Grimsby Independent, 5 May 1915, p. 6

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

gan to throw themselves, against Faâ€" ther Cahill‘s express wishes and comâ€" mands, into the fight for home rule under the masterly statesmanship of ‘Charles Stuart Parnell. Already more 'gthan one prominent speaker had come ‘into the little village and sown the ‘seeds of temporal and spiritual unrest. Father Cahill opposed jthese men to ‘the utmost of his power. He saw, as so many farsighted priests did, the legacy of bloodshed and desolation ‘that would follow any direct action by the Irish against the British governâ€" ment. Though the blood of the patriot beat in Father Cahill‘s veins, the wel‘ being of the people who had grown un with him was near to his bheart. He was their priest, and he could not bea! to think of men he had known as chil ‘Aren being beaten and maimed by, conâ€" stabulary and sent to prison afterward in the fight for self government. ' To his horror that day he met Frant Owen O‘Connel!, one of the best known of all the younger agitators, in ‘the main street of the little village. i O‘Connell‘s backsliding had been one of Father Cahbill‘s bitterest regrets He bad closed O‘Connell‘s father‘s eyes in death and had taken care of the boy as well as be could. But at the age of fifteen the youth left the ‘village that hbhad so many wretched memories of hardship and struggle and worked his way to Dublin: It was many years before Father Cahill heard of. himâ€" again. He had developed meanwhile into one of the most daring of all the fervid speakers in the sacred causgse of Irish liberty. Aud Father Cahill was going to hear from Frank Owen O‘Connell again, though tittle did he reckon on the imâ€" portance that the present young and comparatively _ untutored _ reformer would actiere. Wilberforce â€" Ringsnorth, â€" wealthy,. atoperious Englishman, left three chil. a vivid power of eloquence as a preach er and a bheart as tender as a woman‘s toward the poor and the wretched, he had been for many years idolized by the whole community of the village of M., in County Clare. But of late there was a growing feeling of discontent among the younger generation. They Jacked the respect their elders so willâ€" ingly gave. They asked questions inâ€" stead of answering them. They beâ€" Father Cahill breathed bard. He was a splendid type of the Irish parish priest of the old school. Gifted with _ *"And that‘s what ye are. And ye‘d Lfiave others like yerself. But ye won‘t while I‘ve a tongue in me head and a sthrong stick in me hand." O‘Connell looked at him with a mis chievous twinkle in his blueâ€"gray eyes "Yer eloquence seems to nade some thin‘ to back it up, I‘m thinkin‘." â€"*‘Then it‘sl@e miracle has bappened, father. To ?ee and hear oneself at the same timk is indade a miracle." "*Don‘t provoke the man of God!" "Not for the wurrid," replied the oth: er meekly, "bein‘ mesef a child of Saâ€" ‘ "And everything else, Mr. O‘Conâ€" nell." _ _"Is that criticism or Just temper, faâ€" ther?" h _‘"It‘s both, Mr. O‘Connell." "‘Sure it‘s the good judge ye must be Of ignorance, Father Cahill." "And what might that mane? "Ye live so much with it, father." "I‘m lookin‘ at it and listenin‘ to it now, Frank O‘Connell." PROLOGUE. A romping, madcap, bewitchâ€" ing Irish girl, as Irish as St. Patâ€" rick‘s day in the morning, is turned over to the care of arisâ€" tocratic English relatives. They are stiff and artificial, and she is as sweet and natural as a healthy country ‘girl can be. They dislike her, but Peg holds her own with jaunty pride and in the end, by her generosity and big heartedness, wins them over, and, what is more, wins her forâ€" ?une, and, what is still more, wins a very gallant lover. This, in Dbrief, is the story of a play which by its originality, sweetâ€" mness and charm has been one of the most phenomenal successes New York has seen in a long time. The author of the play has turned it into a novel, so sympathetically, so brilliantly, that Peg as a heroine of fiction is as lovable as she was on the stage. ence ?" A Comedy of Youth Founded by Mr. Manners on His Great Play of the Same Titleâ€"Illustrations From Photographs of the Piay CHAPTER. 