The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-05-22

MY DEAR HARRY-You cannot mag.
inc how much I have been upset about
this affair, which is now week old. but
which still supplies me with as much
perplexity and as much sorrow and pair
as it it occurred only yesterday, indeed
| a great deal more. John Freeman, the
lost boy-I find it hard to picture him
as anything but boy-has been known
by me intimately since he was IL
years of age. can honestly say that !
have never known finer, Drawer, more
honorable and more affectionate lad.
He is not exactly handsome, though he
has the brightest and fieriest eyes of
glowing hazel that ever saw and "A
very beautiful mouth; nor clever, vet at
the same time not deficient in intelli.
gence. What has always attracted me
to him is partly certain simplicity
which neither public school life nor
college life has yet succeeded in impair
ing, and something in his manner and
expression which suggests that he not
only never did entertain but never could
entertain mean thought. have known
him intimately since he first went to
school, and you may be assured he is all
that l represent him and more. He is
absolutely without vice, though l hear
that during the last term he has begun
to smoke little. As to physique,
though not tall, he is the strongest and
almost the most athletic youth whom it
has ever been my good fortune to meet,
large imbed, muscular and brimful
always of the most perfect health and
unfailing good spirits. AS swimmer
and diver never saw his equal. have
often seen him strip on wild day in
December or January and swim long
distances to recover some curlew or
pigeon which he had shot. But enough
of this. Suffice it to say that not only as
the constabulary officer of this district,
but as his own close personal friend, the
astonishing and mysterious disappear
ance of poor Freeman under the cir
cumstances detailed in the official re-
port has been to me a most severe blow.
have done and am doing my best.
But every night finds me here in my den
cogitating aimlessly over this tragedy,
for the worst Of it is that am unable
even to imagine a theory which will IN
the least square with the facts must
at least seem to be doing something.
frame now one theory Of the disappear
ance, now another, and send out my men
and institute searching parties on the
assumption that those theories are cor
rect, but at the same time I know that
so far from being correct they are in
each case incredible and even absurd.
Every one looks to me to solve the mys-
terry, to recover the body or explain at
least how he was killed or stolen, and
am no more able to 10 so than to trans
late Confucius from the original Chi
nese.
When you were with me last summer,
the Freeman family were away from
home, but you remember the position
of the rectory, which is visible from
the rock behind my cottage, and its sit
uation with respect to the rock called
Dhu-C orrig, which lies at the end of
this picturesque valley. The Rev. Mr..
Freeman is gentleman for whom l
have always felt great respect, but
one with whom was never able quite
to hit it off, and our relations have lat
terly become very strained indeed. l
could never get into the habit of steady
churchgoing. If l went to morning
service, l staid away from evening dit
to, and sometimes without valid excuse
have omitted both morning and evening
service. My behavior appeared still
worse when contrasted with that of the
coast guard officer, old Crumps, who as
regularly as the bell tolls on Sunday
morning and Sunday evening and