The Cross and the Shamrock | Page 9

Doherty. "God forgive me.
I have a doubt in my own mind that the lady of the house (I renounce
judging her) was not honest when she told me of the child's death.
'Perhaps,' says I to myself, 'she is kidnapped.' And she was such a purty
angel, with a face you would delight looking on; and on her right
hand,--the Lord save us!--a circle like a ring was on her middle finger.
She was too good to live; and was made for heaven, I suppose. Glory
be to God."
CHAPTER III.
AN OFFICIAL.
Our poormaster, Van Stingey, was a very conscientious officer. He
never squandered what he called the people's property, the
commonwealth. He was none of your vulgar, ordinary poormasters. He
did not want the office; they only forced it on to him. Like some of
your great statesmen, he acted for man, as he emphatically said; not for
poor widows and orphans, taken one by one; that was only a secondary
consideration. His whole duty, his very existence, seemed to be needed
for the good of man, or humanity in general. The question with him
was, not how to relieve this or that poor man or woman. That might
engage the attention of a man of no intelligence, no education, or no
philosophy: what he aspired to was, always to act by principle; to act so
that the state, or the people who owned real estate, and who elected
him against his will, to see that their interests were attended to,
whatever became of the poor. Accordingly, when he heard of any case
of particular distress, such as that a poor emigrant died of misery in a
cold, deserted house, our poormaster regretted it, as an individual; but,
as an officer, he said, he acted according to principle. He could not

betray his constituents, who elected him against his will, by any act of
extravagance; and the good of the many must be consulted. "Even the
Lord," he used to say,--for he was a religious man,--"when he created
the sun, left spots in it." The best statesman must sometimes do what
may be cruel to the few; but, in the end, it would turn out for the good
of man. This district, since his election, now twice successively, had
made a saving of some two hundred a year since he became its officer;
and that would, in time, open the eyes of the people as to who were
proper candidates for office, tend to diminish taxes, and, in fact, be a
work for man--progress and virtue. Besides this, Mr. Poormaster Van
Stingey had "got religion," by which he was wonderfully enlightened,
having been so lucky as to gain that valuable accomplishment just six
months, and only six months, before his election, at a camp meeting
held near the village of M----ville.
"I tell you what, the fact of the matter is, Mr. Knicks," said he, "there is
nothin' like religion. Before I got religion, and jined the church, I didn't
have any knowledge of God. I used to pity these emigrants, seeing
them poor and pale looking as death; but now, sir, I reads my Bible,
and finds that the Lord must not regard nor love these Papists, wher'n
he lets them run down so. The word of life is great."
"Wal, I do not know. I care not a straw about any church; but my old
mother used to teach us, when children, that poverty and crosses were
no sign of the Lord's displeasure; as witness holy Job and Christ
himself, who were poor. In fact, she never stopped telling us, when
boys, that riches were dangerous, the love of money the root of all evil,
and that 'whom he chastiseth the Lord loveth.'"
"O, but your mother was a stiff Papist, you know, and did not
understand the word of God."
"Yes, sir-ee, she did that; for I well recollect that, in the many
arguments she had with father, she always had the best of it. That she
had."
"She may argue from Jesuit books and the like; but the Bible she durst
not look at, you know, Knicks."

"I know better, Van. Don't you talk so. I have got the very Bible she
used and read every day--a great large one, printed in London. Mother
was English, and herself a convert to the church of Rome, though father
was Dutch."
"Why, I never knowed that, Knicks. That was a great misfortune. These
priests, by the arts of Antichrist, will come round simple folks so, that
they often succeed in leading them down to destruction."
"Well, sir," said Knicks, "I can tell you I never met a Christian but my
mother; and I cannot believe or listen to you say she went to
destruction, but to heaven,