1. . â€" The Irish Agitator and Angela. ~AAITH, there‘s no man says «« more and knows less than yerâ€" f self, I‘m thinkin‘." "About Ireland, yer river ahill was going to hear )wen O‘Connell again. d he reckon on the imâ€" the present young and untutored reformer Copyri¢ght, 1913, by Dodd, Mead & Company AY I > EG_â€" By J. Hartley Manners By a curious coincidence she returnâ€" ed home on a day when Wilberforce Kingsnorth had delivered an electrical speech, invoking Providence to interâ€" pose in the settlement of the lrish difficulity. He was noted for his hatred of the Irish. It was the one toupic of conversatiun througbhout dinner. And It was on her first homecoming since her mother‘s death that her atâ€" tention was really drawn to her faâ€" ther‘s Irish possessions. Angela had nothing in common with either her brother or her sister. She avoided them and they her. They did not understand her. She understood them only too well. A nature that craved for sympathy and affectionâ€"as the frail so often doâ€"was repulsed by those to whom affection was but a form and sympathy a term of reproach. Not needing her, Kingsnorth did not love ber. He gave her a form of tolâ€" erant affection. Too fragile to mix with others, she was brought up at home. Tutors furnished her education. The winters she passed abroad with bher mother. When her mother died she spent them with relations ot friends. The grim dampness of the English climate was too rigorous for a life that need l sunshine. stant attention to keep her alive. From tremulous infancy she grew into deliâ€" cate youth. She seemed a child apart Five years after Monica‘s birth Anâ€" gela unexpectedly was born to the Kingsnorths. A delicate, sickly infant, it seemed as if the splendid blood of the family had expended its vigor on the elder children. Angela needed conâ€" He made a bhandsome settlement on his eldest daughter on her marriage and felt he had done well by her, even as she had by him. Frederick Chichester came of a long line of illustrious lawyers. One had even reached the distinction of being made a judge. He belonged to an honâ€" orable profession. The old man was overjoyed. When she married Frederick Chiâ€" chester, the rising barrister, connected with six county families, it was a proud day for old Kingsnorth. His family had originally made their money in trade. The Chichesters had accuâ€" mulated a fortune by professions. The distinction in England is marked. She was an excellent musician, rode fairly to hounds, bestowed prizes at the local charities with grace and disâ€" tinctionâ€"as became a Kingsnorthâ€"and looked coldly out at the world from behind the impenetrable barriers of an old name. Pride in his name, a sturdy grasp of life, an unbending attitude toward those beneath him and an abiding revâ€" erence for law and order and fealty to the throneâ€"these were the foundations on which the father built Nathaniel‘s character. Next in point of regard came the elder daughter, Monica. Patrician of feature, bhaughty in manner, exclusive by nature, she bhad the true Kingsâ€" north air. She bad no disturbing ‘"‘ideas," noâ€"~yearning for things not of her station. She was contented with the world as it had been made for her und seemed duly proud and grateful to have been born a Kingsnorth. drenâ€"Nathaniei, who in a large measâ€" ure inbherited much of his father‘s dominant will and hard headedness; Monica, the elder daughter, and Angeâ€" la, the younger. Nathanie! was the old man‘s favorâ€" ite. While still a youth he inculcated into the boy all the tenets of business, morality and politics that bhad made Wilberforce prosperous. "Not tor the wurrid." From that time she saw but little of bher father. When he died he left ber to her brother‘s care. Kingsnorth made no absolute provision for her. She was to be dependent on Nathaniel. Without a word Angela got up quietâ€" ty and left the room. Her manner was entirely unmoved. She had spoken from her inmost convictions. The fact that they were opposed to her father was immaterial. She loathed tyranny, and his method of shutting the mouths of those who disagreed with him was particularly obnoxious to her. It was also most ineffectual with her. From childhood she had always spoken as she felt. No discipline checked her. Freedom of speech as well as freedom of thought was as natural and essenâ€" tial to her as breathing. "Why, little Angela has come back to us quite a revolutionary," said Naâ€" thaniel. "Leave the table!" shouted her fa ther. "He is. I don‘t see why the Liberal party should have all the enlightenâ€" ment and the Conservative party all the bigotry." "Don‘t anger your father!"