heard of Lee's surrender "The Conquered Banner" drooped its mournful
folds over the heart-broken South. In his memorial address at
Fredericksburg when the Southern soldiers were buried, he first read
"March of the Deathless Dead," closing with the lines:

And the dead thus meet the dead,
While the living' o'er them weep;
And the men by Lee and Stonewall led,
And the hearts that once together bled,
Together still shall sleep.

June 28, 1883, I was in Lexington and saw the unveiling of Valentine's
recumbent statue of General Lee in Washington and Lee University. At
the conclusion of Senator Daniel's eloquent oration Father Ryan
recited his poem, "The Sword of Lee," the first time that it had been
heard.

In Lexington I was at a dinner where Father Ryan was a guest. He told
a story of a reprobate Irishman, for whom he had stood godfather. Upon
one occasion the man took too much liquor and, under its influence,
killed a man, for which he was sentenced to a term in the
penitentiary. Through the efforts of the Father he was, after a time,
pardoned and employment secured for him. One evening he came to the
priest's house intoxicated and asked permission to sleep in the barn.
"No," said the Father, "go sleep in the gutter." "Ah, Father, sure an'
I've shlept in the gutter till me bones is all racked with the
rheumatism." "I can't help that; I can't let you sleep in the barn;
you will smoke, you drunken beast, and set the barn on fire and maybe
burn the house, and they belong to the parish." "Ah, Father, forgive
me! I've been bad, very bad; I've murdered an' kilt an' shtole an'