As the room stilled at the sight of this stranger, William stood up on the platform. “I know most of you don’t know me, but would you permit me to say a few words?”
There were general nods and mumbles of assent from around the room.
“It has been my honour to be Best Man for my sister’s wedding today. When we were children…” He looked across to Ma and Pa Dixon and Pa smiled encouragement back to him. “… We had nothing. Daniel Flynn and I swore ourselves blood brothers and today I am delighted that he has become my brother-in-law.”
There were cheers of assent from the crowds and a little shuffling of feet from those impatient for the entertainment to begin. “Anyway, his singing saved the lives of my sister and me. Without it we’d have starved to death. I call upon him to sing to you now to start the festivities.”
Daniel moved to the front, leading Molly forwards, and as the music began he sang with all his heart.
“I’ve been a wild rover for many’s the year,
And I spent all me money on whiskey and beer.
And now I’m returning with gold in great store,
And I never will play the wild rover no more…”
The dancing began as the reel played out, and when Daniel had finished that one, another was called for. After a few more dances he sang a ballad to his love and cheers rang out through the hall. He looked at his beloved Molly and knew that at last he’d found the better life his da had wanted him to have and that, though he’d taken the long road, he’d arrived in that land of opportunity.
As he took a short break from the singing to swig from his glass, he raised it quietly and said, “To Ben and Duke, wherever you may be, and to Mrs Hawksworth, God bless you, ma’am.” He sipped, then raised his glass one more time and whispered, “To Mr O’Connor, the landlord in Ireland who made it possible,” and then, yet more quietly, he said, “Da, I didn’t forget.” Then with tears in his eyes he turned back to his audience and sang the song that reminded him most of his fatherland, and though it sang of Ireland it could so easily be sung for the country they now called home.
“… So, as I grew from boy to man,
I bent me to that bidding
My spirit of each selfish plan
And cruel passion ridding;
For, thus I hoped some day to aid,
Oh, can such hope be vain?
When my dear country shall be made
A Nation once again!”
Book Groups
Dear book group readers
Rather than include questions within the book for you to consider, I have included special pages within my website.
This has the advantage of being easier to update and for you to suggest additions and thoughts which arise out of your discussions.
I am always delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the book with a group and for those groups which are not local to me this can sometimes be arranged as a Skype call
or through another internet service. Contact details can be found on the website.
Please visit www. http://rjkind.co.uk/wp/book-groups/
Bibliography
As this is not an academic work, the bibliography is listed in alphabetical order by title of the book and then is followed by other reference sources and finally websites. There have been other documents and sites along the way, but this should be more than enough for anyone interested in reading further.
American Notes - Charles Dickens – 1842
Carols Ancient and Modern – William Sandys – 1833
The Dangerous Classes of New York – Charles Loring Brace – 1872
Extra Extra – The Orphan Trains and Newsboys of New York – Renèe Wendinger – 2009 Legendary Publications.
First report of a Committee on the Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Classes in the city of New York, with remedial suggestions / Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor – 1853
Five Points – Tyler Anbinder – 2002 Plume Books
The Five Points – The history of New York City’s Most Notorious Neighbourhood – Charles River Editors
Folksongs and Ballads Popular in Ireland – volume 1 – edited and arranged by John Loesberg – 1979 Ossian Publications
The Gangs of New York – Herbert Asbury – 1927
Hand-book for friendly visitors among the poor. Compiled and arranged by the Charity Organization Society of the City of New York – 1883
Images of America – Dowagiac – Steven Arseneau and Ann Thompson – Arcadia 2005
Improving health care of the poor: the New York City experience – Eli Ginzberg, Howard Berliner, and Miriam Ostow – 1997
The Irish in America – edited Michael Coffey – 1997 Disney Enterprises
The Irish Famine – a documentary Colm Tóibín and Diarmaid Ferriter – 2001 Thomas Dunne Books
Journeys of Hope: Orphan Train Riders: Their Own Stories – edited by Mary Ellen Johnson
Low Life – Luc Sante – Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1991
The New York Irish – Edited by Ronald H. Bayor and Timothy J. Meagher – 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press
Orphan Trains & Their Precious Cargo: The Life's Work of Rev. H.D. Clarke –compiled by Clark Kidder – 2012
Orphan Train Riders – A brief history of the Orphan Train Era (1854-1929) – Tom Riley 2005 Heritage books
Orphan Train Riders Their Own Stories compiled by Mary Ellen Johnson – Orphan Train Heritage Society of America 2001
Orphan Trains – researching American history ed Jeanne Munn Bracken – Discovery Enterprises 2002
The Orphan Trains: Placing Out in America – Marilyn Irvin Holt 1992 University of Nebraska Press
Orphan Trains – Stephen O’Connor 2001 Koughton Mifflin Company
The Poor Among Us – Ralph da Costa Nunez – White Tiger Press 2013
The Prendergast Letters – Correspondence from Famine Era Ireland 1840-1850 edited by Shelley Barber University of Massachusetts Press 2006
Tales of Five Points in Nineteenth Century New York vol 11 – an interpretive approach to understanding working class life – John Milner Associates
A twentieth Century History of Cass County, Michigan L H Glover, editor – 1906 Lewis Pub. Co
Vocabulum or The Rogue’s Lexicon – George W. Matsell 1859
Cloud County History Museum
Dowagiac Museum
Museum of the City of New York
National Orphan Train Museum and Research Center, Concordia, Kansas.