‘ pleaded Monica. *"‘The more shame to him to tailk like that to a girl. And, what‘s more, you bad no right to listen to him.. A Conâ€" servative indeed! A fine one he must be!" "I‘ve done more than that," replied Angela. "In Nice a month ago were two English members of parliament who had taken the trouble to visit the country they were supposed to assist in governing. ‘They told me that a condition of misery existed throughout the whole of Ireland that was incrediâ€" ble under a civilized government." "Radicals, eh?" snapped her father. "No; Conservatives. One of them had once held the office of chief secreâ€" tary for Ireland and was Ilreland‘s most bitter prosecutor until he visited the country. When he saw. the wretchedness of her people he stopped his stringent methods and began cast ing about for some way of lessening the poor people‘s torment." ‘"This is exactly the old fashioned tone we English take to anything we don‘t understand. And that is why other countries are leaving us in the race. There is a nation living within a few hours‘ journey from our dootrs, yet millions of English people are as ignorant of them as if they lived in Senegambia." She paused, looked once more straight into her father‘s eyes and said, "And you, father, seem to be as ignorant as the worst of them!" Nathaniel laughed good naturedly, leaned across to Angela and said: "Angela!" cried her sister in hborâ€" ror. "I see our little sister has been reading the sensational magazines. Yes? Kingsnorth looked at his daugbhter aghast. Treason in his own house! His child speaking the two most hated of all words at his own dinner table and in laudatory terms! He could scarcely believe it. He looked at her a moment and then thundered: "How dare you! How dare you!"fr Angela smiled a little amusedly tolâ€" erant smile as she looked frankly at ber father and answered: "Turn to your judgesâ€"the lord chief is an Irishman. Look at the house of commons. Our laws are passed or de feated by the Irish vote, and yet Sso blindly ignorant and obstinate is Oour insular prejudice that we refuse them the favors they do usâ€"governing themâ€" selves as well as England.‘" ' "It wouldn‘t be enough for me if 1 had the responsibilities and duties of a landlord. To be the owner of an estate should be to act as the people‘s friend, their father, their adviser in times of plenty and their comrade in times of sorrow." ""Indeed! And pray where did you learn all that, miss?‘ asked the astonâ€" ished parent. Without noticing the iaterruption or the question, Angela went on: "Why deny a country its own government when England is practically governed by its countrymen? Is there any poâ€" sition of prominence today in England that isn‘t filled by Irishmen? Think! Our commander in chief is‘ Irish; our lord high admiral is Irish; there are the defenses of the English in the hands of two Irishmen, and yet you call them thieving and rascally scoun: drels "Do I? More than the English govâ€" ernment does. Don‘t I own land there?" The old man had laughed coarsgely at the remembrance of his speech on the previous night and licked his lips at the thought of it. Monica, who was visiting bher father for a few days, smiled in agreeable sympathy. Nathanie!l nodded cheer fully. Kingsnorth tried to speak; Angela raised her voice: % it was during that dinner that Angela for the first time really angered her father and raised a barrier between them that lasted until the day of his death. *"*No, 1 have not." answered the old man sharply. "And, what is more, I never intend to go there." "I know them to be a lot of thievyâ€" ing, rascally scoundrels, too lazy to work and too dishonest to pay their way even when they have the money." "Is that all you know*?" "Isn‘t it enough?"‘ His voice roge shrilly., It was the first time for years any one had dared use those two hated words "Ireland" and "Irish" at his taâ€" ble. Angela must be checked and at once. From her father‘s side Angela asked quietly : "Have you ever been in Ireland, faâ€" ther?" % "I mean do you know anything about the people?" insisted Angela. "Do you know anything about the Irish?" persisted Angela. p9+ THE INDEPENDENT, GRIMSBY, ONT. "He leaves here the moment a doecâ€" tor bhas attended him." "Very well. Is that all?" "No, it isn‘t!"" Kingsnorth tried to control hbhis anger. After a pause he continued: "I want no more of these foolhardy, quixotic actions of yours. "I couldn‘t leave him with those heartless wretches to die in their bands." _ "He came here to attack landlordsâ€" to attack meâ€"me! And you bring him to my house and with that rabble! It‘s outrageous! Monstrous!" Nathaniel went back to his study as the sorry procession passed on to the front door. He sent immediately for his sister. The reply came back that she would see him at dinner. He commanded her to come to him at once. In a few minutes Angela came into the rogm. She was deathly pale. Her volce trembled as she spoke: "What do you want?