Page:The Gael Vol XXII January to December 1903.djvu/158

June, 1903. forward in their eagerness to shake my hand, when the brutal peelers hustled me aboard the train. People of three counties cheered me again when I was let out. And yet the chief ground of my arrest, remember, was that I had been "intimidating" those very people! Oh, you English!

In an alleged comic paper in London called "Punch," a joke is said to have been discovered some sixty odd years ago, and it has been subsisting on the reputation of that one joke ever since. What wonder?

The political prisoners in Kilmainham were indeed a wonderful admixture. Each county contributed its quota. Varied walks of life had one or more representatives. Lawyers, doctors, newspaper men, bankers, priests, clerks, farmers. Members of Parliament and landlords jostled one another. The great majority were young, vigorous men, who had bothered England appreciably, let me tell you, and made it pretty hot for the Castle gang. This, of course, is deemed a pious duty by every Irishman worthy of the name; and if there be one among them who fails to perform it to the best of his ability, he certainly will have much to answer for.

"Would you believe it. Father Healy," said Gladstone, "that when I was in Rome I was assured that I could have a plenary indulgence for ten pounds?"

"Ten pounds!" Father Healy ejaculated. "Well, then, anybody that'd give you a plenary indulgence for ten pounds, Mr. Gladstone, would be letting you off mighty cheap, let me tell you!"

"Welcome to Kilmainham!" There stood a man in a long flowing robe of eider-down; on which were fanciful tracings of birds and flowers and things. A silk smoking-cap, deep purple in color, covered his dome of thought. He had a whole lot of articles of that kind, no two alike, worked by patriotic women in different parts of the country and forwarded to the imprisoned chief. I had never seen Parnell in what I may call under-dress before, so I was a bit confused, not recognizing him at the moment. He kept smiling and waiting, while the rest of the prisoners formed a ring around us almost before I was aware what had happened.

"Welcome to Kilmainham," said he again and put out his hand. "You would scarcely call this an Irish welcome, Mr. Parnell?" I ventured. He held my hand, looking up at the high walls the while. "Possibly not Wall," said he, "but then you must remember that within this inclosure we may be said to be on English rather than Irish territory."

This clever turn, so unusual with him, made everybody laugh. The prisoners then resumed their circular. tramp around the narrow inclosure, Jasper Tully and Parnell alone remaining to continue the conversation. I had had full charge of Tully's paper, "The Roscommon Herald," and my arrest came as a big blow to the business, there being nobody at the moment competent to take my place. "Tully, I suppose you don't like to see Wall here?" said Parnell suddenly.

"Why not?" said Tully.

"Your paper, you know," continued Parnell.

"On the contrary, Mr. Parnell," answered Tully bluntly, "I'm delighted to see him here; for I consider it the best proof that he has done his duty."

"Quite right, Tully," Parnell replied; "but I do not forget that you yourself laid a good solid foundation in both Leitrim and Roscommon before we sent Wall over there."

Jasper Tully has, since then, it is but fair to say, undergone more petty and persistent persecution and prosecution at the hands of the English Government than probably any other man in Ireland, with the exception of Edward McHugh, M. P., whose newspaper property "The Sligo Champion," was burst up completely through the same malign agency. Tully fights his corner to the last inch, permitting no man to do his thinking; a policy so rare in public men that it deserves to be spread upon the record. He has been imprisoned fully a half-dozen