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REDPATH’S ILLUSTRATED WEEKLY.
Mrs. Sullivan's Great Poem.
en, two years and a half ago, Chicago
‘was preparing to receive Charles Stewart Par-
nell and open its generous purse for an almost
perishing country, Miss Emilie Gavin, then Ahh — C2
the finest dramatic reader in the West, (per. ise hte.
haps in the United States, ) was invited to ta
part in the reception programme. The question
grose, what should she read ? and there did not
appear to be anything in our tongue effective
and appropriate.
- Margaret Sullivan was requested to
write something ; and in the hurried intervals
of leader-writing of the Chicago Daily Times,
Cc
the great poem of ‘The Irish
Famine of 1880,” which we publish to-day.
Before an audience of thirty thousand Miss
Gavin's sonorous and beautiful voice, gave out
the lines with marvelous effi
One of the next day’s “Journals said the c a
“reading produced in turn the wildest enthusi.
asm and copious tears; ” and another that the
* andignee went wild over the reader and the G
a7
The authorship was not known until after
ward, Mrs, Sullivan sitting unnoticed in the
b fe
Pei le
Chia pt and micdioney Lives ao Channel ,
ten
saat the topics — fone,
Puck oh aa fe Grit meek a hatte;
multitude among the members of her family, Crue, Herm hark, acth auf
Miss. Gavin subsequently aecite poem
in St. Louis, Cincinnati and elsewhere at the
great relief demonstrations and its effect upon
the people was everywhere the same. So in-
cs
an unmoved observer of the tremendous scene. Uh.
AN
and sold at the street corners by speculators,
rs, Sullivan never receiving any compensation
for rit from any source.
Ia Detroit it was printed with ‘T. D. Sulli-
yan’s ‘‘ God Save Ireland,” and Gisposed of for
. the relief fund. It was rendered in the Acad.
emy of Music, Philadelphia on the evening of
the 17th of March, ee and became a uni-
versal favorite with r rs, professional ae
amateur, until the famine cloud pass
Copies of it found the _way into Treland, « and
an American traveller in Cork heard a little
boy repeating it in a public place to a group of mer
The incident of the woman walking forty ‘miles, ‘to save
her child, who died when sbe reached the poor-house, actu-
ally occurr
Mi
tense was the passion it aronsed that in some b. MU4tA Se
irs. Sulivan, at our rearnest request, furnished us with a
copy of the poems—two stanzas of which we reproduce in fac
: THE IRISH FAMINE OF 1880.
hat sound is this upon the wind affrights the Western ear?
Is it the ‘moan of oceal a storm, filling the world with tear?
Ig if tho groan of a far-off land that Famino stalks upor
While Plenty, rosy, plump and gay, laughs beneath every sun?
Aye, aye, tho Voice is human that rises on the gale—
‘The agonizing cry we hear is a starving people's wail !
Serenely on the ocean sits an island, in the s eo,
OFsilver ekies and parple hills and pastures eve
e corn is waving gladsomely ; hite flocke beatin glee ;
tawny herds shake silken sides on valley, glen and lea;
Fish frolic in her rivers, birds carol in the tre
Py
ge
AYS
Per ea high:
In Ireland's bread and meat enough uot hove fame
O, miracle of miracles \ O, wondrous canse of wonder 1
Proelaim the story to mankind with trampet of the thunder !
A fertile, generous, Sogou land forbid to feed its peop
de of consecrated steeple |
i tion made b: statute, Famin ne a legal code,
For subjects of a government with ai stablished” God!
Look not into thelr genial soil tor bunger’s helpless cause :
The Irish people famish—to obey their English laws
They plow and plant, they sow and reap, they spin and weave all
‘awe enacte
The English fleet is at the wharves to bear tt all aw
land the alien owns; the landlords own their labor ;
Theit mortgaged lives have been foreclosed to glut their English
neighbor
1d the lovely vista within yon Irish dale
Thouiliug mora is blushing bebiud her chaz
Tho brooklet pratties on the ward; the
The mornin; et has disappeared, the vision grows still
at terror-stricken band is that whose feet are hurrying nearer?
God of justice, God of mercy, they are weeping, they are shrieking,
There ‘is sronzy. on, their faces: and some with wounds are
‘de behind them in savage fary co
ree lit norde saw ascending was the beri of their homes !
So this is Irish famine—and this is English law
And this the saddest signt on earth that sorrow ew
*Nature’s heart is touched with pity, Nature’s eyes with, Years are
filled,
the le die of hunger in the fields that they have ied
File she people’ low the cattle, ‘for the stranger {6 om ow * flesh
Moans the wind into the harvest, “for the stranger you m
And the sheep pleat sadly seaward from green crannies in the
“The stra anger oars our wool and the stranger eats our flocks :”
And the horses paw in fary, as the: neigh from out the manger,
Oh, we would fight for freland|—but our backs are for the
, tranger !”
In this band of homeless outcasts amps 6 ® cripple, whose deep
‘scar:
*Twas taken from us yesterday ”— Ani she?—“She died laat
Of hunger, hunger! Oh, great God, that son should see such
In battle I ne'er trembled—in the whirr of shot and shell
T rushed with demon recklessness within the living hell ;
oy Of
hile rm
Lowsd Prokicts The weal with. brakes or me cannon:
en a He herd
trash the dog
Arrheons fe cor heinenty !
le ‘ th é Leia, OF
ey ae
hiri, heals
G ern ve a
She Mees
lore hn !
