summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
-rw-r--r--.gitattributes4
-rw-r--r--LICENSE.txt11
-rw-r--r--README.md2
-rw-r--r--old/54290-0.txt1591
-rw-r--r--old/54290-0.zipbin36424 -> 0 bytes
-rw-r--r--old/54290-h.zipbin128511 -> 0 bytes
-rw-r--r--old/54290-h/54290-h.htm1940
-rw-r--r--old/54290-h/images/bustle.jpgbin2435 -> 0 bytes
-rw-r--r--old/54290-h/images/cover.jpgbin50680 -> 0 bytes
-rw-r--r--old/54290-h/images/woodlands.jpgbin38648 -> 0 bytes
10 files changed, 17 insertions, 3531 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7b82bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+*.txt text eol=lf
+*.htm text eol=lf
+*.html text eol=lf
+*.md text eol=lf
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bbdb1a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #54290 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54290)
diff --git a/old/54290-0.txt b/old/54290-0.txt
deleted file mode 100644
index f9d5874..0000000
--- a/old/54290-0.txt
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,1591 +0,0 @@
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 18,
-October 31, 1840, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 18, October 31, 1840
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: March 6, 2017 [EBook #54290]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by JSTOR www.jstor.org)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.
-
- NUMBER 18. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1840. VOLUME I.
-
-[Illustration: WOODLANDS, COUNTY OF DUBLIN]
-
-Woodlands, the seat of one of our good resident landlords, Colonel
-White, considered in connection with its beautiful demesne, may justly
-rank as the finest aristocratic residence in the immediate vicinity of
-our metropolis. As an architectural composition, indeed, the house,
-or castle, as it is called, will not bear a comparison, either for
-its classical correctness of details, or its general picturesqueness
-of outline, with the Castle of Clontarf--the architectural gem of our
-vicinity; but its proportions are on a grander scale, and its general
-effect accordingly more imposing, while its demesne scenery, in its
-natural beauties, the richness of its plantations, and other artificial
-improvements, is without a rival in our metropolitan county, and
-indeed is characterised by some features of such exquisite beauty as
-are very rarely found in park scenery any where, and which are nowhere
-to be surpassed. Well might the Prince Pückler Muskau, who despite of
-his strange name has undoubtedly a true taste for the beautiful and
-picturesque, describe the entrance to this demesne as “indeed the most
-delightful in its kind that can be imagined.” “Scenery,” he continues,
-“by nature most beautiful, is improved by art to the highest degree of
-its capability, and, without destroying its free and wild character, a
-variety and richness of vegetation is produced which enchants the eye.
-Gay shrubs and wild flowers, the softest turf and giant trees, festooned
-with creeping plants, fill the narrow glen through which the path
-winds, by the side of the clear dancing brook, which, falling in little
-cataracts, flows on, sometimes hidden in the thicket, sometimes resting
-like liquid silver in an emerald cup, or rushing under overhanging arches
-of rock, which nature seems to have hung there as triumphal gates for
-the beneficent Naïad of the valley to pass through.”
-
-This description may appear somewhat enthusiastic, but we can truly state
-as our own opinion, formed on a recent visit to Woodlands, that it is
-by no means overdrawn, but, on the contrary, that it would be equally
-difficult, if not impossible, either for the pencil or the pen to convey
-an adequate idea of the peculiar beauties of this little tract of fairy
-land.
-
-Singularly beautiful, however, as this sylvan glen unquestionably is, it
-is only one of the many features for which Woodlands is pre-eminently
-distinguished. Its finely undulating surface--its sheets of water, though
-artificially formed--its noble forest timber--but above all, its woodland
-walks, commanding vistas of the exquisite valley of the Liffey, with the
-more remote scenery bounded by the Dublin and Wicklow mountains--all are
-equally striking, and present a combination of varied and impressive
-features but rarely found within the bounds of even a princely demesne.
-
-Though Woodlands derives very many of its attractions from modern
-improvements, its chief artificial features are of no recent creation,
-and are such as it would require a century or two to bring to their
-present perfection. Woodlands is emphatically an old place, and is
-said to have been granted by King John to Sir Geoffry Lutterel, an
-Anglo-Norman knight who accompanied him into Ireland, and in possession
-of whose descendants it remained, and was their residence from the close
-of the fifteenth till the commencement of the present century, when it
-was sold to Mr Luke White by the last Earl of Carhampton. Up to this
-period it was known by the name of Lutterelstown, a name which, for
-various reasons, the family into whose possession it has passed have
-wisely changed.
-
-The principal parts of the mansion were rebuilt about fifty years back.
-But a portion of the original castle still remains, and an apartment in
-it bears the name of King John’s chamber. It has also received additional
-extension from its present proprietor, who is now making further
-additions to the structure.
-
-Woodlands is situated on the north bank of the Liffey, about five miles
-from Dublin.
-
- P.
-
-
-
-
-PEGGY THE PISHOGUE.
-
-
-“And now, Mickey Brennan, it’s not but I have a grate regard for you,
-for troth you’re a dacint boy, and a dacint father and mother’s child;
-but you see, avick, the short and the long of it is, that you needn’t be
-looking after my little girl any more.”
-
-Such was the conclusion of a long and interesting harangue pronounced
-by old Brian Moran of Lagh-buoy, for the purpose of persuading his
-daughter’s sweetheart to waive his pretensions--a piece of diplomacy
-never very easy to effect, but doubly difficult when the couple so
-unceremoniously separated have laboured under the delusion that they were
-born for each other, as was the ease in the affair of which our story
-tells; and certainly, whatever Mr Michael Brennan’s other merits may have
-been, he was very far from exhibiting himself as a pattern of patience on
-the occasion.
-
-“Why, thin, Brian Moran!” he outrageously exclaimed, “in the name of
-all that’s out of the way, will you give me one reason, good, bad, or
-indifferent, and I’ll be satisfied?”
-
-“Och, you unfortunate gossoon, don’t be afther axing me,” responded Brian
-dolefully.
-
-“Ah, thin, why wouldn’t I?” replied the rejected lover. “Aren’t we
-playing together since she could walk--wasn’t she the light of my eyes
-and the pulse of my heart these six long years--and when did one of
-ye ever either say or sign that I was to give over until this blessed
-minute?--tell me that.”
-
-“Widdy Eelish!” groaned the closely interrogated parent; “’tis true
-enough for you. Botheration to Peggy, I wish she tould you herself. I
-knew how it ’ud be; an’ sure small blame to you; an’ it’ll kill Meny out
-an’ out.”
-
-“Is it that I amn’t rich enough?” he asked impetuously.
-
-“No, avich machree, it isn’t; but, sure, can’t you wait an’ ax Peggy.”
-
-“Is it because there’s any thing against me?” continued he, without
-heeding this reference to the mother of his fair one--“Is it because
-there’s any thing against me, I say, now or evermore, in the shape of
-warrant, or summons, or bad word, or any thing of the kind?”
-
-“Och, _forrear, forrear_!” answered poor Brian, “but can’t you ax Peggy!”
-and he clasped his hands again and again with bitterness, for the young
-man’s interest had been, from long and constant habit, so interwoven
-in his mind with those of his darling Meny, that he was utterly unable
-to check the burst of agony which the question had excited. The old
-man’s evident grief and evasion of the question were not lost upon his
-companion.
-
-“I’m belied--I know I am--I have it all now,” shouted he, utterly losing
-all command of himself. “Come, Brian Moran, this is no child’s play--tell
-me at once who dared to spake one word against me, an’ if I don’t drive
-the lie down his throat, be it man, woman, or child, I’m willing to lose
-her and every thing else I care for!”
-
-“No, then,” answered Brian, “the never a one said a word against you--you
-never left it in their power, avich; an’ that’s what’s breaking my heart.
-Millia murther, it’s all Peggy’s own doings.”
-
-“What!” he replied--“I’ll be bound Peggy had a bad dhrame about the
-match. Arrah, out with it, an’ let us hear what Peggy the Pishogue has to
-say for herself--out with it, man; I’m asthray for something to laugh at.”
-
-“Oh, whisht, whisht--don’t talk that way of Peggy any how,” exclaimed
-Brian, offended by this imputation on the unerring wisdom of his
-helpmate. “Whatever she says, doesn’t it come to pass? Didn’t it rain
-on Saturday last, fine as the day looked? Didn’t Tim Higgins’s cow die?
-Wasn’t Judy Carney married to Tom Knox afther all? Ay, an’ as sure as
-your name is Mickey Brennan, what she says will come true of yourself
-too. _Forrear, forrear!_ that the like should befall one of your dacint
-kin!”
-
-“Why, what’s going to happen me?” inquired he, his voice trembling a
-little in spite of all his assumed carelessness: for contemptuously as he
-had alluded to the wisdom of his intended mother-in-law, it stood in too
-high repute not to create in him some dismay at the probability of his
-figuring unfavourably in any of her prognostications.
-
-“Don’t ax me, don’t ax me,” was the sorrowing answer; “but take your
-haste out of the stable at once, and go straight to Father Coffey; and
-who knows but he might put you on some way to escape the bad luck that’s
-afore you.”
-
-“Psha! fudge! ’pon my sowl it’s a shame for you, Brian Moran.”
-
-“Divil a word of lie in it,” insisted Brian; “Peggy found it all out last
-night; an’ troth it’s troubling her as much as if you were her own flesh
-and blood. More betoken, haven’t you a mole there under your ear?”
-
-“Well, and what if I have?” rejoined he peevishly, but alarmed all the
-while by the undisguised pity which his future lot seemed to call forth.
-“What if I have?--hadn’t many a man the same afore me?”
-
-“No doubt, Mickey, agra, and the same bad luck came to them too,” replied
-Brian. “Och, you unfortunate ignorant crathur, sure you wouldn’t have me
-marry my poor little girl to a man that’s sooner or later to end his days
-on the gallows!”
-
-“The gallows!” he slowly exclaimed. “Holy Virgin! is that what’s to
-become of me after all?” He tried to utter a laugh of derision and
-defiance, but it would not do; such a vaticination from such a quarter
-was no laughing matter. So yielding at last to the terror which he had
-so vainly affected to combat, he buried his face in his hands, and threw
-himself violently on the ground; while Brian, scarcely less moved by the
-revelation he had made on the faith of his wife’s far-famed sagacity,
-seated himself compassionately beside him to administer what consolation
-he could.
-
-Mickey Brennan, in the parlance of our country, was a snug gossoon,
-well to do in the world, had a nice bit of land, a comfortable house,
-good crops, a pig or two, a cow or two, a sheep or two, a handsome
-good-humoured face, a good character; and, what made him more
-marriageable than all the rest, he had the aforementioned goods all to
-himself, for his father and mother were dead, and his last sister had
-got married at Shrove-tide. With all these combined advantages he might
-have selected any girl in the parish; but his choice was made long years
-before: it was Meny Moran or nobody--a choice in which Meny Moran herself
-perfectly concurred, and which her father, good, easy, soft-hearted
-Brian, never thought of disputing, although he was able to give her a
-fortune probably amounting to double what her suitor was worth. But was
-the fair one’s mother ever satisfied when such a disparity existed?
-Careful creatures! pound for pound is the maternal maxim in all ages and
-countries, and to give Peggy Moran her due, she was as much influenced by
-it as her betters, and murmured loud and long at the acquiescence of her
-husband in such a sacrifice. She murmured in vain, however: much as Brian
-deferred to her judgment and advice in all other matters, his love for
-his fond and pretty Meny armed him with resolution in this. When she wept
-at her mother’s insinuations, he always found a word of comfort for her;
-and if words wouldn’t do, he managed to bring Mickey and her together,
-and left them to settle the matter after their own way--a method which
-seldom failed of success. But Peggy was not to be baulked of her will.
-What! she whose mere word could make or break any match for five miles
-round, to be forbidden all interference in her own daughter’s: it was not
-to be borne. So at last she applied herself in downright earnest to the
-task. She dreamed at the match, tossed cups at it, saw signs at it: in
-fine, called her whole armoury of necromancy into requisition, and was
-rewarded at last by the discovery that the too highly-favoured swain was
-inevitably destined to end his days on the gallows--a discovery which, as
-has been already seen, fulfilled her most sanguine wishes.
-
-Whatever may be the opinion of other and wiser people on the subject, in
-the parish of Ballycoursey or its vicinity it was rather an ugly joke to
-be thus devoted to the infernal gods by a prophetess of such unerring
-sagacity as Peggy Moran, or, as she was sometimes styled with reference
-to her skill in all supernatural matters, Peggy the Pishogue--that
-cognomen implying an acquaintance with more things in heaven and earth
-than are dreamt of in philosophy; and most unquestionably it was no
-misnomer: the priest himself was not more deeply read in his breviary
-than was she in all the signs and omens whereby the affairs of this
-moving world are shadowed and foretokened--nothing was too great or
-too small for her all-piercing ken--in every form of augury she was
-omniscient, from cup-tossing up to necromancy--in vain the mystic
-dregs of the tea-cup assumed shapes that would have puzzled Doctor
-Wall himself: with her first glance she detected at once the true
-meaning of the hieroglyphic symbol, and therefrom dealt out deaths,
-births, and marriages, with the infallibility of a newspaper--in vain
-Destiny, unwilling to be unrolled, shrouded itself in some dream that
-would have bothered King Solomon. Peggy no sooner heard it than it was
-unravelled--there was not a ghost in the country with whose haunts
-and habits she was not as well acquainted as if she was one of the
-fraternity--not a fairy could put his nose out without being detected by
-her--the value of property was increased tenfold all round the country by
-the skill with which she wielded her charms and spells for the discovery
-of all manner of theft. But I must stop; for were I to recount but half
-her powers, the eulogium would require a _Penny Journal_ for itself, and
-still leave matter for a supplement. It would be a melancholy instance
-indeed of Irish ingratitude if for all these superhuman exertions she
-was not rewarded by universal confidence. To the credit of the parish
-be it said that no such stigma was attached to it: nothing could equal
-the estimation in which all her words and actions were held by her
-neighbours--nothing but the estimation in which they were held in her own
-household by her husband and daughter.
-
-Such being the gifted personage who had foretold the coming disasters of
-Mickey Brennan, it is not to be wondered at that the matter created a
-sensation, particularly as sundry old hags to whom she had imparted her
-discovery were requested to hush it up for the poor gossoon’s sake. His
-friends sorrowed over him as a gone man, for not the most sceptical among
-them ventured to hazard even a doubt of Peggy’s veracity--in fact, they
-viewed the whole as a matter requiring consolation and sympathy rather
-than as a scrutiny into the sources of her information, which by common
-consent were viewed as indubitable, while some, more compassionate than
-the rest, went so far as to declare “that since the thing could not be
-avoided, and Mickey, poor fellow, must be hanged, they hoped it might be
-for something dacint, not robbing, or coining, or the like.”
-
-The hardest task of all is to describe the feelings of poor Brennan
-himself on the occasion; for much as he had affected to disparage the
-sybilline revelations of the wierd woman of Ballycoursey, there was not
-one in the neighbourhood who was more disposed to yield them unlimited
-credence in any case but his own; and even in his own case he was not
-long enabled to struggle against conviction. Let people prate as they
-may about education and its effects, it will require a period of more
-generations than one to root the love of the marvellous out of the hearts
-of our countrymen; and until that be effected, every village in the
-land will have its wise woman, and with nine-tenths of her neighbours
-what she says will be regarded as gospel. Some people of course will
-laugh to scorn such an assertion, and more will very respectfully beg
-leave to doubt it, but still it is true; and in the more retired inland
-villages circumstances are every day occurring far more extravagant than
-anything detailed in this story, as is very well known to all who are
-much conversant with such places. But to return to the doomed man:--How
-could he be expected to bear up against this terrible denunciation, when
-all the consolation he could receive from his nearest and dearest was
-that “it was a good man’s death?” Death! poor fellow, he had suffered
-the pains of a thousand deaths already, in living without the hope of
-ever being the husband of his Meny. Death, instant and immediate, would
-have been a relief to him; and it was not long until, by his anxiety to
-obtain that relief, he afforded an opportunity to Peggy of displaying
-her own reliance on the correctness of her prognostications. Goaded into
-madness by his present sufferings and his fears for the future, he made
-an attempt upon his life by plunging into an adjacent lake when no one,
-as he thought, was near to interrupt his intentions. It was not so,
-however--a shepherd had observed him, but at such a distance that before
-help could be obtained to rescue him he was to all appearance lifeless.
-The news flew like wildfire: he was dead, stone dead, they said--had lain
-in the water ten minutes, half an hour, half the day, since last night;
-but in one point they all concurred--dead he was; dead as St Dominick.
-
-“Troth he’s not,” was Peggy’s cool rejoinder. “Be quiet, and I’ll engage
-he’ll come to. _Nabocklish_, he that’s born to be hanged will never be
-drowned. Wait a while an’ hould your tongues. _Nabocklish_, I tell you
-he’ll live to spoil a market yet, an’ more’s the pity.”