‘ ' "Why did you bring that man here?" "Because he is wounded." "Such scoundrels are better dead." "I don‘t think so. Nor do I think him a scoundrel." CHAPTER 11. & Angela Speaks Freely. ATHANIEL‘S indigration at his sister‘s conduct was beyond bounds when he learned who the wounded man was. He ordered the soldiers to take the man and themselves away. The magistrate interposed and begged him at least to let O‘Connell rest there until a doctor could patch him up. It might be danâ€" gerous to take him back without mediâ€" cal treatment. He assured Nathaniel that the moment they could move him bhe would be lodged in the county jail. "Another martyr to our ignorant government. Nathaniel," and she pressâ€" ed on through the drive to the house. It seemed to Angela that an infinity of time had passed before they entered the grounds attached to the Kingsâ€" north house. She sent a man on ahead to order a room to be prepared and a doctor sent for. As she saw her brothâ€" er coming forward to meet her with knit brows and stern eyes she nerved herself to greet him. "What is this, Angela?‘ he asked, looking in amazement at the strange procession. As they neared bher brother‘s house stragglers began to follow curiously. Sad looking men and weary women joined the procession wonderingly. All guessed it was some fresh outrage of the soldiers. When the smoke had thinned and she saw lying motionless on the ground the bodies of men who a moment beâ€" fore had been full of life ard strength; when was added to that the horror of the wounded crying out with pain, hes first impulse was to fly from the sight of the carnage. She mastered that moâ€" ment of fear and plunged forward, calling to the groom to follow her. She ordered the body of O‘Connell, who had been hit, taken to her own home. The long, slow, tortuous journey bhome, the men slowly following with the ghastly, mute body on the rude litâ€" ter, became a living memofry to her for all the remainder of her life. She glanced down every little while at the stone white face and shudJered as sbhe found herself wondering if she would ever hear his voice again or see those great blue eyes flash with his fierce courage and devotion. A When the soldiers marched on to the scene she was paralyzed with fear. When an order to fire was given she wanted to ride into their midst and cry out to them to stop. But she was unable to move hand or foot. When Frank O‘Connell first spoke his voice thrilled her. Gradually the excitement of the people under the mastery of his power communicated itself to her. It pulsed in her blood and throbbed in her brain. For the first time she realized what a marvelâ€" ous force was the call of the patriot. To listen and watch a man risking life ard liberty in the cause of his counâ€" tryâ€"hbher heart and ber mind and her soul went out to him. When within some little distance of her brother‘s house she saw a steady, irregular stream of people climbing a great hill, She rode toward it and, screened by a clump of trees, saw and heard her first "home rule"‘ meeting. When the time came that she seeined to wish to marry, if her brother apâ€" proved of the imatch, he should make a bhandsome settlement on her. Everything Angela saw in Ireland appealed to bher quick sympathy and gentle heart. It was just as she had thought and read and listened to. On every side she saw u« kindly people borne down by the weight of poverty, lives ruined by sickness and the lack of nourishmentâ€"a splendid race perâ€" ishing through misgovernment and inâ€" tolerant ignorance. Angela went about among the peo:â€" ple and made friends with them. They were chary at first of taking her to their hearts. She was of the hated Saxon race. What was she doing thereâ€"she, the sister of their, till now, absentee landlord? She soon won them over by her appealing voice and kindly interest. The morning of the meeting she had ridden some miles to visit a poor famâ€" ily. Out of five three were in bed with low fever. She got a doctor for them, gave them money to buy necesâ€" saries, and, with a promise to recurn the next day, she rode away. In response to her request Nathaniel allowed her to go with him to lreland on his tour of inspection. . Mr. Chichester was actively engaged 2t the Old Bailey on an important criminal case, so Monica also joined them. All this Angela did in direct opposiâ€" tion to her brother‘s wishes and her sister‘s exhortations. She closed the door with a snap and came back to him and looked him steadfly in the eyes. "We‘ll find you some suitable chapâ€" eron. You can spend your winters abroad, as you have been doingâ€"Lonâ€" don for the seasonâ€"until you‘re suitâ€" ably married. T‘ll follow out my faâ€" ther‘s wishes to the letter. You shall be handsomely provided for the «day you marry." 