SELLING CATTLE FOR RENT--THE SHADOW OF MR. SMITH--GENERATIONS OF
WAITING--UNDER THE WING OF THE CLERGY--A SAFE MEDIUM COURSE--THE
CONSTABULARY--EXERTIONS OF THE PRIESTS--A TERMAGANT.
Hearing that there was a great disturbance apprehended at Manor
Hamilton, in the County Leitrim, and that the military were ordered out,
I determined to go there. I wanted to see for myself. I put on my best
bib and tucker, knowing how important these things are in the eyes of
imaginative people. Arrived at the station in the dewy morning, and
found the lads whom I had seen carrying their dinners at the Redoubt
drawn up on the platform under arms. How, boyish, slight and under-sized
they did look, but clean, smart and bright looking, of course. Applied
at the wicket for my ticket, as the 'bus man was eager to get paid and
see me safely off. The ticket man told me curtly I was in no hurry, and
shut the wicket in my face. The idea prevails here, except in the cases
of the local gentry who are privileged, and to whom the obsequiousness
is remarkable, that the general public, besides paying for their
accommodation, ought to accept their tickets as a favor done them by the
Company. This stately official at last consented to issue tickets; as I
had not change enough to pay I gave him a sovereign, and, not having
time to count the change, I stuffed it into my portmonnaie and made a
rush for the cars as they snorted on the start.
In spite of my determination, made amid the smoke and filth of the
third-class cars between Omagh and Strabane, I took a third-class car,
and to my agreeable surprise it was clean, and I had it to myself. We
steamed out of Enniskillen, all the workers in the fields and the people
in the houses dropping their work to stare at the cars, crowded with
soldiers, that were passing. I had a letter of introduction to an
inhabitant of Manor Hamilton, as a precaution. We passed one of the
entrances to Florence Court, the residence of the once-loved Earl of
Enniskillen. When I understood that this nobleman was up in years, his
magnificent figure beginning to show the burden of age, and that he was
blind, I felt a respectful sympathy for him, and wished that the shadow
of Mr. Smith and his three thousand of increase of rent had never fallen
across his path. After passing the road to Florence Court, when the
train was not plunging through a deep cut, I noticed that the land did
not, all over, look so green or so fertile as in the farther down North.
There was much land tufted with rushes, much that had the peculiar shade
of greenish brown familiar to Canadian eyes. There were many roofless
cottages standing here and there in the wide clearings. There were bleak
bogs of the light colored kind that produce a very worthless turf, that
makes poor fuel.
At one of the way stations, a decent-looking woman came into the
compartment where I sat. Divining at once that I had crossed the water,
she spoke pretty freely. Their farm was on a mountain side. It had to be
dug with a spade; horses could not plough it. The seasons had been
against the crops for some years. Yes, their rent had been raised,
raised at different times until it was now three times was it was ten
years ago. She was going to the office to try to get some favor about
the rent. They could not pay it and live at all, and that was God's
truth. Had no hope of succeeding. Did not believe a better state of
things would come without the shedding of blood. "Oh, yes, it is true
for you, they have no arms and no drill, but they look to America to do
for them what they cannot do for themselves. Oh, of course it should be
the last thing tried, but generations of waiting was in it already, and
every hope was disappointed some way." The laws got harder and the crops
shorter, that was the way of it.
Arrived at Manor Hamilton, every male creature about congregated with
looks of wonder to watch the military arrive. They were a totally
unexpected arrival, and caused the more sensation in consequence. There
were none to answer a question until these boyish soldiers had been
paraded, counted, put through some manoeuvres of drill, and then "'bout
face and march" off. They seemed so alive, so eager for fun, so
different from the stolid-faced veteran soldier that I hoped inwardly
that to-day's exploits would not deepen into anything worse than fun.
When they tramped off, carrying their young faces and conscious smiles
away from the station, I found a porter to inform me that Manor Hamilton
was a good bit away. As there was no car I must walk, and a passing
peasant undertook to pilot me to the town. Passed a large Roman Catholic
church in process of erection. It will be a fine and extensive building
when finished. They were laying courses of fine light gray hewn stone
rounded, marking where the basement ended and the building proper began.
Such a building, at such a time, is one of the contradictions one sees
in this country.
Stopped at a hotel and was waited on by the person to whom my letter of
introduction was directed, who introduced me to some other persons,
including some priests. It was ostensibly an introduction, really an
inspection. Only for this introduction I should not have got admittance
into the hotel. People were arriving from every quarter. I stood at an
upper window watching the people arrive in town. The first band,
preceded by a solemn and solitary horseman, consisted of a big drum
beaten by no unwilling hand, and some fifes. They played, "Tramp, Tramp,
the Boys are Marching," with great vim. The next detachment had a banner
carried by two men, the corners steadied by cords held by two more. It
was got up fancy, in green and gold, a picture of Mr. Parnell on one
side, and some mottoes on the other. "Live and let live," was one. The
band of this company, some half-dozen fifers, were dressed in jackets of
green damask rimmed with yellow braid, and had caps made of green and
yellow, or green and white, of the same shape as those worn by the
police. The operator on the big drum had a white jacket and green cap.
He held his head so high, his back was so straight, his cap set so
knowingly on one side, he rattled away with such abandon, and looked as
if he calculated that he was a free and independent citizen, that I
guessed he had learned those airs and that bearing in classic New York.