-
-People shook their heads, and almost began to think their wise woman had
-made a mistake, and read hemp instead of water. It was no such thing,
-however: slowly and beyond all hopes, Brennan recovered the effects of
-his rash attempt, thereby fulfilling so much of his declared destiny,
-and raising the reputation of Mrs Moran to a point that she never had
-attained before. That very week she discovered no less than six cases
-of stolen goods, twice detected the good people taking unauthorised
-liberties with their neighbours’ churns, and spaed a score of fortunes,
-at the very least; and he, poor fellow, satisfied at last that Fortune
-was not to be bilked so easily, resigned himself to his fate like a man,
-and began to look about him in earnest for some opportunity of gracing
-the gallows without disgracing his people.
-
-And Meny--poor heart-stricken Meny--loving as none but the true and
-simple-minded can love, the extent of her grief was such as the true and
-simple-minded only can know; and yet there was worse in store for her.
-Shortly after this consummation of her mother’s fame, a whisper began to
-creep through the village--a whisper of dire import, portending death
-and disaster on some luckless wight unknown--“Peggy Moran has something
-on her mind.” What could it be? Silent and mysterious she shook her head
-when any one ventured to question her--the pipe was never out of her
-jaw unless when she slept or sat down to her meals--she became as cross
-as a cat, which to do her justice was not her wont, and eschewed all
-sorts of conversation, which most assuredly was not her wont either. The
-interest and curiosity of her neighbours was raised to a most agonising
-pitch--every one trembled lest the result should be some terrible
-revelation affecting himself or herself, as the case might be: it was the
-burden of the first question asked in the morning, the last at night.
-Every word she uttered during the day was matter of speculation to an
-hundred anxious inquirers; and there was every danger of the good people
-of Ballycoursey going absolutely mad with fright if they were kept any
-longer in the dark on the subject.
-
-At length there was a discovery; but, as is usually the case in all
-scrutinies into forbidden matters, it was at the cost of the too-daring
-investigator. Peggy and Brian were sitting one night before the fire,
-preparing for their retirement, when a notion seized the latter to probe
-the sorrows of his helpmate.
-
-“’Deed it well becomes you to ax,” quoth the wierd woman in answer to his
-many and urgent inquiries; “for Brian, achorra machree, my poor ould man,
-there’s no use in hiding it--it’s all about yourself.”
-
-“No, then!” exclaimed the surprised interrogator; “the Lord betune us an’
-harm, is it?”
-
-“’Deed yes, Brian,” responded the sybil with a melancholy tone, out of
-the cloud of smoke in which she had sought to hide her troubles. “I’m
-thinking these last few days you’re not yourself at all at all.”
-
-“Tare an ounties! maybe I’m not,” responded he of the doubtful identity.
-
-“Do you feel nothing on your heart, Brian achree?”
-
-“I do; sure enough I do,” gasped poor Brian, ready to believe anything of
-himself.
-
-“Something like a _plurrisy_, isn’t it?” inquired the mourner.
-
-“Ay, sure enough, like a plurrisy for all the world, Lord betune us an’
-harm!”
-
-“An’ you do be very cold, I’ll engage, these nights, Brian?” continued
-she.
-
-“Widdy Eelish! I’m as could as ice this minute,” answered Brian, and his
-teeth began to chatter as if he was up to his neck in a mill-pond.
-
-“An’ your appetite is gone entirely, achra?” continued his tormentor.
-
-“Sorra a word o’ lie in it,” answered the newly discovered invalid,
-forgetful however that he had just finished discussing a skib of potatoes
-and a mug of milk for his supper.
-
-“And the cat, the crathur, looked at you this very night after licking
-her paw.”
-
-“I’ll engage she did. Bad luck to her,” responded Brian, “I wouldn’t put
-it beyant her.”
-
-“Let me feel your pulse, asthore,” said Peggy in conclusion; and Brian
-submitted his trembling wrist to her inspection, anxiously peering into
-her face all the while to read his doom therein. A long and deep sigh
-broke from her lips, along with a most voluminous puff of smoke, as she
-let the limb drop from her hold, and commenced rocking herself to and
-fro, uttering a low and peculiar species of moan, which to her terrified
-patient sounded as a death summons.
-
-“Murther-an’-ages, Peggy, sure it’s not going to die I am!” exclaimed
-Brian.
-
-“Och, widdy! widdy!” roared the afflicted spouse, now giving full vent
-to her anguish, “it’s little I thought, Brian asthore machree, when I
-married you in your beauty and your prime, that I’d ever live to cry
-the keen over you--ochone, ochone! ’tis you was the good ould man in
-airnest--och! och!”
-
-“Arrah, Peggy!” interposed the object of her rather premature
-lamentations.
-
-“Oh, don’t talk to me--don’t talk to me. I’ll never hould up my head
-again, so I won’t!” continued the widow that was to be, in a tone that
-quickly brought all the house about her, and finally all the neighbours.
-Great was the uproar that ensued, and noisy the explanations, which,
-however, afforded no small relief to the minds of all persons not
-immediately concerned in the welfare of the doomed Brian. Peggy was
-inconsolable at the prospect of such a bereavement. Meny clung in despair
-to the poor tottering old man, her grief too deep for lamentation,
-while he hobbled over his prayers as fast and as correctly as his utter
-dismay would permit him. Next morning he was unable to rise, refused
-all nourishment, and called vehemently for the priest. Every hour he
-became worse; he was out of one faint into another; announced symptoms of
-every complaint that ever vexed mankind, and declared himself affected
-by a pain in every member, from his toe to his cranium. No wonder it
-was a case to puzzle the doctor. The man of science could make nothing
-of it--swore it was the oddest complication of diseases that ever he
-had heard of--and strongly recommended that the patient be tossed in a
-blanket, and his wife treated to a taste of the horse-pond. Father Coffey
-was equally nonplussed.
-
-“What ails you, Brian?”
-
-“An all-overness of some kind or other, your reverence,” groaned the
-sufferer in reply, and the priest had to own himself a bothered man.
-Nothing would induce him to rise--“where’s the use in a man’s gettin’ up,
-an’ he goin’ to die?” was his answer to those who endeavoured to rouse
-him--“isn’t it a dale dacinter to die in bed like a Christian?”
-
-“God’s good!--maybe you won’t die this time, Brian.”
-
-“Arrah, don’t be talking--doesn’t Peggy know best?” And with this
-undeniable assertion he closed all his arguments, receiving consolation
-from none, not even his heart-broken Meny. Despite of all his entreaties
-to be let die in peace, the doctor, who guessed how matters stood, was
-determined to try the effects of a blister, and accordingly applied one
-of more than ordinary strength, stoutly affirming that it would have the
-effect of the patient being up and walking on the morrow. A good many
-people had gathered into his cabin to witness the cure, as they always
-do when their presence could be best dispensed with; and to these Peggy,
-with tears and moans, was declaring her despair in all remedies whatever,
-and her firm conviction that a widow she’d be before Sunday, when Brian,
-roused a little by the uneasy stimulant from the lethargy into which they
-all believed him to be sunk, faintly expressed his wish to be heard.
-
-“Peggy, agra,” said he, “there’s no denyin’ but you’re a wonderful woman
-entirely; an’ since I’m goin’, it would be a grate consolation to me if
-you’d tell us all now you found out the sickness was on me afore I knew
-it myself. It’s just curiosity, agra--I wouldn’t like to die, you see,
-without knowin’ for why an’ for what--it ’ud have a foolish look if any
-body axed me what I died of, an’ me not able to tell them.”
-
-Peggy declared her willingness to do him this last favour, and,
-interrupted by an occasional sob, thus proceeded:--
-
-“It was Thursday night week--troth I’ll never forget that night, Brian
-asthore, if I live to be as ould as Noah--an’ it was just after my first
-sleep that I fell draiming. I thought I went down to Dan Keefe’s to buy
-a taste ov mate, for ye all know he killed a _bullsheen_ that day for
-the market ov Moneen; an’ I thought when I went into his house, what did
-I see hangin’ up but an ugly _lane_ carcase, an’ not a bit too fresh
-neither, an’ a strange man dividin’ it with a hatchet; an’ says he to me
-with a mighty grum look,
-
-“‘Well, honest woman, what do you want?--is it to buy bullsheen?’
-
-“‘Yes,’ says I, ‘but not the likes of that--it’s not what we’re used to.’
-
-“‘Divil may care,’ says he; ‘I’ll make bould to cut out a rib for you.’
-
-“‘Oh, don’t if you plase,’ says I, puttin’ out my hand to stop him; an’
-with that what does he do but he lifts the hatchet an’ makes a blow at my
-hand, an’ cuts the weddin’ ring in two on my finger?”
-
-“Dth! dth! dth!” was ejaculated on all sides by her wondering auditory,
-for the application of the dream to Brian was conclusive, according to
-the popular method of explaining such matters. They looked round to
-see how he sustained the brunt of such a fatal revelation. There he
-was sitting bolt upright in the bed, notwithstanding his unpleasant
-incumbrance, his mouth and eyes wide open.
-
-“Why, thin, blur-an’-ages, Peggy Moran,” he slowly exclaimed, when he and
-they had recovered a little from their surprise, “do you mane to tell me
-that’s all that ailed me?”
-
-Peggy and her coterie started back as he uttered this extraordinary
-inquiry, there being something in his look that portended his intention
-to leap out of bed, and probably display his indignation a little too
-forcibly, for, quiet as he was, his temper wasn’t proof against a
-blister; but his bodily strength failed him in the attempt, and, roaring
-with pain, he resumed his recumbent position. But Peggy’s empire was
-over--the blister had done its business, and in a few days he was able
-to stump about as usual, threatening to inflict all sorts of punishments
-upon any one who dared to laugh at him. A laugh is a thing, however, not
-easy to be controlled, and finally poor Brian’s excellent temper was
-soured to such a degree by the ridicule which he encountered, that he
-determined to seek a reconciliation with young Brennan, pitch the decrees
-of fate to Old Nick, and give Father Coffey a job with the young couple.
-
-To this resolution we are happy to say he adhered: still happier are we
-to say, that among the county records we have not yet met the name of
-his son-in-law, and that unless good behaviour and industry be declared
-crimes worthy of bringing their perpetrator to the gallows, there is very
-little chance indeed of Mickey Brennan fulfilling the prophecy of Peggy
-the Pishogue.
-
- A. M’C.
-
-
-
-
-A SHORT CHAPTER ON BUSTLES.
-
-
-Bustles!--what are bustles? Ay, reader, fair reader, you may well ask
-that question. But some of your sex at least know the meaning of the
-word, and the use of the article it designates, sufficiently well,
-though, thank heaven! there are many thousands of my countrywomen who are
-as yet ignorant of both, and indeed to whom such knowledge would be quite
-useless. Would that I were in equally innocent ignorance! Not, reader,
-that I am of the feminine gender, and use the article in question; but my
-knowledge of its mysterious uses, and the various materials of which it
-is composed, has been the ruin of me. I will have inscribed on my tomb,
-“Here lies a man who was killed by a bustle!”
-
-But before I detail the circumstances of my unhappy fate, it will perhaps
-be proper to give a description of the article itself which has been the
-cause of my undoing. Well, then, a bustle is…
-
-But the editor will perhaps object to this description as being too
-distinct and graphic. If so, then here goes for another less laboured and
-more characteristically mysterious.
-
-A bustle is an article used by ladies to take from their form the
-character of the Venus of the Greeks, and impart to it that of the Venus
-of the Hottentots!
-
-That ladies should have a taste so singular, may appear incredible; but
-there is no accounting for tastes, and I know to my cost that the fact is
-indisputable.
-
-I made the discovery a few years since, and up to that time I had always
-borne the character of a sage, sedate, and promising young man--one
-likely to get on in the world by my exertions, and therefore sure to be
-helped by my friends. I was even, I flatter myself, a favourite with the
-fair sex too; and justly so, for I was their most ardent admirer; and
-there was one most lovely creature among them whom I had fondly hoped
-to have made my own. But, alas! how vain and visionary are our hopes of
-human happiness: such hopes with me have fled for ever! As I said before,
-I am a ruined man, and all in consequence of ladies’ bustles.
-
-In an unlucky hour I was in a ball-room, seated at a little distance
-from my fair one--my eyes watching her every air and look, my ears
-catching every sound of her sweet voice--when I heard her complain to a
-female friend, in tones of the softest whispering music, that she was
-oppressed with the heat of the place. “My dear,” her friend replied,
-“it must be the effect of your bustle. What do you stuff it with?”
-“Hair--horse-hair,” was the reply. “Hair!--mercy on us!” says her friend,
-“it is no wonder you are oppressed--that’s a _hot-and-hot_ material
-truly. Why, you should do as I do--you do not see me fainting; and the
-reason is, that I stuff my bustle with hay--new hay!”
-
-I heard no more, for the ladies, supposing from my eyes that I was a
-listener, changed the topic of conversation, though indeed it was not
-necessary, for at the time I had not the slightest notion of what they
-meant. Time, however, passed on most favourably to my wishes--another
-month, and I should have called my Catherine my own. She was on a visit
-to my sister, and I had every opportunity to make myself agreeable. We
-sang together, we talked together, and we danced together. All this would
-have been very well, but unfortunately we also walked together. It was
-on the last time we ever did so that the circumstance occurred which I
-have now to relate, and which gave the first death-blow to my hopes of
-happiness. We were crossing Carlisle-bridge, her dear arm linked in mine,
-when we chanced to meet a female friend; and wishing to have a little
-chat with her without incommoding the passengers, we got to the edge of
-the flag-way, near which at the time there was standing an old white
-horse, totally blind. He was a quiet-looking animal, and none of us could
-have supposed from his physiognomy that he had any savage propensity in
-his nature. But imagine my astonishment and horror when I suddenly heard
-my charmer give a scream that pierced me to the very heart!--and when I
-perceived that this atrocious old blind brute, having slowly and slyly
-swayed his head round, caught the--how shall I describe it?--caught my
-Catherine--really I can’t say how--but he caught her; and before I could
-extricate her from his jaws, he made a reef in her garments such as lady
-never suffered. Silk gown, petticoat, bustle--everything, in fact, gave
-way, and left an opening--a chasm--an exposure, that may perhaps be
-imagined, but cannot be described.[1]
-
-As rapidly as I could, of course, I got my fair one into a jarvy, and
-hurried home, the truth gradually opening in my mind as to the cause
-of the disaster--it was, that the blind horse, hungry brute, had been
-attracted by the smell of my Catherine’s bustle, made of hay--new hay!
-
-Catherine was never the same to me afterwards--she took the most
-invincible dislike to walk with me, or rather, perhaps, to be seen in
-the streets with me. But matters were not yet come to the worst, and I
-had indulged in hopes that she would yet be mine. I had however taken a
-deep aversion to bustles, and even determined to wage war upon them to
-the best of my ability. In this spirit, a few days after, I determined to
-wreak my vengeance on my sister’s bustle, for I found by this time that
-she too was emulous of being a Hottentot beauty. Accordingly, having to
-accompany her and my intended wife to a ball, I stole into my sister’s
-room in the course of the evening before she went into it to dress,
-and pouncing upon her hated bustle, which lay on her toilet table, I
-inflicted a cut on it with my penknife, and retired. But what a mistake
-did I make! Alas, it was not my sister’s bustle, but my Catherine’s!
-However, we went to the ball, and for a time all went smoothly on. I
-took out my Catherine as a partner in the dance; but imagine my horror
-when I perceived her gradually becoming thinner and thinner--losing her
-_enbonpoint_--as she danced; and, worse than that, that every movement
-which she described in the figure--the ladies’ chain, the chassee--was
-accurately marked--recorded--on the chalked floor with--bran! Oh dear!
-reader, pity me: was ever man so unfortunate? This sealed my doom. She
-would never speak to me, or even look at me afterwards.
-
-But this was not all. My character with the sex--ay, with both sexes--was
-also destroyed. I who had been heretofore, as I said, considered as an
-example of prudence and discretion for a young man, was now set down as
-a thoughtless, devil-may-care wag, never to do well: the men treated me
-coldly, and the women turned their backs upon me; and so thus in reality
-they made me what they had supposed I was. It was indeed no wonder, for
-I could never after see a lady with a bustle but I felt an irresistible
-inclination to laughter, and this too even on occasions when I should
-have kept a grave countenance. If I met a couple of country or other
-friends in the street, and inquired after their family--the cause,
-perhaps, of the mourning in which they were attired--while they were
-telling me of the death of some father, sister, or other relative, I to
-their astonishment would take to laughing, and if there was a horse near
-us, give the lady a drag away to another situation. And if then I were
-asked the meaning of this ill-timed mirth, and this singular movement,
-what could I say? Why, sometimes I made the matter worse by replying,
-“Dear madam, it is only to save your bustle from the horse!”
-
-Stung at length by my misfortunes and the hopelessness of my situation, I
-became utterly reckless, and only thought of carrying out my revenge on
-the bustles in every way in my power; and this I must say with some pride
-I did for a while with good effect. I got a number of the hated articles
-manufactured for myself, but not, reader, to wear, as you shall hear. Oh!
