MORGAN PRUSSIA.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 August 1916, Page 9

MORGAN PRUSSIA.

THE IRISHMAN WHO TRICKED A GERMAN' EMPEROR. The Kaiser is an earnest student of the lives of his ancestors, and is fond of alluding to them. One -wonders whether he is aware of a certain unhappy ex/ perience which one of these ancestors had in his efforts to secure, some Irishmen for big service? The story of the cunning Irishman who deluded Frederick William I. of Prussia and used the martial foibles of the King to impose on him is, for reasons which it i s unnecessary to specify, of peculiar interest just now. Probably few persons in Scotland or England have heard of Morgan Prussia. In the south-east of Ireland the story of his exploits used to be fairly well known, and old men recounted with glee the tales told of him by their fathers, laughing at the cleverness with which an Irish peasant had outwitted and cheated a King. But even in Ireland nowadays Morgan' Prussia is but little known. Prussia, it may be explained, was not really his name; it was merely a sobriquet conferred upon him. Born'in County iCarlow in the opening years of the eighteenth centuryy, he was one of the younger s ons of an Irish peasant farmer. As is the ease still with younger sons in Ireland, he had little prospect of ."making good" in his own country. Accordingly he turned his eyes to foreign lands. Morgan, it would appear, was a tall, well-bu : lt, handsome young fellow. Restless and unsettled, with a liking for gaiety, he had a strong disinclination, if not indeed aversion, to regular work and to a methodical life. He was content I with such a living as his wife could earn for him, and upon these he managed to subsist for some years. When he set out to make his fortune he had no definite vie\vs_ as to where or how he was to accomplish his object. First he crossed to England, hut not finding that country to hi 5 liking lie made his way to France. There being still no appearance of the fortune he was in search of, the happy-go-lucky Irishman wandered through this and other countries until at last unfortunately for himself, he crossed the Prussian frontier. At once, to his infinite dismay, his careless, roving, irresponsible life was brought to an end. FREDERICK WILLIAM'S MANIA. Frederick William T.. the father of Frederick the Great, was then King. The Monarch, by no means the only insane member of the House of Hohenzollern, was a dangerous compound of fool and madman. Macaulay has described his eccentricities as "such as had never before been seen out of a madhouse." Parsimonious and avaricious, he starved the Court and made his representatives abroad the laughing-stock of Europe. But he had the family passion for military display and an individual mania for tall soldiers. His darling project was the formaton of a brigade in ! which there was no man under six feet and a half high. Every country was ransacked by his agents for big recruits, and large sums were paid—as much as £I3OO sterling in one case. As Morgan was well over the 6 feet 0 inches, his fate was sealed the moment he entered tho dominions which called Frederick William master. He was instantly seized by recruiting agents and was compelled to "volunteer" into the giant battalion.

Behold our hero in his sad plight! Anything less to his liking than the experience which had befallen him it would be difficult to imagine. The incessant drill, to witness which was the chief pleasure of the royal maniac, was to the volatile Irishman detestable. To one of his temperament tho dreary monotony of his existence was maddening. It was no consolation to the gallant Irishman that Frederick William was so careful of his expensive troops, and so careful of losing any of them, that he would have done almost anything rather than expose them to the risks of war.

The horrible prospect of having to tarry a musket on the Potsdam parade (.'round till his dying day set Morgan thinking. Moreover, nostalgia, to which the Irishman abroad is ever subject began to afflict him. There was need for sharpening those wits of his. First his mind turned to plans of escaping, but these he soon found to be impracticable. Frederick Wilhelm valued his costly warriors too highly; not to take precautions against this sort of thing. FIVE MYTHICAL BROTHERS. At last, however, the appearance of a new Turkish recruit on the parado {.'round gave Morgan an idea. "How much did his Majesty give for that heathen*" he asked. Four hundred dollars. lie was told. He was amazed at the prodigality—or professed to be. "What a pity my five brothers cannot hear of it!" he remarked reflectively, in the hearing of his corporal; "they are all bigger than I am, and half the money would bring them over." The discovery of even one tall recruit was a, path to promotion. But five! The corporal hastened to tell the ser-' geant; the sergeant carried the tale to a lieutenant, by whom it was told to the captain, and in due time the story reached the colonel, who took the first opportunity of communicating it to the King. Frederick William was interested at once. The colonel was ordered to examine Morgan and get particulars. But the cunning Irishman was. not to be drawn too quickly. He affected surprise. He had no recollection of having said anything of the kind imputed to him. There must be some mistake. He had no brothers—not one. In faet, he had to wish for relations. The regiment had become father and mother and brother and sister to him.

All the time, however, his manner conveyed the idea that he was concealing something, and at last, being strongly urged, he confessed in a burst of apparent frankness that he had five brothers, all of whom were, well over the regimental standard. But nothing, he was p.fraid, would stir them from Ireland. The King, indignant at such incredible inability to appreciate his generosity, gave orders that Morgan himself was to be sent to bring his brothers. The Irishman, broken-hearted at the idea of being parted from his regiment even temporarily, pleaded to be excused. But Frederick William's orders were not to be either questioned or trifled with, and Morgan, seemingly disconsolate, prepared to set out. THREE STRIPES AND £SOO. Suddenly a difficulty occurred to his mind. How was he to induce his brothers to come unless he showed them the recruiting money? To meet the objection, an advance was made of a sum equal to £SOO sterling as a first installment. But just as he was leaving Pots dam another difficulty suggested itself to him. Returning to barracks he pointed out respectfully to the colonel that ii he went back to his own country as it common soldier and told people of the splendid treatment and sure promotion one met with in the Grenadier Guards they would laugh in his face. •

The object was communicated* to Frederick William. The King was furious at the delay, and treated the colonel and all concerned to choice specimen* from his extensive vocabulary of blasphemy, but the objection was not only intelligible, but reasonable, and he ordert d Morgan to be made a sergeant forth'with and immediately transported across the Rhine. Once over the frontier the Irishman made straight for his native country, chuckling, if tales be true, over the disappointment awaiting those who had sent him forth with money and rank. With the money 1: i had obtained from the exchequer of the miserly Prussian monarch who had trepanned him, he bought some land in County Carlow, married a wife with a suitable "foftune," and settled down. He made no secret of how he had acquired the cash; on the contrary he entertained every household in, the countryside with an recount of his experiences at Potsdam and of how he had outwitted the King >f Prussia and the officers of his famous regiment. Every year, on the anniversary of the day on which he left Potsdam, Morgan climbed a hill near his house, and, turning in the direction in which he supposed Prussia to be, went through the form of bidding good-bye to his Majesty Frederick William.