124 MEMOIES OF MY NAMESAKE. 



dishonorable, office of Master Workman of the Guild of Brogue- 

 makers, of the " Git} 7 of the Violated Treaty." Subsequently, strange 

 mutation of fortune, he was adjutant of His Majesty's (William IV) 

 36th Regiment of Foot (green facings) his white horse, in rear of the 

 passing regiment, having been for man} 7 } 7 ears, a noticeable feature 

 of its routes through Ireland. His love of Ireland, however, caused 

 his early retirement from the red-coated police. 



Anent the brogue-making, there is to say that the brogue was the 

 forerunner of the modern shoe, and, although like many of its con- 

 temporaries in the arts, despised for its "homeliness" now, it was 

 well made, and as comfortable a foot wear as the policeman's brogan 

 of to-day. The trade was very popular, a favorite ballad of the times 

 celebrating it with the chorus : 



"For they are the boys with their aprons on," 



the glory of the boast lying, as Captain Cattle would say, in "the 

 application on it." 



It is a singular fact that the "gift of the gab" among mechanics is 

 vouchsafed to shoemakers first, and, after them, to tailors, and both 

 are noted, in trades-unions, for being " tall talkers " and deep think- 

 ers. 



This may be due to the fact that they work sitting down, a position 

 favorable to reflection, and to a surreptitious perusal of a book or 

 paper. A sitting posture is the synonym of understanding, "whence 

 we get "seat of wisdom," seat of learning, and soforth and sonfth to 

 the end of the chapter. 



Enter Jacobus. 



My honored father commenced life as one of the " lads with their 

 aprons on," and developed into a maker of . very respectable "top 

 boots." He was, in truth, a type of manly beauty — a perfect Apollo 

 —being popularly known as "The Handsome Shoemaker." The 

 line, "Sparkling eyes, red, rosy cheeks, and curly, coal-black," writ- 

 ten of the celebrated Father Trainor, was often applied to him, even 

 in my presence as a lad. 



From top boots to horses was not a violent transition, and so, in 

 time, and, after the necessary training, he was admitted to practice 

 as a veterinary surgeon. His education was above the average, and, 

 in the local debating classes, he usually clinched an argument by a 



