3-070-912 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

At the Galway Assizes: a "Souper", 1881. 'On my way to discover the whereabouts of the court-house, I met with a strange being, who loudly called upon me not to discard him because he was "an Alien," or, as he put it, an "Eelian in wan fut."...Looking down at this individual's "fut" (the left one), pretentiously thrust out, I found that, unlike the other, it was unshod. I soon learnt that the hapless possessor of it had been in years gone by almost deluded into the acceptance of the Protestant faith through a seductive offer of soup from a Mephistopheles in the guise of a missionary; but, fortunately for the sake of the rest of his person and his immortal attributes, he had withdrawn just when his "fut" was on the threshold. That foot is destined to walk through the world...in a state of naked penance for the rest of its earthly career. The "Souper," as this wild-looking individual is called, thought his condition quite worthy of my monetary attention - so did I, provided that he gave me an indication of where the court-house stood. This he did cheerfully, but did with deliberate falsehood, for I soon discovered that by walking in the direction he pointed out I was in the Claddagh, the far-famed fish-market of Galway'. From "Illustrated London News", 1881.