Onnie by Blanche Colton Williams — Read

CLASSIFICATION. Onnie is a story of character; the trait exploited leads to the tragic dénouement.

GERMINAL IDEA. "The genesis of ‘Onnie' was a desire to record the dialect of one Patrick Qualey, a gardener, now extinct. Patrick had preserved to the age of seventy his Celtic fibre quite unimpaired. I think he rather prided himself on the act, and, perhaps, embroidered the garment of his speech a trifle. He died very tamely of pneumonia, and Forest County, Pa., was _not_ his abiding place. As for Onnie, I confess that I am weary of lovely Irishwomen, and a witty Irishwoman I have never met.... " -- _Thomas Beer._