New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-04-17
| imperative that there should be hxity Of tenure
either by long leases or peasant proDrietorship'

| imperative that there should be hxity OF tenure
either by long leases or peasant proprletorshlP'
DISMAL SCENES Ar CRoY.
We halted mile and half from Westport, at
the hamlet called CToy, In the township OF Drm-
vornigh. There are eight or nine cabins IN it-not
contiguous but ell built near tho road, and not far
from each other They do not face the road, but
are built "end-to," as the sailors say. The fret
cabin lay below the level Of the road. think L
have used the phrase "long, low cottage Deiorei
but perhaps the words did not correctly convey my
meaning So shall be moro explicit. The thatch
Of this house reached only to my shoulder
about four feet six inches, say, not more
from the end Of the howell near tho street
to the door. The door not four feet high. Ihls
was the only door to the house. or course you
must stoop to get through 1t. The dark and smoke
stained room that you thus enter is about 13 feet
by IL feet The end of the room to the left OF the
door is O stable with o COW in it, the floor ID OF
slippery mud wooden cradle rudely made is near
the fire; there is an infant in Uncovered with rags
and on old gTeatcoat. Four rude wooden chairs
and couple Of homemade stools, wooden dresser
opposite the door with few plates and dishes IN IT,
and an iron pot on the floor complete the scanty FUR
niture of the dwelling. There is no window except
one feet by 1 ; lie room is dark all the irish
cabins are dark. In all weather the door Is
kept open to let in light and fresh ar
Near the fireplace there Is the usual niche IN
tho wall called the colgh; ithOlds bed, and 1.-THE
men of the house occupy it," 1t is the most com
fortabIe.D small-pitch dark inner room, nothing
in it but two rough beds with straw on them to lie
on and few old potato bags to cover the chlIdren
There was peat fire Ia this cabin, and this mover
was one of the best in the hamlet
There other novels smaller in sze' In one
Of them sick man lay on bed OF rags near the
fireplace. There was little peat fire on the hearth.
Around It crouched three little children. A
peasant woman with an qnTrlnklea Iacg-sne was
in her arms / had never seen a woman of that ago
in q cabin with smooth face and pleasant ek-
preston before. she was born gear a tho d bar5
shin of the Others" Two of the children sat around
a not, II had a mess of pOrridge IN lt--Indlan
meal with little salt to season IT, One oi II
woman (she was sixty years old would not look up
at us. She sat squatted on her launches aud ma
her face with her sOiled and wrinkied hands; INC
man pleaded with the priest for blnket. don't
mind it for the rest of us, but for the ould woman"
She was bis mother-ln-iaW.
wRETCnED HOMES.
There were still more dreadful scenes In the other
cabins l know no farmer in the East or West
who keeps his cattle in such foul stables. And yet
children and infants and mothers and stalwart
workrnGmen-not beggars, but honest fellows
willing and eager to wOrk-have been
born and reared and married in these
dreadful dens, none of them having
any other floors save the cold black earth; none of
them having windows larger than feet by Is
inches; and nearly all Of them having cows or
horses or dOnkeys in the same rOOm--undiyided by
either q stone wall q partition OF any kinu. Heaps
Of Ouzing muck ut the doors! The last cabin filled
me with dlsmay. IL was dark and dirty and small;
There were little heaps of what is called "boR deal"
and furze, as fuel. and little peat fire.
"Bog deal is the roots of ancient fir
trees that have been preserved IN the moist
boys. No one remembers when the hr trees grew.
They disappeared a generation ago. An old woman
at least seventy years Old-with white hair, dis
coored by the smoke of the cabin, aud clad ~ foul
raps with her bare feet on the wet floor, haggard
and hdeous from want, sat on an old rickety chair,
and told me she had been twice marred-OnCe to u
Flynn and that she had two sons,
one by each husband, in tho United
States. They had not written TO hor for
wears she said but had left her. III her decrepit age,
Scranton. the other In Philadelphia. Her grand
daughter, beautiful young girl OF fourteen or SIX
teen WAS working with q spade In the garden,
There are very few girls with refined features and
an intelligent expression IN these novels. But II Is
pathetic TO meet girl such this glrl, who, II
born in America and educated IN our pnbllC schools,
would in all human probability have become the
hoBored and admired mother Of wealthy home:
This girls beauty would almost have guaranteed
her that rank In America. Twenty years hence, IL
she lives here, she will be ugly and wrinkled like
the rest.
On Sunday saw an old woman and an old man,
with their young sou, sitting around basket, the
lid OF which, inverted, held their Sunday dinner.
mon salt dissolved. The rest of the meal consisted
of cold potatoes; that was all. Irecaed il M saw
the little children OF ono Of these novels crowded
around the pot with the cold Indian meal pOrridge.
banker told me that there was far less distress
than was talked about, and that Ireland bad never
been better oif!D JAMES REDPAIH