Connecticut western news., 1880-04-14
FEEDING THE POOR.
What a Member of the Relief Committee
 Witnessed in Ireland.

What Member of the Relief Committee
 Witnessed in Ireland.
 hi dispatch to the Herald, Rev. Geo. W. Hepworth says On one occasion, within week, I entered poor cottier's hut but found it empty. The only bed stead consisted of some boards laid ontwo boxes. The bed was pile of straw. The bed covering was single, torn, worn-out blanket, which had to do ser vice for family of four. I looked into the dinner pot and saw nothing; into the meal sack and found it empty. l laid a piece of silver on the table and | left. When the mother returned and found the money she broke into flood of tears, and in the midst of her sobs she hugged her children wildly and cried out, :'God has sent it to save us God has sent it to save usI It is comfort to me to feel that God really did send it through the medium of some sympa- thetic American heart The other day priest wrote to me that he entered house in his parish and found the chil- dren sitting side by side in front of the smouldering turf in the fireplace, who. had not tasted food for fifty hours. He gave one of the boys a shilling to get some meal, but the poor little fellow refused to go because he was so nearly naked. Unfortunately these are not re- markedly exceptional cases. No mat ter how prudently we spend our funds the famine will at times strike a family and drive them to the very verge of the grave before we can find them out and relieve their wants. God be thanked that you are giving your sympathy and money for these helpless children. Their parents have for two years spent all their pittance of income to buy the coarsest food. To opurchase new garment means simply impossibility. The people in the distressed districts are in such deplora- ble condition that very many schools have an average attendance of only half the usual number of pupils, and the reason is that they have nothing to eat and nothing to wear.
 LIKE VANISHED DOGS.
 I have a letter before me which de- clares that, to the personal knowledge of the writer, the decrease in the attendance at his school is caused by the utter inabili- ty of the parents to procure breakfast for their children. He adds that it is quite disheartening to see the sad condition oi these little ones. Those who once were rosy and blithesome are now pale, cold and listless, their garments so thin and worn that they hardly hang even in tat
 ters on their backs. A poor man who lives within pistol shot of the school was
 with his wife and eight children, obliged to go to bed supperless last Saturday
 night. He had no breakfast on the fol
 lowing morning until he was relieved by
 the parish priest "When I take m,
 lunch at the schoolhouse," he continues
 "little ones throng around me like fam
 ished dogs watching for morsel. Man.
 time have been so moved by thei
 wan, hungry-looking faces that I hav'
 given them what I had provided for my
 self, and gone hungry in their stead" 4
 take these extracts from pile of letters all of which are in the same tenor. w
 have this week received other letter which tell us how gratefully penny l worth of bread and a sup of milk ar received by the children and assuring U ,, that their faces are already beginning ! brighten and that the ring of old laugl ter is coming back.