AN IRISH LOVE-LETTER.

A SCENE FROM GEORGE M. BAKER'S NEW PLAY (FOR FEMALE CHARACTERS ONLY) IN THREE ACTS, ENTITLED "REBECCA'S TRIUMPH."

Characters: Katy, an Irish servant, Gyp, a colored girl; Dora, a young lady.

(Enter Katy, with a letter in her hand.)

Katy (turning letter over and over). An' sure I got a love-lether frum Patsy; an' phat will I do wid it I dunno. I can't rade, and the misthress is away wid the company girls. How will I find out phat's inside it? It's bothered I am intirely.

(Enter from L., through C. door, Dora.)

Dora. Ah, Katy! Is it ther yees are? Where's Mrs. Delaine's shawl? I see it. (Goes towards window R.)

Katy. If yees plase, Miss Dora, might I be after troubling yees?

Dora (comes down). Certainly, Katy. What's the trouble?

Katy. If yees plase, I have a lether.

Dora. From the ould counthry?

Katy. No, indade: it's from—it's from—sure you'll be afther laughin' if I tole yees.

Dora. Then you needn't tell me, Katy; I can guess. It's a love-letter.

Katy. An' who towld yees that?

Dora. Yourself, Katy, by the blushes on your cheeks and the sparkle in your eyes. You want me to read it for you?

Katy. If yees plase, Miss Dora. (Hands letter.)

Dora (opening letter). I shall learn all your secrets, Katy. Perhaps the young man would not like that.

Katy. Thin yees moight shkip the sacrets.

Dora (laughs). All right, Katy. (Reads.) "Lovely Katy."

Katy. That's me. Sure that's no sacret.

Dora (reads). "I take me pin in hand wid a bating heart, to till yees uv the sthrong wakeniss I have for yees."

Katy. Yees moight shkip that.

Dora (reads). "I have nather ate, dhrunk, nor slipt, for a wake."

Katy. Will, that jist accounts for the wakeniss.

Dora (reads). "Barrin' my thray males a day, an 'me pipe an' tobacyer."

Katy. An' he wid the hearty appetite!

Dora (reads). "An' all me slapeliss nights are fill wid drames of yees, Katy mavourneen."

Katy. Sure he's the darlin'.

Dora (reads). "I have yees phortygraff nailed to the hid uv me bid; and ivery night, afther I've blown out the candle wid me fingers, I tak a good look at it, an' if ye'll belave me, there's not a dry thread in me eyes."

Katy. Sure he was alwus tinder-hearted.

Dora (reads). "If yees don't belave me, tak a good look at yees own face before yees open the lether, and see if I have not cause to wape."

Katy. Sure I ought to have known that before the lether came.

Dora (reads). "If yees foind these tinder loins blotted wid tears, it's all owing to the bad quality uv the ink, which has compilled me to pin this wid a pincil."

Katy. That's no mather.

Dora (reads). "If yees don't recave this lether, or can't rade it, niver moind: ye'll know that all that's in it is the truth, an' nades nather radin' or writin' to till the same. So name the day, Katy darlin', whin me single blissidniss is to exphire, an' the mathrimoonial noose shlipped over the hid of yees lovin' and consolin'

Patsy Dolan.

"P.S.—These last lines are the poethry uv love.

"Second P.S.—To be rid fhirst. I inclose a ring for yees finger, which same yees will find in me nixt lether." That's all, Katy. (Hands back letter.)

Katy. It's jist illigant. I'm obleeged to yees.

Dora (takes shawl from chair). Quite welcome, Katy. When you get ready to name the day, I'll answer it for you. But be quick, Katy; for the poor fellow will not live long on "only his thray males a day, an' his pipe an' tobacyer." (Runs off C. to L.)

Katy (looks at letter). Sure it's a darlin' lether, an' Patsy Dolan's a broth uv a bye.

Enter R., Gyp.

Gyp. Ah, dar you is, Katy! Whar's de misses? Whar's Miss Becky? Whar's eberybody?

Katy. In the garden, sure. Yees may coom in, if yees wipe yers fate.

Gyp. Yas, indeed! How yer was? And how's Patsy Dolan?

Katy. He's will. I've jist recaved a lether from him.

Gyp. Dat so? Dat's good! Lub-letters am bery consolin' to de flutterin' heart. Got a letter, hab you? S'pose you red it frough and frough.

Katy. Sure I can't rade at all, at all.

Gyp. Dat so? Well, well! De ignoramance ob de foreign poperlation am distressin'.

Katy. Can you rade?

Gyp. Read? What you take me for? How else could I debour de heaps and heaps ob lub-letters dat I constantly receibe from my adorers?

Katy (Aside.) Faith, I'd loike to hear Patsy's lether again. (Aloud.) Thin plase rade this for me. (Hands letter.)

