12. Cyclops
Link every word (may take a few seconds)
[14062][ 12 ]
[14063]
[14064]I was just passing the time of day with old Troy of the D. M. P. at the
[14065]corner of Arbour hill there and be damned but a bloody sweep came along
[14066]and he near drove his gear into my eye. I turned around to let him have
[14067]the weight of my tongue when who should I see dodging along Stony Batter
[14068]only Joe Hynes.
[14069]
[14070]—Lo, Joe, says I. How are you blowing? Did you see that bloody
[14071]chimneysweep near shove my eye out with his brush?
[14072]
[14073]—Soot’s luck, says Joe. Who’s the old ballocks you were talking
[14074]to?
[14075]
[14076]—Old Troy, says I, was in the force. I’m on two minds not to give
[14077]that fellow in charge for obstructing the thoroughfare with his brooms
[14078]and ladders.
[14079]
[14080]—What are you doing round those parts? says Joe.
[14081]
[14082]—Devil a much, says I. There’s a bloody big foxy thief beyond by the
[14083]garrison church at the corner of Chicken lane—old Troy was just giving
[14084]me a wrinkle about him—lifted any God’s quantity of tea and sugar
[14085]to pay three bob a week said he had a farm in the county Down off a
[14086]hop-of-my-thumb by the name of Moses Herzog over there near Heytesbury
[14087]street.
[14088]
[14089]—Circumcised? says Joe.
[14090]
[14091]—Ay, says I. A bit off the top. An old plumber named Geraghty. I’m
[14092]hanging on to his taw now for the past fortnight and I can’t get a
[14093]penny out of him.
[14094]
[14095]—That the lay you’re on now? says Joe.
[14096]
[14097]—Ay, says I. How are the mighty fallen! Collector of bad and doubtful
[14098]debts. But that’s the most notorious bloody robber you’d meet in a
[14099]day’s walk and the face on him all pockmarks would hold a shower of
[14100]rain. Tell him, says he, I dare him, says he, and I doubledare him
[14101]to send you round here again or if he does, says he, I’ll have him
[14102]summonsed up before the court, so I will, for trading without a licence.
[14103]And he after stuffing himself till he’s fit to burst. Jesus, I had to
[14104]laugh at the little jewy getting his shirt out. He drink me my teas. He
[14105]eat me my sugars. Because he no pay me my moneys?
[14106]
[14107]For nonperishable goods bought of Moses Herzog, of 13 Saint Kevin’s
[14108]parade in the city of Dublin, Wood quay ward, merchant, hereinafter
[14109]called the vendor, and sold and delivered to Michael E. Geraghty,
[14110]esquire, of 29 Arbour hill in the city of Dublin, Arran quay ward,
[14111]gentleman, hereinafter called the purchaser, videlicet, five pounds
[14112]avoirdupois of first choice tea at three shillings and no pence per
[14113]pound avoirdupois and three stone avoirdupois of sugar, crushed crystal,
[14114]at threepence per pound avoirdupois, the said purchaser debtor to the
[14115]said vendor of one pound five shillings and sixpence sterling for value
[14116]received which amount shall be paid by said purchaser to said vendor in
[14117]weekly instalments every seven calendar days of three shillings and no
[14118]pence sterling: and the said nonperishable goods shall not be pawned or
[14119]pledged or sold or otherwise alienated by the said purchaser but shall
[14120]be and remain and be held to be the sole and exclusive property of the
[14121]said vendor to be disposed of at his good will and pleasure until the
[14122]said amount shall have been duly paid by the said purchaser to the said
[14123]vendor in the manner herein set forth as this day hereby agreed between
[14124]the said vendor, his heirs, successors, trustees and assigns of the one
[14125]part and the said purchaser, his heirs, successors, trustees and assigns
[14126]of the other part.
[14127]
[14128]—Are you a strict t.t.? says Joe.
[14129]
[14130]—Not taking anything between drinks, says I.
[14131]
[14132]—What about paying our respects to our friend? says Joe.
[14133]
[14134]—Who? says I. Sure, he’s out in John of God’s off his head, poor
[14135]man.
[14136]
[14137]—Drinking his own stuff? says Joe.
[14138]
[14139]—Ay, says I. Whisky and water on the brain.
[14140]
[14141]—Come around to Barney Kiernan’s, says Joe. I want to see the
[14142]citizen.
[14143]
[14144]—Barney mavourneen’s be it, says I. Anything strange or wonderful,
[14145]Joe?
[14146]
[14147]—Not a word, says Joe. I was up at that meeting in the City Arms.
[14148]
[14149]—What was that, Joe? says I.
[14150]
[14151]—Cattle traders, says Joe, about the foot and mouth disease. I want to
[14152]give the citizen the hard word about it.
[14153]
[14154]So we went around by the Linenhall barracks and the back of the
[14155]courthouse talking of one thing or another. Decent fellow Joe when he
[14156]has it but sure like that he never has it. Jesus, I couldn’t get over
[14157]that bloody foxy Geraghty, the daylight robber. For trading without a
[14158]licence, says he.
[14159]
[14160]In Inisfail the fair there lies a land, the land of holy Michan. There
[14161]rises a watchtower beheld of men afar. There sleep the mighty dead as in
[14162]life they slept, warriors and princes of high renown. A pleasant land
[14163]it is in sooth of murmuring waters, fishful streams where sport the
[14164]gurnard, the plaice, the roach, the halibut, the gibbed haddock, the
[14165]grilse, the dab, the brill, the flounder, the pollock, the mixed coarse
[14166]fish generally and other denizens of the aqueous kingdom too numerous to
[14167]be enumerated. In the mild breezes of the west and of the east the lofty
[14168]trees wave in different directions their firstclass foliage, the wafty
[14169]sycamore, the Lebanonian cedar, the exalted planetree, the eugenic
[14170]eucalyptus and other ornaments of the arboreal world with which
[14171]that region is thoroughly well supplied. Lovely maidens sit in close
[14172]proximity to the roots of the lovely trees singing the most lovely songs
[14173]while they play with all kinds of lovely objects as for example golden
[14174]ingots, silvery fishes, crans of herrings, drafts of eels, codlings,
[14175]creels of fingerlings, purple seagems and playful insects. And heroes
[14176]voyage from afar to woo them, from Eblana to Slievemargy, the peerless
[14177]princes of unfettered Munster and of Connacht the just and of smooth
[14178]sleek Leinster and of Cruachan’s land and of Armagh the splendid and
[14179]of the noble district of Boyle, princes, the sons of kings.
[14180]
[14181]And there rises a shining palace whose crystal glittering roof is seen
[14182]by mariners who traverse the extensive sea in barks built expressly for
[14183]that purpose, and thither come all herds and fatlings and firstfruits
[14184]of that land for O’Connell Fitzsimon takes toll of them, a chieftain
[14185]descended from chieftains. Thither the extremely large wains bring
[14186]foison of the fields, flaskets of cauliflowers, floats of spinach,
[14187]pineapple chunks, Rangoon beans, strikes of tomatoes, drums of figs,
[14188]drills of Swedes, spherical potatoes and tallies of iridescent kale,
[14189]York and Savoy, and trays of onions, pearls of the earth, and punnets of
[14190]mushrooms and custard marrows and fat vetches and bere and rape and red
[14191]green yellow brown russet sweet big bitter ripe pomellated apples and
[14192]chips of strawberries and sieves of gooseberries, pulpy and pelurious,
[14193]and strawberries fit for princes and raspberries from their canes.
[14194]
[14195]I dare him, says he, and I doubledare him. Come out here, Geraghty, you
[14196]notorious bloody hill and dale robber!
[14197]
[14198]And by that way wend the herds innumerable of bellwethers and flushed
[14199]ewes and shearling rams and lambs and stubble geese and medium steers
[14200]and roaring mares and polled calves and longwools and storesheep and
[14201]Cuffe’s prime springers and culls and sowpigs and baconhogs and the
[14202]various different varieties of highly distinguished swine and Angus
[14203]heifers and polly bulllocks of immaculate pedigree together with prime
[14204]premiated milchcows and beeves: and there is ever heard a trampling,
[14205]cackling, roaring, lowing, bleating, bellowing, rumbling, grunting,
[14206]champing, chewing, of sheep and pigs and heavyhooved kine from
[14207]pasturelands of Lusk and Rush and Carrickmines and from the streamy
[14208]vales of Thomond, from the M’Gillicuddy’s reeks the inaccessible and
[14209]lordly Shannon the unfathomable, and from the gentle declivities of the
[14210]place of the race of Kiar, their udders distended with superabundance
[14211]of milk and butts of butter and rennets of cheese and farmer’s firkins
[14212]and targets of lamb and crannocks of corn and oblong eggs in great
[14213]hundreds, various in size, the agate with this dun.
[14214]
[14215]So we turned into Barney Kiernan’s and there, sure enough, was the
[14216]citizen up in the corner having a great confab with himself and that
[14217]bloody mangy mongrel, Garryowen, and he waiting for what the sky would
[14218]drop in the way of drink.
[14219]
[14220]—There he is, says I, in his gloryhole, with his cruiskeen lawn and
[14221]his load of papers, working for the cause.
[14222]
[14223]The bloody mongrel let a grouse out of him would give you the creeps. Be
[14224]a corporal work of mercy if someone would take the life of that bloody
[14225]dog. I’m told for a fact he ate a good part of the breeches off a
[14226]constabulary man in Santry that came round one time with a blue paper
[14227]about a licence.
[14228]
[14229]—Stand and deliver, says he.
[14230]
[14231]—That’s all right, citizen, says Joe. Friends here.
[14232]
[14233]—Pass, friends, says he.
[14234]
[14235]Then he rubs his hand in his eye and says he:
[14236]
[14237]—What’s your opinion of the times?
[14238]
[14239]Doing the rapparee and Rory of the hill. But, begob, Joe was equal to
[14240]the occasion.
[14241]
[14242]—I think the markets are on a rise, says he, sliding his hand down his
[14243]fork.
[14244]
[14245]So begob the citizen claps his paw on his knee and he says:
[14246]
[14247]—Foreign wars is the cause of it.
[14248]
[14249]And says Joe, sticking his thumb in his pocket:
[14250]
[14251]—It’s the Russians wish to tyrannise.
[14252]
[14253]—Arrah, give over your bloody codding, Joe, says I. I’ve a thirst on
[14254]me I wouldn’t sell for half a crown.
[14255]
[14256]—Give it a name, citizen, says Joe.
[14257]
[14258]—Wine of the country, says he.
[14259]
[14260]—What’s yours? says Joe.
[14261]
[14262]—Ditto MacAnaspey, says I.
[14263]
[14264]—Three pints, Terry, says Joe. And how’s the old heart, citizen?
[14265]says he.
[14266]
[14267]—Never better, a chara, says he. What Garry? Are we going to win? Eh?
[14268]
[14269]And with that he took the bloody old towser by the scruff of the neck
[14270]and, by Jesus, he near throttled him.
[14271]
[14272]The figure seated on a large boulder at the foot of a round tower was
[14273]that of a broadshouldered deepchested stronglimbed frankeyed redhaired
[14274]freelyfreckled shaggybearded widemouthed largenosed longheaded
[14275]deepvoiced barekneed brawnyhanded hairylegged ruddyfaced sinewyarmed
[14276]hero. From shoulder to shoulder he measured several ells and his
[14277]rocklike mountainous knees were covered, as was likewise the rest of his
[14278]body wherever visible, with a strong growth of tawny prickly hair in
[14279]hue and toughness similar to the mountain gorse (Ulex Europeus).
[14280]The widewinged nostrils, from which bristles of the same tawny hue
[14281]projected, were of such capaciousness that within their cavernous
[14282]obscurity the fieldlark might easily have lodged her nest. The eyes
[14283]in which a tear and a smile strove ever for the mastery were of the
[14284]dimensions of a goodsized cauliflower. A powerful current of warm breath
[14285]issued at regular intervals from the profound cavity of his mouth
[14286]while in rhythmic resonance the loud strong hale reverberations of his
[14287]formidable heart thundered rumblingly causing the ground, the summit of
[14288]the lofty tower and the still loftier walls of the cave to vibrate and
[14289]tremble.
[14290]
[14291]He wore a long unsleeved garment of recently flayed oxhide reaching
[14292]to the knees in a loose kilt and this was bound about his middle by
[14293]a girdle of plaited straw and rushes. Beneath this he wore trews of
[14294]deerskin, roughly stitched with gut. His nether extremities were encased
[14295]in high Balbriggan buskins dyed in lichen purple, the feet being shod
[14296]with brogues of salted cowhide laced with the windpipe of the same
[14297]beast. From his girdle hung a row of seastones which jangled at every
[14298]movement of his portentous frame and on these were graven with rude
[14299]yet striking art the tribal images of many Irish heroes and heroines of
[14300]antiquity, Cuchulin, Conn of hundred battles, Niall of nine hostages,
[14301]Brian of Kincora, the ardri Malachi, Art MacMurragh, Shane O’Neill,
[14302]Father John Murphy, Owen Roe, Patrick Sarsfield, Red Hugh O’Donnell,
[14303]Red Jim MacDermott, Soggarth Eoghan O’Growney, Michael Dwyer, Francy
[14304]Higgins, Henry Joy M’Cracken, Goliath, Horace Wheatley, Thomas
[14305]Conneff, Peg Woffington, the Village Blacksmith, Captain Moonlight,
[14306]Captain Boycott, Dante Alighieri, Christopher Columbus, S. Fursa, S.
[14307]Brendan, Marshal MacMahon, Charlemagne, Theobald Wolfe Tone, the Mother
[14308]of the Maccabees, the Last of the Mohicans, the Rose of Castile, the Man
[14309]for Galway, The Man that Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, The Man in the
[14310]Gap, The Woman Who Didn’t, Benjamin Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte, John
[14311]L. Sullivan, Cleopatra, Savourneen Deelish, Julius Caesar, Paracelsus,
[14312]sir Thomas Lipton, William Tell, Michelangelo Hayes, Muhammad, the
[14313]Bride of Lammermoor, Peter the Hermit, Peter the Packer, Dark Rosaleen,
[14314]Patrick W. Shakespeare, Brian Confucius, Murtagh Gutenberg, Patricio
[14315]Velasquez, Captain Nemo, Tristan and Isolde, the first Prince of Wales,
[14316]Thomas Cook and Son, the Bold Soldier Boy, Arrah na Pogue, Dick Turpin,
[14317]Ludwig Beethoven, the Colleen Bawn, Waddler Healy, Angus the Culdee,
[14318]Dolly Mount, Sidney Parade, Ben Howth, Valentine Greatrakes, Adam and
[14319]Eve, Arthur Wellesley, Boss Croker, Herodotus, Jack the Giantkiller,
[14320]Gautama Buddha, Lady Godiva, The Lily of Killarney, Balor of the Evil
[14321]Eye, the Queen of Sheba, Acky Nagle, Joe Nagle, Alessandro Volta,
[14322]Jeremiah O’Donovan Rossa, Don Philip O’Sullivan Beare. A couched
[14323]spear of acuminated granite rested by him while at his feet reposed a
[14324]savage animal of the canine tribe whose stertorous gasps announced that
[14325]he was sunk in uneasy slumber, a supposition confirmed by hoarse growls
[14326]and spasmodic movements which his master repressed from time to time
[14327]by tranquilising blows of a mighty cudgel rudely fashioned out of
[14328]paleolithic stone.
[14329]
[14330]So anyhow Terry brought the three pints Joe was standing and begob the
[14331]sight nearly left my eyes when I saw him land out a quid. O, as true as
[14332]I’m telling you. A goodlooking sovereign.
[14333]
[14334]—And there’s more where that came from, says he.
[14335]
[14336]—Were you robbing the poorbox, Joe? says I.
[14337]
[14338]—Sweat of my brow, says Joe. ’Twas the prudent member gave me the
[14339]wheeze.
[14340]
[14341]—I saw him before I met you, says I, sloping around by Pill lane and
[14342]Greek street with his cod’s eye counting up all the guts of the fish.
[14343]
[14344]Who comes through Michan’s land, bedight in sable armour? O’Bloom,
[14345]the son of Rory: it is he. Impervious to fear is Rory’s son: he of the
[14346]prudent soul.
[14347]
[14348]—For the old woman of Prince’s street, says the citizen, the
[14349]subsidised organ. The pledgebound party on the floor of the house. And
[14350]look at this blasted rag, says he. Look at this, says he. The Irish
[14351]Independent, if you please, founded by Parnell to be the workingman’s
[14352]friend. Listen to the births and deaths in the Irish all for Ireland
[14353]Independent, and I’ll thank you and the marriages.
[14354]
[14355]And he starts reading them out:
[14356]
[14357]—Gordon, Barnfield crescent, Exeter; Redmayne of Iffley, Saint
[14358]Anne’s on Sea: the wife of William T Redmayne of a son. How’s that,
[14359]eh? Wright and Flint, Vincent and Gillett to Rotha Marion daughter of
[14360]Rosa and the late George Alfred Gillett, 179 Clapham road, Stockwell,
[14361]Playwood and Ridsdale at Saint Jude’s, Kensington by the very reverend
[14362]Dr Forrest, dean of Worcester. Eh? Deaths. Bristow, at Whitehall lane,
[14363]London: Carr, Stoke Newington, of gastritis and heart disease: Cockburn,
[14364]at the Moat house, Chepstow...
