The Leavenworth weekly times. [volume] (Leavenworth, Kan.) 1870-1880, 1879-12-18

from a rehearsal Of their virtues fresh
incentives 20 patriotism. Hereto append
| a letter from the Rev. \. J. Canon Bourke,
which, depicts the sorrows and sufsrinss OF
the Irish farmers, which as will be seen
makes cad exhibition Of affairs among
the ,enantrv Of Ireland. This is the other
side Of the question. IHos RYAN.
CLAEEMoRR!s,C COUNTY MAYO, lRELAHD,l
November Eve, 1879.
MY DEAR Miss BoYLE:-It Is now six
months since you had q letter from me.
List May our people we're hopeful that,
after the unusually severe winter that had
passed. the summer would he very fine and
the hary.s st would come to crown with an
abundant return the labors aud trials of
the year. the contrary of all this hss
come 10 pass. Sine. 1915 the Irish people
have not had 80 bad failure in the potato
crop. In some districts it is at present
one. half, IN Others three-fourths, and have
been told that some farmers have lost even
more than three-fourths Of the normal
return. The cereal crops are not all that
one could wish. The cold OF winter Is felt
already in the chill rorthern blasts, and
even in this, the last e-ening OF October,
there are many corn he.us unreaped and a
few not wholly ripe. Peat or Turf il, in
Connaught, the only fuel; this years peat
for firing is not yet dried. A fuel famine
threatens. Along with these misfortunes
seat by God for the chsstisement and i'm
provennent of our people, there exists also
great commercial depression. The price
for sheep, cows, oxen, and all kinds of live
stock is only one-half what it had been two
years ago; aud this depression is notably
low in regard to the poor mans stock,
because there ia NO demand for animals
that are not marketable or in good condi-
tion. American farm produce has cheap
ened our markets immensely.
Hence you will see that our people csn-
not pay the high rent which they are &C.
customed to pay. Nay, some of the small
farmers cannot continue to hold on to the
farms they have hitherto titled. They
will have quite enough to do this year TO
exist mercy; they will not be in a position
to support their ions and daughters and
prepare them for the battle Of lie.
Already the cry hiss gone forth, what is
to be done for the reduction of rent? Most
of the land owners in this parish have re-
mitted twenty-five per cent. (Those LAID
lords who hold extensive property have
given no reduc!Ion.)
FUTILE LPPEAL TO GOVERNMENT.
Abatement such Is this. however, ia not
sufficient. All the priests end people OF
Connaught have, under one form or an
who rules Ireland, to give the people en-
.. l.
Yesterday the Bishops of Ireland inplored
Her Ms jesty's Niceregent to save the peo-
pies lives. This days Freeman's Journal
conteI.4 the strarre news that His Grace
the Lord Lieutenant has turned deaf ear
to the sppeal OF Il e Irish Bishops. To-day
the Corporation oil Dublin lays the prayers
of fsmIshiug nation at the feet of its
Governor. This day will witness the same
calIous reply.
/ must express an opinion which il
known to MAJ 10 be true, that His Grace |
the Duke of Marlborough personally feels |
for the peoples wants, but as a member of |
the Earl of Beaconstieli's government he |
will do and can do-nothing. On the first |
week in November all the Irish members Of |
Parliament will lay a similar appeal be- |
fore the Prime Minis er. Disrseli will |
simply laugh at their apparent earnestness. |
What does he care if 100000 Irish people |
die of famine? Nothing.
He regards lrishmen Just az he regards |
their Arysn cousins to ,he east and west of |
the Indus. Like the lark in the fable, the |
Irish people m TO think that they must |
depend on Themselves and on the children of |
their race. The distress which has fsllen
on this country is in truth great, and the |
people, fear, must suffer. The only i'm.
mediate and direct remedy is employment.
This they are not likely, as you see, 10 oh.
tain. Immigration, therefore, to Americs,
in winter and in the coming spring, is likely
to be renewed. You cannot but observe the |
spirit in which King Alfonso of Spain has
acted towards those who, in his province of
Murcia, suffered from the late floods. He,
like father, ran to aid his children, the
Spaniards.
How differently, compared with our
rulers, the Emperor and f npress of Aus-
tris acted last spring to those among their
subjects who in like manner had suffered |
Four years sgo the Garonne, swollen BY |
the rains of the Pyrenees, committed great |
devastation in the south of France. Then |
President Marshal MacMahon, went in
person to relieve the sufferers. The people |
Of these nations ask for bread, aid they |
receive abundance of bread and every re-
quisite. We ask for bread, and are given . |
stone; fish, and behold q serpent is pre-
sented. Disraeli does not govern on prin-
ciple OF right or of distribuive Justice or |
with tatherly concern for the subjects OF |
this nation. His rule is one of police and |
sta.ecraft, directed BY imperial interests,
and seemingly tine outcome of political |
pressure. You were never in Ireland. |
Many Irish men and women now in your |
country were in Ireland IN 1916, lsi7 and |
ISiS. They know how multiiudes then |
asked for bread, 'and there wer, none to |
break it unto them" Then, a. in Jerusalem |
during captivity, "the children and the |
sucklipg, tainted away in the streets"
FAMILIES STARVING.
myself saw strong men and young |
women die OF starvation; one young girl |
especially, of nineteen, the eldest of poor
family OF nine, struggle in the Jaws of |
hunger for six months, and then perish, |
literally reduced to q heap Of bones. / |
did my best at the time to help that fam
lily. was then only eighteen years of |
age. saw two men dead with grass in /
their mouths, having striven in vain to /
ootsIn sufficient nutriment to sustain life |
from the grass of the field. Scenes like |
these were then common. Many would |
not believe that .uch things occurred, but |
l saw them. l saw Hundreds of children,
from the age Of Two to twelve, with hair
on their skinny arms and cheeks fully one
inch lopg-a false growth, caused BY decay
and hunger. / saw over one thousand
men, women and children of all sizes and
ages outside the poorhou.e of Castelar,
assembled for inspection By order of the
poor Law, lest any name should Be on the
relieving officers list except thoss Who
we're actually at the time alive. cannot
aay in the flesh, for Aesh they had none.
Their psesence At the time, young % I |
vas, reminded me of the vision of boers
beheid BY the prophet.
Shall scenes like these occur again? God /
forbid. Shall the children of Saint Pat.
rick-the sons of saints and saees; the
descendants of q noble race; the O'Boyles,
Who have come down from the corquering
Mall the Great; the O'Briens; the Dom
nells, your cousins from Donegal; the /
OLaughlins and MacLaughlins the