Gyp (confused). Wh-wh-what you take me fur? (Aside.) Golly! she cotch me den. (Aloud.) No, chile: dose tender confections am fur you alone, and dey shouldn't be composed to de world.

Katy. An' sure yees can't rade.

Gyp. What's that? Can't read? (Takes letter, and turns it round several times.) Berry long letter. Want to hear it all?

Katy. Ivery word.

Gyp (Aside.) Mussn't gib in. Spec dase all alike. (Aloud.) Ob course, ob course. (Pretends to read.) "Lubliest ob your sexes."

Katy. Sure that's not there.

Gyp (shows letter). See fur yerself, see fur yerself.

Katy. Go on wid the lether.

Gyp. "Sublimest ob de fair sexes, dis am a whale ob tears. Dar ain't no sunshine of moonshine widout you."

Katy. That's not thrue at all, at all.

Gyp (shows letter). Read it yerself, read yerself.

Katy. Go on wid the lether.

Gyp. "De moon on de lake am beamin', de lubly sunflower perfumeries in de garden, de tuneful frogs meliferously warble in de riber, an' de breezes blow fro' de treeses; but my lub, my lub, whar, oh, whar am she?"

Katy. I don't belave—

Gyp (as before). See fur yerself, see fur yerself!

Katy. Oh, quit yees talkin' an' talkin'. Go on wid the lether.

Gyp. "My lub she isn't hansum,
My lub she isn't fair;
But to cook de beef and 'taters
Can't beat her anywhar."

Dat's potry, Katy, dat is; alwus find lots ob dat in lub-letters: it gibs dem a flabor.

Katy. I don't belave it's there.

Gyp (as before). See fur yerself, see fur yerself!

Katy. Go on wid the lether.

Gyp. Luf me see, wha was I? "Come rest on dis yere head your aching breast." Dey all got dat, Katy, an'—an' (aside), well, I'se jest puzzled fur more: guess we'll hab some more poetry (aloud) an'—an'—

"We'll dance all night till broad daylight,
An' go home with de girls in de morning."

Katy. It's no such thing! Yer desavin' me, so yees are! Me Patsy wouldn't go home wid the girls at all, at all.

Gyp. See fur yerself, see fur yerself!

Katy (snatching letter). So I will. It's false and desateful yees are, for Miss Dora rid the lether, an'—an'—it was jist illegant, so it was an' it's yersilf.—bad luck to the loikes ov yees, whin yees can't rade! an' it's the blissid troth I'm tillin',—invintin' a bit uv blarney to make trouble betwane a poor girl an' her Patsy. Away wid yees!

[Exit door R.

Gyp. Well, I guess she fooled me dat time. No use. Dar's alwus trubble interferin' in lub affairs, jest like domestic affairs: when man and wife am fighting, ef you try to be a messenger ob peace, ef you don't look out, you'll git de broomstick onto yer own head.

[Exit.

YANKEE DIALECT RECITATIONS.

Edited by GEORGE M. BAKER.

BOARDS 50 CENTS PAPER 30 CENTS.

LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.

