Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-03-26

A TENANT EVICTED.
Before left Dublin to attend the
indignation meeting at Ballybrophy, ]
read letter from Roman Catholic
priest in a neighboring county. Cavan
1t was dated February 10. However
sad may be the stories | may have tc
tell of famine in the west, | cannot
believe that there will be any greater
illustration to depict of mans cruelty
to man.
In the midst Of cries Of distress
around me, writes the Rev. Joseph
Flood, the parish priest, 'in the Cavan
portion of my parish, while Protest
ants and Catholics here as elsewhere
are struggling to keep together the
body and soul of the victims of this
years visitation, | was hurried off to
the Meade portion, no less distressed,
TO witness a scene the first in my
life-a heartless eviction of five whole
flmilies, thirty souls in all, Of ages va
rying from eighty to two years. y
AT II o'clock to-day, in the midst
of drizzling ram, when every man s
lips are busy discussing how relief can
be carried on to this home and that.
an imposing spectacle presented itself
through quiet part of the parish of
King S court. A carriage containing
Mr. Hussey, jr., son of the agent of
the estate of Lord Gormanston. Be
hind and before the carriage came
about dozen of outside cars, with a
resident magistrate, an inspector of
police, about forty of her majesty S
force, the sheriff and some dozen of as
rapacious looking drivers and grippers
as ever | laid my eyes upon.
There is dead silence at the halt
before the first doomed door. That
silence was broken by myself address
ing the agent, craving to let the poor
people in again after the vindicltion
Of the law, when to my disgust, but
not to my dismay, one of the crowd is
observed by me taking notes,
The sheriff formally asks: Have
you the rent?'
THE trembling answer is My God!
how could have the whole rent-and
such rent, on such soul, in such a
year as thisp
Get outP is the word, and right
heartily the grippars set to work. On
the dung-hill is flung the scanty fur
niture, bed and bedding; a search is
made for pig or goat, and forthwith
they share the fate Of the evicted
master; the door is nailed, and the
imposing army marches on to the next
holding, till every house has been
visited and every soul set forth.
AT this moment there is down
pour of rain on that miserable furni-
ture, on that poor bed and bedding /;
and an old man, whose generations
have passed their simple lives in that
house, is sitting on a stove outside,
with his head buried in his hands,
thinking Of the eighty-three years
gone by. And are those tenants to
blame? No 1t is on the records of
this parish that they were about the
most simple-minded, hard-working,
honest and virtuous. Their only guilt
is, that an agreement with my Lord
Gormanston, some five years ago, dis.
franchislng them of any claim under
the land act, and involving an intoler-
able rise Orient, together with the com
mon misfortunes of the country these
few years past, and this in particular,
has left them unable to pay the entire
rent of this year. Yes, the entire
rent-the halt, the nine -tenths of the
rent would not be accepted. Priests
joined the poor tenantry in petition
ing again and again. No answer was
given but, Have you the whole rent?
Have you the law expenses? If not,
out you 90. ,"
Hundreds of such cases occur in
Ireland. They explain the apparently
vindictive feeling of the peasantry and
their leaders, like Mr.. Parnell, for ex.
ample, aud Mr.. Davitt, to the land
lords as a class. The two classes are
hostile at every point, and the exist.
ing famine has intensified. their mu-
tual antagonism.