The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1869-09-22
Erin MaVOurneen.
A PLEASANT PICTURE OF THE IRISH
PEASANTRY.

! A PLEASANT PICTURE OF THE lR1sH
PEAsANTRY.
a felicitous writer in the Cln
cinnati Daily Gazette, who is now
travelling in Ireland, furnishes the
subjoined pleasing sketch of GER
tain classes Of the Irish peasan'
try:
AS for their picturesquenss, they
get it from their landscape. Ire
land is one uninterrupted but ever
varying scene of natural beauty
And people assimilate the land
scape. Hills have poetic power
Why does Mary Ann pick out
three colors from the pile on the
shop counter? Why not one
only? The infallible hills propel
her clumsy fingers. The land
scape dresses the peasant. Ma
ture is the servant of human ma
ture. And the Queens maids OF
honor do not array her in half the
fascination with which brook and
bog, and hcather-crowned hill
adorn the tidy Mary Ann for
chapel Of Sunday morning. She.
in her white frilled cap, and check
apron, and blue cloak, and red
petticoat, and bare feet, is apicture.
But there is one who has got a
little above her class, and she has
on the fashionable mode Of attire
wee bonnet, with flowers, Paisley
shawls and shoes. She is neat and
prim, and also stiff and common
place while the other is a picture,
Isay, easy and pleasing and grace
full, charmingly dashed with the
unconscious picturesque. And as
for young Mollie, who has D. cap
to ''set," she sets herselfthroughout
and all the young Pats stare with
a will when her bare ankles and
red petticoat and blue cloak, with
it's hood hanging carelessly away
from the brown face and blue eyes,
pass over the threshold of the
chapel. :
These people all LhaEe- -hs,sc- -e5=os.
-kindling, expressive blue eyes.
So have the children, who are re-
markably good.looking, I am sur
prised at the glow of their com
plexion, and the grace of their
physique. Some Of them are OF
rare and captivating beauty. Some
who have run by the side of the
car, imploring a penny or offering
stockings for sale, went to my
heart. Their teeth were perfect,
their eyes sparkled with blue
brilliance. their forms were little
and compact. their countenances
of a rare formation. One little
girl particularly, Oh, that face of
pensive sweetness comes to me
now. 1t was a face to be caught
up and carried away by angels to
their homes in the blue, quiet sky.
1t was torment, indeed, to leave
the pretty little Irish cherub sit
ting to rest on the roadside after
her long run We descended the
hill, and she passed from sight,
sitting, resting on the roadside, in
the restless land, in the restless,
troublous world.
Oh, 1 am sure [ shall be followed
for long while by these children
of the "unhappy country" At
times the darkness is bright with
their bright eyes, and their faces
beam upon one with their pensive
beauty. I am sure I never saw
more beautiful children anywhere
than I have seen in the Highlands
of Ireland.
Nor have ever seen more mod
esty of behavior in women, or
more quietness of demeanorin men:
l have yet to see the first act OF
| immodesty in all the poverty and
degradation I have witnessed in
Ireland, and I certainly have wit
messed a good deal Of pow
ertv and degradation. On the
other hand I have seen con-
duct of downright and upright
delicacy! Clothed as scantily as
she may be, the Irish peasant girl
never, by word, or act, ofends
against the most fastidious sense
of proprlety. There's not more
chaste class in the world than the
peasantry of Ireland.
As we approach the town OF
:. Donegal the wilder features OF
the landscape disappear, and the
country becomes more thrift and
crimpt. The people get more
tidy; flowers bloom about the
doorsteps of the cabins, and a
green vine chambers around the
window.
| m, c.,o,t rnarriooa of vidop,e