Democratic banner., 1847-04-19
4 WEEK IN IRELAND-LCAyES FROM
THE EDITORS JOURNAL,
SRrBBEREEN, Feb. 20.

a'iu HNA SOHiPuhJ L LUX my HIST Walk
through the pottcr's field of restitution and
death. As soon as We opened the door, a
crowd Of hasgard creatures pressed upo.
us, and with agonizing prayers for bread,
followed US to the soup kitchen. One poor
woman, whose cntreaties became irresisti-
bly, importunste, had watched all night in
the grave yard, lest tho body of HEY l,us-
band should be stolen from his last resting
place, to which. he had been consigned yes
terday. She had left FIVE children sick
with the famine fever in her howell, and she
raised an exceeding bitter cry for help
Aman with swollen feet pressed closely up
on us, and begged for bread most p~iteous-
ly. He had pawned his shoes for food,
which no had already consumed. The
soup kitchen was surrounded by a cloud Of
these famine spectres, half naked and stand
ing or sitting in the mud, beneath a cold
drizzling rain. The narrow defle to the
disPensary bar was choked with young and
old Of both sexes, struggling forward with
their rusty tin and iron vessels for soup;
some of them upon all fours like famished
beasts.
There was a cheap bread dispcnsary
opened in one end of the building; and the
principal pressure was az the door of this.
Among the ~atteuuated apparitions of hu-
manity that thronged this gate of stinted
charity, one poor man presented himself
under circumstances that even distinguish
ed his case from the rest. He lived sever
nj miles from the centre Of the town, in
one of the rural districts, where he found
himself on the eve Of perishing with his
family of seven small children. Life was
worth the last struggle Of nature, and TIE
miserable skeleton If a fatIlerll had fastened
hi, Youngest cIlildto his back; and with four
more by his side. had staggered up 10 the
door, Just as we entered the bread depart.
ncnt of the establishment. The hair upon
his face was nearly as long as that upon his
head. His cheeks were fallen in, and his
jaws 50 distended that he could scarcely
articulate a word. His four little children
were sitting upon the ground by his feet,
Nesting together, and trying 10 hide their
naked limbs under their dripping rags
How those poor things could stand upon
their feet and walk, and moM five miles as
they had doue, I could not conceive.
Their appearance, though common to.
thousands IN this region of the shadow of
death, was indescribablc. Their ~palencss'
was not that Of common sickness. There,
was no sallow tingc in it. They did not
look as if newly raised from the grave and,
to life before the blood had begun to fill
their veins anew; but as if they had just
been thawed out Of the ice, in which they
had been iInbedded until their blood had
turned 10 water.
Leaving this battle field of life, l accom-
panied Mr.. Fitzpatrick, the Catholic minis
ter, into one of the hovel lanes of the town.
We found in every tenement We entered
enough to sicken the ~stoutest heart. I'M
one we found a shoemaker who was at work
before a hole in the mud wall of his hut, a..
bout as large as a small pane Of glass.
There were five in his family; and he said
when he could get any work he could earn
about three shiIlings a week. In another.
cabin we discovered a mailer, by the small
light Of his fire, working in a space not
three feet square. He too had a large
family, half of whom were down with the
fever; and he could earn but two shillings
a week. About the middle Of this filthy
lane we calne to the ruin of a howell which
had fallen during the night and killed q man
who had taken shelter in it with his wife
and child. lie had come in from the coun-
try; and, ready to perish with cold and hun
ger, had entered this falling house of clay.
lie was warned Of his danger, but answer,
cd that die he must unless he found a shell
ter before morning. He had kindled a
small fire with some straw ana bits of turf,
and was crouching over it, when the whole