[14365]
[14366]—I know that fellow, says Joe, from bitter experience.
[14367]
[14368]—Cockburn. Dimsey, wife of David Dimsey, late of the admiralty:
[14369]Miller, Tottenham, aged eightyfive: Welsh, June 12, at 35 Canning
[14370]street, Liverpool, Isabella Helen. How’s that for a national press,
[14371]eh, my brown son! How’s that for Martin Murphy, the Bantry jobber?
[14372]
[14373]—Ah, well, says Joe, handing round the boose. Thanks be to God they
[14374]had the start of us. Drink that, citizen.
[14375]
[14376]—I will, says he, honourable person.
[14377]
[14378]—Health, Joe, says I. And all down the form.
[14379]
[14380]Ah! Ow! Don’t be talking! I was blue mouldy for the want of that pint.
[14381]Declare to God I could hear it hit the pit of my stomach with a click.
[14382]
[14383]And lo, as they quaffed their cup of joy, a godlike messenger came
[14384]swiftly in, radiant as the eye of heaven, a comely youth and behind him
[14385]there passed an elder of noble gait and countenance, bearing the sacred
[14386]scrolls of law and with him his lady wife a dame of peerless lineage,
[14387]fairest of her race.
[14388]
[14389]Little Alf Bergan popped in round the door and hid behind Barney’s
[14390]snug, squeezed up with the laughing. And who was sitting up there in the
[14391]corner that I hadn’t seen snoring drunk blind to the world only Bob
[14392]Doran. I didn’t know what was up and Alf kept making signs out of the
[14393]door. And begob what was it only that bloody old pantaloon Denis Breen
[14394]in his bathslippers with two bloody big books tucked under his oxter and
[14395]the wife hotfoot after him, unfortunate wretched woman, trotting like a
[14396]poodle. I thought Alf would split.
[14397]
[14398]—Look at him, says he. Breen. He’s traipsing all round Dublin with a
[14399]postcard someone sent him with U. p: up on it to take a li...
[14400]
[14401]And he doubled up.
[14402]
[14403]—Take a what? says I.
[14404]
[14405]—Libel action, says he, for ten thousand pounds.
[14406]
[14407]—O hell! says I.
[14408]
[14409]The bloody mongrel began to growl that’d put the fear of God in you
[14410]seeing something was up but the citizen gave him a kick in the ribs.
[14411]
[14412]—Bi i dho husht, says he.
[14413]
[14414]—Who? says Joe.
[14415]
[14416]—Breen, says Alf. He was in John Henry Menton’s and then he went
[14417]round to Collis and Ward’s and then Tom Rochford met him and sent him
[14418]round to the subsheriff’s for a lark. O God, I’ve a pain laughing.
[14419]U. p: up. The long fellow gave him an eye as good as a process and now
[14420]the bloody old lunatic is gone round to Green street to look for a G
[14421]man.
[14422]
[14423]—When is long John going to hang that fellow in Mountjoy? says Joe.
[14424]
[14425]—Bergan, says Bob Doran, waking up. Is that Alf Bergan?
[14426]
[14427]—Yes, says Alf. Hanging? Wait till I show you. Here, Terry, give us
[14428]a pony. That bloody old fool! Ten thousand pounds. You should have seen
[14429]long John’s eye. U. p ....
[14430]
[14431]And he started laughing.
[14432]
[14433]—Who are you laughing at? says Bob Doran. Is that Bergan?
[14434]
[14435]—Hurry up, Terry boy, says Alf.
[14436]
[14437]Terence O’Ryan heard him and straightway brought him a crystal cup
[14438]full of the foamy ebon ale which the noble twin brothers Bungiveagh and
[14439]Bungardilaun brew ever in their divine alevats, cunning as the sons of
[14440]deathless Leda. For they garner the succulent berries of the hop and
[14441]mass and sift and bruise and brew them and they mix therewith sour
[14442]juices and bring the must to the sacred fire and cease not night or day
[14443]from their toil, those cunning brothers, lords of the vat.
[14444]
[14445]Then did you, chivalrous Terence, hand forth, as to the manner born,
[14446]that nectarous beverage and you offered the crystal cup to him that
[14447]thirsted, the soul of chivalry, in beauty akin to the immortals.
[14448]
[14449]But he, the young chief of the O’Bergan’s, could ill brook to be
[14450]outdone in generous deeds but gave therefor with gracious gesture a
[14451]testoon of costliest bronze. Thereon embossed in excellent smithwork
[14452]was seen the image of a queen of regal port, scion of the house of
[14453]Brunswick, Victoria her name, Her Most Excellent Majesty, by grace
[14454]of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of the
[14455]British dominions beyond the sea, queen, defender of the faith, Empress
[14456]of India, even she, who bore rule, a victress over many peoples, the
[14457]wellbeloved, for they knew and loved her from the rising of the sun to
[14458]the going down thereof, the pale, the dark, the ruddy and the ethiop.
[14459]
[14460]—What’s that bloody freemason doing, says the citizen, prowling up
[14461]and down outside?
[14462]
[14463]—What’s that? says Joe.
[14464]
[14465]—Here you are, says Alf, chucking out the rhino. Talking about
[14466]hanging, I’ll show you something you never saw. Hangmen’s letters.
[14467]Look at here.
[14468]
[14469]So he took a bundle of wisps of letters and envelopes out of his pocket.
[14470]
[14471]—Are you codding? says I.
[14472]
[14473]—Honest injun, says Alf. Read them.
[14474]
[14475]So Joe took up the letters.
[14476]
[14477]—Who are you laughing at? says Bob Doran.
[14478]
[14479]So I saw there was going to be a bit of a dust. Bob’s a queer chap
[14480]when the porter’s up in him so says I just to make talk:
[14481]
[14482]—How’s Willy Murray those times, Alf?
[14483]
[14484]—I don’t know, says Alf. I saw him just now in Capel street with
[14485]Paddy Dignam. Only I was running after that...
[14486]
[14487]—You what? says Joe, throwing down the letters. With who?
[14488]
[14489]—With Dignam, says Alf.
[14490]
[14491]—Is it Paddy? says Joe.
[14492]
[14493]—Yes, says Alf. Why?
[14494]
[14495]—Don’t you know he’s dead? says Joe.
[14496]
[14497]—Paddy Dignam dead! says Alf.
[14498]
[14499]—Ay, says Joe.
[14500]
[14501]—Sure I’m after seeing him not five minutes ago, says Alf, as plain
[14502]as a pikestaff.
[14503]
[14504]—Who’s dead? says Bob Doran.
[14505]
[14506]—You saw his ghost then, says Joe, God between us and harm.
[14507]
[14508]—What? says Alf. Good Christ, only five... What?... And Willy Murray
[14509]with him, the two of them there near whatdoyoucallhim’s... What?
[14510]Dignam dead?
[14511]
[14512]—What about Dignam? says Bob Doran. Who’s talking about...?
[14513]
[14514]—Dead! says Alf. He’s no more dead than you are.
[14515]
[14516]—Maybe so, says Joe. They took the liberty of burying him this morning
[14517]anyhow.
[14518]
[14519]—Paddy? says Alf.
[14520]
[14521]—Ay, says Joe. He paid the debt of nature, God be merciful to him.
[14522]
[14523]—Good Christ! says Alf.
[14524]
[14525]Begob he was what you might call flabbergasted.
[14526]
[14527]In the darkness spirit hands were felt to flutter and when prayer by
[14528]tantras had been directed to the proper quarter a faint but increasing
[14529]luminosity of ruby light became gradually visible, the apparition of
[14530]the etheric double being particularly lifelike owing to the discharge
[14531]of jivic rays from the crown of the head and face. Communication was
[14532]effected through the pituitary body and also by means of the orangefiery
[14533]and scarlet rays emanating from the sacral region and solar plexus.
[14534]Questioned by his earthname as to his whereabouts in the heavenworld he
[14535]stated that he was now on the path of pralaya or return but was still
[14536]submitted to trial at the hands of certain bloodthirsty entities on the
[14537]lower astral levels. In reply to a question as to his first sensations
[14538]in the great divide beyond he stated that previously he had seen as in a
[14539]glass darkly but that those who had passed over had summit possibilities
[14540]of atmic development opened up to them. Interrogated as to whether life
[14541]there resembled our experience in the flesh he stated that he had heard
[14542]from more favoured beings now in the spirit that their abodes were
[14543]equipped with every modern home comfort such as talafana, alavatar,
[14544]hatakalda, wataklasat and that the highest adepts were steeped in
[14545]waves of volupcy of the very purest nature. Having requested a quart of
[14546]buttermilk this was brought and evidently afforded relief. Asked if he
[14547]had any message for the living he exhorted all who were still at the
[14548]wrong side of Maya to acknowledge the true path for it was reported
[14549]in devanic circles that Mars and Jupiter were out for mischief on the
[14550]eastern angle where the ram has power. It was then queried whether there
[14551]were any special desires on the part of the defunct and the reply was:
[14552]We greet you, friends of earth, who are still in the body. Mind C. K.
[14553]doesn’t pile it on. It was ascertained that the reference was to
[14554]Mr Cornelius Kelleher, manager of Messrs H. J. O’Neill’s popular
[14555]funeral establishment, a personal friend of the defunct, who had been
[14556]responsible for the carrying out of the interment arrangements. Before
[14557]departing he requested that it should be told to his dear son Patsy that
[14558]the other boot which he had been looking for was at present under
[14559]the commode in the return room and that the pair should be sent to
[14560]Cullen’s to be soled only as the heels were still good. He stated that
[14561]this had greatly perturbed his peace of mind in the other region and
[14562]earnestly requested that his desire should be made known.
[14563]
[14564]Assurances were given that the matter would be attended to and it was
[14565]intimated that this had given satisfaction.
[14566]
[14567]He is gone from mortal haunts: O’Dignam, sun of our morning. Fleet was
[14568]his foot on the bracken: Patrick of the beamy brow. Wail, Banba, with
[14569]your wind: and wail, O ocean, with your whirlwind.
[14570]
[14571]—There he is again, says the citizen, staring out.
[14572]
[14573]—Who? says I.
[14574]
[14575]—Bloom, says he. He’s on point duty up and down there for the last
[14576]ten minutes.
[14577]
[14578]And, begob, I saw his physog do a peep in and then slidder off again.
[14579]
[14580]Little Alf was knocked bawways. Faith, he was.
[14581]
[14582]—Good Christ! says he. I could have sworn it was him.
[14583]
[14584]And says Bob Doran, with the hat on the back of his poll, lowest
[14585]blackguard in Dublin when he’s under the influence:
[14586]
[14587]—Who said Christ is good?
[14588]
[14589]—I beg your parsnips, says Alf.
[14590]
[14591]—Is that a good Christ, says Bob Doran, to take away poor little Willy
[14592]Dignam?
[14593]
[14594]—Ah, well, says Alf, trying to pass it off. He’s over all his
[14595]troubles.
[14596]
[14597]But Bob Doran shouts out of him.
[14598]
[14599]—He’s a bloody ruffian, I say, to take away poor little Willy
[14600]Dignam.
[14601]
[14602]Terry came down and tipped him the wink to keep quiet, that they
[14603]didn’t want that kind of talk in a respectable licensed premises. And
[14604]Bob Doran starts doing the weeps about Paddy Dignam, true as you’re
[14605]there.
[14606]
[14607]—The finest man, says he, snivelling, the finest purest character.
[14608]
[14609]The tear is bloody near your eye. Talking through his bloody hat. Fitter
[14610]for him go home to the little sleepwalking bitch he married, Mooney,
[14611]the bumbailiff’s daughter, mother kept a kip in Hardwicke street, that
[14612]used to be stravaging about the landings Bantam Lyons told me that was
[14613]stopping there at two in the morning without a stitch on her, exposing
[14614]her person, open to all comers, fair field and no favour.
[14615]
[14616]—The noblest, the truest, says he. And he’s gone, poor little Willy,
[14617]poor little Paddy Dignam.
[14618]
[14619]And mournful and with a heavy heart he bewept the extinction of that
[14620]beam of heaven.
[14621]
[14622]Old Garryowen started growling again at Bloom that was skeezing round
[14623]the door.
[14624]
[14625]—Come in, come on, he won’t eat you, says the citizen.
[14626]
[14627]So Bloom slopes in with his cod’s eye on the dog and he asks Terry was
[14628]Martin Cunningham there.
[14629]
[14630]—O, Christ M’Keown, says Joe, reading one of the letters. Listen to
[14631]this, will you?
[14632]
[14633]And he starts reading out one.
[14634]
[14635] 7 Hunter Street,
[14636] Liverpool.
[14637] To the High Sheriff of Dublin,
[14638] Dublin.
[14639]Honoured sir i beg to offer my services in the abovementioned painful
[14640]case i hanged Joe Gann in Bootle jail on the 12 of Febuary 1900 and i
[14641]hanged...
[14642]
[14643]—Show us, Joe, says I.
[14644]
[14645]—... private Arthur Chace for fowl murder of Jessie Tilsit in
[14646]Pentonville prison and i was assistant when...
[14647]
[14648]—Jesus, says I.
[14649]
[14650]—... Billington executed the awful murderer Toad Smith...
[14651]
[14652]The citizen made a grab at the letter.
[14653]
[14654]—Hold hard, says Joe, i have a special nack of putting the noose once
[14655]in he can’t get out hoping to be favoured i remain, honoured sir, my
[14656]terms is five ginnees.
[14657]
[14658] H. Rumbold,
[14659] Master Barber.
[14660]—And a barbarous bloody barbarian he is too, says the citizen.
[14661]
[14662]—And the dirty scrawl of the wretch, says Joe. Here, says he, take
[14663]them to hell out of my sight, Alf. Hello, Bloom, says he, what will you
[14664]have?
[14665]
[14666]So they started arguing about the point, Bloom saying he wouldn’t and
[14667]he couldn’t and excuse him no offence and all to that and then he
[14668]said well he’d just take a cigar. Gob, he’s a prudent member and no
[14669]mistake.
[14670]
[14671]—Give us one of your prime stinkers, Terry, says Joe.
[14672]
[14673]And Alf was telling us there was one chap sent in a mourning card with a
[14674]black border round it.
[14675]
[14676]—They’re all barbers, says he, from the black country that would
[14677]hang their own fathers for five quid down and travelling expenses.
[14678]
[14679]And he was telling us there’s two fellows waiting below to pull his
[14680]heels down when he gets the drop and choke him properly and then they
[14681]chop up the rope after and sell the bits for a few bob a skull.
[14682]
[14683]In the dark land they bide, the vengeful knights of the razor. Their
[14684]deadly coil they grasp: yea, and therein they lead to Erebus whatsoever
[14685]wight hath done a deed of blood for I will on nowise suffer it even so
[14686]saith the Lord.
[14687]
[14688]So they started talking about capital punishment and of course Bloom
[14689]comes out with the why and the wherefore and all the codology of the
[14690]business and the old dog smelling him all the time I’m told those
[14691]jewies does have a sort of a queer odour coming off them for dogs about
[14692]I don’t know what all deterrent effect and so forth and so on.
[14693]
[14694]—There’s one thing it hasn’t a deterrent effect on, says Alf.
[14695]
[14696]—What’s that? says Joe.
[14697]
[14698]—The poor bugger’s tool that’s being hanged, says Alf.
[14699]
[14700]—That so? says Joe.
[14701]
[14702]—God’s truth, says Alf. I heard that from the head warder that was
[14703]in Kilmainham when they hanged Joe Brady, the invincible. He told me
[14704]when they cut him down after the drop it was standing up in their faces
[14705]like a poker.
[14706]
[14707]—Ruling passion strong in death, says Joe, as someone said.
[14708]
[14709]—That can be explained by science, says Bloom. It’s only a natural
[14710]phenomenon, don’t you see, because on account of the...
[14711]
[14712]And then he starts with his jawbreakers about phenomenon and science and
[14713]this phenomenon and the other phenomenon.
[14714]
[14715]The distinguished scientist Herr Professor Luitpold Blumenduft tendered
[14716]medical evidence to the effect that the instantaneous fracture of the
[14717]cervical vertebrae and consequent scission of the spinal cord would,
[14718]according to the best approved tradition of medical science, be
[14719]calculated to inevitably produce in the human subject a violent
[14720]ganglionic stimulus of the nerve centres of the genital apparatus,
[14721]thereby causing the elastic pores of the corpora cavernosa to rapidly
[14722]dilate in such a way as to instantaneously facilitate the flow of blood
[14723]to that part of the human anatomy known as the penis or male organ
[14724]resulting in the phenomenon which has been denominated by the faculty a
[14725]morbid upwards and outwards philoprogenitive erection in articulo mortis
[14726]per diminutionem capitis.