4 "Thank you," said Angela, opening the door. He motioned her to tlose it, that he had something more to say. "It would be better we didn‘t meet againâ€"in any event, not often," addâ€" ed Nathaniel. "After thisâ€"the best thingâ€"the only thingâ€"is to separate," said Nathaniel. "Whenever yoeu wish." "I‘ll make you an allowance." *"*Doun‘t tet it be a burden." "I‘ve never been so shockedâ€"so stunned"â€" "I am glad. From my cradle I‘ve been shocked and stunnedâ€"in my home. It‘s some compensation to know you are capable of the feeling too. Frankly, f didn‘t think you were." "I am finished," and Angela went to the door. "We‘ll talk no more of this," and Nathaniel began to pace the room. "I don‘t feel like one of your famiâ€" ly. You are a Kingsnorth, I am my mother‘s childâ€"my poor, gentle, paâ€" tient mother, who lived a life of unâ€" selfish resignuation, who welcomed death when it came to her as a release from tyranny. Don‘t call me a Kingsâ€" north. I know the family too well. 1 know all the name means to the peoâ€" ple who have suffered through your family." . "Wait a moment. It was a good stroke of business taking this estate away. Oh, yes, it was a good stroke of business! Our name has been built up on ‘good strokes of business.‘ Well, I tell you it‘s a bad stroke of business when human lives are put into the bhands of such creatures as we Kingsâ€" norths have proved ourselves!" "Stop!" cried Nathaniel, outraged to the innermost sanctuary of his being. "Stop! You don‘t speak like one of our family. It is like listening to some hereticâ€"some"â€" cause one of our forefathers cheated the world into giving him a fortune by buying his goods for more than they were worth we have tried to canonize him and put a halo around the name of Kingsnorth. To me it stands for all that is mean and selfish and vain and ignorantâ€"the power of money over intellect. How did we beâ€" come owners of this miserable piece of land? A Kingsnorth swindled its rightful ownerâ€"lent him money on usury, bought up his bills and his mortgages and when he couldn‘t pay foreclosed on him. No wonder there‘s a curse on the village and on us!" Kingsnorth tried to speak, but she stopped him: Angela Had Seen Suffering No One Dreamed Of. *"‘There‘s no need to raise your voice," Angela answered quietly. "l am only a few feet away. 1 repeat that I wish you thought a little more of your obligations. If you did and others like you in the same position you are in. there would be no such horâ€" rible scenes as I saw todayâ€"a man shot down among his own people for speaking the truth." I‘ve hbeard of your visiting these wretched peopleâ€"going into fever dens. Is that conduct becoming to your name? Think a little of your station in life and what it demands." "I wish you did a little more." "What?‘ he shouted, all his anger returned. "If I ever hear of your doing such a thing again you shall go back to Lonâ€" don the next day." "That sounds exactly as though my dead father were speaking." "I‘ll not be made a laughingstock by you."‘ "You saw it?" Nathaniel asked in disâ€" may. "I did. I not only saw, but 1 heard. I wish you had too. 1 heard a man lay bare hbhis heart and his brain and his soul that others might know the light in them. 1 saw and heard a man offer up his life that others might know some gleam of hbhappiness in their lives. (It was wonderful!. It was bheroic! â€" It was godlike!" What has your name meant? Beâ€" "You make yourself one as your faâ€" ther did before! youâ€"a Kingsnorth! "The man I marry shall take nothâ€" The wounded man opened his eyes and looked full at Angela. It was a look at once of gratitude and reverâ€" ence and admiration. "I‘ve seen things since I‘ve been bhere that would justify almost anyâ€" thing!" cried Angela. ("I‘ve seen sufâ€" fering no one in England dreamed of; misery that London, with all its povyâ€" erty and wretchedness, could not comâ€" pare with. Were I born in Ireland I should be proud to stake my liberty and my life to protect my own people from such horrible brutality." "Faith, and they are, now. And it‘s small wondher the men who sit in Whitehall in London trate them like savages." "Faith, it‘s small blame to the Engâ€" lish. We‘re a mighty hbhard race to make head or tail of, and that‘s a factâ€"cryin‘ salt tears at the bedside of a sick child and lavin‘ to shoot a poor man in the ribs for darin‘ to ask for his rint." "‘They‘re not Irishmen,." came from the sickbed. 