Excerpt from Little Houses a Tale of Past Years

The year was 1882. In the public-houses the Phoenix Park Murders and the eternal Irish Question had been quarrelled over until those affairs had less importance than the progress of the local crops. There had been a fine patriotic glow, with awesome pride in the terrors of new warfare, at the news of the bombardment of Alexandria: warships riding from four to eight miles out, and pounding the shore batteries to rubble - wonderful! Spelling-bee winners had shored up tottering reputations with props of topical facts culled ruthlessly from the children's geography books and atlases, and certain reluctant admissions were heard in agreement with the authorities who forced children to school now, instead of allowing them to be driven to work. Selbridge, newly made a borough, had appeared with an anvil and tools upon its municipal coat of arms, and the motto "Strength by Labour, " in English, capable of being read by common folk, shocking the scholars who talked of dignity, and delighting all who derided Latin scholarship because they hadn't any.

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