[14727]
[14728]So of course the citizen was only waiting for the wink of the word and
[14729]he starts gassing out of him about the invincibles and the old guard and
[14730]the men of sixtyseven and who fears to speak of ninetyeight and Joe with
[14731]him about all the fellows that were hanged, drawn and transported for
[14732]the cause by drumhead courtmartial and a new Ireland and new this, that
[14733]and the other. Talking about new Ireland he ought to go and get a new
[14734]dog so he ought. Mangy ravenous brute sniffing and sneezing all round
[14735]the place and scratching his scabs. And round he goes to Bob Doran that
[14736]was standing Alf a half one sucking up for what he could get. So of
[14737]course Bob Doran starts doing the bloody fool with him:
[14738]
[14739]—Give us the paw! Give the paw, doggy! Good old doggy! Give the paw
[14740]here! Give us the paw!
[14741]
[14742]Arrah, bloody end to the paw he’d paw and Alf trying to keep him from
[14743]tumbling off the bloody stool atop of the bloody old dog and he talking
[14744]all kinds of drivel about training by kindness and thoroughbred dog and
[14745]intelligent dog: give you the bloody pip. Then he starts scraping a few
[14746]bits of old biscuit out of the bottom of a Jacobs’ tin he told Terry
[14747]to bring. Gob, he golloped it down like old boots and his tongue hanging
[14748]out of him a yard long for more. Near ate the tin and all, hungry bloody
[14749]mongrel.
[14750]
[14751]And the citizen and Bloom having an argument about the point, the
[14752]brothers Sheares and Wolfe Tone beyond on Arbour Hill and Robert Emmet
[14753]and die for your country, the Tommy Moore touch about Sara Curran and
[14754]she’s far from the land. And Bloom, of course, with his knockmedown
[14755]cigar putting on swank with his lardy face. Phenomenon! The fat heap he
[14756]married is a nice old phenomenon with a back on her like a ballalley.
[14757]Time they were stopping up in the City Arms pisser Burke told me there
[14758]was an old one there with a cracked loodheramaun of a nephew and
[14759]Bloom trying to get the soft side of her doing the mollycoddle playing
[14760]bézique to come in for a bit of the wampum in her will and not eating
[14761]meat of a Friday because the old one was always thumping her craw and
[14762]taking the lout out for a walk. And one time he led him the rounds of
[14763]Dublin and, by the holy farmer, he never cried crack till he brought
[14764]him home as drunk as a boiled owl and he said he did it to teach him the
[14765]evils of alcohol and by herrings, if the three women didn’t near roast
[14766]him, it’s a queer story, the old one, Bloom’s wife and Mrs O’Dowd
[14767]that kept the hotel. Jesus, I had to laugh at pisser Burke taking them
[14768]off chewing the fat. And Bloom with his but don’t you see? and but
[14769]on the other hand. And sure, more be token, the lout I’m told was
[14770]in Power’s after, the blender’s, round in Cope street going home
[14771]footless in a cab five times in the week after drinking his way through
[14772]all the samples in the bloody establishment. Phenomenon!
[14773]
[14774]—The memory of the dead, says the citizen taking up his pintglass and
[14775]glaring at Bloom.
[14776]
[14777]—Ay, ay, says Joe.
[14778]
[14779]—You don’t grasp my point, says Bloom. What I mean is...
[14780]
[14781]—Sinn Fein! says the citizen. Sinn Fein amhain! The friends we love
[14782]are by our side and the foes we hate before us.
[14783]
[14784]The last farewell was affecting in the extreme. From the belfries far
[14785]and near the funereal deathbell tolled unceasingly while all around the
[14786]gloomy precincts rolled the ominous warning of a hundred muffled drums
[14787]punctuated by the hollow booming of pieces of ordnance. The deafening
[14788]claps of thunder and the dazzling flashes of lightning which lit up
[14789]the ghastly scene testified that the artillery of heaven had lent its
[14790]supernatural pomp to the already gruesome spectacle. A torrential rain
[14791]poured down from the floodgates of the angry heavens upon the
[14792]bared heads of the assembled multitude which numbered at the
[14793]lowest computation five hundred thousand persons. A posse of Dublin
[14794]Metropolitan police superintended by the Chief Commissioner in person
[14795]maintained order in the vast throng for whom the York street brass and
[14796]reed band whiled away the intervening time by admirably rendering on
[14797]their blackdraped instruments the matchless melody endeared to us from
[14798]the cradle by Speranza’s plaintive muse. Special quick excursion
[14799]trains and upholstered charabancs had been provided for the comfort of
[14800]our country cousins of whom there were large contingents. Considerable
[14801]amusement was caused by the favourite Dublin streetsingers L-n-h-n and
[14802]M-ll-g-n who sang The Night before Larry was stretched in their usual
[14803]mirth-provoking fashion. Our two inimitable drolls did a roaring trade
[14804]with their broadsheets among lovers of the comedy element and nobody
[14805]who has a corner in his heart for real Irish fun without vulgarity
[14806]will grudge them their hardearned pennies. The children of the Male and
[14807]Female Foundling Hospital who thronged the windows overlooking the
[14808]scene were delighted with this unexpected addition to the day’s
[14809]entertainment and a word of praise is due to the Little Sisters of
[14810]the Poor for their excellent idea of affording the poor fatherless
[14811]and motherless children a genuinely instructive treat. The viceregal
[14812]houseparty which included many wellknown ladies was chaperoned by Their
[14813]Excellencies to the most favourable positions on the grandstand while
[14814]the picturesque foreign delegation known as the Friends of the Emerald
[14815]Isle was accommodated on a tribune directly opposite. The delegation,
[14816]present in full force, consisted of Commendatore Bacibaci Beninobenone
[14817](the semiparalysed doyen of the party who had to be assisted to his
[14818]seat by the aid of a powerful steam crane), Monsieur Pierrepaul
[14819]Petitépatant, the Grandjoker Vladinmire Pokethankertscheff, the
[14820]Archjoker Leopold Rudolph von Schwanzenbad-Hodenthaler, Countess Marha
[14821]Virága Kisászony Putrápesthi, Hiram Y. Bomboost, Count Athanatos
[14822]Karamelopulos, Ali Baba Backsheesh Rahat Lokum Effendi, Señor Hidalgo
[14823]Caballero Don Pecadillo y Palabras y Paternoster de la Malora de la
[14824]Malaria, Hokopoko Harakiri, Hi Hung Chang, Olaf Kobberkeddelsen,
[14825]Mynheer Trik van Trumps, Pan Poleaxe Paddyrisky, Goosepond Prhklstr
[14826]Kratchinabritchisitch, Borus Hupinkoff, Herr
[14827]Hurhausdirektorpresident Hans Chuechli-Steuerli,
[14828]Nationalgymnasiummuseumsanatoriumandsuspensoriumsordinaryprivatdocentgeneralhistoryspecialprofessordoctor
[14829]Kriegfried Ueberallgemein. All the delegates without exception expressed
[14830]themselves in the strongest possible heterogeneous terms concerning
[14831]the nameless barbarity which they had been called upon to witness. An
[14832]animated altercation (in which all took part) ensued among the F. O.
[14833]T. E. I. as to whether the eighth or the ninth of March was the correct
[14834]date of the birth of Ireland’s patron saint. In the course of the
[14835]argument cannonballs, scimitars, boomerangs, blunderbusses, stinkpots,
[14836]meatchoppers, umbrellas, catapults, knuckledusters, sandbags, lumps
[14837]of pig iron were resorted to and blows were freely exchanged. The
[14838]baby policeman, Constable MacFadden, summoned by special courier from
[14839]Booterstown, quickly restored order and with lightning promptitude
[14840]proposed the seventeenth of the month as a solution equally honourable
[14841]for both contending parties. The readywitted ninefooter’s suggestion
[14842]at once appealed to all and was unanimously accepted. Constable
[14843]MacFadden was heartily congratulated by all the F. O. T. E. I., several
[14844]of whom were bleeding profusely. Commendatore Beninobenone having been
[14845]extricated from underneath the presidential armchair, it was explained
[14846]by his legal adviser Avvocato Pagamimi that the various articles
[14847]secreted in his thirtytwo pockets had been abstracted by him during the
[14848]affray from the pockets of his junior colleagues in the hope of bringing
[14849]them to their senses. The objects (which included several hundred
[14850]ladies’ and gentlemen’s gold and silver watches) were promptly
[14851]restored to their rightful owners and general harmony reigned supreme.
[14852]
[14853]Quietly, unassumingly Rumbold stepped on to the scaffold in faultless
[14854]morning dress and wearing his favourite flower, the Gladiolus Cruentus.
[14855]He announced his presence by that gentle Rumboldian cough which so many
[14856]have tried (unsuccessfully) to imitate—short, painstaking yet withal
[14857]so characteristic of the man. The arrival of the worldrenowned headsman
[14858]was greeted by a roar of acclamation from the huge concourse, the
[14859]viceregal ladies waving their handkerchiefs in their excitement while
[14860]the even more excitable foreign delegates cheered vociferously in a
[14861]medley of cries, hoch, banzai, eljen, zivio, chinchin, polla kronia,
[14862]hiphip, vive, Allah, amid which the ringing evviva of the delegate of
[14863]the land of song (a high double F recalling those piercingly
[14864]lovely notes with which the eunuch Catalani beglamoured our
[14865]greatgreatgrandmothers) was easily distinguishable. It was exactly
[14866]seventeen o’clock. The signal for prayer was then promptly given by
[14867]megaphone and in an instant all heads were bared, the commendatore’s
[14868]patriarchal sombrero, which has been in the possession of his family
[14869]since the revolution of Rienzi, being removed by his medical adviser
[14870]in attendance, Dr Pippi. The learned prelate who administered the last
[14871]comforts of holy religion to the hero martyr when about to pay the death
[14872]penalty knelt in a most christian spirit in a pool of rainwater, his
[14873]cassock above his hoary head, and offered up to the throne of grace
[14874]fervent prayers of supplication. Hard by the block stood the grim figure
[14875]of the executioner, his visage being concealed in a tengallon pot
[14876]with two circular perforated apertures through which his eyes glowered
[14877]furiously. As he awaited the fatal signal he tested the edge of his
[14878]horrible weapon by honing it upon his brawny forearm or decapitated
[14879]in rapid succession a flock of sheep which had been provided by the
[14880]admirers of his fell but necessary office. On a handsome mahogany table
[14881]near him were neatly arranged the quartering knife, the various
[14882]finely tempered disembowelling appliances (specially supplied by the
[14883]worldfamous firm of cutlers, Messrs John Round and Sons, Sheffield),
[14884]a terra cotta saucepan for the reception of the duodenum, colon,
[14885]blind intestine and appendix etc when successfully extracted and two
[14886]commodious milkjugs destined to receive the most precious blood of the
[14887]most precious victim. The housesteward of the amalgamated cats’ and
[14888]dogs’ home was in attendance to convey these vessels when replenished
[14889]to that beneficent institution. Quite an excellent repast consisting of
[14890]rashers and eggs, fried steak and onions, done to a nicety, delicious
[14891]hot breakfast rolls and invigorating tea had been considerately provided
[14892]by the authorities for the consumption of the central figure of the
[14893]tragedy who was in capital spirits when prepared for death and evinced
[14894]the keenest interest in the proceedings from beginning to end but he,
[14895]with an abnegation rare in these our times, rose nobly to the occasion
[14896]and expressed the dying wish (immediately acceded to) that the meal
[14897]should be divided in aliquot parts among the members of the sick and
[14898]indigent roomkeepers’ association as a token of his regard and esteem.
[14899]The nec and non plus ultra of emotion were reached when the blushing
[14900]bride elect burst her way through the serried ranks of the bystanders
[14901]and flung herself upon the muscular bosom of him who was about to be
[14902]launched into eternity for her sake. The hero folded her willowy form in
[14903]a loving embrace murmuring fondly Sheila, my own. Encouraged by this use
[14904]of her christian name she kissed passionately all the various suitable
[14905]areas of his person which the decencies of prison garb permitted her
[14906]ardour to reach. She swore to him as they mingled the salt streams of
[14907]their tears that she would ever cherish his memory, that she would never
[14908]forget her hero boy who went to his death with a song on his lips as if
[14909]he were but going to a hurling match in Clonturk park. She brought back
[14910]to his recollection the happy days of blissful childhood together on the
[14911]banks of Anna Liffey when they had indulged in the innocent pastimes
[14912]of the young and, oblivious of the dreadful present, they both laughed
[14913]heartily, all the spectators, including the venerable pastor, joining in
[14914]the general merriment. That monster audience simply rocked with delight.
[14915]But anon they were overcome with grief and clasped their hands for the
[14916]last time. A fresh torrent of tears burst from their lachrymal ducts
[14917]and the vast concourse of people, touched to the inmost core, broke
[14918]into heartrending sobs, not the least affected being the aged prebendary
[14919]himself. Big strong men, officers of the peace and genial giants of the
[14920]royal Irish constabulary, were making frank use of their handkerchiefs
[14921]and it is safe to say that there was not a dry eye in that record
[14922]assemblage. A most romantic incident occurred when a handsome young
[14923]Oxford graduate, noted for his chivalry towards the fair sex, stepped
[14924]forward and, presenting his visiting card, bankbook and genealogical
[14925]tree, solicited the hand of the hapless young lady, requesting her to
[14926]name the day, and was accepted on the spot. Every lady in the audience
[14927]was presented with a tasteful souvenir of the occasion in the shape of
[14928]a skull and crossbones brooch, a timely and generous act which evoked
[14929]a fresh outburst of emotion: and when the gallant young Oxonian (the
[14930]bearer, by the way, of one of the most timehonoured names in Albion’s
[14931]history) placed on the finger of his blushing fiancée an expensive
[14932]engagement ring with emeralds set in the form of a fourleaved shamrock
[14933]the excitement knew no bounds. Nay, even the stern provostmarshal,
[14934]lieutenantcolonel Tomkin-Maxwell ffrenchmullan Tomlinson, who presided
[14935]on the sad occasion, he who had blown a considerable number of sepoys
[14936]from the cannonmouth without flinching, could not now restrain his
[14937]natural emotion. With his mailed gauntlet he brushed away a furtive tear
[14938]and was overheard, by those privileged burghers who happened to be in
[14939]his immediate entourage, to murmur to himself in a faltering undertone:
[14940]
[14941]—God blimey if she aint a clinker, that there bleeding tart. Blimey it
[14942]makes me kind of bleeding cry, straight, it does, when I sees her cause
[14943]I thinks of my old mashtub what’s waiting for me down Limehouse way.
[14944]
[14945]So then the citizen begins talking about the Irish language and the
[14946]corporation meeting and all to that and the shoneens that can’t speak
[14947]their own language and Joe chipping in because he stuck someone for a
[14948]quid and Bloom putting in his old goo with his twopenny stump that
[14949]he cadged off of Joe and talking about the Gaelic league and the
[14950]antitreating league and drink, the curse of Ireland. Antitreating is
[14951]about the size of it. Gob, he’d let you pour all manner of drink down
[14952]his throat till the Lord would call him before you’d ever see the
[14953]froth of his pint. And one night I went in with a fellow into one of
[14954]their musical evenings, song and dance about she could get up on a truss
[14955]of hay she could my Maureen Lay and there was a fellow with a Ballyhooly
[14956]blue ribbon badge spiffing out of him in Irish and a lot of colleen
[14957]bawns going about with temperance beverages and selling medals
[14958]and oranges and lemonade and a few old dry buns, gob, flahoolagh
[14959]entertainment, don’t be talking. Ireland sober is Ireland free. And
[14960]then an old fellow starts blowing into his bagpipes and all the gougers
[14961]shuffling their feet to the tune the old cow died of. And one or two
[14962]sky pilots having an eye around that there was no goings on with the
[14963]females, hitting below the belt.
[14964]
[14965]So howandever, as I was saying, the old dog seeing the tin was empty
[14966]starts mousing around by Joe and me. I’d train him by kindness, so
[14967]I would, if he was my dog. Give him a rousing fine kick now and again
[14968]where it wouldn’t blind him.
[14969]
[14970]—Afraid he’ll bite you? says the citizen, jeering.
[14971]
[14972]—No, says I. But he might take my leg for a lamppost.
[14973]
[14974]So he calls the old dog over.
[14975]
[14976]—What’s on you, Garry? says he.
[14977]
[14978]Then he starts hauling and mauling and talking to him in Irish and the
[14979]old towser growling, letting on to answer, like a duet in the opera.
[14980]Such growling you never heard as they let off between them. Someone that
[14981]has nothing better to do ought to write a letter pro bono publico to the
[14982]papers about the muzzling order for a dog the like of that. Growling
[14983]and grousing and his eye all bloodshot from the drouth is in it and the
[14984]hydrophobia dropping out of his jaws.
[14985]
[14986]All those who are interested in the spread of human culture among the
[14987]lower animals (and their name is legion) should make a point of not
[14988]missing the really marvellous exhibition of cynanthropy given by the
[14989]famous old Irish red setter wolfdog formerly known by the sobriquet of
[14990]Garryowen and recently rechristened by his large circle of friends and
[14991]acquaintances Owen Garry. The exhibition, which is the result of years
[14992]of training by kindness and a carefully thoughtout dietary system,
[14993]comprises, among other achievements, the recitation of verse. Our
[14994]greatest living phonetic expert (wild horses shall not drag it from us!)
