‘Mighty poor sport they got out of it,’ I answered, ’and I have an even worse opinion of their capacity for accurate aiming than I have of their benevolent intentions.’

Other people know more of oneself than one does, and I was much interested to hear that, in this year of grace, the editor of the Daily Telegraph said of me:—­

’Sam Hussey, yes, that’s the famous Irishman they used to call “Woodcock” Hussey, because he was never hit, though often shot at.’

I always thought ‘Woodcock’ Carden had the monopoly of the epithet, but am proud to find I infringed his patent.

I was benevolently commended by a vituperative ink-slinger, Daniel O’Shea, in his letter to the Sunday Democrat in 1886, but none of those he blackguarded were in the least inconvenienced by ’the roll of his tongue,’ as the saying is:—­

’A vast number of the Irish have been heartlessly persecuted by the most despotic landlords of Ireland, such as Lord Kenmare, Herbert, Headley, Hussey, Winn, and the Marquis of Lansdowne, all of whom are Englishmen by birth, and consequently aliens in heart, despots by instinct, absentees by inclination, and always in direct opposition to the cause of Ireland.  Poor-rate, town-rate, income-tax, are nothing less than wholesale robbery, and is it any wonder that some of the people who are thus oppressed should be driven to desperation?  It is deplorable to learn that they should have had any cause to commit what are called “agrarian” crimes.  Why not turn their attention to these landlords, the police, the travelling coercion magistrates, not forgetting the emergency men?  These are the people to whom I would direct the attention of the men of Kerry.’

I have given a number of examples of how I have been genially appreciated in the hostile Press, but my family are of opinion that it would not be fair, considering how many kind things were published in loyal journals, not to render some tribute to them too.  I was sincerely obliged when I received a good word, but, frankly, the bad ones amused me much more.  However, I am not ungrateful, and I have specially prized one able description of my attitude which appeared in the Globe, the manly strain of the writing of which is in healthy contrast to the hysterical effusions tainted with adjectival mania of those who wanted me shot, but were too cowardly to fire at me themselves:—­

’Mr. Hussey is admittedly fair and just in his dealings with his own tenants.  But he is only just and fair, which, in the ethics of Irish agrarianism, is equivalent to being a rack-renter and a tyrant.  He refuses to let his own land at whatever the tenants think well to pay for it.  He persists, with exasperating obstinacy, in refusing to sacrifice the interests of the landlords for whom he acts.  In short, Mr. Hussey is one of the most determined and formidable obstacles to the success of the Land League.  While such men have the courage to face the agrarian conspiracy, that grand consummation of patriotic effort—­the rooting out of landlordism—­must be a somewhat tough and tedious business.  He has lived in the midst of enemies, who would have murdered him if only they had the opportunity.  His life, it may be safely said, has had no stronger security than his own ability to protect it.’