This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1886 edition. Excerpt: ... taken the wounded parties away on their vehicles, and before our return they were well on their road to Dublin; we hard no more of them. The manner in which this remarkable man " shuffled oFthe mortal coil" was in keeping with his great physical povers, and the hallucination which was the cause of his tragic ending. The recklessness and daring which characterised him through life followed him to the close. To supplement his pension, he got a situation in a distant part of Ireland, where foteen was of the purest spring, and that volatile liquor produced the delusion in his mind that he was a second Hertules. He had often read of that mythical personage's exploits-such as killing the Nemean lion, the Lernean hydra, the clemsing of the Augean stables, the strangling of the serpen'.s, conquering the giants, etc., and in his frenzy he determined to emulate him. He procured an enormous limb of an ashtree, and flourishing it as a club, he proceeded .o a railway track and said he would outdo Hercules in all his feats, by stopping the engine and train with one blow. Taking his place on the middle of the track, he put a bottle of poteen to his mouth when the train came in sight, and, apostrophising the approaching engine, said, "Here's -er health and song, ma'am, an' if ye don't pull up I'll make smithereens of ye with my club, for I am Hercules the second," flourishing the limb of the ash-tree. The engine-driver, leaning over the side of the engine, his face pale as a sheet and his eyes starting from their sockets with horror, gesticulated wildly to no use, while he let off the engine's loudest whistle and scream. A great thud was heard as Big John struck the front of the iron horse, and in an instant the mortal career of the biggest man in the...