ManguaEAfillianes
To-day I shake with palsy, unmanned by hunger’s pangs; 3
I teel about my breaking heart a slimy creature's fan
And all are gone who loved me—the last one of my lan :
Patrick drove the serpents out to let English reptiles in !
Te in America who wore the loyal blne,
That Ireland was the stannehest of all the fends they knew;
Her heart w: a8 theirs, her rength was thers: were we not
To make libbrty and ‘manhood the same for black and whit
I gave my arm @ the chain from of your black slaves?
Lo,
Her limbs begin to fail hen, her face is gray and wild ;
i ' ay, to Feel a poor-houso door,
And keep the teeble, flickering beam in eyes—that ope no more}
Dead the babe upon her boso! h, mother’s mighty sorrow,
ewail in vain your journey’s length, bowail your dreadful
“Dear tarf, ” “the “faintly murmurs, “take the life I could not —
Oh, Land, that dare not give her bread, give my sweet child a
grave.”
She falls—she Gies ; but not until her voice has stirred the
“Victoria, vith ay, milkless breasts, I curse your English
Philanthropist and missioner lives on St, George's channel;
Sends Bibles to the Po me ; and to the tropics, ‘laonel
Prays godly prayera for “joreln sin before her legal alta
The while her hands twist at her back for Ireland's neck the hal-
Ta foreign lind Is protects the weak, with treaties or with cannon,
And thrust lagger in the he: art ot her sister on the Shannon,
Gome, Nations of ete continents, behold a Land o of Graves!
‘ome, Russia, with Siberia; France, bring your galley slaves ;
Come, 1 leering Turk, with dripping ignitor refresied in Christian
Bashi-bazouk, hold up your head! Be ye ashamed no mo @!
, empires of the gentle world, behold this Christian Meng
That makes her subjects paupors :—and grants them then --slar=
OUR BOYS’ AND GIRLS’ DEPARTMENT.
A FARM YARD FABLE,
BY F. BELLEW.
[From the Ca Canard.)
A goose and a donkey were talking one day,
In an easy and sociable sort
But still in a rather low- spirite sa >
Of the world, and of life with its cares and its pains.
Says the aas to the goose, ‘I feel porry in ind
That you for the table are destined to bi
way,
“TO MAKE A WOMAN WEEP.”
(Translated from the Talend, by James Redpath.)
The holy Rabbis teach :
The bravest hon should fear
To make @ woman weep,
For God counts every tear,”
A KISS FOR MAMMA.
(From Wide Awake.]
The car was all ready, the «ronaut saying
w last words ere he sailed a
To the f sex, blue sky, where the sunbeams straying
Mads perfect the glorious summer day
While thonsands and thousands were gathoring nigh,
To wish him good journey, and bid him good-bye.
A wee little maid with her sunny hair falling
Back from her beautiful childish h brow,
Sprang away from her nurse, her baby: yoive calling:
‘An’ p'ease Mr. Man, may T dom
I want te do up wiv ’oo jn? sky,
‘To find my own mamma an’ ” ts Ser dood bye.”
He Haved the sweet face, while the tear-drops were shin-
2 many a cheek hardened with e:
He unclasped the arms round his ne cok 1 fondly cvining
And sailed from the little one standing th
But a sweet voice ° hi clear and fi
“Tell marama Is d dirl, an’ tiss ’ cr fo! me!”
Rosa H. Torre.
RESTORED,
8 long has Cain had breath, he might have made him-
selt Abe, ” is an old Spanish Prov verb, The story told of a
faith in the redeeming quality,—the grai
f i
whiet generally ex: saving salt,—
is
ists even in the natures of the most vicious
To i insure safety, the keepers in this prison open the door
of every cell at nightfall, and take from the hand of the pris-
ner inside, a small brass token, 'hese tokens are counted
by the wah arden to see if the number agrees with the number
of pris
Several yours 8go, @ woman living outside the rison gave
Warning one night that she had seen a prisoner sien over the
wall and disappear. The tokens were recounted; the pans
ber was complete. The keepers then opened every cell, a1
again saw each prisoner inside ; still the woman persisted i ia
jean t the cells, numberin;
ined, and in o aS foand 1, ife-ti) =
caped pain one em only a life-like efligy of the es.
straw from his pallet ; ‘the, mask of the face and hand he had
mbs, into a startling
a The figure, holding out the token, was
‘The escaped prisoner was pursned and caught,
tt! =
genuity of his device interested the warden ‘aed ‘aise ‘i
ea ty ov made a ang appeal to his better ature—
fhored only the crime. but the impolicy, of dis-
A year later the man invented an im,
. ‘provement on a machine
in common use, and to ook out a patent for it while stil a con-
ibe wae discharged from
contractor who hired the “Tabor of
the Prisoners, eifed th ie © Piledopin Exposition. A gentle-
rge of an ibil
proached abe o e dey portant manufacturing exhibit ap-
iy name is P—_.» p,
bundred dollars, Mr, ro
3 “I am in your debt one
Cortainly pon ane Owe me an cane no one of that name.
me pi a a
oie ieee cinaned Oy 4
not i * poung ae of your none good-natured Cc—, “Pl
sxcoser epee pn thoes “7 Deve Joraed that
eke tacit ‘od manufacturer ae one Of the large
Youths’ Companion,
[November 9, 1882.
a eee rr ener mcr erent
re
ae rm
we epee ieee nr ee