Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-07-23
MISCELLANEOUS.
A SKETCH OF FAMINE.

tarmer,' tour days Work IN the week, ahu
having tho remaining days at his own dispo.
sal. Returning one evening from the fields
he caught a severe wettinC, which brought
on a /" smothering of a cold" This, accord
ing to the custom of tho country, he sought
to expel by repeated draughts of strong
whisky puAch-a beverage regarded by the
Irish peasants as an infallible panacea in
all intamndtory diseases. Its effect, how
ever, was to convert his illness into
a raging fever, which shortly after ended
in death. His willow, feeling the weight Of
care thrown on her, labored hard, with her
eldest child, a pretty, intelligent girl Of
twelve, to avert the fate which seemed 10
threaten them-of entering the dreaded work
house. So the widow rose early, and lay
down late, and, nerved by the strong afIec-
tons Of her work, working with such energy,
that she managed, she said, " to keep the roof
over their heads" and had at least two meals
a day OF potatoes and saIt-seldom indeed ac-
companied by a bow Of thick milk. The
two younger children regularly attended
school, and The elder boy and girl were al
ways busy, sometimes assisting their mother
in making turf, a small quantity of which she
had leave to cut in a neighboring bog some
times collecting manure on the roads, and
bringing it home to spread on the potato gar.
den. Whilst the eldest girl, who had learn
ed to knit very neatly, made some profit by
selling the gloves and seeks which she man
ufactured in the winter evenings.
But this scene of humble peaceful indus
try was soon interrupted. The long bright
days Of August, 1916, were darkened through
our land by tho shadow of approaching FAM
inc. The blight which had fallen the pre-
cedlng year on the potato crop had caused
much distress and CONSERVATION; but the
buoyant hopofulness of the Irish nature pre-.
vailed, and a general impression seemed to
exist that the potato harvest would be album
dant. Accordingly the roots were planted in
the usual quantity, and in most places they
sprang up with luxuriant promise. In the
beginning of July the fields were green and
fourishing, and the peasants eye, as he look
ed on them, sparkled with Joy. Before the
end of the month, a mysterious blight fell
upon them, in some places like a sudden
stroke the stalks dropped, the leaves were
blackened, and the tubors ceased 10 grow
In August scarcely an uninjured plant was
seen.
"Wha state, Jack, are your potatoes in"
said a gentleman TO a poor man, about the
middle Of that month.
"lndeed, your honor, they're rotten and
black, and there's none of them there. God
Almighty help us, for unless he looks down
upon us, We'll all have to die"
"lndeed, ma'am," said a poor woman to
me one day, showing a small heap of waxy
potatoes, about the size of walnuts, which
she had just dug, "you'd be a long time
looking at them when they're boiled, before
you would bring yourself to ate them"
At length even this miserable resource
failed the gardens were exhausted, and the
state of the poor b, came worse daily. AS
the SEASON adVa mood their Ell HpriDnC troIu
want of food were aggravated by cold and
nakedness. No class OF persons suffer more
severely than widows and orphans; at all
times more helpless than their neighbors,
they are now ready 10 perish. finding them
selves without their "provider," as a head
Of a family is often called in Ireland, to labor
for them on the roads. Poor Mrs. Sullivan
and her children now often went to bed with
out having broken their fast all day. One
by one their little articles of furniture, and
then their clothes were parted with s. to keep
the life in them )" and one evening last De-
cember, when literally nothing was left in
the house save a bundle Of straw and a few
sods of turf, they couched round their hearth,
foodless and almost naked, to try and warm
their shivering limbs by tue flame of a small
fire, The eldest boy was not among them
but presently he came in, holding a small pa,
per in his hand.
Look, Mother he said, "what | got
| went among all the neighbors to try for
taste Of turnip or cabbage for We all, but ne
one had anything to give me-they're dying
Of the hunger as well as ourseives-till a
last old Paddy Kelly said he'd share a grail
of black pepper with me that he had for him
self; and he tould me TO mix it in hot waite
and drink 1t lying down, and it would be
fine thing aeon the Starvation.n
This was accordingly done, and the ho
mixture was divided among the fimily a
their sole supper.
Mother" said the eldest, 81 heard som
people saying TO day, that there's fine Sc
weed on the shore at Bantry. IT'S no NOR
than thirty miles off, and wouldn't it be bel
ter for MS to 90 there and get some, than t
die here we could bile it and eat it, and
might keep us alive.'
The mother sighed deeply. "God hel
US! It's all we have to do,'' said she. IL
His name we'll set off tomorrow morning.
They did so; their cabin was completed
empty, and their blighted garden useless, S
they had nothing to leave behind or To lie wit
n, them. Slow and lettering were their step.
and often would they have fallen dead on II
en- way, but for the occasional donations of brea
and soup which they received at the few gel
tlemen's houses scattered through the couI
try.
The work house was no longer open;
held already more than double the number
inmates for which it was designed, and Il
deaths had daily increased in a lrightiul nun
Der.
AT length they reached the sea shore,~ al
addressed themselves to collecting sea-wee
This, when boiled, becomes a sort of glul
nous substance, on which it is possible
sustain life for a time. Oh! if our Engli,
brethren could only have seen the famishir
eagerness with which they d~evoured III
wretched substitute for food, having obtain,
leave of a kind cottager TO boil it on his fiji
they would not wonder at the importnna
cries for help which reach their ears fro
starving Ireland.
We will not follow the miserable fami
through their wanderings during the bitt
season Of midwinter. Before the end of ia
uaJ 'hs ms younger children 1ers 1es