" He was
afterwards known as "Bian."
Bianconi soon became well known after his business was
established. He became a proficient in the carving and gilding
line, and was looked upon as a thriving man. He began to employ
assistants in his trade, and had three German gilders at work.
While they were working in the shop he would travel about the
country, taking orders and delivering goods--sometimes walking
and sometimes driving.
He still retained a little of his old friskiness and spirit of
mischief. He was once driving a car from Clonmel to Thurles; he
had with him a large looking-glass with a gilt frame, on which
about a fortnight's labour had been bestowed. In a fit of
exuberant humour he began to tickle the horse under his tail with
a straw! In an instant the animal reared and plunged, and then
set off at a gallop down hill. The result was, that the car was
dashed to bits and the looking-glass broken into a thousand
atoms!
On another occasion, a man was carrying to Cashel on his back one
of Bianconi's large looking-glasses. An old woman by the
wayside, seeing the odd-looking, unwieldy package, asked what it
was; on which Bianconi, who was close behind the man carrying the
glass, answered that it was "the Repeal of the Union!" The old
woman's delight was unbounded! She knelt down on her knees in
the middle of the road, as if it had been a picture of the
Madonna, and thanked God for having preserved her in her old age
to see the Repeal of the Union!
But this little waywardness did not last long.
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