MEMORIES OF THE COUNTRY PEOPLE 91 



off to sleep placidly, possibly to miss his next 

 train as well. 



With a large proportion of what one might term 

 crude intelligence and quickness they combine a 

 deep substratum of equally crude stupidity. 



Our old steward at home, a very able man, 

 came in to see me two years ago to tell me quite 

 gravely that half the people were away from the 

 bog because they had it good that the Germans 

 were surely coming. 



Pat someone read it on a paper an' there was 

 four famihes away to the Sthates because they 

 wouldn't be undther foreigners. 



The " Sthates " have drained Ireland of her young 

 blood, every boat carries off men and girls going 

 in search of a quicker but less sure fortune than 

 they might find at home. At Patrick's Well, a 

 tiny station next to Limerick, where the emigrants 

 from Kerry change on to the train for the boat, 

 the porter there used to call out " Change here 

 for America. Change here for America," up to 

 quite a short time ago. 



The days of ' howlding trains ' and people have 

 been more or less swept out by the absorbing of 

 the smaller lines by big and business-like com- 

 panies, but I remember quite well my [father send- 

 ing notice to flag the night mail at ArdsoUus as he 

 was going to Limerick, and then changing his 

 mind and forgetting to tell the station-master. 



The station was out a quarter of a mile away 