[14995]has left no stone unturned in his efforts to delucidate and compare the
[14996]verse recited and has found it bears a striking resemblance (the italics
[14997]are ours) to the ranns of ancient Celtic bards. We are not speaking so
[14998]much of those delightful lovesongs with which the writer who conceals
[14999]his identity under the graceful pseudonym of the Little Sweet Branch has
[15000]familiarised the bookloving world but rather (as a contributor D. O.
[15001]C. points out in an interesting communication published by an evening
[15002]contemporary) of the harsher and more personal note which is found in
[15003]the satirical effusions of the famous Raftery and of Donal MacConsidine
[15004]to say nothing of a more modern lyrist at present very much in the
[15005]public eye. We subjoin a specimen which has been rendered into English
[15006]by an eminent scholar whose name for the moment we are not at liberty
[15007]to disclose though we believe that our readers will find the topical
[15008]allusion rather more than an indication. The metrical system of
[15009]the canine original, which recalls the intricate alliterative and
[15010]isosyllabic rules of the Welsh englyn, is infinitely more complicated
[15011]but we believe our readers will agree that the spirit has been well
[15012]caught. Perhaps it should be added that the effect is greatly increased
[15013]if Owen’s verse be spoken somewhat slowly and indistinctly in a tone
[15014]suggestive of suppressed rancour.
[15015]
[15016] The curse of my curses
[15017] Seven days every day
[15018] And seven dry Thursdays
[15019] On you, Barney Kiernan,
[15020] Has no sup of water
[15021] To cool my courage,
[15022] And my guts red roaring
[15023] After Lowry’s lights.
[15024]So he told Terry to bring some water for the dog and, gob, you could
[15025]hear him lapping it up a mile off. And Joe asked him would he have
[15026]another.
[15027]
[15028]—I will, says he, a chara, to show there’s no ill feeling.
[15029]
[15030]Gob, he’s not as green as he’s cabbagelooking. Arsing around from
[15031]one pub to another, leaving it to your own honour, with old Giltrap’s
[15032]dog and getting fed up by the ratepayers and corporators. Entertainment
[15033]for man and beast. And says Joe:
[15034]
[15035]—Could you make a hole in another pint?
[15036]
[15037]—Could a swim duck? says I.
[15038]
[15039]—Same again, Terry, says Joe. Are you sure you won’t have anything
[15040]in the way of liquid refreshment? says he.
[15041]
[15042]—Thank you, no, says Bloom. As a matter of fact I just wanted to
[15043]meet Martin Cunningham, don’t you see, about this insurance of poor
[15044]Dignam’s. Martin asked me to go to the house. You see, he, Dignam, I
[15045]mean, didn’t serve any notice of the assignment on the company at the
[15046]time and nominally under the act the mortgagee can’t recover on the
[15047]policy.
[15048]
[15049]—Holy Wars, says Joe, laughing, that’s a good one if old Shylock is
[15050]landed. So the wife comes out top dog, what?
[15051]
[15052]—Well, that’s a point, says Bloom, for the wife’s admirers.
[15053]
[15054]—Whose admirers? says Joe.
[15055]
[15056]—The wife’s advisers, I mean, says Bloom.
[15057]
[15058]Then he starts all confused mucking it up about mortgagor under the act
[15059]like the lord chancellor giving it out on the bench and for the benefit
[15060]of the wife and that a trust is created but on the other hand that
[15061]Dignam owed Bridgeman the money and if now the wife or the widow
[15062]contested the mortgagee’s right till he near had the head of me addled
[15063]with his mortgagor under the act. He was bloody safe he wasn’t run in
[15064]himself under the act that time as a rogue and vagabond only he had a
[15065]friend in court. Selling bazaar tickets or what do you call it royal
[15066]Hungarian privileged lottery. True as you’re there. O, commend me to
[15067]an israelite! Royal and privileged Hungarian robbery.
[15068]
[15069]So Bob Doran comes lurching around asking Bloom to tell Mrs Dignam he
[15070]was sorry for her trouble and he was very sorry about the funeral and
[15071]to tell her that he said and everyone who knew him said that there was
[15072]never a truer, a finer than poor little Willy that’s dead to tell her.
[15073]Choking with bloody foolery. And shaking Bloom’s hand doing the tragic
[15074]to tell her that. Shake hands, brother. You’re a rogue and I’m
[15075]another.
[15076]
[15077]—Let me, said he, so far presume upon our acquaintance which, however
[15078]slight it may appear if judged by the standard of mere time, is founded,
[15079]as I hope and believe, on a sentiment of mutual esteem as to request of
[15080]you this favour. But, should I have overstepped the limits of reserve
[15081]let the sincerity of my feelings be the excuse for my boldness.
[15082]
[15083]—No, rejoined the other, I appreciate to the full the motives which
[15084]actuate your conduct and I shall discharge the office you entrust to
[15085]me consoled by the reflection that, though the errand be one of sorrow,
[15086]this proof of your confidence sweetens in some measure the bitterness of
[15087]the cup.
[15088]
[15089]—Then suffer me to take your hand, said he. The goodness of your
[15090]heart, I feel sure, will dictate to you better than my inadequate words
[15091]the expressions which are most suitable to convey an emotion whose
[15092]poignancy, were I to give vent to my feelings, would deprive me even of
[15093]speech.
[15094]
[15095]And off with him and out trying to walk straight. Boosed at five
[15096]o’clock. Night he was near being lagged only Paddy Leonard knew the
[15097]bobby, 14A. Blind to the world up in a shebeen in Bride street after
[15098]closing time, fornicating with two shawls and a bully on guard, drinking
[15099]porter out of teacups. And calling himself a Frenchy for the shawls,
[15100]Joseph Manuo, and talking against the Catholic religion, and he serving
[15101]mass in Adam and Eve’s when he was young with his eyes shut, who wrote
[15102]the new testament, and the old testament, and hugging and smugging. And
[15103]the two shawls killed with the laughing, picking his pockets, the bloody
[15104]fool and he spilling the porter all over the bed and the two shawls
[15105]screeching laughing at one another. How is your testament? Have you got
[15106]an old testament? Only Paddy was passing there, I tell you what. Then
[15107]see him of a Sunday with his little concubine of a wife, and she wagging
[15108]her tail up the aisle of the chapel with her patent boots on her,
[15109]no less, and her violets, nice as pie, doing the little lady. Jack
[15110]Mooney’s sister. And the old prostitute of a mother procuring rooms to
[15111]street couples. Gob, Jack made him toe the line. Told him if he didn’t
[15112]patch up the pot, Jesus, he’d kick the shite out of him.
[15113]
[15114]So Terry brought the three pints.
[15115]
[15116]—Here, says Joe, doing the honours. Here, citizen.
[15117]
[15118]—Slan leat, says he.
[15119]
[15120]—Fortune, Joe, says I. Good health, citizen.
[15121]
[15122]Gob, he had his mouth half way down the tumbler already. Want a small
[15123]fortune to keep him in drinks.
[15124]
[15125]—Who is the long fellow running for the mayoralty, Alf? says Joe.
[15126]
[15127]—Friend of yours, says Alf.
[15128]
[15129]—Nannan? says Joe. The mimber?
[15130]
[15131]—I won’t mention any names, says Alf.
[15132]
[15133]—I thought so, says Joe. I saw him up at that meeting now with William
[15134]Field, M. P., the cattle traders.
[15135]
[15136]—Hairy Iopas, says the citizen, that exploded volcano, the darling of
[15137]all countries and the idol of his own.
[15138]
[15139]So Joe starts telling the citizen about the foot and mouth disease
[15140]and the cattle traders and taking action in the matter and the citizen
[15141]sending them all to the rightabout and Bloom coming out with his
[15142]sheepdip for the scab and a hoose drench for coughing calves and the
[15143]guaranteed remedy for timber tongue. Because he was up one time in a
[15144]knacker’s yard. Walking about with his book and pencil here’s my
[15145]head and my heels are coming till Joe Cuffe gave him the order of the
[15146]boot for giving lip to a grazier. Mister Knowall. Teach your grandmother
[15147]how to milk ducks. Pisser Burke was telling me in the hotel the wife
[15148]used to be in rivers of tears some times with Mrs O’Dowd crying her
[15149]eyes out with her eight inches of fat all over her. Couldn’t loosen
[15150]her farting strings but old cod’s eye was waltzing around her showing
[15151]her how to do it. What’s your programme today? Ay. Humane methods.
[15152]Because the poor animals suffer and experts say and the best known
[15153]remedy that doesn’t cause pain to the animal and on the sore spot
[15154]administer gently. Gob, he’d have a soft hand under a hen.
[15155]
[15156]Ga Ga Gara. Klook Klook Klook. Black Liz is our hen. She lays eggs for
[15157]us. When she lays her egg she is so glad. Gara. Klook Klook Klook. Then
[15158]comes good uncle Leo. He puts his hand under black Liz and takes her
[15159]fresh egg. Ga ga ga ga Gara. Klook Klook Klook.
[15160]
[15161]—Anyhow, says Joe, Field and Nannetti are going over tonight to London
[15162]to ask about it on the floor of the house of commons.
[15163]
[15164]—Are you sure, says Bloom, the councillor is going? I wanted to see
[15165]him, as it happens.
[15166]
[15167]—Well, he’s going off by the mailboat, says Joe, tonight.
[15168]
[15169]—That’s too bad, says Bloom. I wanted particularly. Perhaps only Mr
[15170]Field is going. I couldn’t phone. No. You’re sure?
[15171]
[15172]—Nannan’s going too, says Joe. The league told him to ask a question
[15173]tomorrow about the commissioner of police forbidding Irish games in the
[15174]park. What do you think of that, citizen? The Sluagh na h-Eireann.
[15175]
[15176]Mr Cowe Conacre (Multifarnham. Nat.): Arising out of the question of
[15177]my honourable friend, the member for Shillelagh, may I ask the right
[15178]honourable gentleman whether the government has issued orders that these
[15179]animals shall be slaughtered though no medical evidence is forthcoming
[15180]as to their pathological condition?
[15181]
[15182]Mr Allfours (Tamoshant. Con.): Honourable members are already in
[15183]possession of the evidence produced before a committee of the whole
[15184]house. I feel I cannot usefully add anything to that. The answer to the
[15185]honourable member’s question is in the affirmative.
[15186]
[15187]Mr Orelli O’Reilly (Montenotte. Nat.): Have similar orders been issued
[15188]for the slaughter of human animals who dare to play Irish games in the
[15189]Phoenix park?
[15190]
[15191]Mr Allfours: The answer is in the negative.
[15192]
[15193]Mr Cowe Conacre: Has the right honourable gentleman’s famous
[15194]Mitchelstown telegram inspired the policy of gentlemen on the Treasury
[15195]bench? (O! O!)
[15196]
[15197]Mr Allfours: I must have notice of that question.
[15198]
[15199]Mr Staylewit (Buncombe. Ind.): Don’t hesitate to shoot.
[15200]
[15201](Ironical opposition cheers.)
[15202]
[15203]The speaker: Order! Order!
[15204]
[15205](The house rises. Cheers.)
[15206]
[15207]—There’s the man, says Joe, that made the Gaelic sports revival.
[15208]There he is sitting there. The man that got away James Stephens. The
[15209]champion of all Ireland at putting the sixteen pound shot. What was your
[15210]best throw, citizen?
[15211]
[15212]—Na bacleis, says the citizen, letting on to be modest. There was a
[15213]time I was as good as the next fellow anyhow.
[15214]
[15215]—Put it there, citizen, says Joe. You were and a bloody sight better.
[15216]
[15217]—Is that really a fact? says Alf.
[15218]
[15219]—Yes, says Bloom. That’s well known. Did you not know that?
[15220]
[15221]So off they started about Irish sports and shoneen games the like of
[15222]lawn tennis and about hurley and putting the stone and racy of the soil
[15223]and building up a nation once again and all to that. And of course Bloom
[15224]had to have his say too about if a fellow had a rower’s heart violent
[15225]exercise was bad. I declare to my antimacassar if you took up a straw
[15226]from the bloody floor and if you said to Bloom: Look at, Bloom. Do you
[15227]see that straw? That’s a straw. Declare to my aunt he’d talk about
[15228]it for an hour so he would and talk steady.
[15229]
[15230]A most interesting discussion took place in the ancient hall of Brian
[15231]O’Ciarnain’s in Sraid na Bretaine Bheag, under the auspices of
[15232]Sluagh na h-Eireann, on the revival of ancient Gaelic sports and the
[15233]importance of physical culture, as understood in ancient Greece and
[15234]ancient Rome and ancient Ireland, for the development of the race.
[15235]The venerable president of the noble order was in the chair and the
[15236]attendance was of large dimensions. After an instructive discourse by
[15237]the chairman, a magnificent oration eloquently and forcibly expressed,
[15238]a most interesting and instructive discussion of the usual high standard
[15239]of excellence ensued as to the desirability of the revivability of
[15240]the ancient games and sports of our ancient Panceltic forefathers. The
[15241]wellknown and highly respected worker in the cause of our old tongue, Mr
[15242]Joseph M’Carthy Hynes, made an eloquent appeal for the resuscitation
[15243]of the ancient Gaelic sports and pastimes, practised morning and evening
[15244]by Finn MacCool, as calculated to revive the best traditions of manly
[15245]strength and prowess handed down to us from ancient ages. L. Bloom, who
[15246]met with a mixed reception of applause and hisses, having espoused the
[15247]negative the vocalist chairman brought the discussion to a close, in
[15248]response to repeated requests and hearty plaudits from all parts of
[15249]a bumper house, by a remarkably noteworthy rendering of the immortal
[15250]Thomas Osborne Davis’ evergreen verses (happily too familiar to
[15251]need recalling here) A nation once again in the execution of which the
[15252]veteran patriot champion may be said without fear of contradiction
[15253]to have fairly excelled himself. The Irish Caruso-Garibaldi was in
[15254]superlative form and his stentorian notes were heard to the greatest
[15255]advantage in the timehonoured anthem sung as only our citizen can sing
[15256]it. His superb highclass vocalism, which by its superquality greatly
[15257]enhanced his already international reputation, was vociferously
[15258]applauded by the large audience among which were to be noticed many
[15259]prominent members of the clergy as well as representatives of the press
[15260]and the bar and the other learned professions. The proceedings then
[15261]terminated.
[15262]
[15263]Amongst the clergy present were the very rev. William Delany, S. J., L.
[15264]L. D.; the rt rev. Gerald Molloy, D. D.; the rev. P. J. Kavanagh, C. S.
[15265]Sp.; the rev. T. Waters, C. C.; the rev. John M. Ivers, P. P.; the rev.
[15266]P. J. Cleary, O. S. F.; the rev. L. J. Hickey, O. P.; the very rev. Fr.
[15267]Nicholas, O. S. F. C.; the very rev. B. Gorman, O. D. C.; the rev. T.
[15268]Maher, S. J.; the very rev. James Murphy, S. J.; the rev. John Lavery,
[15269]V. F.; the very rev. William Doherty, D. D.; the rev. Peter Fagan, O.
[15270]M.; the rev. T. Brangan, O. S. A.; the rev. J. Flavin, C. C.; the
[15271]rev. M. A. Hackett, C. C.; the rev. W. Hurley, C. C.; the rt rev. Mgr
[15272]M’Manus, V. G.; the rev. B. R. Slattery, O. M. I.; the very rev. M.
[15273]D. Scally, P. P.; the rev. F. T. Purcell, O. P.; the very rev. Timothy
[15274]canon Gorman, P. P.; the rev. J. Flanagan, C. C. The laity included P.
[15275]Fay, T. Quirke, etc., etc.
[15276]
[15277]—Talking about violent exercise, says Alf, were you at that
[15278]Keogh-Bennett match?
[15279]
[15280]—No, says Joe.
[15281]
[15282]—I heard So and So made a cool hundred quid over it, says Alf.
[15283]
[15284]—Who? Blazes? says Joe.
[15285]
[15286]And says Bloom:
[15287]
[15288]—What I meant about tennis, for example, is the agility and training
[15289]the eye.
[15290]
[15291]—Ay, Blazes, says Alf. He let out that Myler was on the beer to run up
[15292]the odds and he swatting all the time.
[15293]
[15294]—We know him, says the citizen. The traitor’s son. We know what put
[15295]English gold in his pocket.
[15296]
[15297]—True for you, says Joe.
[15298]
[15299]And Bloom cuts in again about lawn tennis and the circulation of the
[15300]blood, asking Alf:
[15301]
[15302]—Now, don’t you think, Bergan?
[15303]
[15304]—Myler dusted the floor with him, says Alf. Heenan and Sayers was only
[15305]a bloody fool to it. Handed him the father and mother of a beating. See
[15306]the little kipper not up to his navel and the big fellow swiping. God,
[15307]he gave him one last puck in the wind, Queensberry rules and all, made
[15308]him puke what he never ate.