-no; but whenever I received an invitation to a party--which indeed had
-latterly been seldom sent me--I took one of these articles in my pocket,
-and, watching a favourable opportunity when all were engaged in the mazy
-figure of the dance, let it secretly fall amongst them. The result may be
-imagined--ay, reader, imagine it, for I cannot describe it with effect.
-First, the half-suppressed but simultaneous scream of all the ladies as
-it was held up for a claimant; next, the equally simultaneous movement of
-the ladies’ hands, all quickly disengaged from those of their partners,
-and not raised up in wonder, but carried down to their--bustles! Never
-was movement in the dance executed with such precision; and I should be
-immortalised as the inventor of an attitude so expressive of sentiment
-and of _feeling_.
-
-Alas! this is the only consolation now afforded me in my afflictions:
-I invented a new attitude--a new movement in the quadrille: let others
-see that it be not forgotten. I am now a banished man from all refined
-society: no lady will appear, where that odious Mr Bustle, as they call
-me, might possibly be; and so no one will admit me inside their doors. I
-have nothing left me, therefore, but to live out my solitary life, and
-vent my execration of bustles in the only place now left me--the columns
-of the Irish Penny Journal.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-[1] A fact.
-
-
-
-
-THE COMMON OTTER.
-
-
-The otter varies in size, some adult specimens measuring no more than
-thirty-six inches in length, tail inclusive, while others, again, are to
-be found from four and a half to five feet long. The head of the otter is
-broad and flat; its muzzle is broad, rounded, and blunt; its eyes small
-and of a semi-circular form; neck extremely thick, nearly as thick as the
-body; body long, rounded, and very flexible; legs short and muscular;
-feet furnished with five sharp-clawed toes, webbed to three-quarters of
-their extent; tail long, muscular, somewhat flattened, and tapering to
-its extremity. The colour of the otter is a deep blackish brown; the
-sides of the head, the front of the neck, and sometimes the breast,
-brownish grey. The belly is usually, but not invariably, darker than the
-back; the fur is short, and of two kinds; the inferior or woolly coat is
-exceedingly fine and close; the longer hairs are soft and glossy, those
-on the tail rather stiff and bristly. On either side of the nose, and
-just below the chin, are two small light-coloured spots. So much for the
-appearance of the otter: now we come to its dwelling. The otter is common
-to England, Ireland, and Scotland; a marine variety is also to be met
-with, differing from the common only in its superior size and more furry
-coat. Some naturalists have set them down as a different species: I am,
-however, disposed to regard them as a variety merely.
-
-The native haunt of the otter is the river-bank, where amongst the reeds
-and sedge it forms a deep burrow, in which it brings forth and rears
-its young. Its principal food is fish, which it catches with singular
-dexterity. It lives almost wholly in the water, and seldom leaves it
-except to devour its prey; on land it does not usually remain long at
-any one time, and the slightest alarm is sufficient to cause it to
-plunge into the stream. Yet, natural as seems a watery residence to this
-creature, its hole is perfectly dry; were it to become otherwise, it
-would be quickly abandoned. Its entrance, indeed, is invariably under
-water, but its course then points upwards into the bank, towards the
-surface of the earth, and it is even provided with several lodges or
-apartments at different heights, into which it may retire in case of
-floods, throwing up the earth behind it as it proceeds into the recesses
-of its retreat; and when it has reached the last and most secure chamber,
-it opens a small hole in the roof for the admission of atmospheric air,
-without which the animal could not of course exist many minutes; and
-should the flood rise so high as to burst into this last place of refuge,
-the animal will open a passage through the roof, and venture forth upon
-land, rather than remain in a damp and muddy bed. During severe floods,
-otters are not unfrequently surprised at some distance from the water,
-and taken.
-
-In a wild state the otter is fierce and daring, will make a determined
-resistance when attacked by dogs, and being endued with no inconsiderable
-strength of jaw, it often punishes its assailants terribly. I have myself
-seen it break the fore-leg of a stout terrier. Otter-hunting was in
-former times a favourite amusement even with the nobility, and regular
-establishments of otter-hounds were kept. The animal is now become
-scarce, and its pursuit is no longer numbered in our list of sports,
-unless perhaps in Scotland, where, especially in the Western Islands,
-otter-hunting is still extensively practised.
-
-Otters are easily rendered tame, especially if taken young, and may
-be taught to follow their master like dogs, and even to fish for him,
-cheerfully resigning their prey when taken, and dashing into the water
-in search of more. A man named James Campbell, residing near Inverness,
-had one which followed him wherever he went, unless confined, and would
-answer to its name. When apprehensive of danger from dogs, it sought the
-protection of its master, and would endeavour to spring into his arms for
-greater security. It was frequently employed in catching fish, and would
-sometimes take eight or ten salmon in a day. If not prevented, it always
-attempted to break the fish behind the fin which is next the tail; and as
-soon as one was taken away, it always dived in pursuit of more. It was
-equally dexterous at sea-fishing, and took great numbers of young cod
-and other fish. When tired it would refuse to fish any longer, and was
-then rewarded with as much food as it could devour. Having satiated its
-appetite, it always coiled itself up and went to sleep, no matter where
-it was, in which state it was usually carried home.
-
-Brown relates that a person who kept a tame otter taught it to associate
-with his dogs, who were on the most friendly terms with it on all
-occasions, and that it would follow its master in company with its
-canine friends. This person was in the habit of fishing the river with
-nets, on which occasions the otter proved highly useful to him, by going
-into the water and driving trout and other fish towards the net. It was
-very remarkable that dogs accustomed to otter-hunting were so far from
-offering it the least molestation, that they would not even hunt any
-other otter while it remained with them; on which account its owner was
-forced to part with it.
-
-The otter is of a most affectionate disposition, as may at once be seen
-from its anxiety respecting its young. Indeed, the parental affection
-of this creature is so powerful that the female otter will often suffer
-herself to be killed rather than desert them. Professor Steller says,
-“Often have I spared the lives of the female otters whose young ones I
-took away. They expressed their sorrow by crying like human beings, and
-following me as I was carrying off their young, while they called to
-them for aid with a tone of voice which very much resembled the crying
-of children. When I sat down in the snow, they came quite close to me,
-and attempted to carry off their young. On one occasion when I had
-deprived an otter of her progeny, I returned to the place eight days
-after, and found the female sitting by the river listless and desponding,
-who suffered me to kill her on the spot without making any attempt to
-escape. On skinning her I found she was quite wasted away from sorrow
-for the loss of her young.” This affection which the otter, while in a
-state of nature, displays towards her young, is when in captivity usually
-transferred to her master, or perhaps, as in an instance I shall mention
-by and bye, to some one or other of his domestic animals. As an example
-of the former case I may mention the following:--A person named Collins,
-who lived near Wooler in Northumberland, had a tame otter, which followed
-him wherever he went. He frequently took it to the river to fish for its
-own food, and when satisfied it never failed to return to its master. One
-day in the absence of Collins, the otter being taken out to fish by his
-son, instead of returning as usual, refused to answer to the accustomed
-call, and was lost. Collins tried every means to recover it; and after
-several days’ search, being near the place where his son had lost it, and
-calling its name, to his very great joy the animal came crawling to his
-feet. In the following passage of the “Prædium Rusticum” of Vaniere,
-allusion is made to tame otters employed in fishing:--
-
- “Should chance within this dark recess betray
- The tender young, bear quick the prize away;
- Tamed by thy care the useful brood shall join
- The watery chase, and add their toils to thine;
- From each close lurking hole shall force away,
- And drive within the nets the silver prey;
- As the taught hound the nimble stag subdues,
- And o’er the dewy plain the panting hare pursues.”
-
-Mr Macgillivray, in his interesting volume on British Quadrupeds in the
-Naturalist’s Library, mentions several instances of otters having been
-tamed and employed in fishing. Among others he relates that a gentleman
-residing in the Outer Hebrides had one that supplied itself with food,
-and regularly returned to the house. M’Diarmid, in his “Sketches from
-Nature,” enumerates many others. One otter belonging to a poor widow,
-“when led forth plunged into the Urr, and brought out all the fish it
-could find.” Another, kept at Corsbie House, Wigtonshire, “evinced a
-great fondness for gooseberries,” fondled “about her keeper’s feet
-like a pup or kitten, and even seemed inclined to salute her cheek,
-when permitted to carry her freedoms so far.” A third, belonging to Mr
-Montieth of Carstairs, “though he frequently stole away at night to fish
-by the pale light of the moon, and associate with his kindred by the
-river side, his master of course was too generous to find any fault with
-his peculiar mode of spending his evening hours. In the morning he was
-always at his post in the kennel, and no animal understood better the
-secret of ‘keeping his own side of the house.’ Indeed his pugnacity in
-this respect gave him a great lift in the favour of the gamekeeper, who
-talked of his feats wherever he went, and averred besides, that if the
-best cur that ever ran ‘only daured to girn’ at his protegé, he would
-soon ‘mak his teeth meet through him.’ To mankind, however, he was much
-more civil, and allowed himself to be gently lifted by the tail, though
-he objected to any interference with his snout, which is probably with
-him the seat of honour.”
-
-Mr Glennon, of Suffolk-street, Dublin, informs me that Mr Murray,
-gamekeeper to his Grace the Duke of Leinster, has a tame otter, which
-enters the water to fish when desired, and lays whatever he catches with
-due submission at his master’s feet. Mr Glennon further observes, that
-the affection for his owner which this animal exhibits is equal or even
-superior to that of the most faithful dog. The creature follows him
-wherever he goes, will suffer him to lift him up by the tail and carry
-him under his arm just as good-humouredly as would a dog, will spring
-to his knee when he sits at home, and seems in fact never happy but
-when in his company. This otter is well able to take care of himself,
-and fearlessly repels the impertinent advances of the dogs: with such,
-however, as treat him with fitting respect, he is on excellent terms.
-Sometimes Mr Murray will hide himself from this animal, which will
-immediately, on being set at liberty, search for him with the greatest
-anxiety, running like a terrier dog by the scent. Mr Glennon assures me
-that he has frequently seen the animal thus trace the footsteps of its
-master for a considerable distance across several fields, and that too
-with such precision as never in any instance to fail of finding him.
-
-I myself had once a tame otter, with a detail of whose habits and manners
-I shall now conclude this article. When I first obtained the animal she
-was very young, and not more than sixteen inches in length: young as she
-was, she was very fierce, and would bite viciously if any one put his
-hand near the nest of straw in which she was kept. As she grew a little
-older, however, she became more familiarized to the approaches of human
-beings, and would suffer herself to be gently stroked upon the back
-or head; when tired of being caressed, she would growl in a peculiar
-manner, and presently use her sharp teeth if the warning to let her
-alone were not attended to. In one respect the manners of this animal
-presented a striking contrast to the accounts I had read and heard of
-other tame individuals. She evinced no particular affection for me; she
-grew tame certainly, but her tameness was rather of a general than of an
-exclusive character: unlike other wild animals which I had at different
-times succeeded in domesticating, this creature testified no particular
-gratitude to her master, and whoever fed her, or set her at liberty, was
-her favourite for the time being. She preferred fish to any other diet,
-and eagerly devoured all descriptions, whether taken in fresh or salt
-water, though she certainly preferred the former. She would seize the
-fish between her fore paws, hold it firmly on the ground, and devour it
-downwards to the tail, which with the head the dainty animal rejected.
-When fish could not be procured, she would eat, but sparingly, of bread
-and milk, as well as the lean of raw meat; fat she could on no account be
-prevailed upon to touch.
-
-Towards other animals my otter for a long period maintained an appearance
-of perfect indifference. If a dog approached her suddenly, she would
-utter a sharp, whistling noise, and betake herself to some place of
-safety: if pursued, she would turn and show fight. If the dog exhibited
-no symptoms of hostility, she would presently return to her place at the
-fireside, where she would lie basking for hours at a time.
-
-When I first obtained this animal, there was no water sufficiently near
-to where I lived in which I could give her an occasional bath; and being
-apprehensive, that, if entirely deprived of an element in which nature
-had designed her to pass so considerable a portion of her existence,
-she would languish and die, I allowed her a tub as a substitute for
-her native river; and in this she plunged and swam with much apparent
-delight. It was in this manner that I became acquainted with the curious
-fact, that the otter, when passing along beneath the surface of the
-water, does not usually accomplish its object by swimming, but by walking
-along the bottom, which it can do as securely and with as much rapidity
-as it can run on dry land.
-
-After having had my otter about a year, I changed my residence to another
-quarter of the town, and the stream well known to all who have seen
-Edinburgh as the “Water of Leith,” flowed past the rear of the house. The
-creature being by this time so tame as to be allowed perfect liberty,
-I took it down one evening to the river, and permitted it to disport
-itself for the first time since its capture in a deep and open stream.
-The animal was delighted with the new and refreshing enjoyment, and I
-found that a daily swim in the river greatly conduced to its health and
-happiness. I would sometimes walk for nearly a mile along the bank, and
-the happy and frolicsome creature would accompany me by water, and that
-too so rapidly that I could not even by very smart walking keep pace with
-it. On some occasions it caught small fish, such as minnows, eels, and
-occasionally a trout of inconsiderable size. When it was only a minnow
-or a small eel which it caught, it would devour it in the water, putting
-its head for that purpose above the surface; when, however, it had made
-a trout its prey, it would come to shore, and devour it more at leisure.
-I strove very assiduously to train this otter to fish for me, as I had
-heard they have sometimes been taught to do; but I never could succeed
-in this attempt, nor could I even prevail upon the animal to give me up
-at any time the fish which she had taken: the moment I approached her
-to do so, as if suspecting my intention, she would at once take to the
-water, and, crossing to the other side of the stream, devour her prey in
-security. This difficulty in training I impute to the animal’s want of
-an individual affection for me, for it was not affection, but her own
-pleasure, which induced her to follow me down the stream; and she would
-with equal willingness follow any other person who happened to release
-her from her box. This absence of affection was probably nothing more
-than peculiarity of disposition in this individual, there being numerous
-instances of a contrary nature upon record.
-
-Although this otter failed to exhibit those affectionate traits of
-character which have displayed themselves in other individuals of her
-tribe towards the human species, she was by no means of a cold or
-unsocial disposition towards some of my smaller domestic animals. With an
-Angora cat she soon after I got her formed a very close friendship, and
-when in the house was unhappy when not in the company of her friend. I
-had one day an opportunity of witnessing a singular display of attachment
-on the part of this otter towards the cat:--A little terrier dog attacked
-the latter as she lay by the fire, and driving her thence, pursued her
-under the table, where she stood on her defence, spitting and setting up
-her back in defiance: at this instant the otter entered the apartment,
-and no sooner did she perceive what was going on, than she flew with much
-fury and bitterness upon the dog, seized him by the face with her teeth,
-and would doubtless have inflicted a severe chastisement upon him, had I
-not hastened to the rescue, and, separating the combatants, expelled the
-terrier from the room.
-
-When permitted to wander in the garden, this otter would search for
-grubs, worms, and snails, which she would eat with much apparent relish,
-detaching the latter from their shell with surprising quickness and
-dexterity. She would likewise mount upon the chairs at the window, and
-catch and eat flies--a practice which I have not as yet seen recorded
-in the natural history of this animal. I had this otter in my possession
-nearly two years, and have in the above sketch mentioned only a few of
-its most striking peculiarities. Did I not fear encroaching on space
-which is perhaps the property of another contributor, I could have
-carried its history to a much greater length.
-
- H. D. R.
-
-
-
-
-RANDOM SKETCHES--No. II.
-
-AN AMERICAN NOBLEMAN.
-
-
-There reached our city, on the morning of the 29th day of July, and
-sailed from it on the night of the 31st, the most _remarkable_ person
-perhaps by whom our shores have been lately visited. Were we to second
-our own feelings, we would apply a higher epithet to William Lloyd
-Garrison, but we have chosen one in which we are persuaded all parties
-would agree who partook of his intercourse, however much they may differ
-from each other and from him in principle and in practice. The object of
-this short paper is to leave on the pages of our literature some record
-of an extraordinary individual, who is a literary man himself, being the
-editor and proprietor of a successful newspaper published at Boston in
-Massachusetts; but his name may be best recommended to our readers in
-connection with that of the well-known George Thompson, whose eloquence
-was so powerful an auxiliary to the unnumbered petitions which at length
-wrung from our legislature the just but expensive emancipation of the
-West Indian negroes. Community of action and of suffering, as pleaders
-for the rights of the black and coloured population of the United States,
-has rendered them bosom friends, and each has a child called after the
-name of the other. Thompson is now a denizen of the United Kingdom; but
-while we write, Garrison is crossing the broad Atlantic to encounter
-new dangers: comparatively safe at home, his life is forfeited whenever
-he ventures to pass the moral line of demarcation which separates the
-free from the slave states--forfeited so surely as there is a rifle in
-Kentucky or a bowie knife in Alabama.