4 "Faith, I‘d rather kape me own life than to have a hundred thousand spakin‘ for me and me dead. 1s it long yer stayin‘ here?"‘ and the little man picked up his hat. i "I don‘t know," said Angela. "Well, it‘s you they‘ll miss when ye‘re gone, Miss Kingsnorth. Faith, if all the English were like you this sort of thing couldn‘t happen." _ "We don‘t try to understand the people, doctor. We just govern them blindly and ignorantly." *"I heard you, doctor," came from the bed. "If they‘d killed me today there would be a thousand voices rise all over Ireland to take the place of mine." "‘To think of men shot down like dogs for speaking of their country! It‘s horrible! 1t‘s wicked! It‘s monâ€" strous!" "Faith, the English don‘t know what else to do with them, miss. It‘s no use arguin‘ with the like of him. That man lyin‘ on that bed ‘ud talk the hind foot off a heifer. The only way to kape the likes of him quiet is to shoot him, and begob they have." "None in the wurrld. He‘s got a fine constitution, and mebbe the buckâ€" shot was pretty clean. I‘ve washed them out well." "There‘s no danger?" asked in the same tone. "Ye may well say that, Miss Kingsâ€" nortbh," said the merry little doctor,. "But it‘s betther than a bullet from a Martiniâ€"Henry rife, that‘s what it is. And there‘s many a poor English landâ€" lord‘s got one of ‘em in the back for ridin‘ about at night on his own land. It‘s a fatherly government we have, Miss Kingsnorth. ‘Hurt ‘em, but don‘t quite kill ‘em,‘ sez they, ‘and then put ‘em in jail and feed them on bread and wather. That‘ll take the fine talkâ€" in‘ and patriotism out of them,‘ se# they." "They‘ll never take it out of me. They may kill me perhaps, but until they do they‘ll never silence me,." murâ€" mured O‘Connell in a voice so low, yet so bitter, that it startled Angela. "Ye‘ll do that all in good time, me fine boy," said the busy little doctor. ‘"Here, take a pull at this," and he handed the patient a glass in which he had dropped a few crystals into some water. "Let him have that every three hours; oftener if he wants to talk. We‘ve got to get his mind at rest." "He was equaily responsible for me, yet he leaves ime to your careâ€"a Kingsâ€" north! The men masters and the womâ€" en slaves! That is the Kingsnorth doctrine." "Good afternoon to ye, Miss Kingsâ€" north. Faith, it‘s a blessin‘ ye brought the boy here. There‘s no tellin‘ what the prison surgeon would have done to him. It is saltpeter, they tell me, the English doctors rub into the lrish wounds to kape them smartin‘. And, by the like token, they do the same, too, in the English house of commons. Saltpeter in Ireland‘s wounds is what they give us." "Is he much hurt?" asked Angela. "Well, they‘ve broken nothin‘. Just blackened his face and made a few bholes in his skin.. It‘s buckshot they used. Buckshot! Thank the merciful Mr. Foster for that same. ‘Buckshot Foster, as the lrish reverently call him." "What a dastardly thing to do!" she cried.. Dr. McGinnis said in a whisper to Angela : Let alone, Nathaniel sat down, shockâ€" ed and stunned, to review the inter~ view he had just had with his youngâ€" er sister. When Angela entered the sickroom she found Dr. McGinnis, a cheery, bright eyed, rotund little man of fifty, talking freely to the patient and puncâ€" trating each speech with a hearty laugh. His good humor was infecâ€" tious. The wounded agitator felt the effect of it and was trying to laugh feebly himself. "Sure it‘s the fine target ye must have made with yer six feet and one inch. How could the poor soldiers help hittin‘ ye? Answer me that!" And the jovial doctor laughed again as he dexterously wound a bandage around O‘Conrell‘s arm. f ing from you. Even in his ‘last will and testament‘ my father proved himâ€" self a Kingsnorth. It was only a Kingsnorth could make his youngest daughter dependent on you!" A servant came in totell Angela the doctor had come. Without a word Anâ€" gela went out to see to the wounded man. The servant followed her. "Aisy now while I tie the bandage, me fine fellow. Ye‘ll live to see the inside of an English jail yet." - He turned as he heard the door open and greeted Angela. "My father knew I would respect hig wishes." Her heart leaped within her. «wNESDAY, MAY 5, 1915 Angela

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy