The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1936-07-10
CHAPTER III-Continued

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When q man swung far and fell
feet forward so there seemed to be
some chance for him, cheers screamed
from the crowd; when he fell, tum-
bling over and over, great groan
went up from the throat Of thirty
thousand.
Winnie O'Mara did not faint. Her
man was still on the tower, among
the last of them. Now Fitzpatrick
was speaking to him.
No bit Of a doubt which was him
when, before he went down the shred
of the rope. he flung far the hat of him.
1t was like him, that. There he was
on the line, bareheaded.
A gray-haired priest stood in the
swarm at the fre-lines, lifting his
arms as each man came down, and
repeating the prayer for them in ex-
tremis. Loud and clear in the still
ness, as each man swung, and before
the shout or the groan roared from
the thousands of threats as the man
let go, arose the voice Of the priest at
his praying.
Winnie O'Mara had worked her way
close to him so that at last she was
almost beside him; and so she did
all that was left her to do for her
man.
"Cathal Martin O'Mara he IS, Fa-
ther," she whispered to the priest.
spray for him!'
"Yours?" said the priest, agape at
her.
mine, Father"
So the priest faced again to the
fire; and once more he raised his arms
In his petition. 'Cathal Martin
O'Mara," he called him by name, the
tears streaming down his face as he
prayed Then the great cheer from
the crowd cut him short, for Martin
O'Mara had swung we'll, and well he
let go. But no good it did him. A
minute or so more, and the tower fell,
and was down on top Of him.
Such was the heritage Of Cathal
Martin O'Mara, his grandson. OF the
twenty trapped on the tower. seven
bly, injured.
ION such events, by such men, pre-
pared to face death and torment
men, generation after generation, soon
forgotten and acknowledgements
was built up" wrote historian of SOL
diers who persisted long ago on field
for Rome. "The fact has a mean
ing; and perhaps, many generations
hence, wiser men than we or they will
explain 1t with a clearness that still
eludes u.s."
Cathal's father and his fathers
brother John became iremen. Head.
strong, needless men, the both of them.
Martin, the son, died of pneumonia
after fighting a lumber yard fire
through one long below-zero night.
John died Of another cause; but the
O'Maras had done their duty through
the Fire Department.
Winnie, a fireman's widow and
proud forever of him. would have no
more of it. Besides, this boy was
from birth beyond" his father; and
yes, beyond his grandfather. He was
strong, as had been all the men of his
family, but he was of slighter build
and was smaller-boned. Needless of
himself he was, like them all; but his
was a sensitiveness strange to them.
And beyond them all, he took to
schooling. He went through high
school, running errands and deliver
ing goods for local stores after hours,
since his home depended then on a
fireman's widows award.
He worked his way through the I'm
iversity of Illinois at Urbana, and he
ended his long schooling In Chicago
at Northwestern University Law
school, which he attended for three
years, clerking at odd hours and in
the evenings.
From all this, he emerged an attor-
ney committed, by the undownable
forces dominant In his nature, to the
\ defense of criminal cases. 1t was the
appeal of the desperate, the despise1
lcause that was irresistible to the
grandson of the Martin O'Mara who
had followed James Fitzpatrick to the
tower with the building abIaze below