"THE DREADFUL IRISHMAN."

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 206, 16 March 1877, Page 5

"THE DREADFUL IRISHMAN."

['NatioD,' 9th December.] The little village of Marpingen, in the now G-erinan province of Lorraine has been the scene of an occurrence which has occasioned considerable excitement in the neighborhood, and which bids fair to di.-turb the slumbers of even the Man of Iron. The circumstances of the event are briefly these : —

In the mouth of July last three of the village children professed to have witnessed an apparation of our Larty. She appeared to them, they said, in a little wood close by. They, moreover, declared that the spot where the vision occurred was marked by the appearance of a miraculous well. Of the latter part of their story there was little room for douht. At any rate, it was true to this extent — th it in the place indicated a spring of bright pure water was found bubbling forth, where certainly no spring had been known before. Naturally, the affair became the talk of the village, and gradually got noised abroad. Naturally, too theie were found some who discredited the narrative altogether, while others firmly believed in the sincerity of the children and the reality of the vision. At any rate, there was no gainsaying the suddeu appearance of the well, for there it was. By-and-bye, too, it gave evidence of its miraculous origin by the cures which were worked th-ough the agency of its waters. Tts fame spread rapidly, and it soon became a place of pilgrimage, whence people flocked from the surrounding neighborhood, and from more distant places, either through devotion or curiosity, or from a sense of need. Such an unlcgalised event could not, of course, escape the lynxeyed myrmidons of Biiinnrck. And now comes the Irishman on the scene, in the person of a Mr. Marlow, by birth a Corkman and by profession a journalist, and just now foreign correspondent of the ' New York Herald.' Such, at least, was the account given of himself by a plausibla and officiou«ly-systematic gentleman, who one fine dny took up his quarters in Marpin^en. Without much difficulty he ■worked himself into the good graces of the simple villagers, and became intimate even with the priest and <he schoolmaster. Information as to the incidents of the alleged miracle were freely communicated to him. Ho became acquainted with the little children who had been favored with the vision, heard its history in detail from their own childieh lips, took copious notes of everything, as beca'ne an accurate correspondent, and then d sappeuivd — the simple people inewiwhile rejoicing in the thought that the story of the graces vouchsafed to their poor little vill.igo was edifying their brethren on the great continent ot America.

A sad disappointment, however, awaited them. Mr. Mai low so- a after re-appeared, but this time as his own prop-r self, Yon Meor-scheidt-Hullessem, of the secrot police, Berliu. Uiider his di ections, visiss to the miraculous well were prohibited, and the little wood occupied in a military sense by the gendarmes. Attempts were made 1o brinu the well itself under the power of the law. It, however, do(l'iied to Bubm t j and when it was stopped up in oiu> place, its liber." yloving waters found un opening uno the briyh r sunshine else .\hoie And so it goi-s on, bubbling up and flowing away. Piuce Bismuvk to the contrary notwithstanding. Its ut or want of respect for police r« gulation seems to have di^pleas d the autiiorities not a little If they could not dry up the spring, they determined to prevent tho people

using its waters, the possession of which they have construed into a legal offence. Hence, under the guidance of " the dreadful Irishman " (as the villagers call You Meerscheidt), domiciliary visits have beea instituted for the capture of the miraculous water. The story bo far exhibits a piece of tyranny which would bo absolutely loathsome were it not ao ludicrous. Worse, however, remains to be told- The three children (tho eldest of whom is not yet nine) are accused and, without any trial, condemned for th© crime of conspiring to deceive, and are marched off and impounded in a kind of Protestant reformatory at Saarbruken. The poor schoolmaster is disgraced for aiding and abetting the deception, and the Rot. Father Sonesdu is imprisoned for actively propagating it. Our readers might well be pardoned if they imagined for a moment that the foregoing must be merely the rough outlines of a Christmas tale. It certainly does sound unreal as an occurrence of this nineteenth century of personal freedom, and in a land which aims at a lofty id' al. We had heard enough, indeed, of this high-handed tyranny of Bismarck, but were hardly prepared for such a specimen of low, mean, pettifogging espionage, and childishly rexatious persecution. The whole circumstances of the story have been investigated on the spot, and laid' before the German Parliament by Prince Uncivil'©, himself a member of the Parliament, and a priest." The subject wi'l soon come on for discussion before the whole House, and wo shall then see how the " magnanimous, noble, and deep seeing " Prince Hismarck will defend himself against the proven charges of playing the spy in order to entrap unwary villagers, kidnap children, and outrage individual rights. Is it possible that the "man of blood and iron " sees in the vision of Marpingen a spectre of that supernatural order which be is credited with denying, and which he has certainly ignored ? He has done more than any living man to strangle Catholicism and uproot all devotion to the Mother of God. And can it be that in his highest prosperity the ghost of his victim shall cross his path, and render his remaining days unhappy? The great man's peace to be disturbed by three little children and a spring well ! Not if the unscrupulous power of an imperious statesman can prevent it. That simple well may, in the end, turn out to be as tho little stone of old which was cut out of the rock without hands ; it may match itself against a great empire, and may subdue it. M anwhile, Bismarck his to answer for this new proof of his magnanimity to tho outraged sense of justice of his owu country, and, we hope, of tho oivilisod world.