-
-We have set Garrison down as “an American nobleman,” and the “peerage”
-in which we look for his titles and dignities is “The Martyr Age of the
-United States of America,” by Harriet Martineau--a writer to whom none
-will deny the possession of discrimination, which is all we contend for.
-“William Lloyd Garrison is one of God’s nobility--the head of the moral
-aristocracy, whose prerogatives we are contemplating. It is not only
-that he is invulnerable to injury--that he early got the world under
-his feet in a way which it would have made Zeno stroke his beard with a
-complacency to witness; but that in his meekness, his sympathies, his
-self-forgetfulness, he appears ‘covered all over with the stars and
-orders’ of the spiritual realm whence he derives his dignities and his
-powers. At present he is a marked man wherever he turns. The faces of
-his friends brighten when his step is heard: the people of colour almost
-kneel to him; and the rest of society jeers, pelts, and execrates him.
-Amidst all this, his gladsome life rolls on, ‘too busy to be anxious,
-and too loving to be sad.’ He springs from his bed singing at sunrise:
-and if during the day tears should cloud his serenity, they are never
-shed for himself. His countenance of steady compassion gives hope to
-the oppressed, who look to him as the Jews looked to Moses. It was this
-serene countenance, saint-like in its earnestness and purity, that a man
-bought at a print-shop, where it was exposed without a name, and hung
-up as the most apostolic face he ever saw. It does not alter the case
-that the man took it out of the frame, and hid it when he found that it
-was Garrison who had been adorning his parlour.” And he can be no common
-man of whom it is recorded in the work to which we have already alluded,
-that, on starting a newspaper for the advocacy of abolition principles,
-“Garrison and his friend Knapp, a printer, were ere long living in a
-garret, on bread and water, expending all their spare earnings and time
-on the publication, and that when it sold particularly well (says Knapp),
-we treated ourselves with a bowl of milk.”--_The Martyr Age of the United
-States of America_, p. 5.
-
-As we are not writing his memoir, we refer such of our readers as may be
-curious to inquire further into the subject to the pamphlet just cited,
-and to the chapter headed “Garrison,” in the work on America by the same
-writer. To one extraordinary feature of his character, however, we cannot
-forbear adverting. He belongs to a society instituted for the apparently
-negative purpose of _non-resistance_, and is therefore the safest of all
-antagonists. Buffet as you list the head and sides of W. L. Garrison,
-and you receive no buffet in return. That this is owing to no deficiency
-of personal courage, admits of demonstration. Neither the prison into
-which he was cast when a mere lad in one state, the price set on his head
-in another, nor the tar-kettle to which he would on one occasion have
-been dragged but for a stout arm that came to his rescue, has been able
-to make Garrison swerve from what he considers to be his line of duty.
-Another cause of this disposition to passive endurance must be sought,
-and it is easily found: _he is in love_--deeply in love with all mankind.
-His principle is to “resist not evil;” and he acts upon it to the fullest
-extent. In fact, he appears to be several centuries in advance of his
-time, and to live in a millennium of his own creating.
-
-We shall only add, that the effect which this remarkable man produced
-on the minds of those who companied with him while in Dublin, was of
-a very peculiar nature. Among these were persons of various sects and
-parties, and of all varieties of temperament, but nearly all seemed
-to concur in their estimate of his character. Though many seemed to
-think that he carried out the great principle of love to an unnecessary
-extent, none seemed able to gainsay his reasonings. Here and there tears
-were seen to start, not called forth by any sublime sentiment or tender
-emotion to which he had given words at the moment, but educed as it were
-by the abstract contemplation of the image of intense virtue which he
-represented; and most agreed in the opinion, that of all individuals
-with whom they had ever been acquainted, he was the one of whom it could
-be with most justice asserted, that none could hold much intercourse
-with him without becoming better. His Dublin host sailed to Liverpool on
-Monday evening for the mere purpose of enjoying his company for three
-hours more, which was all the arrangements the Boston steamer would
-permit, in which he was to leave Liverpool on Tuesday.
-
-It would be an act of great injustice to close this article without
-making some mention of Garrison’s congenial friend and companion
-Nathaniel Peabody Rogers of Plymouth, in New Hampshire, also the editor
-and proprietor of a newspaper, of whom, however, we shall only say,
-that if (as the phrase goes) _anything happened_ to W. L. Garrison, he
-is the man who would be ready to occupy his place in the admiration and
-execration of America.
-
- G. D.
-
- * * * * *
-
-TIME.--Time is the most undefinable yet most paradoxical of things: the
-past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past
-even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of the lightning,
-at once exists and expires. Time is the measure of all things, but is
-itself immeasurable, and the grand discloser of all things, but is itself
-undisclosed. Like space, it is incomprehensible, because it has no limit,
-and it would be still more so, if it had. It is more in its source than
-the Nile, and its termination, than the Niger; and advances like the
-slowest tide, but retreats like the swiftest torrent. It gives wings of
-lightning to pleasure, but feet of lead to pain, and lends expectation
-a curb, but enjoyment a spur. It robs beauty of her charms, to bestow
-them on her picture, and builds a monument to merit, but denies it a
-house; it is the transient and deceitful flatterer of falsehood, but the
-tried and final friend of truth. Time is the most subtle, yet the most
-insatiable of depredators, and by appearing to take nothing, is permitted
-to take all, nor can it be satisfied until it has stolen the world from
-us, and us from the world. It constantly flies, yet overcomes all things
-by flight; and although it is the present ally, it will be the future
-conqueror of death. Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition,
-is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise,
-bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other;
-like Cassandra, it warns us with a voice that even the sages discredit
-too long, and the silliest believe too late. Wisdom walks before it,
-opportunity with it, and repentance behind it; he that has made it his
-friend, will have little to fear from his enemies; but he that has
-made it his enemy, will have little to hope from his friends.--_Burn’s
-Youthful Piety._
-
- * * * * *
-
-DIFFIDENCE.--A man gets along faster with a sensible married woman in
-hours than with a young girl in whole days. It is next to impossible to
-make them talk, or to reach them. They are like a green walnut: there are
-half a dozen outer coats to be pulled off, one by one and slowly, before
-you reach the kernel of their characters.
-
-
-
-
-APOLOGUES AND FABLES, IN PROSE AND VERSE, FROM THE GERMAN AND OTHER
-LANGUAGES.
-
-
-No. IV.--THE EAGLE AND THE DOVE.
-
-A TRANSLATION FROM GOETHE.
-
- Joyous with youth, an Eagle spread his pinions
- One sunny summer day,
- And through the wilderness of Air’s dominions
- Arose in quest of prey,
- When, lo! the forest-ranger’s musquet roared,
- And struck him as he soared,
- Shattering the tendons of one buoyant wing,
- And down to earth he fell, poor wounded thing!
- Deep in the hollow of a grassy grove,
- Where sleepy myrtles bloomed, and dark boughs wove
- A trellis-curtain to shut out the sun,
- He lay for three long days, with none
- To tend him in that lowly lair,
- And fed for three long nights upon his heart’s despair!
- All-healing Nature brought at length
- Relief at least from agonizing pain,
- And some return of youthful strength.
- Feebly he leaves his couch and crawls along,
- And tries to raise his wing--alas! in vain--
- The glory has departed from the Strong,
- And henceforth he can only hope to gain
- A mean prey from the surface of that earth
- Which gives the worm and beetle birth.
- In mournful mood he rests beside a stream;
- He looks up towards the tall majestic trees
- Whose tops are waving to the mountain-breeze;
- He sees the sun’s unconquerable beam
- Shine forth; he gazes on his native skies,
- And tears gush from his eyes.
-
- While Sorrow thus oppressed the noble Bird,
- A rustling sound was heard--
- A flutter as of soft wings through the grove--
- And presently a Turtle-Dove
- Alighted on a myrtle-bough anear.
- He saw the Eagle droop his kingly head;
- He saw tear after tear
- Fall from his eyes into the dark rill under,
- And sentiments of Pity, blent with Wonder,
- Troubled his tender breast. My friend, he said,
- Thou grievest! What has made thee grieve?
- Thou showest thy wing--Ah! thou art maimed for life!
- Well! what of that? Thou shouldst rejoice to leave
- A world whose very pleasures most be won by Strife!
- For, hast thou not around thee here
- All blessings that can make Existence dear?
- When high the noontide sunbeam burns,
- Yield not these latticed walls a soothing shade?
- When starry Night again returns,
- Doth not her lamp light up this pleasant glade?
- The soft winds bring thee odours from yon orange bowers;
- Almost thy very path lies over flowers!
- The trees around thee, the rich earth below,
- Teem with luxuriance of sweet fruits for food;
- The rapid and resounding flood
- That rushes downward from the mountain
- Flows here, will here for ever flow,
- Diminished to a silver fountain
- That sings its way o’er golden sands,
- Fringed by the lily and young violet.
- Here hast thou all a placid soul demands!
- What wouldst thou more? Or, canst thou still regret
- A barren world, which only lures and juggles
- Its dupes to leave them doubly sad and lonely?
- My friend! Mind was not made to spend itself in struggles!
- True Happiness lies in Contentment only,
- And true Contentment ever dwells apart
- From Competition and Ambition--brooks
- All wants--is rich though poor, and strong when weakest!
- Ah, Wise One! spake the Eagle--and his looks
- Betrayed the unaltered anguish of his heart--
- Ah, Wisdom! ever thus, and thus in vain, thou speakest!
-
- M.
-
- * * * * *
-
- Printed and published every Saturday by GUNN and CAMERON,
- No. 6, Church Lane, College Green, Dublin, and sold by all
- Booksellers.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No.
-18, October 31, 1840, by Various
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL ***
-
-***** This file should be named 54290-0.txt or 54290-0.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
- http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/2/9/54290/
-
-Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by JSTOR www.jstor.org)
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
-States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
- This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
- most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
- restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
- under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
- eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
- United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
- are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
- the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
- you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
- to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
- agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
- Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
- within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
- legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
- payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
- Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
- Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
- Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
- you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
- does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
- License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
- copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
- all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
- works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
- any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
- electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
- receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
- distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
- Dr. Gregory B. Newby
- Chief Executive and Director
- gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
diff --git a/old/54290-0.zip b/old/54290-0.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index 53e82b6..0000000
--- a/old/54290-0.zip
+++ /dev/null
Binary files differ
diff --git a/old/54290-h.zip b/old/54290-h.zip
deleted file mode 100644
index ece4156..0000000
--- a/old/54290-h.zip
+++ /dev/null
Binary files differ
diff --git a/old/54290-h/54290-h.htm b/old/54290-h/54290-h.htm
deleted file mode 100644
index df1f486..0000000
--- a/old/54290-h/54290-h.htm
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,1940 +0,0 @@
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
- "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
- <head>
- <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
- <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
- <title>
- The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 18, October 31, 1840, by Various.
- </title>
-
- <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
-
-<style type="text/css">
-
-a {
- text-decoration: none;
-}
-
-body {
- margin-left: 10%;
- margin-right: 10%;
-}
-
-h1,h2,h3 {
- text-align: center;
- clear: both;
-}
-
-hr {
- margin-top: 2em;
- margin-bottom: 2em;
- clear: both;
-}
-
-hr.tb {
- width: 45%;
- margin-left: 27.5%;
- margin-right: 27.5%;
-}
-
-p {
- margin-top: 0.5em;
- text-align: justify;
- margin-bottom: 0.5em;
-}
-
-table {
- margin: 1em auto 1em auto;
- width: 40em;
-}
-
-.pagenum {
- position: absolute;
- right: 4%;
- font-size: smaller;
- text-align: right;
- font-style: normal;
-}
-
-.blockquote {
- margin-left: 10%;
- margin-right: 10%;
-}
-
-.center {
- text-align: center;
-}
-
-.figcenter {
- margin: auto;
- text-align: center;
-}
-
-.figright {
- display: inline-block;
-}
-
-.footnotes {
- margin-top: 1em;
- border: dashed 1px;
-}
-
-.footnote {
- margin-left: 10%;
- margin-right: 10%;
- font-size: 0.9em;
-}
-
-.footnote .label {
- position: absolute;
- right: 84%;
- text-align: right;
-}
-
-.fnanchor {
- vertical-align: super;
- font-size: .8em;
- text-decoration: none;
-}
-
-.gap4 {
- margin-top: 4em;
-}
-
-.poetry-container {
- text-align: center;
- margin: 1em;
-}
-
-.poetry {
- display: inline-block;
- text-align: left;
-}
-
-.poetry .stanza {
- margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;
-}
-
-.poetry .verse {
- text-indent: -3em;
- padding-left: 3em;
-}
-
-.right {
- text-align: right;
-}
-
-.smaller {
- font-size: smaller;
-}
-
-.smcap {
- font-variant: small-caps;
- font-style: normal;
-}
-
-@media handheld {
-
-img {
- max-width: 100%;
- width: auto;
- height: auto;
-}
-
-.poetry {
- display: block;
- margin-left: 1.5em;
-}
-
-.blockquote {
- margin-left: 5%;
- margin-right: 5%;
-}
-}
- </style>
- </head>
-<body>
-
-
-<pre>
-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 18,
-October 31, 1840, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No. 18, October 31, 1840
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: March 6, 2017 [EBook #54290]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by JSTOR www.jstor.org)
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-
-<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
-
-<h1>THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL.</h1>
-
-<table summary="Headline layout">
- <tr>
- <td class="smcap">Number 18.</td>
- <td class="center">SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1840.</td>
- <td class="right smcap">Volume I.</td>
- </tr>
-</table>
-
-<div class="figcenter gap4" style="width: 500px;">
-<img src="images/woodlands.jpg" width="500" height="360" alt="The mansion of Woodlands" />
-</div>
-
-<h2>WOODLANDS, COUNTY OF DUBLIN</h2>
-
-<p>Woodlands, the seat of one of our good resident landlords,
-Colonel White, considered in connection with its beautiful demesne,
-may justly rank as the finest aristocratic residence in
-the immediate vicinity of our metropolis. As an architectural
-composition, indeed, the house, or castle, as it is called,
-will not bear a comparison, either for its classical correctness
-of details, or its general picturesqueness of outline, with the
-Castle of Clontarf&mdash;the architectural gem of our vicinity; but
-its proportions are on a grander scale, and its general effect
-accordingly more imposing, while its demesne scenery, in its
-natural beauties, the richness of its plantations, and other artificial
-improvements, is without a rival in our metropolitan
-county, and indeed is characterised by some features of such
-exquisite beauty as are very rarely found in park scenery any
-where, and which are nowhere to be surpassed. Well might
-the Prince Pückler Muskau, who despite of his strange name
-has undoubtedly a true taste for the beautiful and picturesque,
-describe the entrance to this demesne as “indeed the most
-delightful in its kind that can be imagined.” “Scenery,” he
-continues, “by nature most beautiful, is improved by art to
-the highest degree of its capability, and, without destroying
-its free and wild character, a variety and richness of vegetation
-is produced which enchants the eye. Gay shrubs and
-wild flowers, the softest turf and giant trees, festooned with
-creeping plants, fill the narrow glen through which the path
-winds, by the side of the clear dancing brook, which, falling
-in little cataracts, flows on, sometimes hidden in the thicket,
-sometimes resting like liquid silver in an emerald cup, or
-rushing under overhanging arches of rock, which nature seems
-to have hung there as triumphal gates for the beneficent Naïad
-of the valley to pass through.”</p>
-
-<p>This description may appear somewhat enthusiastic, but we
-can truly state as our own opinion, formed on a recent visit
-to Woodlands, that it is by no means overdrawn, but, on the
-contrary, that it would be equally difficult, if not impossible,
-either for the pencil or the pen to convey an adequate idea of
-the peculiar beauties of this little tract of fairy land.</p>
-
-<p>Singularly beautiful, however, as this sylvan glen unquestionably
-is, it is only one of the many features for which
-Woodlands is pre-eminently distinguished. Its finely undulating
-surface&mdash;its sheets of water, though artificially formed&mdash;its
-noble forest timber&mdash;but above all, its woodland walks,
-commanding vistas of the exquisite valley of the Liffey, with
-the more remote scenery bounded by the Dublin and Wicklow
-mountains&mdash;all are equally striking, and present a combination
-of varied and impressive features but rarely found within
-the bounds of even a princely demesne.</p>
-
-<p>Though Woodlands derives very many of its attractions
-from modern improvements, its chief artificial features are of
-no recent creation, and are such as it would require a century
-or two to bring to their present perfection. Woodlands is
-emphatically an old place, and is said to have been granted
-by King John to Sir Geoffry Lutterel, an Anglo-Norman
-knight who accompanied him into Ireland, and in possession
-of whose descendants it remained, and was their residence
-from the close of the fifteenth till the commencement of the
-present century, when it was sold to Mr Luke White by the
-last Earl of Carhampton. Up to this period it was known by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
-the name of Lutterelstown, a name which, for various reasons,
-the family into whose possession it has passed have
-wisely changed.</p>
-
-<p>The principal parts of the mansion were rebuilt about fifty
-years back. But a portion of the original castle still remains,
-and an apartment in it bears the name of King John’s chamber.
