WHO WAS

Southland Times, Issue 21361, 6 April 1931, Page 8

WHO WAS

COUNTESS CATHLEEN? In old times there was-a great drought in Ireland, so sings the poet Yeats. Crops failed, cattle died, even rats and hedgehogs starved. Corn from beyond the seas could only be obtained at a fabulous price, and the peasants hungrily ate the green sorrel and' dock and dandelion. Countess Cathleen, of the sapphire eyes, gave all her gold to the poor, but what w'as so little among so many! Then there came through the land two merchants with gbld in plenty, and the merchandise they came to buy was the souls of men for their master the Prince of Darkness. For the soul of a sin-scarred old peasant they would give but a few crowns. To the Countess Cathleen, “the great white lily of the world,” they offered five hundred thousand. In horror she shrank back; but that night the wailings that arose in the hovels of the starving would not let her sleep, and next day she sought out the merchants to make her terrible bargain. This dorie; she died, but the mourning people saw her soul snatched from the demons who had come to claim her and borne through the pearly gates to the floor of peace.. And an angel appeared to them, saying:— “The Light of Lights Looks on the motive, not the deed, The Shadow of Shadow on the deed alone.”