Twenty Years in Europe: A Consul-General's Memories of Noted People, with Letters From General W. T. ShermanByers, S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall)
History
Twenty Years in Europe: A Consul-General's Memories of Noted People, with Letters From General W. T. Sherman
Byers, S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall)
Europe -- Description and travel
It was all a mistake, as to myself at least. I went everywhere
unmolested. True, the tourists were frightened out of the country.
British redcoats were being sent up and down the island looking for
“boycotters” and assassins. The people everywhere were sullen, and
ominous silence reigned in many places. The country seemed to be
sitting on a volcano. I often walked miles on country roads without
meeting a soul, and nobody at all dared to be abroad at night. At
little country inns where I stopped, people did not talk about the
situation. I suppose they dared not.
By accident I picked up a newspaper one day and read a warning signed
by New York Fenians against any one’s traveling to Europe on an English
steamer. “They would blow them all up.” To my horror another item told
how an “infernal machine” was believed to have been put on board the
“Adriatic,” that had sailed on the 8th. This might go off in mid-ocean
and destroy the ship. My wife and two children were on board that
vessel, and the ship had sailed. There was nothing to do but wait,
and fear. Besides, it did not seem possible to me that the friends of
Ireland could resort to such crimes. In Ireland itself, however, there
was little respect for law, and for England none at all.
Once I was on a railroad train near Mallow. I was in the third class,
because there I could see the common people. A Fenian, out of jail that
very morning, sat next to me. He would not talk about the government,
but constantly asked me to “look out at the green fields”--they were so
beautiful to him after months of imprisonment.
Many redcoat soldiers, in charge of prisoners wearing handcuffs, were
on the train. The prisoners yelled: “Down with England! Hurrah for free
Ireland!” and sang the “Wearing of the Green.” The soldiers could not
help themselves and simply laughed.
The train stopped at a little country village and I saw a great mass of
people running towards us. The soldiers said they were coming to stone
the train. I wished now that I had listened to the “warnings.” Instead
of stoning us, however, the mob rushed into the car where I was, seized
the man by my side and bore him out on their shoulders. The men hugged
him, the women kissed him, and everybody cried for “free Ireland.” It
was his welcome home from prison. The redcoats said nothing and did
nothing. As the train moved on, I could see the mob still carrying the
man up the street, while the village band marched at their head.
I wanted to go to Limerick for the races next day, but I saw a train
with three hundred armed and uniformed policemen going to the same
place, so I stayed away, and took to the quiet and safer country roads.
I passed lovely scenes in the neighborhood of Killarney. The lakes
equal the Swiss lakes in beauty; there are bright waterfalls there,
groves, grand estates, ruined castles, and wretched poverty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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