		PAGE
Goin' Somewhere	M. Quod	5
Old Farmer Grey Gets Photographed	John H. Yates	8
Speech of the Hon. Perverse Peabody on the Acquisition of Cuba		10
Widder Green's Last Words		13
Widow Stebbins on Homœopathy	C. F. Adams	14
Farmer Bent's Sheep-Washing		16
The Little Peach		17
Mr. Pickwick's Romantic Adventure with a Middle-aged Lady in Yellow Curl-Papers	Dickens	18
Goin' Home To-day	W. M. Carleton	24
Jakie on Watermelon Pickle		25
Putty and Varnish	Josh Billings	26
London Zoölogical Gardens		28
Aurelia's Unfortunate Young Man	Mark Twain	29
The Old Ways and the New	John H. Yates	31
The Bumpkin's Courtship		33
The Ballad of the Oysterman	Oliver Wendell Holmes	35
The Deck Hand and the Mule		36
A Lay of Real Life	Thomas Hood	37
Middlerib's Rheumatic Cure	R. J. Burdette	39
Two Fishers	Harper's Weekly	43
Jim Wolfe and the Cats	Mark Twain	44
Mr. Stiver's Horse	J. M. Bailey	46
Mosquitoes	Kaleb Keating	50
The City Man and the Setting Hen		51
The Owl Critic	James T. Fields	53
The Man with a Cold in His Head		54
Forcible Entry	J. M. Bailey	5?
The Village Sewing Society		57
Yankee Courtship		59
The Patter of the Shingle		63
The Paper Don't Say		64
The Jonesville Singin' Quire	Betsey Bobbitt	65
The Knife-Grinder	George Canning	69
Malaria		70
The Story of the Bad Little Boy who Didn't Come to Grief	Mark Twain	72
Mr. Caudle and His Second Wife	Douglas Jerrold	75
Mollie or Sadie		78
The Baffled Book Agent		79
She Would Be a Mason	James C. Leighton	80
The Loves of Lucinda	Mark Melville	83
Something Split		87
From the Sublime to the Ridiculous		88
A Howl in Rome	Bill Nye	89
Butterwick's Weakness		93
The Old Man Goes to Town	J. G. Swinnerton	95
Mr. Watkins Celebrates	Detroit Press	98
The Squire's Story	John Phœnix	99
The Conversion of Colonel Quagg	George Augustus Sala	100
In the Surf		105
Variegated Dogs	Peck	107
Judge Pitman's Watch	Max Adeler	110
An Æsthetic Housekeeper		111
"Mebbe" Joe's True Fish Story		112
Aunt Sophronia Tabor at the Opera		114
The Village Choir	Andre's Journal	117
The Light From Over the Range		118
The Christening	E. T. Corbett	121
Mr. Covill Proves Mathematics	J. M. Bailey	123
Mary's Lamb on a New Principle		124
Address of Spottycus		125
Our Visitor, and What He Came For		128
In the Catacombs	H. H. Ballard	130
The Showman's Courtship	A. Ward	132
Clerical Wit		134
Greely's Ride	Mark Twain	135
No Yearning for the Beautiful	Max Adeler	138
A Very Naughty Little Girl's View of Life		141
Burdock's Goat		142
Awfully Lovely Philosophy		145
Aunt Parsons' Story	Presbyterian Journal	146
The National Game		151
A Disturbance in Church	Max Adeler	153
The Engineer's Story	Eugene J. Hall	155
The Judge's Search for a Waterfall	Harper's Magazine	156
The Railroad Crossing		158
Asking the Gov'nor		159
Intensely Utter	Albany Chronicle	162
The Way Astors Are Made	J. M. Bailey	164
A Mysterious Disappearance	Dickens	166

THE GRAND ARMY SPEAKER.

Edited by GEORGE M. BAKER.

BOARDS 50 CENTS PAPER 30 CENTS.

LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.

		PAGE
The Rescue	John Brownjohn	5
Decoration	T. W. Higginson	8
The Little Black-eyed Rebel	Will Carleton	9
The Palmetto and the Pine	Mrs. Virginia L. French	11
Battle Hymn	Korner	13
The Song of the Dying		14
By the Alma River	Miss Mulock	15
At the Soldiers' Graves	Robert Collyer	17
The Sergeant of the Fiftieth		18
The Minute-men of '75	George William Curtis	19
Blue and Gray		21
Custer's Last Charge	Frederick Whittaker	23
The Pride of Battery B	F. H. Gassaway	25
The Cavalry Charge	F. A. Durivage	27
The Last Redoubt		28
Kelly's Ferry	Benjamin F. Taylor	30
Noble Revenge		34
Civil War	Anonymous	35
"Dashing Rod," Trooper	S. Conant Foster	36
The Tramp of Shiloh	Joaquin Miller	38
The Sharpshooter's Miss	Frank H. Gassaway	40
The Fight at Lookout	R. L. Cary, jun.	44
The Countersign was "Mary"	Margaret Eytinge	46
A Second Review of the Grand Army	Bret Harte	47
The Bivouac of the Dead		49
The Tramp	George M. Baker	52
The Canteen		55
The Charge by the Ford		56
Harry Brandon	Edmund E. Price	58
Post Number Three	Sherman D. Richardson	59
The Patriot Spy	F. M. Finch	62
The Dandy Fifth	Frank H. Gassaway	63
The American Flag	Joseph Rodman Drake	66
Somebody's Darling	Anonymous	68
"Little Potter's" Story		69
The Bravest Boy in Town	Emma Huntington Nason	71
Our Folks	Ethel Lynn	74
"Picciola"		76
"Fall in"	Mary Clemmer	78
"The Boys who Never Got Home"	George W. Peck	79
Abraham Lincoln and the Poor Woman		80
Elizabeth Zane	John S. Adams	82
Keenan's Charge		84
The Old Canteen		86
Mobile Bay		88
Ravenswood's Oath	A. Wallace Thaxter	90
The Story of the Swords	Adelaide Cilley Waldron	91
"Only a Crippled Soldier!"	J. Russell Fisher	93
Somebody's Pride	Clement Scott	97
My Wife and Child	Henry Rootes Jackson	98
The Song of the Drum	I. E. Diekenga	99
"Bay Billy"	Frank H. Gassaway	102
Sheridan's Ride		106
"Them Yankee Blankits"	Samuel W. Small	108
The Soldiers' Monument	John L. Swift	110
The Crutch in the Corner	John McIntosh	112
Roll-call		113
The Cruise of the Monitor	George M. Baker	115
Missing		117
Decoration Day	Mary Bassett Hussey	118
Back from the War	T. De Witt Talmage	120
A Piece of Bunting	Hon. F. W. Palmer	121
Grant's Strategy	Judge Veazey	123
The Charge at Valley Maloy		124
The Hero-woman	George Lippard	126
Union of Blue and Gray	Paul H. Hayne	130
After "Taps"	Horace Binney Sargent	131
The Soldier's Reprieve	Rosa Hartwick Thorpe	133
At Arlington	James R. Randall	135
The Man with the Musket	H. S. Taylor	137
A Baby Peacemaker	Herbert W. Collingwood	138
The Veterans	General Sherman	141
Barbara Frietchie	Whittier	142
What Saved the Union		144
Re-enlisted	Lucy Larcom	145
The Soldier's Dream	C. G. Fall	147

