The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-08
THE IRISH PEASANT AND HIS CABIN.

The wayside "holding, with as much land
ss be and his family can cultivate, is the
Irishman's ambition. He instinctively clings
to it even at the rack. rent which absorbs his
savings, and in spite of the frequent notice
to quit by which his plans for Improvement
are snubbed. Loud lamentations on sani-
tary and other grounds are made over these
primitive habitatons, which too often have
but one room, yet the elements Of national
strength are perhaps better developed in
Paddys cabin than in Sir Sydney Water
lows London ''blocks. The ''small farmers"
hut has been q citadel which has been
impregnable to every power but the crow
Lar, and from that, too, often defended to
the extreme of bloodshed However little
'civilized" in its aspect, 1t represents main
cause of Irish elasticity under the many
woes that have come on the nation, for it is
home in the old sense, and in it family life
is healthy. We have yet to discover the sys
tenn that will equal that primevally ordered
group the family in developing the good and
controlling the folly of mankind We can
excuse much that is unpleasant TO the eye,
and even to the nose, when we find the
father dressed in homespun frieze and half
a-dozen children learning to 'mind' the
pig and the poultry under the eyes of their
parents. Shoeless, and fresh from dirt-pies,
their training somehow produces noto-
riously intelligent youth. We think them
miserable, yet in all Ireland there could not
be Ginx' Baby. 1t is curious how little
Irish peasants are ashamed of their poverty
They understand that they are not to blame
for the precarious tenure which checks the
natural Improvement of the home they
would fain love. Faith and Imagination, not
less than fine common sense, support them
in the belief that respectability is not en-
tirely dependent on well-blacked boots,
slated roofs, and heavy feeding. AS it appears
likely that the nation will remain agricul-
tural, Papist, and poor, we may as well recog-
nize the good that is in its customs, and
encourage them. The unison of COM
plant, the uniformity of Irish life,
testify that Paddy, after centuries of
probation, has arrived at certain social
conclusions which, if not exactly ours, have
distinct value of their own. He will not
accept our advanced ideas, and he persists
in faiths, hopes, and charities which, how
ever obsolete, have done good work in their
time. They have at least kept him patient
under trials that are hardly yet over. To
discover good under the roof of cabin in
Fenia certainly requires an effort; nor do we
find qualification to any but the moral sense
as we drive through her ruinous scenery.
No pomps and vanities of culture hatter our
taste, and if there is little Philistinism,
there Is less sweetness and light. In the
most fertile districts it it is evident that land
is not, as in England luxury for the rich,
but necessity struggled for by the poor It
is depressing TO spend many days in a land of
remains" and learn the lesson, which the
Irish have perhaps laid TO heart too much,
that all is vanity. Each invading race has
left its crop of ruins, but the hearthfre still
glows in the cabins undestroyed, and is
pleasanter to contemplate than prehistoric
crannogues, or raths, or even round towers
and Norman keeps .-Saturday Reoje10.