The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-03-18
A Heartrending Account Of the Misery
and Suffering In Ireland.

The New York Herald of the 10th
publishes the following:
LONDON, March9.
have made my first visit to the suffering
counties OF Ireland, and hasten to make my re-
port OF what have seen and done.
tlemen which Is cSmRosedan OF gen.
difHcuIt task with the determination 10 make
personal inspection of the distressed dis
In order to understand tor myself the con-
dition Of affairs. | spent few days under the
about thirty square miles on the first day and
over forty on the second visited q large
number of small tenements on the west banks
mon and Sligo. For about ten hours each day
l rode and walked, entering, altogether,
about hundred wretched hOveis which this
and where from morning till night they en-,
counter the dread mOnOtOny of want and
misery. While fully prepared to meet more
former visits, Something of the cnronic state
OF poverty in which the people live, 1 was not
prepared, nor could anything l ever have
the ANY misery and
squalor which found at every turn. The peO-
pie did not know of my coming, and could not
ness and want. Unawares i searched every
corner of scores of houses for any means Of
subsistence, and came back at night with an
aching head. have seen what it would do
you all good to see. Even after hearing it I
am sure you will increase your gifts, generous
as they have been, until this great Ghasm Of
that have seen men utterly break down when
slipped paltry shilling into their hands, and
women clutch loaf of bread as though they
were AFRAID that some one would suddenly ap-
pear to take it from them, you can family
imagine what have experienced in the last
The friend who accompanied me observed
that felt large lump In my throat all the
time. could find NO fitting language in which
to express my sorrow and my sympathy. The
first case remember was that of an old wOm-
an who sat OH the muddy threshold of her
hut as we went by, lifting up her hands as #
In duplication, and crying, "nothiny has
never knew the value Of a loaf Of bread tin
that moment: When we gave her half a loaf
dog. She trembled with age and Weakness for
she was over seventy years of age, and hunger
had reduced her to the littleness of skeleton.
famine. She stood in the middle Of the road
and thanked God that Americans had not for
gotten Ireland. 1t was hours before l could
get away from that haunting, haggard face
Nor shall soon forget the sight which saw
in another hut. The mother of seven children
was holding the youngest child, a girl of few
n montds, IN frantic embrace, moaning as she
ling gaze as we entered the door, which we
could only do by bending, and gave low cry
a sst though in very terror After few minutes
agent OF the landlord, sent to evict her. Then
she told me she had nothing to eat for many
days except a poor dole of Indian meal, which
relief committee gave her, and for which
she was thankful enough. She added that,
being half starved herself, 1t was impossible to
supply milk for her babe. She would be COM
for the meal which the relief committee sup
piled the family would have literally had moth
Rut 7 oonnot voo;&o oil A.. .-...,,
stances Let me give you a sample of what I
saw in many scores of huts, and in a few
which are matched and Of stone, ana stand on
the edge OF bog, which affords them peat for
fuel: They contain three small no ms. One
is the room where the household lives.
Through small hole in its roof the kitchen
almost q peat famine also this year, on &C
count of the wet weather. The only fuel
consists consists OF bunch of green twigs.
are happy enough to possess one, which
part q the family, and always goes
which is perhaps eight nine feet square, the
family sleep. They have one bed, with two
thin, WORKOUT blankets, and here four of q
household of nine must Sleep not lenethwise,
but crosswise, covering themselves rs best
they can. The rest pile up small bundle Of
straw in the corner, and sleep on it. Pressed
potatoes. The only food in the whole house is
few pounds Of Indian meal, which they mix
with water and make into a stirabOut, This
is all they have. and all they will have until
| the autumn. What wonder, then, that they
should be disheartened and discouraged.
I have asked again what part of this
| wretchedness is due to intemperance? / am
| assured that it is caused solely by the utter
future Of the crops, and with all this poverty
the majority OF the Irish are cheerful. The
people are enduring the great stress of suffer-
| ing with pluck and courage which are truly
admirable. 1t is my hope and prayer that tho
American people will not feel that enough
has already been done. Punched as the Irish
| are to-day, their condition is one of happi-
| ness in comparison with that in which they
| will find themselves in the course of q few
| weeks. From the early part of April until
the first crop is reaped will be the season of
| their real trouble, of their actual struggle for
| existence. Feed them until the middle of the
summer, and the blessings of the whole OF Ire
| laud will rest on your generous hearts. The
| committee have money, but it is not enough
to last until the end of the famine. Hundreds.
| thousands, tens of thousands, are keeping
body and soul together by your b unity and
| generosity. For the sake of charity make one
| more effort. Give your committee the means
| of warding off the otherwise inevitable horror
| of starvation.
shall visit Mayo and Donegal next week,
| and will make another report.
Gr"""r II. HEPwORTH.