St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-12-27
seu.nas AlaeNIanus Coming

Seumas AIacManus, OF Donegal, ire
land the Irish writer and lecturer has
been secured by the knights OF Colum-
bus. to lecture at the Colonial Theatre
on January H. All who are acquaint-
ed with MacManus' Irish stories, in
the leading magazines. or with his
books, need hardly be told that he got
his knowledge Of the wit and humor
and poetry and patho5 Of Irish life
at first hand From his cradle he look
ed out every day on the rugged noun
tains and cliffs of wave-lashcd Done
gal; and he heard the Donegal call
Gems" singing round him the old Gae-
lie lullabes; and listened to the ''cron-
ics'' and "shanachieS," who dropgod
every night into his fathers cottage
on the mountai2-sidc, chant the I'm
cient Irish poems and tell the thousand
years old legends and tales. In fact,
he was sucked on the very lore which
he has now for ten years been giving
to the American public. The fourteen
or fifteen books of fairy tales and Of
original story and drama that he has
given to the world, since at the age
Of eighteen he, was appointed the
mountain schoolmaster form only
emall>part OF the great wealth of Irish
lore which he imbibed as q child In
his Lad Of the OFricls' and his
Donegal Fairy Stories" and his Bal
lads Of o Country Boy" among others,
nc gives us Irish life ard character and
Irish song and Irish story, Irish hui
NOR and Dathos, combined like the
sunshine and mists Of his native hills.
As a barefoot boy he WIS so fond
Of the old fresidc stories that he
tramped the hills nightly to hear them
in the house Of the "shanacfy," or
regular story teller-for every district
among tho hills of ireland has It's own
honored snanachy, who is a repository
Of all the old lore, and who on the
long winter nights cntert2ins the big
circle Of happy-faced ones who listen
spell-bound to the tales, sitting around
the glowing peat fire, with the yellow
freight dancing over their faces, and
nickeriag over the smoke BACKED raft
CTS above them. The barefoot boy who
"at opcn-mouthed in the corner did
not then in his Widest dream imagine
that he would one day be telling the
same stories to an audience stretching
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pact
fic. and from the Great Lakes to tho
Gulf Of Mexico-or thai he would be
interpreting to all America the poetry
ana the pathos and wit which he aaH
and felt and heard around him.
At the age of eighteen he became
school master Of the littla mountain
1chool at which he himself had been
taught to read and write and figure.
And after seven wears teaching and
dreaming during the day, and writing
and dreaming during the night, nc
badc goodbye to his scholars and old
friends and neighbors, and like the
hero in his own fairy tales, set out 20
push his fortune-in America.
From the steerage Of q trans-Atlan-
tic liner he landed here on a beautiful
day in fall ten years ago, his name ut
terly unknown to anyone in America,
except exiled boys and girls from his
own mountain parish. After seven
months Ct America he sailed for homo
in the Mas following with his humor-
GUS Irish stories printed, and being
printed, in every leading magazine in
the country, and his first American
book, Through the Turf Smoke sell
ing in repeated editions from New
York to San Francisco.