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420 pages - easy to read type

Begin to relive
an American adventure today

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MAJEC Publishing
2007

A Wind of Many Colors by John H. Brown
Book Excerpt

The Irish Immigrants:

Then came the pling pling pling plung , pling pling pling plung of the piano and this time Mattie's wailing violin was simply haunting. Little Maureen closed her eyes so she might better concentrate, and then, as she lifted her hands to the heavens, every ounce of her gave witness to life as she had seen it.

At five Maureen had sat by her grandmother's body because her starving kin were so weak from hunger they could not carry it out to bury it. ( From 1845 to 1855 one forth of all Irish fled to America . About one out of five who stayed behind starved to death.) At age six she had sailed with her desperate parents from the land they loved into this strange place where she had then watched their dream go sour.

Maureen did not know all of these numbers, but the facts were that the year she arrived in America , some 52,000 starving Irish had already overwhelmed the 400,000 people then living in the City of New York . She had watched her only older sister be torn from the Irish boy she loved, which seemed to make sister go wild when she reached this new land.

When Maureen was nine, her sister had disappeared off the streets of New York City . Maureen also watched as her father got ground down to less than a man by the Irish bosses who were the nastiest of men. He became their white nigger. When she was 11, Maureen was terrified as they slipped away in the

middle of the night with Father, to flee his enormous debt to those same bosses. Father then tried life in the highlands, where he failed miserably.

And gave up. And turn to drink. And kept moving on. And got mean.

At 14 Maureen sat by her mother's bed to sing, watched her depressed mother finally give up. And get the “sick-lonesome.”

And die.

At 15 her drunken father had traded her to a devilish old preacher man for some coins….and a barrel of whiskey. She sang it all. Until she arrived at Maud's, Maureen had seen very little of people being kind to each other, but this crowd of people were being so kind that she could not help but to love each one of them. Which of course made each and of them love her right back. She stood basking in that love and opened up like a rosebud on a fine summer morning. 600 people stood spellbound. As she held them in the palm of her hand.

Mary Ellen and Mattie played softly in the background as little girl woman Maureen stood on the stage with her eyes closed once more, She was slightly weaving back and forth as she played her stick for a bit. It was the prelude to her third love song The words came out long and sweet and clear and pure and haunting:

T urn your face to the wind, and look out to the sea.
N'er look back to the place, where you had to leave me. 

A new life awaits. The harbor of hope is o'er there.
At least you'll be safe, Is my heart's only prayer

  ( Then just a short chorus from the flute.)

Blow a kiss to the wind T'will find its way home

Love must let go ———

(click on corner to see next excerpt)

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