| Title: | McMahon Glynn, Patrick to Glynn, James P., 1893 |
|---|---|
| ID | 4419 |
| Collection | Patrick McMahon Glynn: Letters to his family (1874-1927) [Gerald Glynn O'Collins] |
| File | glynn/71 |
| Year | 1893 |
| Sender | McMahon Glynn, Patrick |
| Sender Gender | male |
| Sender Occupation | lawyer |
| Sender Religion | unknown |
| Origin | Adelaide, South Australia, Australia |
| Destination | Gort, Co. Galway, Ireland |
| Recipient | Glynn, James P. |
| Recipient Gender | male |
| Relationship | siblings |
| Source | |
| Archive | |
| Doc. No. | |
| Date | |
| Partial Date | |
| Doc. Type | |
| Log | unknown |
| Word Count | 813 |
| Genre | politics, debts |
| Note | |
| Transcript | Queens Chambers Pirie St. Adelaide May 9th 1893 My dear James You asked in your last letter which of us owed one to another— but the answer does not matter. In these matters I neither stand on ceremony or in gratitude, the motto being to write as the humor seizes one and time allows. I suppose you sometimes hear about us, though letters may be infrequent. After twelve years, or rather 13 years, [it] does not make much difference in my memory of or regard for those at home, but it enlarges the circle of one's acquaintances—something different from intimates—here or rather I should say the number of one's obligations. You mentioned, I think, the Irish question. I have not your letter by me, as Eugene, to whom I sent it for consideration, has not returned it. You may make your mind easy about me and the Irish question. I see a little further, perhaps, than you credit me with doing, and have studied the world outside an academic chair. Perhaps having mixed and fought with men makes me a little tolerant. However, I may say this: the struggles of Irish and English factions interest me a little, but are by no means my exclusive concern. I skim, rather than read, the Irish newspapers, and believe that neither Parnellism, nor McCarthyism, Redmondism nor Tim Healyism contains the solution of the eternal Irish puzzle. Neither does Unionism. The latter has been tried and failed. Autonomy will be tried, and you will have no Utopia. Now it is not a question of what ought to be, but of what has to be. Indeed, experience of life will tell you that that is the question that in all cases eventually presses. But where statesmanship and the deep future are concerned, neither the ways of clerical politicans or wirepullers nor the vulgarity of clever parvenues are of very great concern. I am glad your literary work is under way again. Here, as everywhere, there is over-supply, especially in the fiction line, but eventually good work gets a hearing. Besides, there is generally a pleasure in writing what is really good. Even what is only half-and-half or unpretentious is not without its personal rewards and compensations, as in the gestation of some devil-may-care reminiscences of mine— or rather obiter dicta on nothing and everything—I have had more pleasure than in the monetary return from the publication, on the suggestion of an editor, of part of them. Now, as to your financial scheme to restore the O'Donnells to temporary solvency. As you are evidently under a misapprehension as to both my position and relation to my relations—if the tautology will be excused—I had better give you a small notion. On this side of the world my poor relations (I call them mine as I am the only one that acknowledges them all) are legion. The Bergins are numerous, respectable, and eternally hard up. Such small matters as a few pounds are too inconsiderable to even call for an acknowledgment. If I send a fiver to one quarter, I am sure to receive an application within a week for another from some where else. This week, for instance, poor Mary Anne Glynn—blind, a pauper, deserted by her sisters (Fanny knows nothing of it) proud etc. etc., writes to me from the Destitute Asylum, that she lacks even the poorest comforts that would make her last days tolerable. Of course, I can't let her die like that. Now I am the only male friend or relation in Australia that ever writes to these people, who in turn know nothing of one another. For these reasons, I cannot stand too much. Both Eugene & myself have written home to say we will, if drunkenness has made the old home intolerable, give my mother £100 a year, but neither he nor I can at present see our way to help to pay O'Donnell's debts. I had the idea in mind once myself, but as the O'Donnells are, in my case, only one in several, I postponed it as out of the question. I have dropped £280 in the last election & so on. I firmly believe if I was married, I would live on a third of my present, or recent, outlay, and have the blessing besides that renders existence a little pleasant at times at all events. To me with the eternal drumming of an hypertrophied heart, it is anything but such. I am forced to parade the financial question, as I really think you know next to nothing of my situation. A little later, I may see opportunities more favorable. Please excuse my hurry and seeming forgetfulness of yourself. How are you both? Mrs. Glynn seems to be a favorite with those who met her. For the present, excuse Your affectionate Brother P. McM. Glynn |