[15309]
[15310]It was a historic and a hefty battle when Myler and Percy were scheduled
[15311]to don the gloves for the purse of fifty sovereigns. Handicapped as
[15312]he was by lack of poundage, Dublin’s pet lamb made up for it by
[15313]superlative skill in ringcraft. The final bout of fireworks was a
[15314]gruelling for both champions. The welterweight sergeantmajor had tapped
[15315]some lively claret in the previous mixup during which Keogh had been
[15316]receivergeneral of rights and lefts, the artilleryman putting in some
[15317]neat work on the pet’s nose, and Myler came on looking groggy. The
[15318]soldier got to business, leading off with a powerful left jab to which
[15319]the Irish gladiator retaliated by shooting out a stiff one flush to the
[15320]point of Bennett’s jaw. The redcoat ducked but the Dubliner lifted
[15321]him with a left hook, the body punch being a fine one. The men came to
[15322]handigrips. Myler quickly became busy and got his man under, the bout
[15323]ending with the bulkier man on the ropes, Myler punishing him. The
[15324]Englishman, whose right eye was nearly closed, took his corner where he
[15325]was liberally drenched with water and when the bell went came on gamey
[15326]and brimful of pluck, confident of knocking out the fistic Eblanite in
[15327]jigtime. It was a fight to a finish and the best man for it. The two
[15328]fought like tigers and excitement ran fever high. The referee twice
[15329]cautioned Pucking Percy for holding but the pet was tricky and his
[15330]footwork a treat to watch. After a brisk exchange of courtesies during
[15331]which a smart upper cut of the military man brought blood freely from
[15332]his opponent’s mouth the lamb suddenly waded in all over his man and
[15333]landed a terrific left to Battling Bennett’s stomach, flooring him
[15334]flat. It was a knockout clean and clever. Amid tense expectation the
[15335]Portobello bruiser was being counted out when Bennett’s second Ole
[15336]Pfotts Wettstein threw in the towel and the Santry boy was declared
[15337]victor to the frenzied cheers of the public who broke through the
[15338]ringropes and fairly mobbed him with delight.
[15339]
[15340]—He knows which side his bread is buttered, says Alf. I hear he’s
[15341]running a concert tour now up in the north.
[15342]
[15343]—He is, says Joe. Isn’t he?
[15344]
[15345]—Who? says Bloom. Ah, yes. That’s quite true. Yes, a kind of summer
[15346]tour, you see. Just a holiday.
[15347]
[15348]—Mrs B. is the bright particular star, isn’t she? says Joe.
[15349]
[15350]—My wife? says Bloom. She’s singing, yes. I think it will be a
[15351]success too.
[15352]
[15353]He’s an excellent man to organise. Excellent.
[15354]
[15355]Hoho begob says I to myself says I. That explains the milk in the
[15356]cocoanut and absence of hair on the animal’s chest. Blazes doing the
[15357]tootle on the flute. Concert tour. Dirty Dan the dodger’s son off
[15358]Island bridge that sold the same horses twice over to the government to
[15359]fight the Boers. Old Whatwhat. I called about the poor and water rate,
[15360]Mr Boylan. You what? The water rate, Mr Boylan. You whatwhat? That’s
[15361]the bucko that’ll organise her, take my tip. ’Twixt me and you
[15362]Caddareesh.
[15363]
[15364]Pride of Calpe’s rocky mount, the ravenhaired daughter of Tweedy.
[15365]There grew she to peerless beauty where loquat and almond scent the
[15366]air. The gardens of Alameda knew her step: the garths of olives knew
[15367]and bowed. The chaste spouse of Leopold is she: Marion of the bountiful
[15368]bosoms.
[15369]
[15370]And lo, there entered one of the clan of the O’Molloy’s, a comely
[15371]hero of white face yet withal somewhat ruddy, his majesty’s counsel
[15372]learned in the law, and with him the prince and heir of the noble line
[15373]of Lambert.
[15374]
[15375]—Hello, Ned.
[15376]
[15377]—Hello, Alf.
[15378]
[15379]—Hello, Jack.
[15380]
[15381]—Hello, Joe.
[15382]
[15383]—God save you, says the citizen.
[15384]
[15385]—Save you kindly, says J. J. What’ll it be, Ned?
[15386]
[15387]—Half one, says Ned.
[15388]
[15389]So J. J. ordered the drinks.
[15390]
[15391]—Were you round at the court? says Joe.
[15392]
[15393]—Yes, says J. J. He’ll square that, Ned, says he.
[15394]
[15395]—Hope so, says Ned.
[15396]
[15397]Now what were those two at? J. J. getting him off the grand jury
[15398]list and the other give him a leg over the stile. With his name in
[15399]Stubbs’s. Playing cards, hobnobbing with flash toffs with a swank
[15400]glass in their eye, adrinking fizz and he half smothered in writs and
[15401]garnishee orders. Pawning his gold watch in Cummins of Francis street
[15402]where no-one would know him in the private office when I was there with
[15403]Pisser releasing his boots out of the pop. What’s your name, sir?
[15404]Dunne, says he. Ay, and done says I. Gob, he’ll come home by weeping
[15405]cross one of those days, I’m thinking.
[15406]
[15407]—Did you see that bloody lunatic Breen round there? says Alf. U. p:
[15408]up.
[15409]
[15410]—Yes, says J. J. Looking for a private detective.
[15411]
[15412]—Ay, says Ned. And he wanted right go wrong to address the court only
[15413]Corny Kelleher got round him telling him to get the handwriting examined
[15414]first.
[15415]
[15416]—Ten thousand pounds, says Alf, laughing. God, I’d give anything to
[15417]hear him before a judge and jury.
[15418]
[15419]—Was it you did it, Alf? says Joe. The truth, the whole truth and
[15420]nothing but the truth, so help you Jimmy Johnson.
[15421]
[15422]—Me? says Alf. Don’t cast your nasturtiums on my character.
[15423]
[15424]—Whatever statement you make, says Joe, will be taken down in evidence
[15425]against you.
[15426]
[15427]—Of course an action would lie, says J. J. It implies that he is not
[15428]compos mentis. U. p: up.
[15429]
[15430]—Compos your eye! says Alf, laughing. Do you know that he’s balmy?
[15431]Look at his head. Do you know that some mornings he has to get his hat
[15432]on with a shoehorn.
[15433]
[15434]—Yes, says J. J., but the truth of a libel is no defence to an
[15435]indictment for publishing it in the eyes of the law.
[15436]
[15437]—Ha ha, Alf, says Joe.
[15438]
[15439]—Still, says Bloom, on account of the poor woman, I mean his wife.
[15440]
[15441]—Pity about her, says the citizen. Or any other woman marries a half
[15442]and half.
[15443]
[15444]—How half and half? says Bloom. Do you mean he...
[15445]
[15446]—Half and half I mean, says the citizen. A fellow that’s neither
[15447]fish nor flesh.
[15448]
[15449]—Nor good red herring, says Joe.
[15450]
[15451]—That what’s I mean, says the citizen. A pishogue, if you know what
[15452]that is.
[15453]
[15454]Begob I saw there was trouble coming. And Bloom explaining he meant on
[15455]account of it being cruel for the wife having to go round after the
[15456]old stuttering fool. Cruelty to animals so it is to let that bloody
[15457]povertystricken Breen out on grass with his beard out tripping him,
[15458]bringing down the rain. And she with her nose cockahoop after she
[15459]married him because a cousin of his old fellow’s was pewopener to
[15460]the pope. Picture of him on the wall with his Smashall Sweeney’s
[15461]moustaches, the signior Brini from Summerhill, the eyetallyano, papal
[15462]Zouave to the Holy Father, has left the quay and gone to Moss street.
[15463]And who was he, tell us? A nobody, two pair back and passages, at seven
[15464]shillings a week, and he covered with all kinds of breastplates bidding
[15465]defiance to the world.
[15466]
[15467]—And moreover, says J. J., a postcard is publication. It was held to
[15468]be sufficient evidence of malice in the testcase Sadgrove v. Hole. In my
[15469]opinion an action might lie.
[15470]
[15471]Six and eightpence, please. Who wants your opinion? Let us drink our
[15472]pints in peace. Gob, we won’t be let even do that much itself.
[15473]
[15474]—Well, good health, Jack, says Ned.
[15475]
[15476]—Good health, Ned, says J. J.
[15477]
[15478]—-There he is again, says Joe.
[15479]
[15480]—Where? says Alf.
[15481]
[15482]And begob there he was passing the door with his books under his oxter
[15483]and the wife beside him and Corny Kelleher with his wall eye looking in
[15484]as they went past, talking to him like a father, trying to sell him a
[15485]secondhand coffin.
[15486]
[15487]—How did that Canada swindle case go off? says Joe.
[15488]
[15489]—Remanded, says J. J.
[15490]
[15491]One of the bottlenosed fraternity it was went by the name of James
[15492]Wought alias Saphiro alias Spark and Spiro, put an ad in the papers
[15493]saying he’d give a passage to Canada for twenty bob. What? Do you see
[15494]any green in the white of my eye? Course it was a bloody barney. What?
[15495]Swindled them all, skivvies and badhachs from the county Meath, ay, and
[15496]his own kidney too. J. J. was telling us there was an ancient Hebrew
[15497]Zaretsky or something weeping in the witnessbox with his hat on him,
[15498]swearing by the holy Moses he was stuck for two quid.
[15499]
[15500]—Who tried the case? says Joe.
[15501]
[15502]—Recorder, says Ned.
[15503]
[15504]—Poor old sir Frederick, says Alf, you can cod him up to the two eyes.
[15505]
[15506]—Heart as big as a lion, says Ned. Tell him a tale of woe about
[15507]arrears of rent and a sick wife and a squad of kids and, faith, he’ll
[15508]dissolve in tears on the bench.
[15509]
[15510]—Ay, says Alf. Reuben J was bloody lucky he didn’t clap him in the
[15511]dock the other day for suing poor little Gumley that’s minding stones,
[15512]for the corporation there near Butt bridge.
[15513]
[15514]And he starts taking off the old recorder letting on to cry:
[15515]
[15516]—A most scandalous thing! This poor hardworking man! How many
[15517]children? Ten, did you say?
[15518]
[15519]—Yes, your worship. And my wife has the typhoid.
[15520]
[15521]—And the wife with typhoid fever! Scandalous! Leave the court
[15522]immediately, sir. No, sir, I’ll make no order for payment. How
[15523]dare you, sir, come up before me and ask me to make an order! A poor
[15524]hardworking industrious man! I dismiss the case.
[15525]
[15526]And whereas on the sixteenth day of the month of the oxeyed goddess and
[15527]in the third week after the feastday of the Holy and Undivided Trinity,
[15528]the daughter of the skies, the virgin moon being then in her first
[15529]quarter, it came to pass that those learned judges repaired them to the
[15530]halls of law. There master Courtenay, sitting in his own chamber, gave
[15531]his rede and master Justice Andrews, sitting without a jury in the
[15532]probate court, weighed well and pondered the claim of the first
[15533]chargeant upon the property in the matter of the will propounded and
[15534]final testamentary disposition in re the real and personal estate of the
[15535]late lamented Jacob Halliday, vintner, deceased, versus Livingstone, an
[15536]infant, of unsound mind, and another. And to the solemn court of Green
[15537]street there came sir Frederick the Falconer. And he sat him there about
[15538]the hour of five o’clock to administer the law of the brehons at the
[15539]commission for all that and those parts to be holden in and for the
[15540]county of the city of Dublin. And there sat with him the high sinhedrim
[15541]of the twelve tribes of Iar, for every tribe one man, of the tribe of
[15542]Patrick and of the tribe of Hugh and of the tribe of Owen and of the
[15543]tribe of Conn and of the tribe of Oscar and of the tribe of Fergus and
[15544]of the tribe of Finn and of the tribe of Dermot and of the tribe of
[15545]Cormac and of the tribe of Kevin and of the tribe of Caolte and of the
[15546]tribe of Ossian, there being in all twelve good men and true. And he
[15547]conjured them by Him who died on rood that they should well and
[15548]truly try and true deliverance make in the issue joined between their
[15549]sovereign lord the king and the prisoner at the bar and true verdict
[15550]give according to the evidence so help them God and kiss the book. And
[15551]they rose in their seats, those twelve of Iar, and they swore by
[15552]the name of Him Who is from everlasting that they would do His
[15553]rightwiseness. And straightway the minions of the law led forth from
[15554]their donjon keep one whom the sleuthhounds of justice had apprehended
[15555]in consequence of information received. And they shackled him hand and
[15556]foot and would take of him ne bail ne mainprise but preferred a charge
[15557]against him for he was a malefactor.
[15558]
[15559]—Those are nice things, says the citizen, coming over here to Ireland
[15560]filling the country with bugs.
[15561]
[15562]So Bloom lets on he heard nothing and he starts talking with Joe,
[15563]telling him he needn’t trouble about that little matter till the first
[15564]but if he would just say a word to Mr Crawford. And so Joe swore high
[15565]and holy by this and by that he’d do the devil and all.
[15566]
[15567]—Because, you see, says Bloom, for an advertisement you must have
[15568]repetition. That’s the whole secret.
[15569]
[15570]—Rely on me, says Joe.
[15571]
[15572]—Swindling the peasants, says the citizen, and the poor of Ireland. We
[15573]want no more strangers in our house.
[15574]
[15575]—O, I’m sure that will be all right, Hynes, says Bloom. It’s just
[15576]that Keyes, you see.
[15577]
[15578]—Consider that done, says Joe.
[15579]
[15580]—Very kind of you, says Bloom.
[15581]
[15582]—The strangers, says the citizen. Our own fault. We let them come in.
[15583]We brought them in. The adulteress and her paramour brought the Saxon
[15584]robbers here.
[15585]
[15586]—Decree nisi, says J. J.
[15587]
[15588]And Bloom letting on to be awfully deeply interested in nothing, a
[15589]spider’s web in the corner behind the barrel, and the citizen scowling
[15590]after him and the old dog at his feet looking up to know who to bite and
[15591]when.
[15592]
[15593]—A dishonoured wife, says the citizen, that’s what’s the cause of
[15594]all our misfortunes.
[15595]
[15596]—And here she is, says Alf, that was giggling over the Police Gazette
[15597]with Terry on the counter, in all her warpaint.
[15598]
[15599]—Give us a squint at her, says I.
[15600]
[15601]And what was it only one of the smutty yankee pictures Terry borrows off
[15602]of Corny Kelleher. Secrets for enlarging your private parts. Misconduct
[15603]of society belle. Norman W. Tupper, wealthy Chicago contractor, finds
[15604]pretty but faithless wife in lap of officer Taylor. Belle in her
[15605]bloomers misconducting herself, and her fancyman feeling for her tickles
[15606]and Norman W. Tupper bouncing in with his peashooter just in time to be
[15607]late after she doing the trick of the loop with officer Taylor.
[15608]
[15609]—O jakers, Jenny, says Joe, how short your shirt is!
[15610]
[15611]—There’s hair, Joe, says I. Get a queer old tailend of corned beef
[15612]off of that one, what?
[15613]
[15614]So anyhow in came John Wyse Nolan and Lenehan with him with a face on
[15615]him as long as a late breakfast.
[15616]
[15617]—Well, says the citizen, what’s the latest from the scene of action?
[15618]What did those tinkers in the city hall at their caucus meeting decide
[15619]about the Irish language?
[15620]
[15621]O’Nolan, clad in shining armour, low bending made obeisance to the
[15622]puissant and high and mighty chief of all Erin and did him to wit of
[15623]that which had befallen, how that the grave elders of the most obedient
[15624]city, second of the realm, had met them in the tholsel, and there, after
[15625]due prayers to the gods who dwell in ether supernal, had taken solemn
[15626]counsel whereby they might, if so be it might be, bring once more into
[15627]honour among mortal men the winged speech of the seadivided Gael.
[15628]
[15629]—It’s on the march, says the citizen. To hell with the bloody brutal
[15630]Sassenachs and their patois.
[15631]
[15632]So J. J. puts in a word, doing the toff about one story was good till
[15633]you heard another and blinking facts and the Nelson policy, putting your
[15634]blind eye to the telescope and drawing up a bill of attainder to impeach
[15635]a nation, and Bloom trying to back him up moderation and botheration and
[15636]their colonies and their civilisation.
[15637]
[15638]—Their syphilisation, you mean, says the citizen. To hell with
[15639]them! The curse of a goodfornothing God light sideways on the bloody
[15640]thicklugged sons of whores’ gets! No music and no art and no
[15641]literature worthy of the name. Any civilisation they have they stole
[15642]from us. Tonguetied sons of bastards’ ghosts.
[15643]
[15644]—The European family, says J. J....
[15645]
[15646]—They’re not European, says the citizen. I was in Europe with Kevin
[15647]Egan of Paris. You wouldn’t see a trace of them or their language
[15648]anywhere in Europe except in a cabinet d’aisance.
[15649]
[15650]And says John Wyse:
[15651]
[15652]—Full many a flower is born to blush unseen.
[15653]
[15654]And says Lenehan that knows a bit of the lingo:
[15655]
[15656]—Conspuez les Anglais! Perfide Albion!
[15657]
[15658]He said and then lifted he in his rude great brawny strengthy hands the
[15659]medher of dark strong foamy ale and, uttering his tribal slogan Lamh
[15660]Dearg Abu, he drank to the undoing of his foes, a race of mighty
[15661]valorous heroes, rulers of the waves, who sit on thrones of alabaster
[15662]silent as the deathless gods.
[15663]
[15664]—What’s up with you, says I to Lenehan. You look like a fellow that
[15665]had lost a bob and found a tanner.
[15666]
[15667]—Gold cup, says he.
[15668]
[15669]—Who won, Mr Lenehan? says Terry.
