Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police MagistratePorter, Frank Thorpe
History
Twenty Years' Recollections of an Irish Police Magistrate
Porter, Frank Thorpe
Crime -- Ireland; Criminals -- Ireland; Ireland -- Social life and customs; Porter, Frank Thorpe, 1801-1882
During my stay at Wiesbaden, I visited Mentz, or Mayence, several times.
On the first occasion, I was crossing the bridge from the right bank of
the Rhine, and met a young officer in Austrian uniform. At that period
Mentz was termed a Confederate town, and its garrison was composed of an
equal number of Prussian and Austrian troops. I had seen enough of them
at Wiesbaden to satisfy me that an inquiry on the part of a stranger
would receive a kind and polite reply. I consequently accosted the
gentleman in French, being quite destitute of German beyond the name of
the place to which I wished to go, which was the Music Garden. To my
surprise and great gratification, he said, "If it is the same thing to
you, Mr. Porter, to speak English, I shall give you any information in
my power." I told him that I wanted a direction to the Music Garden, and
he replied, "I have to leave an order with the officer on guard at the
Cassel end of the bridge, and then I shall return to my quarters, and
the Music Garden is on the way, I shall show it to you in a few
minutes." During our walk, I asked him how he knew my name, and was
informed that he remembered seeing me at the assizes of Nenagh; that he
was a "Tipperary boy," born and reared within sight of the Devil's Bit
Mountain, and his name was Scully. He was a captain in an infantry
regiment, and appeared to be perfectly contented with his position and
its attendant prospects. We thoroughly fraternized, and I never again
went to Mentz without calling at his quarters. He expressed an intention
of visiting Ireland, and promised to favor me with a renewal of our
friendly intercourse in Dublin; but my hopes of seeing him have not been
realized, and I fear that he has not escaped all the disastrous combats
in which, since 1851, the Austrian forces have been engaged.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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