-It has also received additional extension from its present
-proprietor, who is now making further additions to the
-structure.</p>
-
-<p>Woodlands is situated on the north bank of the Liffey,
-about five miles from Dublin.</p>
-
-<p class="right">P.</p>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">PEGGY THE PISHOGUE.</h2>
-
-<p>“And now, Mickey Brennan, it’s not but I have a grate
-regard for you, for troth you’re a dacint boy, and a dacint
-father and mother’s child; but you see, avick, the short and
-the long of it is, that you needn’t be looking after my little
-girl any more.”</p>
-
-<p>Such was the conclusion of a long and interesting harangue
-pronounced by old Brian Moran of Lagh-buoy, for the purpose
-of persuading his daughter’s sweetheart to waive his pretensions&mdash;a
-piece of diplomacy never very easy to effect, but doubly
-difficult when the couple so unceremoniously separated have
-laboured under the delusion that they were born for each
-other, as was the ease in the affair of which our story tells;
-and certainly, whatever Mr Michael Brennan’s other merits
-may have been, he was very far from exhibiting himself as a
-pattern of patience on the occasion.</p>
-
-<p>“Why, thin, Brian Moran!” he outrageously exclaimed,
-“in the name of all that’s out of the way, will you give me
-one reason, good, bad, or indifferent, and I’ll be satisfied?”</p>
-
-<p>“Och, you unfortunate gossoon, don’t be afther axing me,”
-responded Brian dolefully.</p>
-
-<p>“Ah, thin, why wouldn’t I?” replied the rejected lover.
-“Aren’t we playing together since she could walk&mdash;wasn’t
-she the light of my eyes and the pulse of my heart these six
-long years&mdash;and when did one of ye ever either say or sign
-that I was to give over until this blessed minute?&mdash;tell me
-that.”</p>
-
-<p>“Widdy Eelish!” groaned the closely interrogated parent;
-“’tis true enough for you. Botheration to Peggy, I wish she
-tould you herself. I knew how it ’ud be; an’ sure small
-blame to you; an’ it’ll kill Meny out an’ out.”</p>
-
-<p>“Is it that I amn’t rich enough?” he asked impetuously.</p>
-
-<p>“No, avich machree, it isn’t; but, sure, can’t you wait an’
-ax Peggy.”</p>
-
-<p>“Is it because there’s any thing against me?” continued
-he, without heeding this reference to the mother of his fair
-one&mdash;“Is it because there’s any thing against me, I say, now
-or evermore, in the shape of warrant, or summons, or bad
-word, or any thing of the kind?”</p>
-
-<p>“Och, <i lang="ga">forrear, forrear</i>!” answered poor Brian, “but can’t
-you ax Peggy!” and he clasped his hands again and again
-with bitterness, for the young man’s interest had been, from
-long and constant habit, so interwoven in his mind with those
-of his darling Meny, that he was utterly unable to check the
-burst of agony which the question had excited. The old man’s
-evident grief and evasion of the question were not lost upon his
-companion.</p>
-
-<p>“I’m belied&mdash;I know I am&mdash;I have it all now,” shouted he,
-utterly losing all command of himself. “Come, Brian Moran,
-this is no child’s play&mdash;tell me at once who dared to spake one
-word against me, an’ if I don’t drive the lie down his throat,
-be it man, woman, or child, I’m willing to lose her and every
-thing else I care for!”</p>
-
-<p>“No, then,” answered Brian, “the never a one said a
-word against you&mdash;you never left it in their power, avich;
-an’ that’s what’s breaking my heart. Millia murther, it’s all
-Peggy’s own doings.”</p>
-
-<p>“What!” he replied&mdash;“I’ll be bound Peggy had a bad
-dhrame about the match. Arrah, out with it, an’ let us hear
-what Peggy the Pishogue has to say for herself&mdash;out with it,
-man; I’m asthray for something to laugh at.”</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, whisht, whisht&mdash;don’t talk that way of Peggy any
-how,” exclaimed Brian, offended by this imputation on the
-unerring wisdom of his helpmate. “Whatever she says,
-doesn’t it come to pass? Didn’t it rain on Saturday last, fine
-as the day looked? Didn’t Tim Higgins’s cow die? Wasn’t
-Judy Carney married to Tom Knox afther all? Ay, an’ as
-sure as your name is Mickey Brennan, what she says will
-come true of yourself too. <i lang="ga">Forrear, forrear!</i> that the like
-should befall one of your dacint kin!”</p>
-
-<p>“Why, what’s going to happen me?” inquired he, his voice
-trembling a little in spite of all his assumed carelessness: for
-contemptuously as he had alluded to the wisdom of his intended
-mother-in-law, it stood in too high repute not to create
-in him some dismay at the probability of his figuring unfavourably
-in any of her prognostications.</p>
-
-<p>“Don’t ax me, don’t ax me,” was the sorrowing answer;
-“but take your haste out of the stable at once, and go
-straight to Father Coffey; and who knows but he might put
-you on some way to escape the bad luck that’s afore you.”</p>
-
-<p>“Psha! fudge! ’pon my sowl it’s a shame for you, Brian
-Moran.”</p>
-
-<p>“Divil a word of lie in it,” insisted Brian; “Peggy found it
-all out last night; an’ troth it’s troubling her as much as if
-you were her own flesh and blood. More betoken, haven’t you
-a mole there under your ear?”</p>
-
-<p>“Well, and what if I have?” rejoined he peevishly, but
-alarmed all the while by the undisguised pity which his future
-lot seemed to call forth. “What if I have?&mdash;hadn’t many a
-man the same afore me?”</p>
-
-<p>“No doubt, Mickey, agra, and the same bad luck came to
-them too,” replied Brian. “Och, you unfortunate ignorant
-crathur, sure you wouldn’t have me marry my poor little girl
-to a man that’s sooner or later to end his days on the gallows!”</p>
-
-<p>“The gallows!” he slowly exclaimed. “Holy Virgin! is that
-what’s to become of me after all?” He tried to utter a laugh of
-derision and defiance, but it would not do; such a vaticination
-from such a quarter was no laughing matter. So yielding at last
-to the terror which he had so vainly affected to combat, he
-buried his face in his hands, and threw himself violently on
-the ground; while Brian, scarcely less moved by the revelation
-he had made on the faith of his wife’s far-famed sagacity,
-seated himself compassionately beside him to administer what
-consolation he could.</p>
-
-<p>Mickey Brennan, in the parlance of our country, was a snug
-gossoon, well to do in the world, had a nice bit of land, a comfortable
-house, good crops, a pig or two, a cow or two, a
-sheep or two, a handsome good-humoured face, a good character;
-and, what made him more marriageable than all the
-rest, he had the aforementioned goods all to himself, for his
-father and mother were dead, and his last sister had got married
-at Shrove-tide. With all these combined advantages he
-might have selected any girl in the parish; but his choice
-was made long years before: it was Meny Moran or nobody&mdash;a
-choice in which Meny Moran herself perfectly concurred,
-and which her father, good, easy, soft-hearted Brian, never
-thought of disputing, although he was able to give her a fortune
-probably amounting to double what her suitor was
-worth. But was the fair one’s mother ever satisfied when such
-a disparity existed? Careful creatures! pound for pound is
-the maternal maxim in all ages and countries, and to give
-Peggy Moran her due, she was as much influenced by it as
-her betters, and murmured loud and long at the acquiescence of
-her husband in such a sacrifice. She murmured in vain, however:
-much as Brian deferred to her judgment and advice in
-all other matters, his love for his fond and pretty Meny armed
-him with resolution in this. When she wept at her mother’s
-insinuations, he always found a word of comfort for her; and
-if words wouldn’t do, he managed to bring Mickey and her
-together, and left them to settle the matter after their own
-way&mdash;a method which seldom failed of success. But Peggy
-was not to be baulked of her will. What! she whose mere
-word could make or break any match for five miles round, to
-be forbidden all interference in her own daughter’s: it was
-not to be borne. So at last she applied herself in downright
-earnest to the task. She dreamed at the match, tossed cups at
-it, saw signs at it: in fine, called her whole armoury of necromancy
-into requisition, and was rewarded at last by the discovery
-that the too highly-favoured swain was inevitably destined to
-end his days on the gallows&mdash;a discovery which, as has been
-already seen, fulfilled her most sanguine wishes.</p>
-
-<p>Whatever may be the opinion of other and wiser people on
-the subject, in the parish of Ballycoursey or its vicinity it was
-rather an ugly joke to be thus devoted to the infernal gods by
-a prophetess of such unerring sagacity as Peggy Moran, or,
-as she was sometimes styled with reference to her skill in all
-supernatural matters, Peggy the Pishogue&mdash;that cognomen
-implying an acquaintance with more things in heaven and
-earth than are dreamt of in philosophy; and most unquestionably
-it was no misnomer: the priest himself was not more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
-deeply read in his breviary than was she in all the signs and
-omens whereby the affairs of this moving world are shadowed
-and foretokened&mdash;nothing was too great or too small for her
-all-piercing ken&mdash;in every form of augury she was omniscient,
-from cup-tossing up to necromancy&mdash;in vain the mystic dregs
-of the tea-cup assumed shapes that would have puzzled Doctor
-Wall himself: with her first glance she detected at once the
-true meaning of the hieroglyphic symbol, and therefrom dealt
-out deaths, births, and marriages, with the infallibility of a
-newspaper&mdash;in vain Destiny, unwilling to be unrolled, shrouded
-itself in some dream that would have bothered King Solomon.
-Peggy no sooner heard it than it was unravelled&mdash;there was
-not a ghost in the country with whose haunts and habits she
-was not as well acquainted as if she was one of the fraternity&mdash;not
-a fairy could put his nose out without being detected by
-her&mdash;the value of property was increased tenfold all round the
-country by the skill with which she wielded her charms and
-spells for the discovery of all manner of theft. But I must
-stop; for were I to recount but half her powers, the eulogium
-would require a <cite>Penny Journal</cite> for itself, and still leave matter
-for a supplement. It would be a melancholy instance indeed
-of Irish ingratitude if for all these superhuman exertions she
-was not rewarded by universal confidence. To the credit of
-the parish be it said that no such stigma was attached to it:
-nothing could equal the estimation in which all her words and
-actions were held by her neighbours&mdash;nothing but the estimation
-in which they were held in her own household by her
-husband and daughter.</p>
-
-<p>Such being the gifted personage who had foretold the coming
-disasters of Mickey Brennan, it is not to be wondered at
-that the matter created a sensation, particularly as sundry
-old hags to whom she had imparted her discovery were requested
-to hush it up for the poor gossoon’s sake. His friends
-sorrowed over him as a gone man, for not the most sceptical
-among them ventured to hazard even a doubt of Peggy’s veracity&mdash;in
-fact, they viewed the whole as a matter requiring
-consolation and sympathy rather than as a scrutiny into the
-sources of her information, which by common consent were
-viewed as indubitable, while some, more compassionate than
-the rest, went so far as to declare “that since the thing could
-not be avoided, and Mickey, poor fellow, must be hanged, they
-hoped it might be for something dacint, not robbing, or coining,
-or the like.”</p>
-
-<p>The hardest task of all is to describe the feelings of poor
-Brennan himself on the occasion; for much as he had affected
-to disparage the sybilline revelations of the wierd woman of
-Ballycoursey, there was not one in the neighbourhood who was
-more disposed to yield them unlimited credence in any case
-but his own; and even in his own case he was not long enabled
-to struggle against conviction. Let people prate as they may
-about education and its effects, it will require a period of
-more generations than one to root the love of the marvellous
-out of the hearts of our countrymen; and until that be effected,
-every village in the land will have its wise woman, and with
-nine-tenths of her neighbours what she says will be regarded
-as gospel. Some people of course will laugh to scorn such an
-assertion, and more will very respectfully beg leave to doubt
-it, but still it is true; and in the more retired inland villages
-circumstances are every day occurring far more extravagant
-than anything detailed in this story, as is very well known to
-all who are much conversant with such places. But to return
-to the doomed man:&mdash;How could he be expected to bear up
-against this terrible denunciation, when all the consolation he
-could receive from his nearest and dearest was that “it was a
-good man’s death?” Death! poor fellow, he had suffered the
-pains of a thousand deaths already, in living without the hope
-of ever being the husband of his Meny. Death, instant and
-immediate, would have been a relief to him; and it was not
-long until, by his anxiety to obtain that relief, he afforded an
-opportunity to Peggy of displaying her own reliance on the
-correctness of her prognostications. Goaded into madness by
-his present sufferings and his fears for the future, he made an
-attempt upon his life by plunging into an adjacent lake when
-no one, as he thought, was near to interrupt his intentions.
-It was not so, however&mdash;a shepherd had observed him, but at
-such a distance that before help could be obtained to rescue
-him he was to all appearance lifeless. The news flew like
-wildfire: he was dead, stone dead, they said&mdash;had lain in the
-water ten minutes, half an hour, half the day, since last night;
-but in one point they all concurred&mdash;dead he was; dead as St
-Dominick.</p>
-
-<p>“Troth he’s not,” was Peggy’s cool rejoinder. “Be quiet,
-and I’ll engage he’ll come to. <i lang="ga">Nabocklish</i>, he that’s born to
-be hanged will never be drowned. Wait a while an’ hould
-your tongues. <i lang="ga">Nabocklish</i>, I tell you he’ll live to spoil a
-market yet, an’ more’s the pity.”</p>
-
-<p>People shook their heads, and almost began to think their
-wise woman had made a mistake, and read hemp instead of
-water. It was no such thing, however: slowly and beyond
-all hopes, Brennan recovered the effects of his rash attempt,
-thereby fulfilling so much of his declared destiny, and raising
-the reputation of Mrs Moran to a point that she never had
-attained before. That very week she discovered no less than
-six cases of stolen goods, twice detected the good people taking
-unauthorised liberties with their neighbours’ churns, and
-spaed a score of fortunes, at the very least; and he, poor fellow,
-satisfied at last that Fortune was not to be bilked so
-easily, resigned himself to his fate like a man, and began to
-look about him in earnest for some opportunity of gracing the
-gallows without disgracing his people.</p>
-
-<p>And Meny&mdash;poor heart-stricken Meny&mdash;loving as none but
-the true and simple-minded can love, the extent of her grief
-was such as the true and simple-minded only can know; and
-yet there was worse in store for her. Shortly after this consummation
-of her mother’s fame, a whisper began to creep
-through the village&mdash;a whisper of dire import, portending
-death and disaster on some luckless wight unknown&mdash;“Peggy
-Moran has something on her mind.” What could it be? Silent
-and mysterious she shook her head when any one ventured
-to question her&mdash;the pipe was never out of her jaw unless when
-she slept or sat down to her meals&mdash;she became as cross as a
-cat, which to do her justice was not her wont, and eschewed
-all sorts of conversation, which most assuredly was not her
-wont either. The interest and curiosity of her neighbours was
-raised to a most agonising pitch&mdash;every one trembled lest the
-result should be some terrible revelation affecting himself or
-herself, as the case might be: it was the burden of the first
-question asked in the morning, the last at night. Every word
-she uttered during the day was matter of speculation to an
-hundred anxious inquirers; and there was every danger of
-the good people of Ballycoursey going absolutely mad with
-fright if they were kept any longer in the dark on the subject.</p>
-
-<p>At length there was a discovery; but, as is usually the case
-in all scrutinies into forbidden matters, it was at the cost of
-the too-daring investigator. Peggy and Brian were sitting
-one night before the fire, preparing for their retirement, when
-a notion seized the latter to probe the sorrows of his helpmate.</p>
-
-<p>“’Deed it well becomes you to ax,” quoth the wierd woman
-in answer to his many and urgent inquiries; “for Brian,
-achorra machree, my poor ould man, there’s no use in hiding
-it&mdash;it’s all about yourself.”</p>
-
-<p>“No, then!” exclaimed the surprised interrogator; “the
-Lord betune us an’ harm, is it?”</p>
-
-<p>“’Deed yes, Brian,” responded the sybil with a melancholy
-tone, out of the cloud of smoke in which she had sought to
-hide her troubles. “I’m thinking these last few days you’re
-not yourself at all at all.”</p>
-
-<p>“Tare an ounties! maybe I’m not,” responded he of the
-doubtful identity.</p>
-
-<p>“Do you feel nothing on your heart, Brian achree?”</p>
-
-<p>“I do; sure enough I do,” gasped poor Brian, ready to believe
-anything of himself.</p>
-
-<p>“Something like a <em>plurrisy</em>, isn’t it?” inquired the mourner.</p>
-
-<p>“Ay, sure enough, like a plurrisy for all the world, Lord
-betune us an’ harm!”</p>
-
-<p>“An’ you do be very cold, I’ll engage, these nights, Brian?”