The next detachment had a brass band and some green favors and a green
scarf among them.
One of the clergy to whom I was introduced, volunteered to show me to a
position from which I would safely see the whole performance, which was
the auction of cattle for rent--I was quite glad to have the kind
offices of this gentleman, as without them I would have seen very little
indeed. As I passed down the street under the wing of the clergy, I was
amused at the innocent manner in which a half-dozen or so would get
between his reverence and me, blocking the way, until they understood I
was in his care, when a lane opened before us most miraculously, and
closed behind us as the human waves surged on.
The police officers and men were patient and polite to high perfection.
We made our way to the Court House, where the soldiers were drawn up
inside, crowding the entrance hall and standing on the stairs. It was
thought the sale would be in the Court House yard, in which case the
official offered me a seat on the gallery. As the building was low, the
long windows serving for both stories, it would be only a good position
if the cattle were auctioned in the Court yard. This had been done
before, and would be prevented if possible this time, as it was too
private a proceeding. Meanwhile I sat in the official room, the kitchen
in short, and waited looking at the peat fire in the little grate, the
flitches of bacon hanging above the chimney, the canary that twittered
in a subdued manner in its cage, as if it felt instinctively the
expectant hush that was in the air.
It was decided to hold the sale on the bridge, so I was piloted through
the military, through a living lane of police, through the surging
crowd, to a house that was supposed to command the situation, and found
a position at an upper window by the great kindness of the clergyman who
had taken me in charge.
It is something awful to see a vast mass of human beings, packed as
closely as there is standing room, swayed by some keen emotion, like the
wind among the pines. It is wonderful, too, to see the effects of
perfect discipline. The constabulary, a particularly fine body of men,
with faces as stolid as if they were so many statues, bent on doing
their duty faithfully and kindly. They formed a living wall across the
road on each side of an open space on the bridge, backs to the space,
faces to the crowd, vigilant, patient, unheeding of any uncomplimentary
remarks.
The cause of all this excitement was the seizure of cattle which were to
be sold for rent due to Cecil White, Esq., by his tenants, at the manor
of Newtown.
The crowd here was far greater than at Omagh the day of the Land League
meeting. The first roll of the drum had summoned people from near and
far in the early morning. I am not a good judge of the number in a
crowd, but I should say there were some thousands, a totally unarmed
crowd; very few had even a stick. There were few young men in the crowd--
elderly men and striplings, elderly women and young girls, and a good
many children, and, of course the irrepressible small boy who did the
heavy part of the hissing and hooting. These young lads roosted on the
Court House wall, on the range wall of the bridge so thickly that the
wonder was how they could keep their position. The crowd heaved and
swayed at the other end of the bridge, a tossing tide of heads. The
excitement was there.
I could not see what was going on, but a person deputed by the clergyman
before mentioned, came to bring me to a better station for seeing what
was going on at the other end of the bridge. The crowd made way, the
police passed us through, and we got a station at a window overlooking
the scene. Out of the pound, through the swaying mass of people, was
brought a very frightened animal. If she had had no horns to grip her
by, if she had had the least bit of vantage ground to gather herself up
for a jump, she would have taken a flying leap over the heads of some
and left debtor and creditor, and all the sympathizers on both sides
behind her, and fled to the pasture. She was held there and bid for in
the most ridiculous way. All that were brought up this way were bought
in and the rent was paid, and there the sale ended
There might have been serious rioting but for the exertions of the
Catholic clergy. Members of the Emergency Committee were particularly
liable to a hustling at least. The least accidental irritation owing to
the temper of the crowd would have made them face the bayonets with
their bare breasts. The police were patient, the clergy determined on
keeping the excitement down, and all passed off quietly enough. There
were a few uncomplimentary remarks, such as addressing the police as
"thim bucks" which remark might as well have been addressed to the court
house for any effect it had. There were a few hard expressions slung at
Mr. White which informed all who heard them that Mr. White was cashiered
from the army for flogging a man to death, that he had well earned his
name of Jack the flogger, &c.
The crowd dispersed from the bridge. The youthful military passed on the
march for the train to return to their barracks, the crowd, now good-
natured, giving them a few jokes of a pleasant kind as they passed; the
soldiers looking straight ahead in the most soldierly manner they could
assume, but smiling all the same, poor boys, for surely compliments are
better than hisses and hoots.
I never heard a sound so dreadful as the universal groan or hoot of this
great crowd. There was some speaking, a good deal of speaking, from the
window of the hotel, praising the crowd for their self-control, and
advising them to go home quietly for the honor of the country and the
good cause.
After the sale, the three bands and the great crowd, paraded the
streets. The cattle were brought round in the procession, their heads
snooded up for the occasion with green ribbon. I do not think the cattle
liked it a bit; they had had a full share of excitement in the first
part of the day.
The most active partisan of the Land League was an elderly girl. She was
the inventor and issuer of the most aggravating epithets that were put
into circulation during the whole proceedings. Her hair was dark and
gray (dhu glas), every hair curling by itself in the most defiant
manner. The heat of her patriotism had worn off some of the hair, for
she was getting a little bald through her curls--such an assertive
upturned little nose, such a firm mouth, such a determined protruding
chin. This patriot had a short jacket of blue cloth, and could step as
light and give a jump as if she had feathered heels. She reminded me of
certain citizenesses in Dickens' "Tale of Two Cities." May God of His
great mercy give wisdom and firmness to the rulers of this land.