Sophie told me yesterday that Professor Stockley got an official invitation for free passage with the whole family and one guest to the Eucharistic Congress at Chicago this year, and that he refused!! – Saw in the Dachau Zeitung [newspaper] a photograph of Mussolini, who is now visiting Tripoli, with a bandage over his nose. A Miss Gibson, sister of the Irish Lord Ashbourne, and who seems to be crazy, fired at Mussolini with a revolver, but only hit his nose! Mam remembers meeting Lord Ashbourne in the old days at Stockleys. – Went to Arthur, who is still in an uncertain condition, and had games of golf. When I had my work finished this evening I read Macauley’s ‘History of England’ chap. 3, as Scannie told me to do so. A fine description is certainly given of how uncivilised northern England was in the time of Charles II, until the discovery of the coal mines created a steady influx of population; and of the ‘schlampig’ [slovenly] militia of that time. – Fr. O’Flynn to-day was raging because he called to the class for some boy to stand up, and attempt Hamlet’s speech to the players. Nobody did. He then scolded about manliness and character; no fellow likes to stand up and have to show he is better than the rest. Flynnie thinks he understands boys!
