The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-02-19

picture. Crowds of ragged, famished
men and women thronged around the
doors of the mcalshops clamoring for
food. Many had waited up all through
the night in the bitter frost, beseiging
the houses of the relief committee. Sew
eral thousands focked into town during
the day, demanding relief. Several men
seized members of the committee, crying /:
'We are starving! We must have food
The police had to be called in to clear
the mealshops of the mob. They gath
cred threateningly around the house
where the relief committee were sitting.
The Rev. MIR. Corcoran had to address
them from the window, imploring them
to give the committee two hours to ar
range. The crowd dispersed for time.
Five hundred relief tickets for halfa bag
of meal each were issued during the day.
Two hundred more were issued the pre-
vious day. There were still applications
unprovided for. Knots of women and
men remained in the street until mid
night, though the air was intensely cold.
The committees resources are now eX-
hausted. They are ESQ in debt for meal.
The demoralizing influence of relief in
charity instead of work is making itself
painfully felt. Charity has more than
enough to do in feeding and clothing
school children and helping the sick
and aged. The first day the industrial
school at Ardbear opened over 300 chill
dren applied for their breakfast. Owing
to the want of funds only seventy can
now be fed. The Sisters Of Mercy are
giving breakfast daily to 120 children,
and doing wonders in the way of cloth
ing and nourishing the sick. Fever has
broken out at Carna. -Four families are
stricken down in one village. They have
no wood but what the neighbors give
for charity"
The writer added that "unless employ
ment is provided in fortnight deaths
and disturbances are inevitable"
A very serious incident is also reported.
The Liverpool committee of relief had
forwarded ten tons of Indian meal for
Clifden, which were being conveyed
around the coast from Galway in q
"hooker," or fishing smack. When pass
ing Slyne Head, off Errismore, the
hooker was boarded by crowd of men
who came out in boats. They declared
they were starving and demanded the
relief meal. The pilot said he had but
one life to lose, and would lose it in de-
fense of his vessel. Theraiders tried to
drag the hooker on the rocks, but were
daunted by the display of firearms.
They broke open the matches, saying
they wanted nothing but the relief meal.
The master said it was at the bottom of
the boat, and that the bags of meal on
top belonged to Clifden merchants and
had their names on them, and that it
would be piracy to touch them. They
were finally persuaded to leave without
taking anything. The hooker arrived
safely at Cifden. 1t is rumored that a
gunboat will be sent to cruise in Galway
waters for the protection of provisions
arriving by sea.
TERRIBLE DEsTITUTIoN IN CoNNEMARA.
The distress is getting, there cannot be
doubt, more and more intense, and
more and more extensive, and the dis
pensatory doctors, who are the rural ofii-
GERS of health, have already reported sew
eral cases of that miserable form of
typhoid which is known here by name of
the "Famine Fever" from its awful rava-
ges in lS47.
Here is n specimen: There are four
parishes in Connemara, lying along the
southern coast of Galway County. 1t is
said that not one of the three commits
sioners deputed by the government to
examine into the state of things in Con-
naught has visited these parishes. Simi.
larly two gentlemen who travelled
through the reported distressed districts
on behalf of the Dutchess of Marlbor-
ough are said to have left these parishes
out of their inspection. They lie far
away from all regular routes. The
workhouse, the legal refuge of the des-
titute, is twcnty-six miles away. The
process server, however, has visited
these wilds. These four parishes cover
an area of about forty miles square, and
there is not in the whole island a more
stricken and woe-begone region. Here
is report which has come up to Dublin
about the condition of one of those pa
rishes.
ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE STARVING.
"The parish of Carnagh ranges for
eighteen miles over the wild rock
promontory of Errisannagh. With per-
haps a couple of dozen exceptions the
whole population, S14 families, number
ing some five thousand souls, are ON the
high road TO death by starvation. Hum
ger has overtaken onethird Of them or
more already. The local relief COM
mittee-presided over by q Protestant
gentleman of much local usefulness and
popularity, Mr.. Hazel, and reinforced
by the the Protestant rector, as well as
by the Catholic priests-have made care
ful house to house calculations, according
to which-of 36 families in the town
land of Longhconiere there are 81 at
this moment wanting food; 25 families
out of 81 in Kilsallagh; 90 families out of
% in Rusheen and Drinagh; 20 families
out of 35 in Alnabrone; q families out
of 80 in Bonrouchard, and SO on through
the miserable roll. Those who have
anything to eat are living upon the seed
potatoes. Every day some family is
eating its last meal of them. Hardly
anybody any longer enjoys three meals
day, even on rotten dwarf potatoes.
Two meals are now the average allow
ance. Numbers that l have met squat
! in their hideous cabins around the NOR
sci of live turf all day long in order not
to awaken the pangs Of hunger by active
exercise, and think themselves happy if
the mother of the family is able to beg
or borrow few pounds Of Indian meal
that they may not 60 supperless to bed.
| And oh the patience, the endurance,
the Self-sacrilicc of those wretched peas
ant mothers who stumble over miles Of
sharp pointed rocks with their bare feet
to implore that miserable meal for their
whining children-who carry loads of turf
or dripping seaweed OH their backs for
ten or fifteen miles like beasts of burden
who alone in those little doomed house
holds seem to have heart or hope left in
them! The first stage of starvation is