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| PHOENIX PARK, THE "IRISH MILESTONE."-The picture given herewith is still another view of the People's Garden in the Phoenix, showing the Wellington Testimonial obelisk in the distance on the right. Most Dubliners have a mean opinion of the artistic merits of the granite shaft, and many visitors are, at first, puzzled as to its particular function in the Park, that is before they get near enough to it to read the inscriptions on the panels. It is related that years ago, a near-sighted English official, in the train of the Earl of Carlisle, took a morning stroll in the Phoenix and became dimly conscious of the Wellington obelisk. He met an Irishman, and said to him, in a lofty manner, "Can you tell me, my good man, what that object yonder is?" "That, sir" replied the witty native, who saw at once he had a "jay" from London to deal with, "Oh, faix, sir, that is one of our Irish milestones!" "A milestone, my good fellow! Why, you must be mistaken." "Faix an' I'm not, sir," replied the Irishman. "You see how it is, sir-the Irish mile is so much longer than the English mile, that the milestone has to be in proportion." The Cockney sent a letter to a London paper relating his experience, and ever since the Wellington Testimonial has been called "the Irish Milestone." |
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