The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1847-04-10

Returned from this painful walk, nearly
wet through and sad at the thought that |
could not administer any relief to my perish
ing fellow beings. Spent this evening in
writing letters to England.
Skibbereen, Feb, 81. DIR Donovan
called at =, nj. and we proceeded together
to visit lane Of novels on the opposite side
OF the village. The wretchedness ofIhis lit
tie mud-city ofthe dead and dying was of Il
deeper stamp than the one | saw yesterday.
Here human beings and their cayey habita-
tons seemed to be melting down together in
to the earth. can find no language nor il
lustration sufficiently impressive to portray
the spectacle to an American reader A cold
drlzZlng rain was deepening the pools of
black filth, into which it fell like inlI-drops
from the Clouds Few of the Young or old
have not read of the scene exhibited on the
field ofbattle after the action, when visited by
the surgeon. The cries ofthe wounded and
dying for help, have been described by many
graphic pens. The agonizing entreaty for
"Water water! help! help! " has been con-
veyed to your minds with painful distinct
ness. lean liGen this scene we witnessed
in this low lane of famine and pestlence to
nothing ofgreater family resemblance, than
that OF the battle field, when the hostile ar
mes have retired, leaving upon the ground
as DIR. Donovan appeared at the bead of the
lane, it was filled with miserable beings, hag-
gard famine stricken men, women and chill
dren, some far gone in the consumption of
the famine fever, and all mporiug him for
the 'honor OfGod" to 20 in and see ''my faith
err" "my MOTHER" "ny wife," ''my boy"
"who is very bad your honor" And then
inlerspersed with these earnest entreaties,
others louder still would be raised for bread.
In every howell we entered we found the dy-
ing or dead. In one ofthese straw rooted
burrows eight persons had died within the
! last tortnight,an five more We're laying upon
| the tetd, pestiicrOus straw, upon which their
predecessors to the grave had been consum-
ed by the wasting fever of famine. In scarce
! ~ n single one of these most inhuman habta-
lions was there the slightest indication ofiood
Of any kind to be found, nor fuel to cook food,
nor anything resembling II bed unless it were
Il thin layer oGtiithy straw in one corner upon
which the sick persons lay, partly covered
with some ragged garment. There being no
window, nor aperture to admit the light. in
these wrelched cabins, but the door, we found
ourselves often in almost total darkness for
the first moment ofour entrance. But faint
gIinnering of n handful ofburning straw in
one end would soon reveal to us the indistinct
hinges oFwan-taced children grouped togeth-
or. with their large, plantive, still eyes, look
| ing at us, like the sick young of wild beasts in
their dens. Then the groans, and the chock-
ed incoherent entreaties for help of some
man or woman wasting away with the sick
ness in some corner of the cabin, would ap-
! prise Ills othe number and condition of the
| family. The wife, mother, or child would
! frequently light wisp of straw, and hold ov-
er the face ofthe sick person, discovering to
us the sOOty features of some e!nuciated crea-
tire in the last stage ofthe fever. In one of
these places we found an old woman stretch
ed upon pallet ofstraw with her head with
in foot of Il handful of fire, upon which
something was steaming in a small iron YES
sci. The Doctor removed the cover, and we
found it was filled with a kind of Shiny sea-
weed, which believe is Used for manure on
the seahoard. This was all the nourishment
the daughter could serve ~ her poor sick
mother. But the las: cabin we visited in this
painful walk, presented To our eyes Il lower
deep of misery. 1t was the residence of two
families, both of which had been thinned out
to !.alftheir original number by the sickness.
The first sight that met my eyes on entering
was the body Of a dead woman, extended on
one side of the fireplace On the other an
old man was lying on some straw, SO far gone
rs TO he unablA to articulate distinctly. lie
might have been ninety, or fifty years ofage.
IL was Nllll1Clbl inns WASHING
consumption of want brings out the extrenl-
est induces of old age III the features of even
the young. But there was another appartion
which sickened all the flesh and blood of nv
nature. 1t has haunted me during the past
night like BaEquo's ghost, have lain awake
for hours, struggling for some graphic and
truthful SMILES or new elements of descrip-
ton, by which might convey to the distant
reader some tangible image ot'this object. a
dropsical affection among the young and old
is very common to all sufferers by famine
had seen men at work on the public roads
with their limbs swollen almost to twice
their usual size. But when the woman of
this cabin lifted from the straw, from behind
the dying man, a boy about twelve years of
age, and held him up before US upon his feet,
the most horrifying spectacle met our eyes,
The cold, watery-faced child was entirely
naked in front from his neck down to his feet.
His body was swelIed to three times its usu-
al size, and had burst the ragged garment
that covered him and which now dangled in
shreds behind him. The woman of the 9TH
er family, who was sitting at her end of the
howell, brought forward her little infant, a thin
faced baby oftwo years, with clear sharp eyes
that did not wink, but stared stock still at va
cancy, as ifa glimpse ofanother existence had
ecipsed its vision. Its cold naked arms
were not much larger than pipe stems, while
It's body was swollen to the size ola full grown
person. Let the reader group these appari-
tons of death and disease into the spectacle
often feet square, and then multiply it into
three fourths of the novels in this region of
Ireland; and he will arrive at fair estimate
of the extent and degree ofits misery. Were
it not for giving them pain, | should have
been glad if the wel-dressed children in A
merica could have entered these novels with
island looked upon the young creatures vast