PDF (20 MB) - Virtual Library of the Public Library of Cincinnati

430 HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY
throoble, at all, at all, to spake of, til Katy made a client of herself,
Avhich is something I nivcr heard of in Ould Ireland;—divil a Avord or
lie in that inny Avay. 0 Katy! Katy! Avasn't yer mather an honest
Avoman, and didn't Father Phalen, that's dead now, (rist his SOAAT) lay
his OAVII blessed hand on yer head when you was a baby ? and HOAV yer a
client, and I live to see it! Its all Lawyer Stilt's doings, yer Honours—
bad luck to him.
"As to the matther of drink, yer Honours,—I spake it in shame—
may be I have sometimes taken a leetle too much of the crathur; but
didn't I confess for it? And didn't Katy too! Sure and Ave did yer
Honours. But its not my mather's son, will spake even the thruth, to
harm a Avoman, and she me Avife too, and childers' mather. But is it
my fault, yer Honours, that at every strate corner in your leetle toon
here, some lazy loon stands all the day long—and night too, as for that
mattlier—Avith Avhisky to sell! and the Avay them diyils (I beg yer
Honours pardon for SAvearin—Avhich is a sin) will tempt a poor man
that's tired, to drink, is more than ye knoAv yer Honours, or ye would
make dog's mate of ivery mother's son of em. I'm thinking yer Honours
will not be afther knoAving all about the leetle troobles betAveen Katy
and me. May be Ave've both done wrong; but is that a rason Avhy yer
Honours should be bothered Avid the leetle fault finding of tAvo silly
people, done into blarny be Lawyer Stilts?
"Its a cruel thing, yer Honours, whin ye are in a far-off counthry
wid a wife and childer, to have the wife enticed away from ye, joost for
nothing at all, at all, and the childer left widout a mother, and yer
hearthstone groAv could, and the grass spring up in yer door path—
Why, it makes a woman of me to spake of it.
"NOAV, yer Honours, plaze do not be too hard on a poor man, who
has seen such troobles as ye knoAv leetle of, (and may yer Honours niver
know more). Keep yer eyes on that long-tongued laAvyer, Stilts, who
has had more kind Avords joost back from Katy, nor I have. Tell Katy
to lave the laAvyers and come home, and the childer will Aveep for joy;
and may be I can stand by and not do that same, but my name is not
Tommy Cohlan if I do: I will forgit and forgive; (Katy knoAvs what I
mane) if she will promise one thing—niver he a client agin. That's all
yer Honours. his
TOMMY X COHLAN."
mark.
At the last April term of the court a motion Avas made to strike the
papers in the case from the files for scandal and impertinence. The bill
and answer Avere read amidst much merriment. The ansAA'er was stricken
from the files, and the petitioner's counsel, on motion for that purpose
had leave to amend the petition, and the cause Avas continued. At the
June term Katy, under the influence of Tommy's passionate appeal, to
"come home and lave the laAvyers" and to "niver be a client agin" and
doubting the propriety of appealing to the secular arm or civil tribunal
to dissolve her from her marriage vows, turned preacher and told her
laAvyer, "Whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder."