t from her statement
that it referred to the fall of somebody or other whom she called the
Bastille, in suspicious proximity to the detested battle of the Boyne;
but when it was observed that she did nothing worse than dance upon the
flags "_avec ze leetle bebe_" of the tenant in the basement, and torture
her "Dootch" husband with extra monkeys and gibes in honor of the day,
unfavorable judgment was suspended, and it was agreed that without a
doubt the "bastard" fell for cause; wherein the alley showed its sound
historical judgment. By such moral pressure when it could, by force when
it must, the original Irish stock preserved the alley for its own
quarrels, free from "foreign" embroilments. These quarrels were many and
involved. When Mrs. M'Carthy was to be dispossessed, and insisted, in
her cups, on killing the housekeeper as a necessary preliminary, a
study of the causes that led to the feud developed the following
normal condition: Mrs. M'Carthy had the housekeeper's place when Mrs.
Gehegan was poor, and fed her "kids." As a reward, Mrs. Gehegan worked
around and got the job away from her. Now that it was Mrs. M'Carthy's
turn to be poor, Mrs. Gehegan insisted upon putting her out. Whereat,
with righteous wrath, Mrs. M'Carthy proclaimed from the stoop: "Many is
the time Mrs. Gehegan had a load on, an' she went upstairs an' slept it
off. I didn't. I used to show meself, I did, as a lady. I know ye're in
there, Mrs. Gehegan. Come out an' show yerself, an' I'ave the alley to
judge betwixt us." To which Mrs. Gehegan prudently vouchsafed no answer.

Mrs. M'Carthy had succeeded to the office of housekeeper upon the death
of Miss Mahoney, an ancient spinster who had collected the rents since
the days of "the riot," meaning the Orange riot--an event from which the
alley reckoned its time, as the ancients did from the Olympian games.
Miss Mahoney was a most exemplary and worthy old lady, thrifty to a
fault. Indeed, it was said when she was gone that she had literally
starved herself to death to lay by money for the rainy day she was
keeping a lookout for to the last. In this she was obeying her
instincts; but they went counter to those of the alley, and the result
was very bad. As an example, Miss Mahoney's life was a failure. When at
her death it was discovered that she had bank-books representing a total
of two thousand dollars, her nephew and only heir promptly knocked off
work and proceeded to celebrate, which he did with