The Records of the Children's Aid Society, The New York Historical Society.
The Library of Congress
New York City Vital Records by Roger Joslyn http://www.ancestry.com/wiki/index.php?title=New_York_Vital_Records
Irish Popular songs with English Metrical Translation – Edward Walsh – Dublin http://www.archive.org/details/irishpopularsong00walsuoft
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/faq
http://www.dowagiacmuseum.info
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-passes-civil-war-conscription-act
Irish music http://www.irishmusicforever.com
http://nineduane.queenitsy.com/fulton.html
http://www.orphantraindepot.com/OrphanTrainHistory.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/orphan/
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
http://www.swmidirectory.org/History_of_Cass_County.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphan_Train
About the Author
Rosemary J Kind writes because she has to. You could take almost anything away from her except her pen and paper. Failing to stop after the book that everyone has in them, she has gone on to publish books in both non-fiction and fiction, the latter including novels, humour, short stories and poetry. She also regularly produces magazine articles in a number of areas and writes regularly for the dog press.
As a child she was desolate when at the age of 10 her then teacher would not believe that her poem based on ‘Stig of
the Dump’ was her own work and she stopped writing poetry for several years as a result. She was persuaded to continue by the invitation to earn a little extra pocket money by ‘assisting’ others to produce the required poems for English homework!
Always one to spot an opportunity, she started school newspapers and went on to begin providing paid copy to her local newspaper at the age of 16.
For twenty years she followed a traditional business career, before seeing the error of her ways and leaving it all behind to pursue her writing full-time.
She spends her life discussing her plots with the characters in her head and her faithful dogs, who always put the opposing arguments when there are choices to be made.
Always willing to take on challenges that sensible people regard as impossible, she set up the short story download site Alfie Dog Fiction in 2012 and has built it to being one of the largest in the world, representing over 300 authors and carrying over 1600 short stories. Her hobby is developing the Entlebucher Mountain Dog in the UK and when she brought her beloved Alfie back from Belgium he was only the tenth in the country.
She started writing Alfie’s Diary as an Internet blog the day Alfie arrived to live with her, intending to continue for a year or two. Eleven years later it goes from strength to strength and has been repeatedly named as one of the top ten dog blogs in the UK.
For more details about the author please visit her website at www.rjkind.co.uk For more details about her dog then you’re better visiting www.alfiedog.me.uk
Other books by the author
Alfie’s Diary
Alfie’s Woods
From Story Idea to Reader
Lovers Take up Less Space
Pet Dogs Democratic Party Manifesto
Poems for Life
The Appearance of Truth
The Lifetracer
You can find out more about the author’s other work by:
signing up for her newsletter HERE
visiting her website
http://www.rjkind.co.uk
Liking her author page on Facebook
Alfie Dog Fiction
Taking your imagination for a walk
For hundreds of short stories, collections and novels visit our website at www.alfiedog.com
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New York Orphan (Tales of Flynn and Reilly Book 1) Page 25