lays. Early on Tuesday
morning I was awakened, long before daylight, by the whistling of
engines, the shunting of wagons and the shouting of men. My friend Atock
and I rose early, went along to the loading banks where we found the work
in full swing and one special train loaded with sheep ready to start. The
entraining of sheep, not so difficult or so noisy a business as the
loading of cattle, is attended with much less beating of the animals and
with fewer curses; but there was noise enough, and I can, in fancy, hear
it ringing in my ears now. Throughout the day I was besieged by
grumbling and discontented customers: want of wagons, unfair
distribution, favouritism, delays, were the burden of their complaints,
and I had to admit that in the working of the Ballinasloe fair traffic
all was not perfect. The rolling stock was insufficient; trains after a
journey to Meath or Dublin with stock had to return to Ballinasloe to be
loaded again, which was productive of much delay; and what added to the
trouble was that everyone seemed to have a hand in the management of the
business. It gave me much to think about. Before the next year's fair I
had the whole arrangements well thrashed out, and when the eventful week
arrived, placed the working of the traffic under the sole control of my
principal outside men, with excellent results. In the course of a year
or two the directors opened the purse strings and considerably increased
the engine and wagon stock of the company which helped further, and by
that time I had in charge an official, of whose energy and ability it is
impossible to speak too highly, Thomas Elliott, then a promising young
assistant, now the competent Traffic Manager of the railway. Under his
management the work at Ballinasloe has for many years been conducted with
clock-work regularity.

In 1891 there were 25,000 sheep at the fair, 10,000 cattle and 1,500
horses, and the company ran 43 special trains loaded with stock. The
sheep fair is held in Garbally Park, on the estate of Lord Clancarty, and
the counting of the sheep through a certain narrow _gap_, and the
rapidity and accuracy with which it is done, is a sight to witness.

The hospitality part of the business was attended with the success it
deserved, and helped to smooth the difficulties of the situation. I
remember well our dinner on the Tuesday night. On the Monday we dined
alone, directors and officers only, but on Tuesday the week's hospita