of His
Mother and THE Two Mickeys,"
whose spirit is akin, 'the mother is al
most always the head Of the family, the
directing and managing head Of 1t.
That is of course commonly true in
peasant families abroad, and II is true
here among laborers, whose work is
cXhausting and whose recreation is al
coholic. The woman has the greater
sense of responsibility TO her children.
She usually outlives her husband. She
endures poverty better than he. She
is more ambitious and farsighted
!, her children rather than for herself.
. She il more interesting character
than he for purposes of fiction. 1t Is a
curious thing how she has been over
>, looked by those authors who are con-
tinuany writing and speaking broadly
>, of the parastism of the modern
u woman
. THE mother of the tenements Is the
- least parasitic form OF life that can be
!" imagined. With her body she gives
-. life. She supports 1t with her labor
- She defends it with her will directs n
- with her intelligence sacrifices herself
20 and her husband to it-even to her own
10 destruction and hls-and takes her re.
~ ward only in seeing It uplifted out of the
struggle in which she has spent herself
:, The 'parasltism OF the modern woman
!. is a matter of economic conditions. no,
~ OF sex"
- There is something more than this ex.
80 position of the mother of the tenements
- the woman who sees In the youns
j. Mickey some reflection of the shiftless
=, and shirking father, in 1.-The TIVE
-, Mickeys"-" child, have pu
" nothin of meself into yeh? Nothin' a,
- all?'" There is an expression Of boy.
a. hood.
le Young Mickey, leaning over the edg,
~ of the theatre gallery in frank DISCUS
II, at the hero and heroine in the meIo
~ drama, who "'ain't dom nothin'. d'hey',
all Just talkln' to dheyselves,'" is tn,
: precursor of Barney Cook OF the DE
I'd tective Barney" stories. There ia ,
We deal NJ tho hoy heart and tho how min,