The Project Gutenberg EBook of General John Regan, by George A. Birmingham

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Title: General John Regan
1913

Author: George A. Birmingham

Release Date: January 23, 2008 [EBook #24073]
Posting Date: April 10, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GENERAL JOHN REGAN ***

Produced by David Widger

GENERAL JOHN REGAN

By George A. Birmingham

Copyright, 1913 By George H. Doran Company

TO CHARLES H. HAWTREY
who has allowed me to offer this
story to him in memory of times
that were very pleasant to me.
July 1913

Contents

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

CHAPTER X

CHAPTER XI

CHAPTER XII

CHAPTER XIII

CHAPTER XV

CHAPTER XVI

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVIII

CHAPTER XIX

CHAPTER XX

CHAPTER I

The Irish police barrack is invariably clean, occasionally picturesque,
but it is never comfortable. The living-room, in which the men spend
their spare time, is furnished with rigid simplicity. There is a table,
sometimes two tables, but they have iron legs. There are benches to
sit on, very narrow, and these also have iron legs. Iron is, of course,
harder than wood. Men who are forced to look at it and rub their legs
against it at meal times are likely to obtain a stern, martial spirit.
Wood, even oak, might in the long run have an enervating effect on their
minds. The Government knows this, and if it were possible to have tables
and benches with iron tops as well as iron legs police barracks in
Ireland would be furnished with them. On the walls of the living-room
are stands for arms. Here are ranged the short carbines with which,
in extreme emergencies, the police shoot at the other inhabitants of
Ireland. The sight of these weapons serves to remind the men that they
form a military force.

Near the carbines hang a few pairs of handcuffs, unobtrusively, because
no one wants to emphasize the fact that the police in Ireland have to
deal with ordina