Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1851-04-18
Eloquent Description.

Tn Meagher's Memoir of '48 is an article on the
familiarity of famine in Ireland' 1t depicts, in
burning and truthful language, the often-hungered
condition of the abject creatures, to whom Provi-
dence wlled an existence in of the most prolific
isles of the world; but, at the time, of the
most wretchedly destitute that worlds broad
face Though vivid and forcibly drawn, there is
no exaggeration in the picture it is, too, from
master hand, sketched with graphic fidelity, and
taken to the life
':Hunger, had thought. would break through
gates of brass and walls of granite; would rush
through fire. or like the bayed tiger in his last des
perae extremity spring upon the spears which hem
med it in
"Nor was altogether wrong; for the hunger.
which, like the earthquake or the whirlwind, hath
been sent in sudden wrath upon people, has done
these things. and done them with the fury of the
ercest elements that bend the pillars of the sky
shake the foundations of the sea.
| g But the hunger of the Irish land was no such
visitation. 1t had not come yesterday, nor week
ago, yet for the first time in the autumn of As.
" On the grayest headstone, in the loneliest and
oldest churchyard, the spectre had sat down years
and years before and from thence had looked out,
with cold and bloodless eyes, upon the land, over
the homes and fruits of which it had been made
preme. Years upon years-years upon years-it
had walked the land some few blessing it a Sc
angel sent by God to chastise and purify the
multitude cursing it foul fend, yet falling down
before it-acknowledging it lord and master
summer, the destroyer had stood concealed, watch
ing the young soft hands that worked garlands for
the PRIDE beauty and gallant boyhood of the land
-mutterng to himself, that the flowers would short
y fade, and the fruits decay and that all that pride
and beauty and gallant boyhood would soon be his
and his for many long day to come
wears ago, from the peak of the loftiest noun
tain in the South at an hour when the heavens ca
nopied the Island with their white and azure ban
ners, and the peak glittered beneath them like a
crown of virgin gold, the phantom bad looked down
upon the life, and sweetness and glory at his feet
boasting like the devil of the wilderness that all
was his, and delivered unto him
"Years ago. in the golden fields Of most joyous
harvest-time he had stood among the reapers: smi-
ling at the thought, that the which had &C.
companed the fall at length revoked, and that
the children of Adam should no longer eat bread by
the sweat of their brows. it had been promised.
" Everywhere, for years and years; in the valley:
on the mountain amid the violets and the roses OF
many radiant summer; in the golden fields of ma
ny joyous harvest-time on the hearth-stone by
the side of the wrinkled and the haired
bling to her words of abect resi- gnaton and point
ing to the grave, that it not wet with blood
as the sweetest home beneath the heavens every
where. for years and years, hunger had been upon
our soil had ceased generation two ago, to be
a stranger; was no longer summed no longer
fought with no longer cursed; it was the eternal
destiny of the land. and Heavens will be done