[15670]
[15671]—Throwaway, says he, at twenty to one. A rank outsider. And the rest
[15672]nowhere.
[15673]
[15674]—And Bass’s mare? says Terry.
[15675]
[15676]—Still running, says he. We’re all in a cart. Boylan plunged two
[15677]quid on my tip Sceptre for himself and a lady friend.
[15678]
[15679]—I had half a crown myself, says Terry, on Zinfandel that Mr Flynn
[15680]gave me. Lord Howard de Walden’s.
[15681]
[15682]—Twenty to one, says Lenehan. Such is life in an outhouse. Throwaway,
[15683]says he. Takes the biscuit, and talking about bunions. Frailty, thy name
[15684]is Sceptre.
[15685]
[15686]So he went over to the biscuit tin Bob Doran left to see if there was
[15687]anything he could lift on the nod, the old cur after him backing his
[15688]luck with his mangy snout up. Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard.
[15689]
[15690]—Not there, my child, says he.
[15691]
[15692]—Keep your pecker up, says Joe. She’d have won the money only for
[15693]the other dog.
[15694]
[15695]And J. J. and the citizen arguing about law and history with Bloom
[15696]sticking in an odd word.
[15697]
[15698]—Some people, says Bloom, can see the mote in others’ eyes but they
[15699]can’t see the beam in their own.
[15700]
[15701]—Raimeis, says the citizen. There’s no-one as blind as the fellow
[15702]that won’t see, if you know what that means. Where are our missing
[15703]twenty millions of Irish should be here today instead of four, our lost
[15704]tribes? And our potteries and textiles, the finest in the whole world!
[15705]And our wool that was sold in Rome in the time of Juvenal and our flax
[15706]and our damask from the looms of Antrim and our Limerick lace, our
[15707]tanneries and our white flint glass down there by Ballybough and our
[15708]Huguenot poplin that we have since Jacquard de Lyon and our woven silk
[15709]and our Foxford tweeds and ivory raised point from the Carmelite convent
[15710]in New Ross, nothing like it in the whole wide world. Where are the
[15711]Greek merchants that came through the pillars of Hercules, the Gibraltar
[15712]now grabbed by the foe of mankind, with gold and Tyrian purple to
[15713]sell in Wexford at the fair of Carmen? Read Tacitus and Ptolemy, even
[15714]Giraldus Cambrensis. Wine, peltries, Connemara marble, silver from
[15715]Tipperary, second to none, our farfamed horses even today, the Irish
[15716]hobbies, with king Philip of Spain offering to pay customs duties for
[15717]the right to fish in our waters. What do the yellowjohns of Anglia owe
[15718]us for our ruined trade and our ruined hearths? And the beds of the
[15719]Barrow and Shannon they won’t deepen with millions of acres of marsh
[15720]and bog to make us all die of consumption?
[15721]
[15722]—As treeless as Portugal we’ll be soon, says John Wyse, or
[15723]Heligoland with its one tree if something is not done to reafforest the
[15724]land. Larches, firs, all the trees of the conifer family are going fast.
[15725]I was reading a report of lord Castletown’s...
[15726]
[15727]—Save them, says the citizen, the giant ash of Galway and the
[15728]chieftain elm of Kildare with a fortyfoot bole and an acre of foliage.
[15729]Save the trees of Ireland for the future men of Ireland on the fair
[15730]hills of Eire, O.
[15731]
[15732]—Europe has its eyes on you, says Lenehan.
[15733]
[15734]The fashionable international world attended en masse this afternoon
[15735]at the wedding of the chevalier Jean Wyse de Neaulan, grand high chief
[15736]ranger of the Irish National Foresters, with Miss Fir Conifer of Pine
[15737]Valley. Lady Sylvester Elmshade, Mrs Barbara Lovebirch, Mrs Poll Ash,
[15738]Mrs Holly Hazeleyes, Miss Daphne Bays, Miss Dorothy Canebrake, Mrs Clyde
[15739]Twelvetrees, Mrs Rowan Greene, Mrs Helen Vinegadding, Miss Virginia
[15740]Creeper, Miss Gladys Beech, Miss Olive Garth, Miss Blanche Maple, Mrs
[15741]Maud Mahogany, Miss Myra Myrtle, Miss Priscilla Elderflower, Miss
[15742]Bee Honeysuckle, Miss Grace Poplar, Miss O Mimosa San, Miss Rachel
[15743]Cedarfrond, the Misses Lilian and Viola Lilac, Miss Timidity Aspenall,
[15744]Mrs Kitty Dewey-Mosse, Miss May Hawthorne, Mrs Gloriana Palme, Mrs Liana
[15745]Forrest, Mrs Arabella Blackwood and Mrs Norma Holyoake of Oakholme Regis
[15746]graced the ceremony by their presence. The bride who was given away by
[15747]her father, the M’Conifer of the Glands, looked exquisitely charming
[15748]in a creation carried out in green mercerised silk, moulded on an
[15749]underslip of gloaming grey, sashed with a yoke of broad emerald and
[15750]finished with a triple flounce of darkerhued fringe, the scheme being
[15751]relieved by bretelles and hip insertions of acorn bronze. The maids
[15752]of honour, Miss Larch Conifer and Miss Spruce Conifer, sisters of the
[15753]bride, wore very becoming costumes in the same tone, a dainty motif
[15754]of plume rose being worked into the pleats in a pinstripe and repeated
[15755]capriciously in the jadegreen toques in the form of heron feathers of
[15756]paletinted coral. Senhor Enrique Flor presided at the organ with his
[15757]wellknown ability and, in addition to the prescribed numbers of the
[15758]nuptial mass, played a new and striking arrangement of Woodman, spare
[15759]that tree at the conclusion of the service. On leaving the church of
[15760]Saint Fiacre in Horto after the papal blessing the happy pair were
[15761]subjected to a playful crossfire of hazelnuts, beechmast, bayleaves,
[15762]catkins of willow, ivytod, hollyberries, mistletoe sprigs and quicken
[15763]shoots. Mr and Mrs Wyse Conifer Neaulan will spend a quiet honeymoon in
[15764]the Black Forest.
[15765]
[15766]—And our eyes are on Europe, says the citizen. We had our trade with
[15767]Spain and the French and with the Flemings before those mongrels were
[15768]pupped, Spanish ale in Galway, the winebark on the winedark waterway.
[15769]
[15770]—And will again, says Joe.
[15771]
[15772]—And with the help of the holy mother of God we will again, says the
[15773]citizen, clapping his thigh. Our harbours that are empty will be full
[15774]again, Queenstown, Kinsale, Galway, Blacksod Bay, Ventry in the kingdom
[15775]of Kerry, Killybegs, the third largest harbour in the wide world with a
[15776]fleet of masts of the Galway Lynches and the Cavan O’Reillys and the
[15777]O’Kennedys of Dublin when the earl of Desmond could make a treaty with
[15778]the emperor Charles the Fifth himself. And will again, says he, when the
[15779]first Irish battleship is seen breasting the waves with our own flag
[15780]to the fore, none of your Henry Tudor’s harps, no, the oldest flag
[15781]afloat, the flag of the province of Desmond and Thomond, three crowns on
[15782]a blue field, the three sons of Milesius.
[15783]
[15784]And he took the last swig out of the pint. Moya. All wind and piss like
[15785]a tanyard cat. Cows in Connacht have long horns. As much as his bloody
[15786]life is worth to go down and address his tall talk to the assembled
[15787]multitude in Shanagolden where he daren’t show his nose with the Molly
[15788]Maguires looking for him to let daylight through him for grabbing the
[15789]holding of an evicted tenant.
[15790]
[15791]—Hear, hear to that, says John Wyse. What will you have?
[15792]
[15793]—An imperial yeomanry, says Lenehan, to celebrate the occasion.
[15794]
[15795]—Half one, Terry, says John Wyse, and a hands up. Terry! Are you
[15796]asleep?
[15797]
[15798]—Yes, sir, says Terry. Small whisky and bottle of Allsop. Right, sir.
[15799]
[15800]Hanging over the bloody paper with Alf looking for spicy bits instead of
[15801]attending to the general public. Picture of a butting match, trying to
[15802]crack their bloody skulls, one chap going for the other with his head
[15803]down like a bull at a gate. And another one: Black Beast Burned in
[15804]Omaha, Ga. A lot of Deadwood Dicks in slouch hats and they firing at a
[15805]Sambo strung up in a tree with his tongue out and a bonfire under
[15806]him. Gob, they ought to drown him in the sea after and electrocute and
[15807]crucify him to make sure of their job.
[15808]
[15809]—But what about the fighting navy, says Ned, that keeps our foes at
[15810]bay?
[15811]
[15812]—I’ll tell you what about it, says the citizen. Hell upon earth it
[15813]is. Read the revelations that’s going on in the papers about flogging
[15814]on the training ships at Portsmouth. A fellow writes that calls himself
[15815]Disgusted One.
[15816]
[15817]So he starts telling us about corporal punishment and about the crew
[15818]of tars and officers and rearadmirals drawn up in cocked hats and the
[15819]parson with his protestant bible to witness punishment and a young lad
[15820]brought out, howling for his ma, and they tie him down on the buttend of
[15821]a gun.
[15822]
[15823]—A rump and dozen, says the citizen, was what that old ruffian sir
[15824]John Beresford called it but the modern God’s Englishman calls it
[15825]caning on the breech.
[15826]
[15827]And says John Wyse:
[15828]
[15829]—’Tis a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
[15830]
[15831]Then he was telling us the master at arms comes along with a long cane
[15832]and he draws out and he flogs the bloody backside off of the poor lad
[15833]till he yells meila murder.
[15834]
[15835]—That’s your glorious British navy, says the citizen, that bosses
[15836]the earth. The fellows that never will be slaves, with the only
[15837]hereditary chamber on the face of God’s earth and their land in the
[15838]hands of a dozen gamehogs and cottonball barons. That’s the great
[15839]empire they boast about of drudges and whipped serfs.
[15840]
[15841]—On which the sun never rises, says Joe.
[15842]
[15843]—And the tragedy of it is, says the citizen, they believe it. The
[15844]unfortunate yahoos believe it.
[15845]
[15846]They believe in rod, the scourger almighty, creator of hell upon earth,
[15847]and in Jacky Tar, the son of a gun, who was conceived of unholy boast,
[15848]born of the fighting navy, suffered under rump and dozen, was scarified,
[15849]flayed and curried, yelled like bloody hell, the third day he arose
[15850]again from the bed, steered into haven, sitteth on his beamend till
[15851]further orders whence he shall come to drudge for a living and be paid.
[15852]
[15853]—But, says Bloom, isn’t discipline the same everywhere. I mean
[15854]wouldn’t it be the same here if you put force against force?
[15855]
[15856]Didn’t I tell you? As true as I’m drinking this porter if he was at
[15857]his last gasp he’d try to downface you that dying was living.
[15858]
[15859]—We’ll put force against force, says the citizen. We have our
[15860]greater Ireland beyond the sea. They were driven out of house and home
[15861]in the black 47. Their mudcabins and their shielings by the roadside
[15862]were laid low by the batteringram and the Times rubbed its hands and
[15863]told the whitelivered Saxons there would soon be as few Irish in Ireland
[15864]as redskins in America. Even the Grand Turk sent us his piastres. But
[15865]the Sassenach tried to starve the nation at home while the land was full
[15866]of crops that the British hyenas bought and sold in Rio de Janeiro. Ay,
[15867]they drove out the peasants in hordes. Twenty thousand of them died in
[15868]the coffinships. But those that came to the land of the free remember
[15869]the land of bondage. And they will come again and with a vengeance, no
[15870]cravens, the sons of Granuaile, the champions of Kathleen ni Houlihan.
[15871]
[15872]—Perfectly true, says Bloom. But my point was...
[15873]
[15874]—We are a long time waiting for that day, citizen, says Ned. Since
[15875]the poor old woman told us that the French were on the sea and landed at
[15876]Killala.
[15877]
[15878]—Ay, says John Wyse. We fought for the royal Stuarts that reneged us
[15879]against the Williamites and they betrayed us. Remember Limerick and the
[15880]broken treatystone. We gave our best blood to France and Spain, the wild
[15881]geese. Fontenoy, eh? And Sarsfield and O’Donnell, duke of Tetuan
[15882]in Spain, and Ulysses Browne of Camus that was fieldmarshal to Maria
[15883]Teresa. But what did we ever get for it?
[15884]
[15885]—The French! says the citizen. Set of dancing masters! Do you know
[15886]what it is? They were never worth a roasted fart to Ireland. Aren’t
[15887]they trying to make an Entente cordiale now at Tay Pay’s dinnerparty
[15888]with perfidious Albion? Firebrands of Europe and they always were.
[15889]
[15890]—Conspuez les Français, says Lenehan, nobbling his beer.
[15891]
[15892]—And as for the Prooshians and the Hanoverians, says Joe, haven’t we
[15893]had enough of those sausageeating bastards on the throne from George
[15894]the elector down to the German lad and the flatulent old bitch that’s
[15895]dead?
[15896]
[15897]Jesus, I had to laugh at the way he came out with that about the old one
[15898]with the winkers on her, blind drunk in her royal palace every night of
[15899]God, old Vic, with her jorum of mountain dew and her coachman carting
[15900]her up body and bones to roll into bed and she pulling him by the
[15901]whiskers and singing him old bits of songs about Ehren on the Rhine and
[15902]come where the boose is cheaper.
[15903]
[15904]—Well, says J. J. We have Edward the peacemaker now.
[15905]
[15906]—Tell that to a fool, says the citizen. There’s a bloody sight more
[15907]pox than pax about that boyo. Edward Guelph-Wettin!
[15908]
[15909]—And what do you think, says Joe, of the holy boys, the priests
[15910]and bishops of Ireland doing up his room in Maynooth in His Satanic
[15911]Majesty’s racing colours and sticking up pictures of all the horses
[15912]his jockeys rode. The earl of Dublin, no less.
[15913]
[15914]—They ought to have stuck up all the women he rode himself, says
[15915]little Alf.
[15916]
[15917]And says J. J.:
[15918]
[15919]—Considerations of space influenced their lordships’ decision.
[15920]
[15921]—Will you try another, citizen? says Joe.
[15922]
[15923]—Yes, sir, says he. I will.
[15924]
[15925]—You? says Joe.
[15926]
[15927]—Beholden to you, Joe, says I. May your shadow never grow less.
[15928]
[15929]—Repeat that dose, says Joe.
[15930]
[15931]Bloom was talking and talking with John Wyse and he quite excited with
[15932]his dunducketymudcoloured mug on him and his old plumeyes rolling about.
[15933]
[15934]—Persecution, says he, all the history of the world is full of it.
[15935]Perpetuating national hatred among nations.
[15936]
[15937]—But do you know what a nation means? says John Wyse.
[15938]
[15939]—Yes, says Bloom.
[15940]
[15941]—What is it? says John Wyse.
[15942]
[15943]—A nation? says Bloom. A nation is the same people living in the same
[15944]place.
[15945]
[15946]—By God, then, says Ned, laughing, if that’s so I’m a nation for
[15947]I’m living in the same place for the past five years.
[15948]
[15949]So of course everyone had the laugh at Bloom and says he, trying to muck
[15950]out of it:
[15951]
[15952]—Or also living in different places.
[15953]
[15954]—That covers my case, says Joe.
[15955]
[15956]—What is your nation if I may ask? says the citizen.
[15957]
[15958]—Ireland, says Bloom. I was born here. Ireland.
[15959]
[15960]The citizen said nothing only cleared the spit out of his gullet and,
[15961]gob, he spat a Red bank oyster out of him right in the corner.
[15962]
[15963]—After you with the push, Joe, says he, taking out his handkerchief to
[15964]swab himself dry.
[15965]
[15966]—Here you are, citizen, says Joe. Take that in your right hand and
[15967]repeat after me the following words.
[15968]
[15969]The muchtreasured and intricately embroidered ancient Irish facecloth
[15970]attributed to Solomon of Droma and Manus Tomaltach og MacDonogh, authors
[15971]of the Book of Ballymote, was then carefully produced and called forth
[15972]prolonged admiration. No need to dwell on the legendary beauty of the
[15973]cornerpieces, the acme of art, wherein one can distinctly discern each
[15974]of the four evangelists in turn presenting to each of the four masters
[15975]his evangelical symbol, a bogoak sceptre, a North American puma (a far
[15976]nobler king of beasts than the British article, be it said in passing),
[15977]a Kerry calf and a golden eagle from Carrantuohill. The scenes depicted
[15978]on the emunctory field, showing our ancient duns and raths and cromlechs
[15979]and grianauns and seats of learning and maledictive stones, are as
[15980]wonderfully beautiful and the pigments as delicate as when the Sligo
[15981]illuminators gave free rein to their artistic fantasy long long ago in
[15982]the time of the Barmecides. Glendalough, the lovely lakes of Killarney,
[15983]the ruins of Clonmacnois, Cong Abbey, Glen Inagh and the Twelve Pins,
[15984]Ireland’s Eye, the Green Hills of Tallaght, Croagh Patrick, the
[15985]brewery of Messrs Arthur Guinness, Son and Company (Limited), Lough
[15986]Neagh’s banks, the vale of Ovoca, Isolde’s tower, the Mapas obelisk,
[15987]Sir Patrick Dun’s hospital, Cape Clear, the glen of Aherlow, Lynch’s
[15988]castle, the Scotch house, Rathdown Union Workhouse at Loughlinstown,
[15989]Tullamore jail, Castleconnel rapids, Kilballymacshonakill, the cross
[15990]at Monasterboice, Jury’s Hotel, S. Patrick’s Purgatory, the Salmon
[15991]Leap, Maynooth college refectory, Curley’s hole, the three birthplaces
[15992]of the first duke of Wellington, the rock of Cashel, the bog of Allen,
[15993]the Henry Street Warehouse, Fingal’s Cave—all these moving scenes
[15994]are still there for us today rendered more beautiful still by the waters
[15995]of sorrow which have passed over them and by the rich incrustations of
[15996]time.