IRISH DIALECT RECITATIONS.

Edited by GEORGE M. BAKER.

BOARDS 50 CENTS PAPER 30 CENTS.

LEE & SHEPARD, Publishers, Boston.

		PAGE
How Teddy Saved His Bacon		5
Mr. O'Hoolahan's Mistake		7
The Last of the Sarpints		9
The Irish Boy and the Priest		11
An Irish Wake		12
Biddy's Philosophy	R. H. Stoddard	14
Reflections on the Needle	Cormac O'Leary	15
The Red O'Neil	Thomas S. Collier	16
Deaf and Dumb	Anna F. Burnham	20
Mr. Murphy Explains His Son's Conduct		21
A Ram for Ould Oireland		22
The Gridiron	William B. Fowle	23
The "O'Meara Consolidated"	Va. City Enterprise	26
Paddy's Metamorphosis	Moore	28
The Widow O'Shane's Rent		29
Why Biddy and Pat Got Married		30
Don Squixet's Ghost	Harry Bolingbroke	31
Mr. O'Gallagher's Three Roads to Learning	Captain Marryat	33
Two Irish Idyls	Alfred Perceval Graves	37
The Broken Pitcher		39
Paddy's Excelsior	Harper's Magazine	40
The Irish Philosopher		41
Mary Maloney's Philosophy	Philadelphia Bulletin	42
Bridget McRae's Wedding Anniversary	Nina Gray	44
Paddy O'Rafther	Samuel Lover	45
Pat's Reason		47
O'Branigan's Drill	W. W. Fink	47
Pat and the Pig		48
Pat and the Oysters		50
A Penitent	Margaret Eytinge	51
Mike McGaffaty's Dog	Mark Melville	51
Jimmy Butler and the Owl		53
Tipperary		56
Pat's Dream of Heaven		58
Biddy's Troubles		61
Make It Four, Yer Honor		62
The Post-Boy	Mrs C. J. Despard	64
That Fire at the Nolans'	Life	67
Ninety-Eight		70
Pat's Bondsman	Lilian A. Moulton	71
Washee, Washee	Joaquin Miller	73
Annie's Ticket		74
O'Thello	Harper's Magazine	76
Lanty Leary	Samuel Lover	77
Katie's Answer		78
Paddy's Dream		79
Lessons in Cookery	Detroit Free Press	80
The Irish Traveller		82
Teddy's Six Bulls		82
A Miracle	Charles H. Webber	84
Pat and Miss Skitty	Bessie Bently	84
At the Rising of the Moon	Leo Casey	86
The Irish Schoolmaster		87
How Dennis Took the Pledge		89
When McGue Puts the Baby to Sleep		90
The Confession	Samuel Lover	91
Father Phil's Collection	Samuel Lover	92
St. Patrick's Martyrs		100
Pat's Correspondence	W. M. Giffin	102
Little Pat and the Parson		104
Patrick O'Rouke and the Frogs	George W. Bungay	105
Widow Malone	Charles Lever	108
The Birth of St. Patrick	Samuel Lover	109
Murphy's Mystery of the Pork Barrel		110
Paddy Blake's Echo	Samuel Lover	111
A Cook of the Period		112
Larry's on the Force	Irwin Russell	113
Pat and the Frogs	R. M. T.	114
Paddy's Courting	W. A. Eaton	116
A Bit of Gossip	Josephine Pollard	118
Paddy and His Pig		120
Teddy McGuire and Paddy O'Flynn	Amanda T. Jones	121
Paudeen O'Rafferty's Say-Voyage		125
Irish Astronomy	Charles G. Halpine	128
Paddy McGrath's Introduction to Mr. Bruin		129
Larrie O'Dee	W. W. Fink	131
Irish Coquetry		132

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