School: Glassalts (roll number 1239)

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1. The Story of a Black Sheep (continued)

   

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   A "black sheep" son of a fine family got hold of his passage money in some questionable manner and set sail for America to push his fortune. Shortly after he landed at Castle Garden he got on as conductor on one of the horse car lines and started "Knocking down". One night when in a boastful mood, he told a friend, that at the end of every trip he would throw his pocketful of nickles up to the top of the car and whatever let on the straps he would turn over to the company.
   With 250 sovereigns sewed in his belt he had to make a hasty exit from the country on account of owing his boarding mistress for ten weeks (a poor widow at that, left with several small children), two suits of clothes and an overcoat obtained from a trusting tailor on credit, and the "loan" of a valuable gold watch which he got from a young widow, belonging to her husband, on the pretext that he was going to marry her.
   Landing back in Ireland, he bought a farm with part of his ill-gotten gain and then announced that he was going in for sheep raising on a large scale. One of his godly old relatives seeing and hearing of the threatening letters that were coming thick and

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. time
      1. historical periods by name (~25)
         1. the great famine (~4,013)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Mr Robert Campbell

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   65

   Address

   Collin, Co. Donegal