[15997]
[15998]—Show us over the drink, says I. Which is which?
[15999]
[16000]—That’s mine, says Joe, as the devil said to the dead policeman.
[16001]
[16002]—And I belong to a race too, says Bloom, that is hated and persecuted.
[16003]Also now. This very moment. This very instant.
[16004]
[16005]Gob, he near burnt his fingers with the butt of his old cigar.
[16006]
[16007]—Robbed, says he. Plundered. Insulted. Persecuted. Taking what belongs
[16008]to us by right. At this very moment, says he, putting up his fist, sold
[16009]by auction in Morocco like slaves or cattle.
[16010]
[16011]—Are you talking about the new Jerusalem? says the citizen.
[16012]
[16013]—I’m talking about injustice, says Bloom.
[16014]
[16015]—Right, says John Wyse. Stand up to it then with force like men.
[16016]
[16017]That’s an almanac picture for you. Mark for a softnosed bullet. Old
[16018]lardyface standing up to the business end of a gun. Gob, he’d adorn a
[16019]sweepingbrush, so he would, if he only had a nurse’s apron on him. And
[16020]then he collapses all of a sudden, twisting around all the opposite, as
[16021]limp as a wet rag.
[16022]
[16023]—But it’s no use, says he. Force, hatred, history, all that.
[16024]That’s not life for men and women, insult and hatred. And everybody
[16025]knows that it’s the very opposite of that that is really life.
[16026]
[16027]—What? says Alf.
[16028]
[16029]—Love, says Bloom. I mean the opposite of hatred. I must go now, says
[16030]he to John Wyse. Just round to the court a moment to see if Martin is
[16031]there. If he comes just say I’ll be back in a second. Just a moment.
[16032]
[16033]Who’s hindering you? And off he pops like greased lightning.
[16034]
[16035]—A new apostle to the gentiles, says the citizen. Universal love.
[16036]
[16037]—Well, says John Wyse. Isn’t that what we’re told. Love your
[16038]neighbour.
[16039]
[16040]—That chap? says the citizen. Beggar my neighbour is his motto. Love,
[16041]moya! He’s a nice pattern of a Romeo and Juliet.
[16042]
[16043]Love loves to love love. Nurse loves the new chemist. Constable 14A
[16044]loves Mary Kelly. Gerty MacDowell loves the boy that has the bicycle. M.
[16045]B. loves a fair gentleman. Li Chi Han lovey up kissy Cha Pu Chow. Jumbo,
[16046]the elephant, loves Alice, the elephant. Old Mr Verschoyle with the ear
[16047]trumpet loves old Mrs Verschoyle with the turnedin eye. The man in the
[16048]brown macintosh loves a lady who is dead. His Majesty the King loves Her
[16049]Majesty the Queen. Mrs Norman W. Tupper loves officer Taylor. You love
[16050]a certain person. And this person loves that other person because
[16051]everybody loves somebody but God loves everybody.
[16052]
[16053]—Well, Joe, says I, your very good health and song. More power,
[16054]citizen.
[16055]
[16056]—Hurrah, there, says Joe.
[16057]
[16058]—The blessing of God and Mary and Patrick on you, says the citizen.
[16059]
[16060]And he ups with his pint to wet his whistle.
[16061]
[16062]—We know those canters, says he, preaching and picking your pocket.
[16063]What about sanctimonious Cromwell and his ironsides that put the women
[16064]and children of Drogheda to the sword with the bible text God is love
[16065]pasted round the mouth of his cannon? The bible! Did you read that skit
[16066]in the United Irishman today about that Zulu chief that’s visiting
[16067]England?
[16068]
[16069]—What’s that? says Joe.
[16070]
[16071]So the citizen takes up one of his paraphernalia papers and he starts
[16072]reading out:
[16073]
[16074]—A delegation of the chief cotton magnates of Manchester was presented
[16075]yesterday to His Majesty the Alaki of Abeakuta by Gold Stick in Waiting,
[16076]Lord Walkup of Walkup on Eggs, to tender to His Majesty the heartfelt
[16077]thanks of British traders for the facilities afforded them in his
[16078]dominions. The delegation partook of luncheon at the conclusion of which
[16079]the dusky potentate, in the course of a happy speech, freely translated
[16080]by the British chaplain, the reverend Ananias Praisegod Barebones,
[16081]tendered his best thanks to Massa Walkup and emphasised the cordial
[16082]relations existing between Abeakuta and the British empire, stating that
[16083]he treasured as one of his dearest possessions an illuminated bible,
[16084]the volume of the word of God and the secret of England’s greatness,
[16085]graciously presented to him by the white chief woman, the great squaw
[16086]Victoria, with a personal dedication from the august hand of the Royal
[16087]Donor. The Alaki then drank a lovingcup of firstshot usquebaugh to the
[16088]toast Black and White from the skull of his immediate predecessor in the
[16089]dynasty Kakachakachak, surnamed Forty Warts, after which he visited the
[16090]chief factory of Cottonopolis and signed his mark in the visitors’
[16091]book, subsequently executing a charming old Abeakutic wardance, in the
[16092]course of which he swallowed several knives and forks, amid hilarious
[16093]applause from the girl hands.
[16094]
[16095]—Widow woman, says Ned. I wouldn’t doubt her. Wonder did he put that
[16096]bible to the same use as I would.
[16097]
[16098]—Same only more so, says Lenehan. And thereafter in that fruitful land
[16099]the broadleaved mango flourished exceedingly.
[16100]
[16101]—Is that by Griffith? says John Wyse.
[16102]
[16103]—No, says the citizen. It’s not signed Shanganagh. It’s only
[16104]initialled: P.
[16105]
[16106]—And a very good initial too, says Joe.
[16107]
[16108]—That’s how it’s worked, says the citizen. Trade follows the flag.
[16109]
[16110]—Well, says J. J., if they’re any worse than those Belgians in the
[16111]Congo Free State they must be bad. Did you read that report by a man
[16112]what’s this his name is?
[16113]
[16114]—Casement, says the citizen. He’s an Irishman.
[16115]
[16116]—Yes, that’s the man, says J. J. Raping the women and girls and
[16117]flogging the natives on the belly to squeeze all the red rubber they can
[16118]out of them.
[16119]
[16120]—I know where he’s gone, says Lenehan, cracking his fingers.
[16121]
[16122]—Who? says I.
[16123]
[16124]—Bloom, says he. The courthouse is a blind. He had a few bob on
[16125]Throwaway and he’s gone to gather in the shekels.
[16126]
[16127]—Is it that whiteeyed kaffir? says the citizen, that never backed a
[16128]horse in anger in his life?
[16129]
[16130]—That’s where he’s gone, says Lenehan. I met Bantam Lyons going to
[16131]back that horse only I put him off it and he told me Bloom gave him the
[16132]tip. Bet you what you like he has a hundred shillings to five on. He’s
[16133]the only man in Dublin has it. A dark horse.
[16134]
[16135]—He’s a bloody dark horse himself, says Joe.
[16136]
[16137]—Mind, Joe, says I. Show us the entrance out.
[16138]
[16139]—There you are, says Terry.
[16140]
[16141]Goodbye Ireland I’m going to Gort. So I just went round the back of
[16142]the yard to pumpship and begob (hundred shillings to five) while I was
[16143]letting off my (Throwaway twenty to) letting off my load gob says I
[16144]to myself I knew he was uneasy in his (two pints off of Joe and one in
[16145]Slattery’s off) in his mind to get off the mark to (hundred shillings
[16146]is five quid) and when they were in the (dark horse) pisser Burke was
[16147]telling me card party and letting on the child was sick (gob, must have
[16148]done about a gallon) flabbyarse of a wife speaking down the tube she’s
[16149]better or she’s (ow!) all a plan so he could vamoose with the pool if
[16150]he won or (Jesus, full up I was) trading without a licence (ow!)
[16151]Ireland my nation says he (hoik! phthook!) never be up to those bloody
[16152](there’s the last of it) Jerusalem (ah!) cuckoos.
[16153]
[16154]So anyhow when I got back they were at it dingdong, John Wyse saying it
[16155]was Bloom gave the ideas for Sinn Fein to Griffith to put in his paper
[16156]all kinds of jerrymandering, packed juries and swindling the taxes off
[16157]of the government and appointing consuls all over the world to walk
[16158]about selling Irish industries. Robbing Peter to pay Paul. Gob, that
[16159]puts the bloody kybosh on it if old sloppy eyes is mucking up the show.
[16160]Give us a bloody chance. God save Ireland from the likes of that bloody
[16161]mouseabout. Mr Bloom with his argol bargol. And his old fellow before
[16162]him perpetrating frauds, old Methusalem Bloom, the robbing bagman, that
[16163]poisoned himself with the prussic acid after he swamping the country
[16164]with his baubles and his penny diamonds. Loans by post on easy terms.
[16165]Any amount of money advanced on note of hand. Distance no object. No
[16166]security. Gob, he’s like Lanty MacHale’s goat that’d go a piece of
[16167]the road with every one.
[16168]
[16169]—Well, it’s a fact, says John Wyse. And there’s the man now
[16170]that’ll tell you all about it, Martin Cunningham.
[16171]
[16172]Sure enough the castle car drove up with Martin on it and Jack Power
[16173]with him and a fellow named Crofter or Crofton, pensioner out of
[16174]the collector general’s, an orangeman Blackburn does have on the
[16175]registration and he drawing his pay or Crawford gallivanting around the
[16176]country at the king’s expense.
[16177]
[16178]Our travellers reached the rustic hostelry and alighted from their
[16179]palfreys.
[16180]
[16181]—Ho, varlet! cried he, who by his mien seemed the leader of the party.
[16182]Saucy knave! To us!
[16183]
[16184]So saying he knocked loudly with his swordhilt upon the open lattice.
[16185]
[16186]Mine host came forth at the summons, girding him with his tabard.
[16187]
[16188]—Give you good den, my masters, said he with an obsequious bow.
[16189]
[16190]—Bestir thyself, sirrah! cried he who had knocked. Look to our steeds.
[16191]And for ourselves give us of your best for ifaith we need it.
[16192]
[16193]—Lackaday, good masters, said the host, my poor house has but a bare
[16194]larder. I know not what to offer your lordships.
[16195]
[16196]—How now, fellow? cried the second of the party, a man of pleasant
[16197]countenance, So servest thou the king’s messengers, master Taptun?
[16198]
[16199]An instantaneous change overspread the landlord’s visage.
[16200]
[16201]—Cry you mercy, gentlemen, he said humbly. An you be the king’s
[16202]messengers (God shield His Majesty!) you shall not want for aught. The
[16203]king’s friends (God bless His Majesty!) shall not go afasting in my
[16204]house I warrant me.
[16205]
[16206]—Then about! cried the traveller who had not spoken, a lusty
[16207]trencherman by his aspect. Hast aught to give us?
[16208]
[16209]Mine host bowed again as he made answer:
[16210]
[16211]—What say you, good masters, to a squab pigeon pasty, some collops of
[16212]venison, a saddle of veal, widgeon with crisp hog’s bacon, a boar’s
[16213]head with pistachios, a bason of jolly custard, a medlar tansy and a
[16214]flagon of old Rhenish?
[16215]
[16216]—Gadzooks! cried the last speaker. That likes me well. Pistachios!
[16217]
[16218]—Aha! cried he of the pleasant countenance. A poor house and a bare
[16219]larder, quotha! ’Tis a merry rogue.
[16220]
[16221]So in comes Martin asking where was Bloom.
[16222]
[16223]—Where is he? says Lenehan. Defrauding widows and orphans.
[16224]
[16225]—Isn’t that a fact, says John Wyse, what I was telling the citizen
[16226]about Bloom and the Sinn Fein?
[16227]
[16228]—That’s so, says Martin. Or so they allege.
[16229]
[16230]—Who made those allegations? says Alf.
[16231]
[16232]—I, says Joe. I’m the alligator.
[16233]
[16234]—And after all, says John Wyse, why can’t a jew love his country
[16235]like the next fellow?
[16236]
[16237]—Why not? says J. J., when he’s quite sure which country it is.
[16238]
[16239]—Is he a jew or a gentile or a holy Roman or a swaddler or what the
[16240]hell is he? says Ned. Or who is he? No offence, Crofton.
[16241]
[16242]—Who is Junius? says J. J.
[16243]
[16244]—We don’t want him, says Crofter the Orangeman or presbyterian.
[16245]
[16246]—He’s a perverted jew, says Martin, from a place in Hungary and it
[16247]was he drew up all the plans according to the Hungarian system. We know
[16248]that in the castle.
[16249]
[16250]—Isn’t he a cousin of Bloom the dentist? says Jack Power.
[16251]
[16252]—Not at all, says Martin. Only namesakes. His name was Virag, the
[16253]father’s name that poisoned himself. He changed it by deedpoll, the
[16254]father did.
[16255]
[16256]—That’s the new Messiah for Ireland! says the citizen. Island of
[16257]saints and sages!
[16258]
[16259]—Well, they’re still waiting for their redeemer, says Martin. For
[16260]that matter so are we.
[16261]
[16262]—Yes, says J. J., and every male that’s born they think it may
[16263]be their Messiah. And every jew is in a tall state of excitement, I
[16264]believe, till he knows if he’s a father or a mother.
[16265]
[16266]—Expecting every moment will be his next, says Lenehan.
[16267]
[16268]—O, by God, says Ned, you should have seen Bloom before that son of
[16269]his that died was born. I met him one day in the south city markets
[16270]buying a tin of Neave’s food six weeks before the wife was delivered.
[16271]
[16272]—En ventre sa mère, says J. J.
[16273]
[16274]—Do you call that a man? says the citizen.
[16275]
[16276]—I wonder did he ever put it out of sight, says Joe.
[16277]
[16278]—Well, there were two children born anyhow, says Jack Power.
[16279]
[16280]—And who does he suspect? says the citizen.
[16281]
[16282]Gob, there’s many a true word spoken in jest. One of those mixed
[16283]middlings he is. Lying up in the hotel Pisser was telling me once a
[16284]month with headache like a totty with her courses. Do you know what
[16285]I’m telling you? It’d be an act of God to take a hold of a fellow
[16286]the like of that and throw him in the bloody sea. Justifiable homicide,
[16287]so it would. Then sloping off with his five quid without putting up a
[16288]pint of stuff like a man. Give us your blessing. Not as much as would
[16289]blind your eye.
[16290]
[16291]—Charity to the neighbour, says Martin. But where is he? We can’t
[16292]wait.
[16293]
[16294]—A wolf in sheep’s clothing, says the citizen. That’s what he is.
[16295]Virag from Hungary! Ahasuerus I call him. Cursed by God.
[16296]
[16297]—Have you time for a brief libation, Martin? says Ned.
[16298]
[16299]—Only one, says Martin. We must be quick. J. J. and S.
[16300]
[16301]—You, Jack? Crofton? Three half ones, Terry.
[16302]
[16303]—Saint Patrick would want to land again at Ballykinlar and convert
[16304]us, says the citizen, after allowing things like that to contaminate our
[16305]shores.
[16306]
[16307]—Well, says Martin, rapping for his glass. God bless all here is my
[16308]prayer.
[16309]
[16310]—Amen, says the citizen.
[16311]
[16312]—And I’m sure He will, says Joe.
[16313]
[16314]And at the sound of the sacring bell, headed by a crucifer with
[16315]acolytes, thurifers, boatbearers, readers, ostiarii, deacons and
[16316]subdeacons, the blessed company drew nigh of mitred abbots and priors
[16317]and guardians and monks and friars: the monks of Benedict of Spoleto,
[16318]Carthusians and Camaldolesi, Cistercians and Olivetans, Oratorians
[16319]and Vallombrosans, and the friars of Augustine, Brigittines,
[16320]Premonstratensians, Servi, Trinitarians, and the children of Peter
[16321]Nolasco: and therewith from Carmel mount the children of Elijah prophet
[16322]led by Albert bishop and by Teresa of Avila, calced and other: and
[16323]friars, brown and grey, sons of poor Francis, capuchins, cordeliers,
[16324]minimes and observants and the daughters of Clara: and the sons of
[16325]Dominic, the friars preachers, and the sons of Vincent: and the monks
[16326]of S. Wolstan: and Ignatius his children: and the confraternity of the
[16327]christian brothers led by the reverend brother Edmund Ignatius Rice. And
[16328]after came all saints and martyrs, virgins and confessors: S. Cyr and
[16329]S. Isidore Arator and S. James the Less and S. Phocas of Sinope and S.
