Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-04-08


a large family, half of whom were down with the
fever; and he could earn but two shillngs week.
About the middle of this filthy lane we came to
the ruin of howell which had fallen during the
night and killed a man who had taken shelter in
1t with his wife and child, He had come in from
the country, and ready to perish with cold and
hunger, he had entered this falling house of clay
He was warned of his danger, but answered that
he must die unless he found a shelter before
morning. He had kindled a small fire with
some straw and bits of turf, and was crouching
over it, when the whole roof and gable end of
earth and stones came down upon him and his
child, and crushed him to death over the slow
fire. The child had been pulled out alive, and
carried to the work house, and the father was
still lying there upon the dung heap of the fallen
roof, slightly covered with a piece of canvass
On lifting this, a humliating spectacle presented
itself What rags the poor man had upon him
when buried beneath the falling roof were most
y torn from his body in the last, faint struggle
for life; his neck and shoulder, and right arm
were burnt to cinder. There he lay in the
rain, like the carcass of dumb beast thrown up
on dunghill. AS we continued our walk along
the filthy lane, half naked women and children
would come out of their cabins, apparently in the
last stage of the fever, to beg for food |for the
honor of God" As they stood upon the wet
ground we could almost see it smoke beneath
their bare feet, burning with the fever. We en-
tered the grave yard, i'll the midst of which was
small watch house. This miserable shed had
served as grave were the dying could bury
themselves. 1t was seven feet long and six in
breadth. 1t was already walled round on the
outside with an embankment of graves half way
to the caves. The aperture of this horrible den
of death would scarcely admit the entrance of
common sized person. And into this noisome
sepulchre living men, women and children went
down to die-to pillow upon the rotten straw,
the grave clothes vacated by proceeding victims,
and fostering with their fever Here they Law
as close to each other as if crowded side by side
on the bottom of one grave. Six persons had
been found in this fetid sepulchre at one time,
and with only one able to crawl to the door and
ask for water Removing board from the en-
trance Of this black-hole pestilence, we found
it crammed with wan victims of famine, ready
and willing to perish. A quiet, listless despair
broods over the population, and cradles men for
the grave.
Returned from this painful walk nearly wet
through, and sad at the thought that | could not
administer any relief to my perishing fellow be-
ings, spent the evening in writing letters to Eng
land
SKIBBEREEN, Feb 81
Dr. Donovan called at 2, P NJ, and we pro-
ceeded together to visit lane of novels on the
opposite side of the village. The wretchedness of
this little mud city of the dead and dying was of
deeper stamp than the one | saw Yesterday
Here human beings and their clayey habitations
seemed to be melting down together into the
earth, can find no language nor illustration
sufficiently impressive to portray the spectacle to
an American reader A cold, drizzling rain was
deepening the pools of the black filth into which
it fell like ink drops from the clouds Few of
the young or old have not read of the scene ex-
hbited on the field of battle after the action,
when visited by the surgeon. The cries of the
wounded and dying for help, have been describ-
ed by many graphic pens. The agonizng en-
treaty for "water! water hep help!" has been
conveyed to our minds with fearful distinctness
can lken the scene we witnessed in this low
lane of famine and pestilence to nothing of great
er family resemblance than that of the battle
when the hostile armies have retired, leaving
one third of their number bleeding on the ground.
As soon as DR.. Donovan appeared at the head of
the lane, it was filled with miserable beings hag-
gard, famine-stricken men, women and children,
some far gone in the consumption of the famine
fever, and all exploring him "for the honor OF
God" to go in and see 'my mother, "my father, u
"my wife" "my boy" who is very bad, your
honor" And then interpreted with these ear.
nest enheates, others, louder still, would be
raised for bread In every howell we entered we
found the dying or the dead In one of these
straw rooted burroughs eight persons had died in
the last fortnight, and five more were lying il
the fetd, pestiferous straw, upon which their pre-
decessors to the grave had been consumed by the
wasting fever of famine. Scarcely a single one
of these most inhuman Indications afforded the
slightest indication of food of any kind MOI
fuel to be found, to cook food, nor anything re
sembling bed, unless it were thin layer of fiji
thy straw in one corner, upon which the slcl
person lay, partly covered with some ragged gar
ments. There being no window nor aperture t.
admit the light in these wretched cabins, excep
the door, we found ourselves often in almost to
tai darkness for the first moment of our entrance
But faint gimmering of handful of burnin!
straw in one end, would soon reveal to us the
indistinct images of wan-faced children grouped
E together, with their large, plaintive, still eyes
looking out at us like the sick young of wil'
f beasts in their dens. Then the groans the in
coherent, choked entreaties, from some man o
woman wasting away with the sickness, in som
corner of the cabin, would apprize us of tn
number and condition of the family. The wife
mother, or child would frequently light wisp G
straw, and hold over the face of the sick person
a discovering to us the sooty features of some ema
n ciated creature in the last stage of the fever Il
= one of these places we found an old woma
J. stretched upon a pallet of straw with her hea
d within foot of handful of fire, upon whic
d something was steamlng in small iron vesse
The doctor removed the cover, and we found
! was filled with kind of Shiny seaweed, which,
&c believe is used for manure on the sea-board.-
= This was all the nourishment the daughter coul
" serve to her sick mother, But the last cabin W
d visited in this painful walk presented to our eye
n lower depth of misery. 1t was the residence
n two families, both of which had been thinne
" down to half of their original number by the sicl
y ness The first sight that met my eyes on el