The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-02-19
THE TERRORS OF FAMINE.
Ireland in Dire Extremity-Immediate
Help Needed-Graphic Pictures OF the
Suferings of Starving People.

Ireland in Dire Extremity-Immediate
Help Needed-Graphic Pictures OF the
Sufferings of Starving People.
A correspondent of the Eeemans Jour.
nal, writing from Rosmuck, on the Gal.
way coast, on the 18th of January, says
"I found that stock of any sort have dis
appeared from hundreds of holdings,
even to the very hens, and'that whatever
little famished mountain COWS are left
are not only absolutely valueless for sale,
but are literally starving, like their own
ers, for want of food. 1 found that the
seed oats are in many cases gone, and the
seed potatoes in all places going. 1 found
that the kelp trade, which was as vital
to the people as agriculture, has within
two years declined three-fourths in
amount and two-thirds in price-is, in
fact, utterly and hopelessly ruined; that
their fishing has been of the rudest, and
that, too, has been unfortunate; that the
very oyster dredging which used to give
the people employment, has been three
fourths destroyed by the cupidity of the
rich proprietor of the fishery. l reckon
that SIX hundred families at the least will
in month have exhausted their last
ounce of food and their last chance OF
raising any, and that at least one hun
dred families are already in that terrible
strait. I saw numbers of men, women
and children who were slowly wasting
for want of food-upon two meals day,
upon one meal day, and that handful
of Indian meal lent by some less wretch.
ed neighbor, and eaten without drop of
milk. 1 saw man prowling over dug
potato fields and digging them again for
couple of forgotten roots. 1 saw an in
fanf knawing a turnip, and eight little
brothers and sisters about her without q
rag of underclothing. I saw beds of
stones and seaweed that, if they were in
any other country in the world, would
raise humanity in revolt. I saw sick
old woman, who could not stand up with
out pulling the roof off the little circular
shelling made of sods of bog mould which
she herself had constructed between three
huge boulders, that answered as walls. l
saw more than one hovel in the depths of
the bogs actually built all over with drip
ping bog mould, thatched with heath
grass. saw family of nine who had
nothing in the world to keep life in them
except such periwinkles as they could
gather on the neighboring strand |!
FEEDING on CABBAGE ALONE.
A correspondent of the Fceman's Jour
nal, writing on the Goth of January from
Rosbeigh, County Kerry, says: Con
Monday, preliminary meeting of most
practical nature was held here, its object
being to organize local committee and
to ascertain with certainty the extent and
character of the distress existing in the
district. During the proceedings crowd
of about seven hundred persons had as
sembled outside the room clamoring for
relief, bearing unmistakable signs of hum
ger, the majority of whom were able.
bodied men. They consisted of small
farmers, holding the grass of from one to
three cows-but no COW on the land-and
laboring men who are ready and willing
to work for days hire, but can get no
work. Bbth classes are equally destitute.
1t was ascertained that about two hun
dred and eighty families were in distress,
each family on an average numbering
about five. Another member of the
committee stated that he knew cases in
which families, consisting of seven, eight
and nine persons were living on cabbage
alone for the past week, and eight others
on a stone of meal for a week. These
people hide their nakedness all day long
in their wretched novels, without win
dows, without chimneys, without beds to
lie on except handful of straw, until
the shades of night afford them an OPP
portunity of coming out to beg the above
mentioned choice morsel from their
neighbors. Several other cases were
brought to light where persons, having
nothing else to eat, were compelled to
root out of the ground small potatoes
left there for seed, and this is their only
means of support for the present. Even
this, as last resource, will fail them in
few days, and then God alone knows
what will be the fate of this wretched
and ill-starred people if timely assistance
be not rendered to them.
POVERTY OF THE WEST COAST.
A special correspondent of the Free
mans Journal, writing from Oughterhard,
Galway county, says. "Even where the
little store of potatoes was consumed a
month ago, seeds and all, there was still
the price of the pig or the proceeds of the
handful of oats to keep the wolf from the
door. Even yet there are, as 1 reckon,
three weeks between US and general
total failure of food. At the present
moment, according to the most careful
calculation 1 can make after personal
visitation, there are sixty heads of fami-
lies who rise every morning without
knowing where they are to get breakfast
for their six or eight children; who SIM
ply exist from day to day upon poorhousc
relief or upon the charity of neighbors
only less wretched than themselves. They
share with one another like ship
wrecked crew. l have seen family of
ten dependent for their supper upon a
little measure Of yellow meal bestowed
upon them for charity by 'neighboring
man. who three weeks hence will be
without his supper himself. Every week
will add with frightful rapidity to the
hungry army. BY the beginning of
March, deliberately pledge myself to
the assertion-fve.sixt of the entire
population of this parish will be abso-
lutely without the means Of existence if
they are abandoned to their fate. There
are hundreds of holding so denuded of
stock that they are without COW, a
sheep, or even pig. There is not a
feather bed left unpawned outside the
town. In fifty cabins 1 did not meet one
comfortable pair of blankets. Try TO
realize the frightful dead level to which
the people have descended, when 1 tell
you of one broad-shouldered giant who
returned from the English harvest fields
in 1878 with GO in his pocket, and re-
turned in 1879 on pauper's relief ticket
without a farthing; of two other strap
ping young fellows who came home from
America two years ago with 5000 apiece
in their pockets, and were, when | saw
,,,on, x,,o1.o,;,,or f1>ot fbo, ,,.on11 hn