[16330]Julian Hospitator and S. Felix de Cantalice and S. Simon Stylites and
[16331]S. Stephen Protomartyr and S. John of God and S. Ferreol and S. Leugarde
[16332]and S. Theodotus and S. Vulmar and S. Richard and S. Vincent de Paul and
[16333]S. Martin of Todi and S. Martin of Tours and S. Alfred and S. Joseph and
[16334]S. Denis and S. Cornelius and S. Leopold and S. Bernard and S. Terence
[16335]and S. Edward and S. Owen Caniculus and S. Anonymous and S. Eponymous
[16336]and S. Pseudonymous and S. Homonymous and S. Paronymous and S.
[16337]Synonymous and S. Laurence O’Toole and S. James of Dingle and
[16338]Compostella and S. Columcille and S. Columba and S. Celestine and S.
[16339]Colman and S. Kevin and S. Brendan and S. Frigidian and S. Senan and S.
[16340]Fachtna and S. Columbanus and S. Gall and S. Fursey and S. Fintan and S.
[16341]Fiacre and S. John Nepomuc and S. Thomas Aquinas and S. Ives of Brittany
[16342]and S. Michan and S. Herman-Joseph and the three patrons of holy youth
[16343]S. Aloysius Gonzaga and S. Stanislaus Kostka and S. John Berchmans
[16344]and the saints Gervasius, Servasius and Bonifacius and S. Bride and S.
[16345]Kieran and S. Canice of Kilkenny and S. Jarlath of Tuam and S. Finbarr
[16346]and S. Pappin of Ballymun and Brother Aloysius Pacificus and Brother
[16347]Louis Bellicosus and the saints Rose of Lima and of Viterbo and S.
[16348]Martha of Bethany and S. Mary of Egypt and S. Lucy and S. Brigid and
[16349]S. Attracta and S. Dympna and S. Ita and S. Marion Calpensis and
[16350]the Blessed Sister Teresa of the Child Jesus and S. Barbara and S.
[16351]Scholastica and S. Ursula with eleven thousand virgins. And all came
[16352]with nimbi and aureoles and gloriae, bearing palms and harps and swords
[16353]and olive crowns, in robes whereon were woven the blessed symbols of
[16354]their efficacies, inkhorns, arrows, loaves, cruses, fetters, axes,
[16355]trees, bridges, babes in a bathtub, shells, wallets, shears, keys,
[16356]dragons, lilies, buckshot, beards, hogs, lamps, bellows, beehives,
[16357]soupladles, stars, snakes, anvils, boxes of vaseline, bells, crutches,
[16358]forceps, stags’ horns, watertight boots, hawks, millstones, eyes on a
[16359]dish, wax candles, aspergills, unicorns. And as they wended their way
[16360]by Nelson’s Pillar, Henry street, Mary street, Capel street, Little
[16361]Britain street chanting the introit in Epiphania Domini which beginneth
[16362]Surge, illuminare and thereafter most sweetly the gradual Omnes which
[16363]saith de Saba venient they did divers wonders such as casting out
[16364]devils, raising the dead to life, multiplying fishes, healing the halt
[16365]and the blind, discovering various articles which had been mislaid,
[16366]interpreting and fulfilling the scriptures, blessing and prophesying.
[16367]And last, beneath a canopy of cloth of gold came the reverend Father
[16368]O’Flynn attended by Malachi and Patrick. And when the good fathers
[16369]had reached the appointed place, the house of Bernard Kiernan and Co,
[16370]limited, 8, 9 and 10 little Britain street, wholesale grocers, wine and
[16371]brandy shippers, licensed for the sale of beer, wine and spirits for
[16372]consumption on the premises, the celebrant blessed the house and censed
[16373]the mullioned windows and the groynes and the vaults and the arrises and
[16374]the capitals and the pediments and the cornices and the engrailed arches
[16375]and the spires and the cupolas and sprinkled the lintels thereof with
[16376]blessed water and prayed that God might bless that house as he had
[16377]blessed the house of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and make the angels of
[16378]His light to inhabit therein. And entering he blessed the viands and the
[16379]beverages and the company of all the blessed answered his prayers.
[16380]
[16381]—Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini.
[16382]
[16383]—Qui fecit cœlum et terram.
[16384]
[16385]—Dominus vobiscum.
[16386]
[16387]—Et cum spiritu tuo.
[16388]
[16389]And he laid his hands upon that he blessed and gave thanks and he prayed
[16390]and they all with him prayed:
[16391]
[16392]—Deus, cuius verbo sanctificantur omnia, benedictionem tuam effunde
[16393]super creaturas istas: et praesta ut quisquis eis secundum legem et
[16394]voluntatem Tuam cum gratiarum actione usus fuerit per invocationem
[16395]sanctissimi nominis Tui corporis sanitatem et animæ tutelam Te auctore
[16396]percipiat per Christum Dominum nostrum.
[16397]
[16398]—And so say all of us, says Jack.
[16399]
[16400]—Thousand a year, Lambert, says Crofton or Crawford.
[16401]
[16402]—Right, says Ned, taking up his John Jameson. And butter for fish.
[16403]
[16404]I was just looking around to see who the happy thought would strike when
[16405]be damned but in he comes again letting on to be in a hell of a hurry.
[16406]
[16407]—I was just round at the courthouse, says he, looking for you. I hope
[16408]I’m not...
[16409]
[16410]—No, says Martin, we’re ready.
[16411]
[16412]Courthouse my eye and your pockets hanging down with gold and silver.
[16413]Mean bloody scut. Stand us a drink itself. Devil a sweet fear! There’s
[16414]a jew for you! All for number one. Cute as a shithouse rat. Hundred to
[16415]five.
[16416]
[16417]—Don’t tell anyone, says the citizen.
[16418]
[16419]—Beg your pardon, says he.
[16420]
[16421]—Come on boys, says Martin, seeing it was looking blue. Come along
[16422]now.
[16423]
[16424]—Don’t tell anyone, says the citizen, letting a bawl out of him.
[16425]It’s a secret.
[16426]
[16427]And the bloody dog woke up and let a growl.
[16428]
[16429]—Bye bye all, says Martin.
[16430]
[16431]And he got them out as quick as he could, Jack Power and Crofton or
[16432]whatever you call him and him in the middle of them letting on to be all
[16433]at sea and up with them on the bloody jaunting car.
[16434]
[16435]—Off with you, says Martin to the jarvey.
[16436]
[16437]The milkwhite dolphin tossed his mane and, rising in the golden poop the
[16438]helmsman spread the bellying sail upon the wind and stood off forward
[16439]with all sail set, the spinnaker to larboard. A many comely nymphs drew
[16440]nigh to starboard and to larboard and, clinging to the sides of
[16441]the noble bark, they linked their shining forms as doth the cunning
[16442]wheelwright when he fashions about the heart of his wheel the
[16443]equidistant rays whereof each one is sister to another and he binds them
[16444]all with an outer ring and giveth speed to the feet of men whenas they
[16445]ride to a hosting or contend for the smile of ladies fair. Even so did
[16446]they come and set them, those willing nymphs, the undying sisters. And
[16447]they laughed, sporting in a circle of their foam: and the bark clave the
[16448]waves.
[16449]
[16450]But begob I was just lowering the heel of the pint when I saw the
[16451]citizen getting up to waddle to the door, puffing and blowing with the
[16452]dropsy, and he cursing the curse of Cromwell on him, bell, book and
[16453]candle in Irish, spitting and spatting out of him and Joe and little Alf
[16454]round him like a leprechaun trying to peacify him.
[16455]
[16456]—Let me alone, says he.
[16457]
[16458]And begob he got as far as the door and they holding him and he bawls
[16459]out of him:
[16460]
[16461]—Three cheers for Israel!
[16462]
[16463]Arrah, sit down on the parliamentary side of your arse for Christ’
[16464]sake and don’t be making a public exhibition of yourself. Jesus,
[16465]there’s always some bloody clown or other kicking up a bloody murder
[16466]about bloody nothing. Gob, it’d turn the porter sour in your guts, so
[16467]it would.
[16468]
[16469]And all the ragamuffins and sluts of the nation round the door and
[16470]Martin telling the jarvey to drive ahead and the citizen bawling and Alf
[16471]and Joe at him to whisht and he on his high horse about the jews and
[16472]the loafers calling for a speech and Jack Power trying to get him to sit
[16473]down on the car and hold his bloody jaw and a loafer with a patch over
[16474]his eye starts singing If the man in the moon was a jew, jew, jew and a
[16475]slut shouts out of her:
[16476]
[16477]—Eh, mister! Your fly is open, mister!
[16478]
[16479]And says he:
[16480]
[16481]—Mendelssohn was a jew and Karl Marx and Mercadante and Spinoza. And
[16482]the Saviour was a jew and his father was a jew. Your God.
[16483]
[16484]—He had no father, says Martin. That’ll do now. Drive ahead.
[16485]
[16486]—Whose God? says the citizen.
[16487]
[16488]—Well, his uncle was a jew, says he. Your God was a jew. Christ was a
[16489]jew like me.
[16490]
[16491]Gob, the citizen made a plunge back into the shop.
[16492]
[16493]—By Jesus, says he, I’ll brain that bloody jewman for using the holy
[16494]name.
[16495]
[16496]By Jesus, I’ll crucify him so I will. Give us that biscuitbox here.
[16497]
[16498]—Stop! Stop! says Joe.
[16499]
[16500]A large and appreciative gathering of friends and acquaintances from
[16501]the metropolis and greater Dublin assembled in their thousands to bid
[16502]farewell to Nagyaságos uram Lipóti Virag, late of Messrs Alexander
[16503]Thom’s, printers to His Majesty, on the occasion of his departure
[16504]for the distant clime of Százharminczbrojúgulyás-Dugulás (Meadow
[16505]of Murmuring Waters). The ceremony which went off with great éclat was
[16506]characterised by the most affecting cordiality. An illuminated scroll
[16507]of ancient Irish vellum, the work of Irish artists, was presented to
[16508]the distinguished phenomenologist on behalf of a large section of the
[16509]community and was accompanied by the gift of a silver casket, tastefully
[16510]executed in the style of ancient Celtic ornament, a work which reflects
[16511]every credit on the makers, Messrs Jacob agus Jacob. The departing guest
[16512]was the recipient of a hearty ovation, many of those who were present
[16513]being visibly moved when the select orchestra of Irish pipes struck
[16514]up the wellknown strains of Come Back to Erin, followed immediately
[16515]by Rakóczsy’s March. Tarbarrels and bonfires were lighted along the
[16516]coastline of the four seas on the summits of the Hill of Howth, Three
[16517]Rock Mountain, Sugarloaf, Bray Head, the mountains of Mourne, the
[16518]Galtees, the Ox and Donegal and Sperrin peaks, the Nagles and the
[16519]Bograghs, the Connemara hills, the reeks of M’Gillicuddy, Slieve
[16520]Aughty, Slieve Bernagh and Slieve Bloom. Amid cheers that rent the
[16521]welkin, responded to by answering cheers from a big muster of
[16522]henchmen on the distant Cambrian and Caledonian hills, the mastodontic
[16523]pleasureship slowly moved away saluted by a final floral tribute from
[16524]the representatives of the fair sex who were present in large numbers
[16525]while, as it proceeded down the river, escorted by a flotilla of barges,
[16526]the flags of the Ballast office and Custom House were dipped in salute
[16527]as were also those of the electrical power station at the Pigeonhouse
[16528]and the Poolbeg Light. Visszontlátásra, kedvés barátom!
[16529]Visszontlátásra! Gone but not forgotten.
[16530]
[16531]Gob, the devil wouldn’t stop him till he got hold of the bloody tin
[16532]anyhow and out with him and little Alf hanging on to his elbow and he
[16533]shouting like a stuck pig, as good as any bloody play in the Queen’s
[16534]royal theatre:
[16535]
[16536]—Where is he till I murder him?
[16537]
[16538]And Ned and J. J. paralysed with the laughing.
[16539]
[16540]—Bloody wars, says I, I’ll be in for the last gospel.
[16541]
[16542]But as luck would have it the jarvey got the nag’s head round the
[16543]other way and off with him.
[16544]
[16545]—Hold on, citizen, says Joe. Stop!
[16546]
[16547]Begob he drew his hand and made a swipe and let fly. Mercy of God the
[16548]sun was in his eyes or he’d have left him for dead. Gob, he near sent
[16549]it into the county Longford. The bloody nag took fright and the old
[16550]mongrel after the car like bloody hell and all the populace shouting and
[16551]laughing and the old tinbox clattering along the street.
[16552]
[16553]The catastrophe was terrific and instantaneous in its effect. The
[16554]observatory of Dunsink registered in all eleven shocks, all of the fifth
[16555]grade of Mercalli’s scale, and there is no record extant of a similar
[16556]seismic disturbance in our island since the earthquake of 1534, the year
[16557]of the rebellion of Silken Thomas. The epicentre appears to have been
[16558]that part of the metropolis which constitutes the Inn’s Quay ward and
[16559]parish of Saint Michan covering a surface of fortyone acres, two roods
[16560]and one square pole or perch. All the lordly residences in the vicinity
[16561]of the palace of justice were demolished and that noble edifice itself,
[16562]in which at the time of the catastrophe important legal debates were in
[16563]progress, is literally a mass of ruins beneath which it is to be
[16564]feared all the occupants have been buried alive. From the reports of
[16565]eyewitnesses it transpires that the seismic waves were accompanied by
[16566]a violent atmospheric perturbation of cyclonic character. An article of
[16567]headgear since ascertained to belong to the much respected clerk of the
[16568]crown and peace Mr George Fottrell and a silk umbrella with gold handle
[16569]with the engraved initials, crest, coat of arms and house number of
[16570]the erudite and worshipful chairman of quarter sessions sir Frederick
[16571]Falkiner, recorder of Dublin, have been discovered by search parties
[16572]in remote parts of the island respectively, the former on the third
[16573]basaltic ridge of the giant’s causeway, the latter embedded to the
[16574]extent of one foot three inches in the sandy beach of Holeopen bay near
[16575]the old head of Kinsale. Other eyewitnesses depose that they observed
[16576]an incandescent object of enormous proportions hurtling through the
[16577]atmosphere at a terrifying velocity in a trajectory directed southwest
[16578]by west. Messages of condolence and sympathy are being hourly received
[16579]from all parts of the different continents and the sovereign pontiff
[16580]has been graciously pleased to decree that a special missa pro defunctis
[16581]shall be celebrated simultaneously by the ordinaries of each and every
[16582]cathedral church of all the episcopal dioceses subject to the spiritual
[16583]authority of the Holy See in suffrage of the souls of those faithful
[16584]departed who have been so unexpectedly called away from our midst.
[16585]The work of salvage, removal of débris, human remains etc has been
[16586]entrusted to Messrs Michael Meade and Son, 159 Great Brunswick street,
[16587]and Messrs T. and C. Martin, 77, 78, 79 and 80 North Wall, assisted by
[16588]the men and officers of the Duke of Cornwall’s light infantry under
[16589]the general supervision of H. R. H., rear admiral, the right honourable
[16590]sir Hercules Hannibal Habeas Corpus Anderson, K. G., K. P., K. T., P.
[16591]C., K. C. B., M. P., J. P., M. B., D. S. O., S. O. D., M. F. H., M. R.
[16592]I. A., B. L., Mus. Doc., P. L. G., F. T. C. D., F. R. U. I., F. R. C. P.
[16593]I. and F. R. C. S. I.
[16594]
[16595]You never saw the like of it in all your born puff. Gob, if he got that
[16596]lottery ticket on the side of his poll he’d remember the gold cup, he
[16597]would so, but begob the citizen would have been lagged for assault and
[16598]battery and Joe for aiding and abetting. The jarvey saved his life by
[16599]furious driving as sure as God made Moses. What? O, Jesus, he did. And
[16600]he let a volley of oaths after him.
[16601]
[16602]—Did I kill him, says he, or what?
[16603]
[16604]And he shouting to the bloody dog:
[16605]
[16606]—After him, Garry! After him, boy!
[16607]
[16608]And the last we saw was the bloody car rounding the corner and old
[16609]sheepsface on it gesticulating and the bloody mongrel after it with his
[16610]lugs back for all he was bloody well worth to tear him limb from limb.
[16611]Hundred to five! Jesus, he took the value of it out of him, I promise
[16612]you.
[16613]
[16614]When, lo, there came about them all a great brightness and they beheld
[16615]the chariot wherein He stood ascend to heaven. And they beheld Him in
[16616]the chariot, clothed upon in the glory of the brightness, having raiment
[16617]as of the sun, fair as the moon and terrible that for awe they durst not
[16618]look upon Him. And there came a voice out of heaven, calling: Elijah!
[16619]Elijah! And He answered with a main cry: Abba! Adonai! And they beheld
[16620]Him even Him, ben Bloom Elijah, amid clouds of angels ascend to
[16621]the glory of the brightness at an angle of fortyfive degrees over
[16622]Donohoe’s in Little Green street like a shot off a shovel.
[16623]
[16624]
[16625]
[16626]
[16627]
[16628]