-continued she.</p>
-
-<p>“Widdy Eelish! I’m as could as ice this minute,” answered
-Brian, and his teeth began to chatter as if he was up
-to his neck in a mill-pond.</p>
-
-<p>“An’ your appetite is gone entirely, achra?” continued his
-tormentor.</p>
-
-<p>“Sorra a word o’ lie in it,” answered the newly discovered
-invalid, forgetful however that he had just finished discussing
-a skib of potatoes and a mug of milk for his supper.</p>
-
-<p>“And the cat, the crathur, looked at you this very night
-after licking her paw.”</p>
-
-<p>“I’ll engage she did. Bad luck to her,” responded Brian,
-“I wouldn’t put it beyant her.”</p>
-
-<p>“Let me feel your pulse, asthore,” said Peggy in conclusion;
-and Brian submitted his trembling wrist to her inspection,
-anxiously peering into her face all the while to read his
-doom therein. A long and deep sigh broke from her lips,
-along with a most voluminous puff of smoke, as she let the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>
-limb drop from her hold, and commenced rocking herself to
-and fro, uttering a low and peculiar species of moan, which
-to her terrified patient sounded as a death summons.</p>
-
-<p>“Murther-an’-ages, Peggy, sure it’s not going to die I am!”
-exclaimed Brian.</p>
-
-<p>“Och, widdy! widdy!” roared the afflicted spouse, now
-giving full vent to her anguish, “it’s little I thought, Brian
-asthore machree, when I married you in your beauty and your
-prime, that I’d ever live to cry the keen over you&mdash;ochone,
-ochone! ’tis you was the good ould man in airnest&mdash;och! och!”</p>
-
-<p>“Arrah, Peggy!” interposed the object of her rather premature
-lamentations.</p>
-
-<p>“Oh, don’t talk to me&mdash;don’t talk to me. I’ll never hould
-up my head again, so I won’t!” continued the widow that was
-to be, in a tone that quickly brought all the house about her,
-and finally all the neighbours. Great was the uproar that ensued,
-and noisy the explanations, which, however, afforded no
-small relief to the minds of all persons not immediately concerned
-in the welfare of the doomed Brian. Peggy was inconsolable
-at the prospect of such a bereavement. Meny clung
-in despair to the poor tottering old man, her grief too deep
-for lamentation, while he hobbled over his prayers as fast and
-as correctly as his utter dismay would permit him. Next
-morning he was unable to rise, refused all nourishment, and
-called vehemently for the priest. Every hour he became
-worse; he was out of one faint into another; announced symptoms
-of every complaint that ever vexed mankind, and declared
-himself affected by a pain in every member, from his toe to his
-cranium. No wonder it was a case to puzzle the doctor.
-The man of science could make nothing of it&mdash;swore it was the
-oddest complication of diseases that ever he had heard of&mdash;and
-strongly recommended that the patient be tossed in a blanket,
-and his wife treated to a taste of the horse-pond. Father
-Coffey was equally nonplussed.</p>
-
-<p>“What ails you, Brian?”</p>
-
-<p>“An all-overness of some kind or other, your reverence,”
-groaned the sufferer in reply, and the priest had to own himself
-a bothered man. Nothing would induce him to rise&mdash;“where’s
-the use in a man’s gettin’ up, an’ he goin’ to die?”
-was his answer to those who endeavoured to rouse him&mdash;“isn’t
-it a dale dacinter to die in bed like a Christian?”</p>
-
-<p>“God’s good!&mdash;maybe you won’t die this time, Brian.”</p>
-
-<p>“Arrah, don’t be talking&mdash;doesn’t Peggy know best?”
-And with this undeniable assertion he closed all his arguments,
-receiving consolation from none, not even his heart-broken
-Meny. Despite of all his entreaties to be let die in peace, the
-doctor, who guessed how matters stood, was determined to
-try the effects of a blister, and accordingly applied one of
-more than ordinary strength, stoutly affirming that it would
-have the effect of the patient being up and walking on the
-morrow. A good many people had gathered into his cabin
-to witness the cure, as they always do when their presence
-could be best dispensed with; and to these Peggy, with tears
-and moans, was declaring her despair in all remedies whatever,
-and her firm conviction that a widow she’d be before
-Sunday, when Brian, roused a little by the uneasy stimulant
-from the lethargy into which they all believed him to be sunk,
-faintly expressed his wish to be heard.</p>
-
-<p>“Peggy, agra,” said he, “there’s no denyin’ but you’re a
-wonderful woman entirely; an’ since I’m goin’, it would be a
-grate consolation to me if you’d tell us all now you found out
-the sickness was on me afore I knew it myself. It’s just curiosity,
-agra&mdash;I wouldn’t like to die, you see, without knowin’
-for why an’ for what&mdash;it ’ud have a foolish look if any body
-axed me what I died of, an’ me not able to tell them.”</p>
-
-<p>Peggy declared her willingness to do him this last favour,
-and, interrupted by an occasional sob, thus proceeded:&mdash;</p>
-
-<p>“It was Thursday night week&mdash;troth I’ll never forget that
-night, Brian asthore, if I live to be as ould as Noah&mdash;an’ it
-was just after my first sleep that I fell draiming. I thought
-I went down to Dan Keefe’s to buy a taste ov mate, for ye all
-know he killed a <i lang="ga">bullsheen</i> that day for the market ov Moneen;
-an’ I thought when I went into his house, what did I
-see hangin’ up but an ugly <em>lane</em> carcase, an’ not a bit too fresh
-neither, an’ a strange man dividin’ it with a hatchet; an’ says
-he to me with a mighty grum look,</p>
-
-<p>“‘Well, honest woman, what do you want?&mdash;is it to buy
-bullsheen?’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Yes,’ says I, ‘but not the likes of that&mdash;it’s not what
-we’re used to.’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Divil may care,’ says he; ‘I’ll make bould to cut out a
-rib for you.’</p>
-
-<p>“‘Oh, don’t if you plase,’ says I, puttin’ out my hand to
-stop him; an’ with that what does he do but he lifts the
-hatchet an’ makes a blow at my hand, an’ cuts the weddin’
-ring in two on my finger?”</p>
-
-<p>“Dth! dth! dth!” was ejaculated on all sides by her
-wondering auditory, for the application of the dream to Brian
-was conclusive, according to the popular method of explaining
-such matters. They looked round to see how he sustained
-the brunt of such a fatal revelation. There he was sitting
-bolt upright in the bed, notwithstanding his unpleasant incumbrance,
-his mouth and eyes wide open.</p>
-
-<p>“Why, thin, blur-an’-ages, Peggy Moran,” he slowly exclaimed,
-when he and they had recovered a little from their
-surprise, “do you mane to tell me that’s all that ailed me?”</p>
-
-<p>Peggy and her coterie started back as he uttered this extraordinary
-inquiry, there being something in his look that
-portended his intention to leap out of bed, and probably display
-his indignation a little too forcibly, for, quiet as he was,
-his temper wasn’t proof against a blister; but his bodily
-strength failed him in the attempt, and, roaring with pain, he
-resumed his recumbent position. But Peggy’s empire was
-over&mdash;the blister had done its business, and in a few days he
-was able to stump about as usual, threatening to inflict all
-sorts of punishments upon any one who dared to laugh at him.
-A laugh is a thing, however, not easy to be controlled, and
-finally poor Brian’s excellent temper was soured to such a
-degree by the ridicule which he encountered, that he determined
-to seek a reconciliation with young Brennan, pitch the
-decrees of fate to Old Nick, and give Father Coffey a job
-with the young couple.</p>
-
-<p>To this resolution we are happy to say he adhered: still
-happier are we to say, that among the county records we have
-not yet met the name of his son-in-law, and that unless good
-behaviour and industry be declared crimes worthy of bringing
-their perpetrator to the gallows, there is very little chance
-indeed of Mickey Brennan fulfilling the prophecy of Peggy
-the Pishogue.</p>
-
-<p class="right">A. M’C.</p>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">A SHORT CHAPTER ON BUSTLES.</h2>
-
-<p>Bustles!&mdash;what are bustles? Ay, reader, fair reader, you
-may well ask that question. But some of your sex at least
-know the meaning of the word, and the use of the article it
-designates, sufficiently well, though, thank heaven! there are
-many thousands of my countrywomen who are as yet ignorant
-of both, and indeed to whom such knowledge would be quite
-useless. Would that I were in equally innocent ignorance!
-Not, reader, that I am of the feminine gender, and use the
-article in question; but my knowledge of its mysterious uses,
-and the various materials of which it is composed, has been
-the ruin of me. I will have inscribed on my tomb, “Here
-lies a man who was killed by a bustle!”</p>
-
-<p>But before I detail the circumstances of my unhappy fate, it
-will perhaps be proper to give a description of the article itself
-which has been the cause of my undoing. Well, then, a
-bustle is…</p>
-
-<p>But the editor will perhaps object to this description as
-being too distinct and graphic. If so, then here goes for another
-less laboured and more characteristically mysterious.</p>
-
-<p>A bustle is an article used by ladies to take from their form
-the character of the Venus of the Greeks, and impart to it
-that of the Venus of the Hottentots!</p>
-
-<p>That ladies should have a taste so singular, may appear incredible;
-but there is no accounting for tastes, and I know to
-my cost that the fact is indisputable.</p>
-
-<p>I made the discovery a few years since, and up to that time
-I had always borne the character of a sage, sedate, and promising
-young man&mdash;one likely to get on in the world by my
-exertions, and therefore sure to be helped by my friends. I
-was even, I flatter myself, a favourite with the fair sex too; and
-justly so, for I was their most ardent admirer; and there was
-one most lovely creature among them whom I had fondly
-hoped to have made my own. But, alas! how vain and visionary
-are our hopes of human happiness: such hopes with me
-have fled for ever! As I said before, I am a ruined man, and
-all in consequence of ladies’ bustles.</p>
-
-<p>In an unlucky hour I was in a ball-room, seated at a little
-distance from my fair one&mdash;my eyes watching her every air
-and look, my ears catching every sound of her sweet voice&mdash;when
-I heard her complain to a female friend, in tones of the
-softest whispering music, that she was oppressed with the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
-heat of the place. “My dear,” her friend replied, “it must
-be the effect of your bustle. What do you stuff it with?”
-“Hair&mdash;horse-hair,” was the reply. “Hair!&mdash;mercy on us!”
-says her friend, “it is no wonder you are oppressed&mdash;that’s a
-<em>hot-and-hot</em> material truly. Why, you should do as I do&mdash;you
-do not see me fainting; and the reason is, that I stuff my
-bustle with hay&mdash;new hay!”</p>
-
-<p>I heard no more, for the ladies, supposing from my eyes that
-I was a listener, changed the topic of conversation, though
-indeed it was not necessary, for at the time I had not the
-slightest notion of what they meant. Time, however, passed
-on most favourably to my wishes&mdash;another month, and I should
-have called my Catherine my own. She was on a visit to my
-sister, and I had every opportunity to make myself agreeable.
-We sang together, we talked together, and we danced together.
-All this would have been very well, but unfortunately
-we also walked together. It was on the last time we ever did
-so that the circumstance occurred which I have now to relate,
-and which gave the first death-blow to my hopes of happiness.
-We were crossing Carlisle-bridge, her dear arm linked
-in mine, when we chanced to meet a female friend; and wishing
-to have a little chat with her without incommoding the
-passengers, we got to the edge of the flag-way, near which at
-the time there was standing an old white horse, totally blind.
-He was a quiet-looking animal, and none of us could have supposed
-from his physiognomy that he had any savage propensity
-in his nature. But imagine my astonishment and horror
-when I suddenly heard my charmer give a scream that pierced
-me to the very heart!&mdash;and when I perceived that this atrocious
-old blind brute, having slowly and slyly swayed his head
-round, caught the&mdash;how shall I describe it?&mdash;caught my Catherine&mdash;really
-I can’t say how&mdash;but he caught her; and before
-I could extricate her from his jaws, he made a reef in
-her garments such as lady never suffered. Silk gown, petticoat,
-bustle&mdash;everything, in fact, gave way, and left an opening&mdash;a
-chasm&mdash;an exposure, that may perhaps be imagined,
-but cannot be described.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
-
-<p>As rapidly as I could, of course, I got my fair one into a
-jarvy, and hurried home, the truth gradually opening in my
-mind as to the cause of the disaster&mdash;it was, that the blind
-horse, hungry brute, had been attracted by the smell of my
-Catherine’s bustle, made of hay&mdash;new hay!</p>
-
-<p>Catherine was never the same to me afterwards&mdash;she took
-the most invincible dislike to walk with me, or rather, perhaps,
-to be seen in the streets with me. But matters were not
-yet come to the worst, and I had indulged in hopes that she
-would yet be mine. I had however taken a deep aversion to
-bustles, and even determined to wage war upon them to the
-best of my ability. In this spirit, a few days after, I determined
-to wreak my vengeance on my sister’s bustle, for I
-found by this time that she too was emulous of being a Hottentot
-beauty. Accordingly, having to accompany her and
-my intended wife to a ball, I stole into my sister’s room in the
-course of the evening before she went into it to dress, and
-pouncing upon her hated bustle, which lay on her toilet table,
-I inflicted a cut on it with my penknife, and retired. But
-what a mistake did I make! Alas, it was not my sister’s
-bustle, but my Catherine’s! However, we went to the ball,
-and for a time all went smoothly on. I took out my Catherine
-as a partner in the dance; but imagine my horror when
-I perceived her gradually becoming thinner and thinner&mdash;losing
-her <i lang="fr">enbonpoint</i>&mdash;as she danced; and, worse than that, that
-every movement which she described in the figure&mdash;the ladies’
-chain, the chassee&mdash;was accurately marked&mdash;recorded&mdash;on
-the chalked floor with&mdash;bran! Oh dear! reader, pity me:
-was ever man so unfortunate? This sealed my doom. She
-would never speak to me, or even look at me afterwards.</p>
-
-<p>But this was not all. My character with the sex&mdash;ay, with
-both sexes&mdash;was also destroyed. I who had been heretofore,
-as I said, considered as an example of prudence and discretion
-for a young man, was now set down as a thoughtless,
-devil-may-care wag, never to do well: the men treated me
-coldly, and the women turned their backs upon me; and so thus
-in reality they made me what they had supposed I was. It
-was indeed no wonder, for I could never after see a lady with
-a bustle but I felt an irresistible inclination to laughter, and
-this too even on occasions when I should have kept a grave
-countenance. If I met a couple of country or other friends in
-the street, and inquired after their family&mdash;the cause, perhaps,
-of the mourning in which they were attired&mdash;while they were
-telling me of the death of some father, sister, or other relative,
-I to their astonishment would take to laughing, and if
-there was a horse near us, give the lady a drag away to another
-situation. And if then I were asked the meaning of this
-ill-timed mirth, and this singular movement, what could I
-say? Why, sometimes I made the matter worse by replying,
-“Dear madam, it is only to save your bustle from the horse!”</p>
-
-<p>Stung at length by my misfortunes and the hopelessness of
-my situation, I became utterly reckless, and only thought of
-carrying out my revenge on the bustles in every way in my
-power; and this I must say with some pride I did for a while
-with good effect. I got a number of the hated articles manufactured
-for myself, but not, reader, to wear, as you shall
-hear. Oh! no; but whenever I received an invitation to a
-party&mdash;which indeed had latterly been seldom sent me&mdash;I
-took one of these articles in my pocket, and, watching a favourable
-opportunity when all were engaged in the mazy
-figure of the dance, let it secretly fall amongst them. The
-result may be imagined&mdash;ay, reader, imagine it, for I cannot
-describe it with effect. First, the half-suppressed but simultaneous
-scream of all the ladies as it was held up for a
-claimant; next, the equally simultaneous movement of the
-ladies’ hands, all quickly disengaged from those of their partners,
-and not raised up in wonder, but carried down to their&mdash;bustles!
-Never was movement in the dance executed with
-such precision; and I should be immortalised as the inventor
-of an attitude so expressive of sentiment and of <em>feeling</em>.</p>
-
-<p>Alas! this is the only consolation now afforded me in my
-afflictions: I invented a new attitude&mdash;a new movement in the
-quadrille: let others see that it be not forgotten. I am now
-a banished man from all refined society: no lady will appear,
-where that odious Mr Bustle, as they call me, might possibly
-be; and so no one will admit me inside their doors. I have
-nothing left me, therefore, but to live out my solitary life,
-and vent my execration of bustles in the only place now left
-me&mdash;the columns of the Irish Penny Journal.</p>
-
-<div class="right">
-<div class="figright">
-<img src="images/bustle.jpg" width="100" height="75" alt="A bustle" />
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<div class="footnotes">
-
-<div class="footnote">
-
-<p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> A fact.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-</div>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">THE COMMON OTTER.</h2>
-
-<p>The otter varies in size, some adult specimens measuring no
-more than thirty-six inches in length, tail inclusive, while
-others, again, are to be found from four and a half to five
-feet long. The head of the otter is broad and flat; its muzzle
-is broad, rounded, and blunt; its eyes small and of a semi-circular
-form; neck extremely thick, nearly as thick as the
-body; body long, rounded, and very flexible; legs short and
-muscular; feet furnished with five sharp-clawed toes, webbed
-to three-quarters of their extent; tail long, muscular, somewhat
-flattened, and tapering to its extremity. The colour of
-the otter is a deep blackish brown; the sides of the head, the
-front of the neck, and sometimes the breast, brownish grey.
