ould keep pegging away. My own experience was not
encouraging at first. I was, and am, a poor speaker, and in Ireland a
man who cannot express his thoughts with facility, whether he has got
them or not, accentuates the difficulties under which a prophet labours
in his own country. I made up for my deficiencies in the first essential
of Irish public life by engaging a very eloquent political speaker, the
late Mr. Mulhallen Marum, M.P., to stump the country. He gave to the
propaganda a relish which my prosaic economics altogether lacked. The
nationalist band sometimes came out to meet him. We all know the
efficiency of the drum in politics and religion, but it seemed to me a
little out of place in economics. However, he created an excellent
impression, but unhappily he died of heart disease before he had
attended more than three or four meetings. This was a severe blow to us,
and we toiled away under some temporary discouragement. My own diary
records attendance at fifty meetings before a single society had
resulted therefrom. It was weary work for a long time. These gatherings
were miserable affairs compared with those which greeted our political
speakers. On one occasion the agricultural community was represented by
the Dispensary Doctor, the Schoolmaster, and the Sergeant of Police.
Sometimes, in spite of copious advertising of the meeting, the prosaic
nature of the objects had got abroad, and nobody met.

Mr. Anderson, who sometimes accompanied me and sometimes went his rounds
alone, had similar experiences. I may quote a passage from some of his
reminiscences, recently published in the _Irish Homestead_, the organ of
the co-operative movement in Ireland.

It was hard and thankless work. There was the apathy of the people
and the active opposition of the Press and the politicians. It
would be hard to say now whether the abuse of the Conservative
_Cork Constitution_ or that of the Nationalist _Eagle_, of
Skibbereen, was the louder. We were "killing the calves," we were
"forcing the young women to emigrate," we were "destroying the
industry." Mr. Plunkett was described as a "monster in human
shape," and was adjured to "cease his hellish work." I was
described as his "Man Friday" and as "Rough-rider Anderson." Once,
when I thought I had planted a Creamery within the precincts of the
town of Rathkeale, my co-operative apple-cart was upset by a local
solicitor wh