-The belly is usually, but not invariably, darker than the back;
-the fur is short, and of two kinds; the inferior or woolly coat
-is exceedingly fine and close; the longer hairs are soft and
-glossy, those on the tail rather stiff and bristly. On either
-side of the nose, and just below the chin, are two small light-coloured
-spots. So much for the appearance of the otter:
-now we come to its dwelling. The otter is common to England,
-Ireland, and Scotland; a marine variety is also to be met
-with, differing from the common only in its superior size and
-more furry coat. Some naturalists have set them down as a
-different species: I am, however, disposed to regard them as
-a variety merely.</p>
-
-<p>The native haunt of the otter is the river-bank, where
-amongst the reeds and sedge it forms a deep burrow, in which
-it brings forth and rears its young. Its principal food is fish,
-which it catches with singular dexterity. It lives almost
-wholly in the water, and seldom leaves it except to devour its
-prey; on land it does not usually remain long at any one
-time, and the slightest alarm is sufficient to cause it to plunge
-into the stream. Yet, natural as seems a watery residence to
-this creature, its hole is perfectly dry; were it to become
-otherwise, it would be quickly abandoned. Its entrance, indeed,
-is invariably under water, but its course then points
-upwards into the bank, towards the surface of the earth, and
-it is even provided with several lodges or apartments at different
-heights, into which it may retire in case of floods,
-throwing up the earth behind it as it proceeds into the recesses<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
-of its retreat; and when it has reached the last and
-most secure chamber, it opens a small hole in the roof for the
-admission of atmospheric air, without which the animal could
-not of course exist many minutes; and should the flood rise
-so high as to burst into this last place of refuge, the animal
-will open a passage through the roof, and venture forth upon
-land, rather than remain in a damp and muddy bed. During
-severe floods, otters are not unfrequently surprised at some
-distance from the water, and taken.</p>
-
-<p>In a wild state the otter is fierce and daring, will make a
-determined resistance when attacked by dogs, and being endued
-with no inconsiderable strength of jaw, it often punishes
-its assailants terribly. I have myself seen it break the fore-leg
-of a stout terrier. Otter-hunting was in former times a
-favourite amusement even with the nobility, and regular establishments
-of otter-hounds were kept. The animal is now become
-scarce, and its pursuit is no longer numbered in our list
-of sports, unless perhaps in Scotland, where, especially in the
-Western Islands, otter-hunting is still extensively practised.</p>
-
-<p>Otters are easily rendered tame, especially if taken young,
-and may be taught to follow their master like dogs, and even
-to fish for him, cheerfully resigning their prey when taken,
-and dashing into the water in search of more. A man named
-James Campbell, residing near Inverness, had one which followed
-him wherever he went, unless confined, and would answer
-to its name. When apprehensive of danger from dogs,
-it sought the protection of its master, and would endeavour
-to spring into his arms for greater security. It was frequently
-employed in catching fish, and would sometimes take
-eight or ten salmon in a day. If not prevented, it always attempted
-to break the fish behind the fin which is next the tail;
-and as soon as one was taken away, it always dived in pursuit
-of more. It was equally dexterous at sea-fishing, and
-took great numbers of young cod and other fish. When tired
-it would refuse to fish any longer, and was then rewarded
-with as much food as it could devour. Having satiated its
-appetite, it always coiled itself up and went to sleep, no matter
-where it was, in which state it was usually carried home.</p>
-
-<p>Brown relates that a person who kept a tame otter taught
-it to associate with his dogs, who were on the most friendly
-terms with it on all occasions, and that it would follow its
-master in company with its canine friends. This person was
-in the habit of fishing the river with nets, on which occasions
-the otter proved highly useful to him, by going into the water
-and driving trout and other fish towards the net. It was
-very remarkable that dogs accustomed to otter-hunting were
-so far from offering it the least molestation, that they would
-not even hunt any other otter while it remained with them;
-on which account its owner was forced to part with it.</p>
-
-<p>The otter is of a most affectionate disposition, as may at
-once be seen from its anxiety respecting its young. Indeed,
-the parental affection of this creature is so powerful that the
-female otter will often suffer herself to be killed rather than
-desert them. Professor Steller says, “Often have I spared
-the lives of the female otters whose young ones I took away.
-They expressed their sorrow by crying like human beings,
-and following me as I was carrying off their young, while they
-called to them for aid with a tone of voice which very much
-resembled the crying of children. When I sat down in the
-snow, they came quite close to me, and attempted to carry off
-their young. On one occasion when I had deprived an otter
-of her progeny, I returned to the place eight days after, and
-found the female sitting by the river listless and desponding,
-who suffered me to kill her on the spot without making any
-attempt to escape. On skinning her I found she was quite
-wasted away from sorrow for the loss of her young.” This
-affection which the otter, while in a state of nature, displays
-towards her young, is when in captivity usually transferred
-to her master, or perhaps, as in an instance I shall mention
-by and bye, to some one or other of his domestic animals. As
-an example of the former case I may mention the following:&mdash;A
-person named Collins, who lived near Wooler in Northumberland,
-had a tame otter, which followed him wherever he
-went. He frequently took it to the river to fish for its own
-food, and when satisfied it never failed to return to its master.
-One day in the absence of Collins, the otter being taken
-out to fish by his son, instead of returning as usual, refused to
-answer to the accustomed call, and was lost. Collins tried
-every means to recover it; and after several days’ search, being
-near the place where his son had lost it, and calling its
-name, to his very great joy the animal came crawling to his
-feet. In the following passage of the “Prædium Rusticum”
-of Vaniere, allusion is made to tame otters employed in fishing:&mdash;</p>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="verse">“Should chance within this dark recess betray</div>
-<div class="verse">The tender young, bear quick the prize away;</div>
-<div class="verse">Tamed by thy care the useful brood shall join</div>
-<div class="verse">The watery chase, and add their toils to thine;</div>
-<div class="verse">From each close lurking hole shall force away,</div>
-<div class="verse">And drive within the nets the silver prey;</div>
-<div class="verse">As the taught hound the nimble stag subdues,</div>
-<div class="verse">And o’er the dewy plain the panting hare pursues.”</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<p>Mr Macgillivray, in his interesting volume on British Quadrupeds
-in the Naturalist’s Library, mentions several instances
-of otters having been tamed and employed in fishing. Among
-others he relates that a gentleman residing in the Outer Hebrides
-had one that supplied itself with food, and regularly
-returned to the house. M’Diarmid, in his “Sketches from
-Nature,” enumerates many others. One otter belonging to a
-poor widow, “when led forth plunged into the Urr, and
-brought out all the fish it could find.” Another, kept at Corsbie
-House, Wigtonshire, “evinced a great fondness for gooseberries,”
-fondled “about her keeper’s feet like a pup or kitten,
-and even seemed inclined to salute her cheek, when permitted
-to carry her freedoms so far.” A third, belonging to
-Mr Montieth of Carstairs, “though he frequently stole away
-at night to fish by the pale light of the moon, and associate
-with his kindred by the river side, his master of course was
-too generous to find any fault with his peculiar mode of spending
-his evening hours. In the morning he was always at his
-post in the kennel, and no animal understood better the secret
-of ‘keeping his own side of the house.’ Indeed his pugnacity
-in this respect gave him a great lift in the favour of the gamekeeper,
-who talked of his feats wherever he went, and averred
-besides, that if the best cur that ever ran ‘only daured to girn’
-at his protegé, he would soon ‘mak his teeth meet through
-him.’ To mankind, however, he was much more civil, and
-allowed himself to be gently lifted by the tail, though he objected
-to any interference with his snout, which is probably
-with him the seat of honour.”</p>
-
-<p>Mr Glennon, of Suffolk-street, Dublin, informs me that Mr
-Murray, gamekeeper to his Grace the Duke of Leinster, has
-a tame otter, which enters the water to fish when desired, and
-lays whatever he catches with due submission at his master’s
-feet. Mr Glennon further observes, that the affection for his
-owner which this animal exhibits is equal or even superior to that
-of the most faithful dog. The creature follows him wherever
-he goes, will suffer him to lift him up by the tail and carry him
-under his arm just as good-humouredly as would a dog, will
-spring to his knee when he sits at home, and seems in fact
-never happy but when in his company. This otter is well
-able to take care of himself, and fearlessly repels the impertinent
-advances of the dogs: with such, however, as treat him
-with fitting respect, he is on excellent terms. Sometimes Mr
-Murray will hide himself from this animal, which will immediately,
-on being set at liberty, search for him with the
-greatest anxiety, running like a terrier dog by the scent. Mr
-Glennon assures me that he has frequently seen the animal
-thus trace the footsteps of its master for a considerable distance
-across several fields, and that too with such precision
-as never in any instance to fail of finding him.</p>
-
-<p>I myself had once a tame otter, with a detail of whose habits
-and manners I shall now conclude this article. When I first
-obtained the animal she was very young, and not more than
-sixteen inches in length: young as she was, she was very
-fierce, and would bite viciously if any one put his hand near
-the nest of straw in which she was kept. As she grew a little
-older, however, she became more familiarized to the approaches
-of human beings, and would suffer herself to be gently stroked
-upon the back or head; when tired of being caressed, she
-would growl in a peculiar manner, and presently use her
-sharp teeth if the warning to let her alone were not attended
-to. In one respect the manners of this animal presented a
-striking contrast to the accounts I had read and heard of other
-tame individuals. She evinced no particular affection for me;
-she grew tame certainly, but her tameness was rather of a
-general than of an exclusive character: unlike other wild animals
-which I had at different times succeeded in domesticating, this
-creature testified no particular gratitude to her master, and
-whoever fed her, or set her at liberty, was her favourite for the
-time being. She preferred fish to any other diet, and eagerly
-devoured all descriptions, whether taken in fresh or salt
-water, though she certainly preferred the former. She would
-seize the fish between her fore paws, hold it firmly on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
-ground, and devour it downwards to the tail, which with the
-head the dainty animal rejected. When fish could not be
-procured, she would eat, but sparingly, of bread and milk, as
-well as the lean of raw meat; fat she could on no account be
-prevailed upon to touch.</p>
-
-<p>Towards other animals my otter for a long period maintained
-an appearance of perfect indifference. If a dog approached
-her suddenly, she would utter a sharp, whistling
-noise, and betake herself to some place of safety: if pursued,
-she would turn and show fight. If the dog exhibited no symptoms
-of hostility, she would presently return to her place at
-the fireside, where she would lie basking for hours at a time.</p>
-
-<p>When I first obtained this animal, there was no water sufficiently
-near to where I lived in which I could give her an
-occasional bath; and being apprehensive, that, if entirely
-deprived of an element in which nature had designed her to
-pass so considerable a portion of her existence, she would
-languish and die, I allowed her a tub as a substitute for her
-native river; and in this she plunged and swam with much
-apparent delight. It was in this manner that I became acquainted
-with the curious fact, that the otter, when passing
-along beneath the surface of the water, does not usually
-accomplish its object by swimming, but by walking along the
-bottom, which it can do as securely and with as much rapidity
-as it can run on dry land.</p>
-
-<p>After having had my otter about a year, I changed my
-residence to another quarter of the town, and the stream well
-known to all who have seen Edinburgh as the “Water of
-Leith,” flowed past the rear of the house. The creature being
-by this time so tame as to be allowed perfect liberty, I took it
-down one evening to the river, and permitted it to disport itself
-for the first time since its capture in a deep and open stream.
-The animal was delighted with the new and refreshing enjoyment,
-and I found that a daily swim in the river greatly conduced
-to its health and happiness. I would sometimes walk for
-nearly a mile along the bank, and the happy and frolicsome
-creature would accompany me by water, and that too so
-rapidly that I could not even by very smart walking keep
-pace with it. On some occasions it caught small fish, such as
-minnows, eels, and occasionally a trout of inconsiderable
-size. When it was only a minnow or a small eel which it
-caught, it would devour it in the water, putting its head for
-that purpose above the surface; when, however, it had made
-a trout its prey, it would come to shore, and devour it more
-at leisure. I strove very assiduously to train this otter to
-fish for me, as I had heard they have sometimes been taught
-to do; but I never could succeed in this attempt, nor could I
-even prevail upon the animal to give me up at any time the
-fish which she had taken: the moment I approached her to do
-so, as if suspecting my intention, she would at once take to
-the water, and, crossing to the other side of the stream, devour
-her prey in security. This difficulty in training I impute to
-the animal’s want of an individual affection for me, for it was
-not affection, but her own pleasure, which induced her to follow
-me down the stream; and she would with equal willingness
-follow any other person who happened to release her
-from her box. This absence of affection was probably nothing
-more than peculiarity of disposition in this individual, there
-being numerous instances of a contrary nature upon record.</p>
-
-<p>Although this otter failed to exhibit those affectionate
-traits of character which have displayed themselves in other
-individuals of her tribe towards the human species, she was
-by no means of a cold or unsocial disposition towards some of
-my smaller domestic animals. With an Angora cat she soon
-after I got her formed a very close friendship, and when in
-the house was unhappy when not in the company of her friend.
-I had one day an opportunity of witnessing a singular display
-of attachment on the part of this otter towards the cat:&mdash;A
-little terrier dog attacked the latter as she lay by the fire, and
-driving her thence, pursued her under the table, where she
-stood on her defence, spitting and setting up her back in
-defiance: at this instant the otter entered the apartment, and
-no sooner did she perceive what was going on, than she flew
-with much fury and bitterness upon the dog, seized him by the
-face with her teeth, and would doubtless have inflicted a severe
-chastisement upon him, had I not hastened to the rescue, and,
-separating the combatants, expelled the terrier from the room.</p>
-
-<p>When permitted to wander in the garden, this otter would
-search for grubs, worms, and snails, which she would eat with
-much apparent relish, detaching the latter from their shell
-with surprising quickness and dexterity. She would likewise
-mount upon the chairs at the window, and catch and eat flies&mdash;a
-practice which I have not as yet seen recorded in the
-natural history of this animal. I had this otter in my possession
-nearly two years, and have in the above sketch mentioned
-only a few of its most striking peculiarities. Did I not fear
-encroaching on space which is perhaps the property of another
-contributor, I could have carried its history to a much
-greater length.</p>
-
-<p class="right">H. D. R.</p>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">RANDOM SKETCHES&mdash;No. II.<br />
-<span class="smaller">AN AMERICAN NOBLEMAN.</span></h2>
-
-<p>There reached our city, on the morning of the 29th day of
-July, and sailed from it on the night of the 31st, the most
-<em>remarkable</em> person perhaps by whom our shores have been
-lately visited. Were we to second our own feelings, we would
-apply a higher epithet to William Lloyd Garrison, but we
-have chosen one in which we are persuaded all parties would
-agree who partook of his intercourse, however much they
-may differ from each other and from him in principle and in
-practice. The object of this short paper is to leave on the
-pages of our literature some record of an extraordinary individual,
-who is a literary man himself, being the editor and
-proprietor of a successful newspaper published at Boston in
-Massachusetts; but his name may be best recommended to
-our readers in connection with that of the well-known George
-Thompson, whose eloquence was so powerful an auxiliary to
-the unnumbered petitions which at length wrung from our
-legislature the just but expensive emancipation of the West
-Indian negroes. Community of action and of suffering, as
-pleaders for the rights of the black and coloured population of
-the United States, has rendered them bosom friends, and
-each has a child called after the name of the other. Thompson
-is now a denizen of the United Kingdom; but while we
-write, Garrison is crossing the broad Atlantic to encounter
-new dangers: comparatively safe at home, his life is forfeited
-whenever he ventures to pass the moral line of demarcation
-which separates the free from the slave states&mdash;forfeited so
-surely as there is a rifle in Kentucky or a bowie knife in
-Alabama.</p>
-
-<p>We have set Garrison down as “an American nobleman,”
-and the “peerage” in which we look for his titles and dignities
-is “The Martyr Age of the United States of America,”
-by Harriet Martineau&mdash;a writer to whom none will deny the
-possession of discrimination, which is all we contend for.
-“William Lloyd Garrison is one of God’s nobility&mdash;the head
-of the moral aristocracy, whose prerogatives we are contemplating.
-It is not only that he is invulnerable to injury&mdash;that he
-early got the world under his feet in a way which it would have
-made Zeno stroke his beard with a complacency to witness;
-but that in his meekness, his sympathies, his self-forgetfulness,
-he appears ‘covered all over with the stars and orders’
-of the spiritual realm whence he derives his dignities and his
-powers. At present he is a marked man wherever he turns.
-The faces of his friends brighten when his step is heard: the
-people of colour almost kneel to him; and the rest of society
-jeers, pelts, and execrates him. Amidst all this, his gladsome
-life rolls on, ‘too busy to be anxious, and too loving to be
-sad.’ He springs from his bed singing at sunrise: and if
-during the day tears should cloud his serenity, they are never
-shed for himself. His countenance of steady compassion gives
-hope to the oppressed, who look to him as the Jews looked
-to Moses. It was this serene countenance, saint-like in its
-earnestness and purity, that a man bought at a print-shop,
-where it was exposed without a name, and hung up as the
-most apostolic face he ever saw. It does not alter the case
-that the man took it out of the frame, and hid it when he
-found that it was Garrison who had been adorning his
-parlour.” And he can be no common man of whom it is
-recorded in the work to which we have already alluded, that,
-on starting a newspaper for the advocacy of abolition principles,
-“Garrison and his friend Knapp, a printer, were ere
-long living in a garret, on bread and water, expending all
-their spare earnings and time on the publication, and that
-when it sold particularly well (says Knapp), we treated
-ourselves with a bowl of milk.”&mdash;<cite>The Martyr Age of the
-United States of America</cite>, p. 5.</p>
-
-<p>As we are not writing his memoir, we refer such of our
-readers as may be curious to inquire further into the subject
-to the pamphlet just cited, and to the chapter headed “Garrison,”
-in the work on America by the same writer. To one
-extraordinary feature of his character, however, we cannot
-forbear adverting. He belongs to a society instituted for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
-apparently negative purpose of <em>non-resistance</em>, and is therefore
-the safest of all antagonists. Buffet as you list the head
-and sides of W. L. Garrison, and you receive no buffet in return.
-That this is owing to no deficiency of personal courage,
-admits of demonstration. Neither the prison into which he
-was cast when a mere lad in one state, the price set on his
-head in another, nor the tar-kettle to which he would on one
-occasion have been dragged but for a stout arm that came to
-his rescue, has been able to make Garrison swerve from what
-he considers to be his line of duty. Another cause of this
-disposition to passive endurance must be sought, and it is
-easily found: <em>he is in love</em>&mdash;deeply in love with all mankind.
-His principle is to “resist not evil;” and he acts upon it to
-the fullest extent. In fact, he appears to be several centuries
-in advance of his time, and to live in a millennium of his own
-creating.</p>
-
-<p>We shall only add, that the effect which this remarkable man
-produced on the minds of those who companied with him while
-in Dublin, was of a very peculiar nature. Among these were
-persons of various sects and parties, and of all varieties of
-temperament, but nearly all seemed to concur in their estimate
-of his character. Though many seemed to think that
-he carried out the great principle of love to an unnecessary
-extent, none seemed able to gainsay his reasonings. Here
-and there tears were seen to start, not called forth by any
-sublime sentiment or tender emotion to which he had given
-words at the moment, but educed as it were by the abstract
-contemplation of the image of intense virtue which he represented;
-and most agreed in the opinion, that of all individuals
-with whom they had ever been acquainted, he was the one of
-whom it could be with most justice asserted, that none could
-hold much intercourse with him without becoming better. His
-Dublin host sailed to Liverpool on Monday evening for the
-mere purpose of enjoying his company for three hours more,
-which was all the arrangements the Boston steamer would
-permit, in which he was to leave Liverpool on Tuesday.</p>
-
-<p>It would be an act of great injustice to close this article
-without making some mention of Garrison’s congenial friend
-and companion Nathaniel Peabody Rogers of Plymouth, in
-New Hampshire, also the editor and proprietor of a newspaper,
-of whom, however, we shall only say, that if (as the
-phrase goes) <em>anything happened</em> to W. L. Garrison, he is the
-man who would be ready to occupy his place in the admiration
-and execration of America.</p>
-
-<p class="right">G. D.</p>
-
-<p class="gap4"><span class="smcap">Time.</span>&mdash;Time is the most undefinable yet most paradoxical
-of things: the past is gone, the future is not come, and the
-present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it,
-and, like the flash of the lightning, at once exists and expires.
-Time is the measure of all things, but is itself immeasurable,
-and the grand discloser of all things, but is itself undisclosed.
-Like space, it is incomprehensible, because it has no limit, and
-it would be still more so, if it had. It is more in its source
-than the Nile, and its termination, than the Niger; and advances
-like the slowest tide, but retreats like the swiftest torrent.
-It gives wings of lightning to pleasure, but feet of lead
-to pain, and lends expectation a curb, but enjoyment a spur.
-It robs beauty of her charms, to bestow them on her picture,
-and builds a monument to merit, but denies it a house; it is
-the transient and deceitful flatterer of falsehood, but the tried
-and final friend of truth. Time is the most subtle, yet the
-most insatiable of depredators, and by appearing to take nothing,
-is permitted to take all, nor can it be satisfied until it
-has stolen the world from us, and us from the world. It constantly
-flies, yet overcomes all things by flight; and although
-it is the present ally, it will be the future conqueror of death.
-Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition, is the
-stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise,
-bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the
-other; like Cassandra, it warns us with a voice that even the
-sages discredit too long, and the silliest believe too late. Wisdom
-walks before it, opportunity with it, and repentance behind
-it; he that has made it his friend, will have little to fear
-from his enemies; but he that has made it his enemy, will have
-little to hope from his friends.&mdash;<cite>Burn’s Youthful Piety.</cite></p>
-
-<p class="gap4"><span class="smcap">Diffidence.</span>&mdash;A man gets along faster with a sensible married
-woman in hours than with a young girl in whole days.
-It is next to impossible to make them talk, or to reach them.
-They are like a green walnut: there are half a dozen outer
-coats to be pulled off, one by one and slowly, before you reach
-the kernel of their characters.</p>
-
-<h2 class="gap4">APOLOGUES AND FABLES,<br />
-<span class="smaller">IN PROSE AND VERSE, FROM THE GERMAN AND OTHER LANGUAGES.</span></h2>
-
-<h3>No. IV.&mdash;THE EAGLE AND THE DOVE.<br />
-<span class="smaller">A TRANSLATION FROM GOETHE.</span></h3>
-
-<div class="poetry-container">
-<div class="poetry">
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">Joyous with youth, an Eagle spread his pinions</div>
-<div class="verse">One sunny summer day,</div>
-<div class="verse">And through the wilderness of Air’s dominions</div>
-<div class="verse">Arose in quest of prey,</div>
-<div class="verse">When, lo! the forest-ranger’s musquet roared,</div>
-<div class="verse">And struck him as he soared,</div>
-<div class="verse">Shattering the tendons of one buoyant wing,</div>
-<div class="verse">And down to earth he fell, poor wounded thing!</div>
-<div class="verse">Deep in the hollow of a grassy grove,</div>
-<div class="verse">Where sleepy myrtles bloomed, and dark boughs wove</div>
-<div class="verse">A trellis-curtain to shut out the sun,</div>
-<div class="verse">He lay for three long days, with none</div>
-<div class="verse">To tend him in that lowly lair,</div>
-<div class="verse">And fed for three long nights upon his heart’s despair!</div>
-<div class="verse">All-healing Nature brought at length</div>
-<div class="verse">Relief at least from agonizing pain,</div>
-<div class="verse">And some return of youthful strength.</div>
-<div class="verse">Feebly he leaves his couch and crawls along,</div>
-<div class="verse">And tries to raise his wing&mdash;alas! in vain&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">The glory has departed from the Strong,</div>
-<div class="verse">And henceforth he can only hope to gain</div>
-<div class="verse">A mean prey from the surface of that earth</div>
-<div class="verse">Which gives the worm and beetle birth.</div>
-<div class="verse">In mournful mood he rests beside a stream;</div>
-<div class="verse">He looks up towards the tall majestic trees</div>
-<div class="verse">Whose tops are waving to the mountain-breeze;</div>
-<div class="verse">He sees the sun’s unconquerable beam</div>
-<div class="verse">Shine forth; he gazes on his native skies,</div>
-<div class="verse">And tears gush from his eyes.</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse">While Sorrow thus oppressed the noble Bird,</div>
-<div class="verse">A rustling sound was heard&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">A flutter as of soft wings through the grove&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">And presently a Turtle-Dove</div>
-<div class="verse">Alighted on a myrtle-bough anear.</div>
-<div class="verse">He saw the Eagle droop his kingly head;</div>
-<div class="verse">He saw tear after tear</div>
-<div class="verse">Fall from his eyes into the dark rill under,</div>
-<div class="verse">And sentiments of Pity, blent with Wonder,</div>
-<div class="verse">Troubled his tender breast. My friend, he said,</div>
-<div class="verse">Thou grievest! What has made thee grieve?</div>
-<div class="verse">Thou showest thy wing&mdash;Ah! thou art maimed for life!</div>
-<div class="verse">Well! what of that? Thou shouldst rejoice to leave</div>
-<div class="verse">A world whose very pleasures most be won by Strife!</div>
-<div class="verse">For, hast thou not around thee here</div>
-<div class="verse">All blessings that can make Existence dear?</div>
-<div class="verse">When high the noontide sunbeam burns,</div>
-<div class="verse">Yield not these latticed walls a soothing shade?</div>
-<div class="verse">When starry Night again returns,</div>
-<div class="verse">Doth not her lamp light up this pleasant glade?</div>
-<div class="verse">The soft winds bring thee odours from yon orange bowers;</div>
-<div class="verse">Almost thy very path lies over flowers!</div>
-<div class="verse">The trees around thee, the rich earth below,</div>
-<div class="verse">Teem with luxuriance of sweet fruits for food;</div>
-<div class="verse">The rapid and resounding flood</div>
-<div class="verse">That rushes downward from the mountain</div>
-<div class="verse">Flows here, will here for ever flow,</div>
-<div class="verse">Diminished to a silver fountain</div>
-<div class="verse">That sings its way o’er golden sands,</div>
-<div class="verse">Fringed by the lily and young violet.</div>
-<div class="verse">Here hast thou all a placid soul demands!</div>
-<div class="verse">What wouldst thou more? Or, canst thou still regret</div>
-<div class="verse">A barren world, which only lures and juggles</div>
-<div class="verse">Its dupes to leave them doubly sad and lonely?</div>
-<div class="verse">My friend! Mind was not made to spend itself in struggles!</div>
-<div class="verse">True Happiness lies in Contentment only,</div>
-<div class="verse">And true Contentment ever dwells apart</div>
-<div class="verse">From Competition and Ambition&mdash;brooks</div>
-<div class="verse">All wants&mdash;is rich though poor, and strong when weakest!</div>
-<div class="verse">Ah, Wise One! spake the Eagle&mdash;and his looks</div>
-<div class="verse">Betrayed the unaltered anguish of his heart&mdash;</div>
-<div class="verse">Ah, Wisdom! ever thus, and thus in vain, thou speakest!</div>
-</div>
-<div class="stanza">
-<div class="verse right">M.</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-
-<hr class="tb" />
-
-<div class="blockquote">
-
-<p>Printed and published every Saturday by GUNN and CAMERON, No. 6,
-Church Lane, College Green, Dublin, and sold by all Booksellers.</p>
-
-</div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1, No.
-18, October 31, 1840, by Various
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE IRISH PENNY JOURNAL ***
-
-***** This file should be named 54290-h.htm or 54290-h.zip *****
-This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
- http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/2/9/54290/
-
-Produced by Brownfox and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
-images generously made available by JSTOR www.jstor.org)
-
-
-Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will
-be renamed.
-
-Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright
-law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works,
-so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United
-States without permission and without paying copyright
-royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part
-of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm
-concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark,
-and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, unless you receive
-specific permission. If you do not charge anything for copies of this
-eBook, complying with the rules is very easy. You may use this eBook
-for nearly any purpose such as creation of derivative works, reports,
-performances and research. They may be modified and printed and given
-away--you may do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks
-not protected by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the
-trademark license, especially commercial redistribution.
-
-START: FULL LICENSE
-
-THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
-PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
-
-To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
-distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
-(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full
-Project Gutenberg-tm License available with this file or online at
-www.gutenberg.org/license.
-
-Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-
-1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
-and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
-(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all
-the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or
-destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your
-possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a
-Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound
-by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the
-person or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph
-1.E.8.
-
-1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be
-used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
-agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few
-things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See
-paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this
-agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below.
-
-1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the
-Foundation" or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection
-of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual
-works in the collection are in the public domain in the United
-States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the
-United States and you are located in the United States, we do not
-claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing,
-displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as
-all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope
-that you will support the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting
-free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm
-works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the
-Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with the work. You can easily
-comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the
-same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg-tm License when
-you share it without charge with others.
-
-1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
-what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are
-in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States,
-check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this
-agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing,
-distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any
-other Project Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no
-representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any
-country outside the United States.
-
-1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
-
-1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other
-immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear
-prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work
-on which the phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the
-phrase "Project Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed,
-performed, viewed, copied or distributed:
-
- This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
- most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
- restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
- under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
- eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the
- United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you
- are located before using this ebook.
-
-1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is
-derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not
-contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the
-copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in
-the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are
-redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase "Project
-Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply
-either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or
-obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
-with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
-must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any
-additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms
-will be linked to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works
-posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the
-beginning of this work.
-
-1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
-License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
-work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
-
-1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
-electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
-prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
-active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm License.
-
-1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
-compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including
-any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access
-to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format
-other than "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official
-version posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site
-(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense
-to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means
-of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original "Plain
-Vanilla ASCII" or other form. Any alternate format must include the
-full Project Gutenberg-tm License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
-
-1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
-performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
-unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
-
-1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
-access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
-provided that
-
-* You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
- the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
- you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed
- to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he has
- agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project
- Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid
- within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are
- legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty
- payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project
- Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in
- Section 4, "Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg
- Literary Archive Foundation."
-
-* You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
- you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
- does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
- License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all
- copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue
- all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg-tm
- works.
-
-* You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of
- any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
- electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of
- receipt of the work.
-
-* You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
- distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
-
-1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work or group of works on different terms than
-are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing
-from both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and The
-Project Gutenberg Trademark LLC, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm
-trademark. Contact the Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
-
-1.F.
-
-1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
-effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
-works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project
-Gutenberg-tm collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may
-contain "Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate
-or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other
-intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or
-other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or
-cannot be read by your equipment.
-
-1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
-of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
-Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
-liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
-fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
-LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
-PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
-TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
-LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
-INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
-DAMAGE.
-
-1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
-defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
-receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
-written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you
-received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium
-with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you
-with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in
-lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person
-or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second
-opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If
-the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing
-without further opportunities to fix the problem.
-
-1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
-in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO
-OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
-LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
-
-1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
-warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of
-damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement
-violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the
-agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or
-limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or
-unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the
-remaining provisions.
-
-1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
-trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
-providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in
-accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the
-production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm
-electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses,
-including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of
-the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this
-or any Project Gutenberg-tm work, (b) alteration, modification, or
-additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any
-Defect you cause.
-
-Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
-electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of
-computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It
-exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations
-from people in all walks of life.
-
-Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
-assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
-goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
-remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project
-Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
-and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future
-generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see
-Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at
-www.gutenberg.org Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
-501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
-state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
-Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
-number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by
-U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
-
-The Foundation's principal office is in Fairbanks, Alaska, with the
-mailing address: PO Box 750175, Fairbanks, AK 99775, but its
-volunteers and employees are scattered throughout numerous
-locations. Its business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, Salt
-Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up to
-date contact information can be found at the Foundation's web site and
-official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
-
-For additional contact information:
-
- Dr. Gregory B. Newby
- Chief Executive and Director
- gbnewby@pglaf.org
-
-Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
-Literary Archive Foundation
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
-spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
-increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
-freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
-array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations
-($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
-status with the IRS.
-
-The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
-charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
-States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
-considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
-with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations
-where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND
-DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular
-state visit www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
-have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
-against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
-approach us with offers to donate.
-
-International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
-any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
-outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
-
-Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
-methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other
-ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To
-donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate
-
-Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works.
-
-Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project
-Gutenberg-tm concept of a library of electronic works that could be
-freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and
-distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of
-volunteer support.
-
-Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
-editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in
-the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not
-necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper
-edition.
-
-Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search
-facility: www.gutenberg.org
-
-This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
-including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
-Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
-subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
-</body>
-</html>
diff --git a/old/54290-h/images/bustle.jpg b/old/54290-h/images/bustle.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index aeaf021..0000000
--- a/old/54290-h/images/bustle.jpg
+++ /dev/null
Binary files differ
diff --git a/old/54290-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/54290-h/images/cover.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index 8f4d32e..0000000
--- a/old/54290-h/images/cover.jpg
+++ /dev/null
Binary files differ
diff --git a/old/54290-h/images/woodlands.jpg b/old/54290-h/images/woodlands.jpg
deleted file mode 100644
index af5bc3e..0000000
--- a/old/54290-h/images/woodlands.jpg
+++ /dev/null
Binary files differ