Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-03-10

he latter Is SILL alVe. Jarrard was IN
tOxicated and afterwards lamented the
deed.
FAMINE'S STRIDES.
Report of "a Member of the Herald Relief
Committed.
Visiting the Ho, . s's-Scenes of Abject Misery
and Sickening Squalor-The Palsy of Hum
Se-.
Geo. Hepworth, one of the Mrald's re-
lief commissioners advises that paper from
London concerning his first visit to the
afflicted and famine-Stricken Irish people.
He says
1t is easy to understand the causes of the
present poverty. The people have had
three bad crops in succession things have
been growing worse and worse until the
almost utter failure of the crops last year
brought them to the verge of starvation.
They had nothing to plant-a want which
the British government will supply by the
loan of seed potatoes on very easy terms.
They have nothing to eat, want which
you have yourselves SO generously helped
to supply by gifts which am
SIRE you will supplement- by
other gifts when you know what
is the real state OF the case. In order
to understand for myself the condition OF
affairs spent few days under the leader
ship of Colonel king-Harman, covering
about thirty square miles on the first day
and over forty Oh the second.
l visited large number of small settle
ments on the west bank of the Shannon,
in the counties of RoscommOn and Sligo.
For about ten hours each day rode and
walked, entering altogether about hun-
dred wretched novels, which this afflicted
people delusiyely call their homes, and
where from morning till night they en-
counter the dread mOnOtOny of want and
misery. While fully prepared to meet
more or less distress everywhere, knowing
through former visits something of the
chronic state of poverty in which the peo-
pie live, [ was not prepared, nor could
anything | have ever before seen in any
degree prepare me, for the scenes of abject
misery and sickening squalOr which 1
found at every turn. The people did not
know of my coming, and could not pre-
pare for any dramatic display of wretched-
ness and want.
Unawares | searched every cOruer of
scores of houses for any means of subsist-
ence, and came back at night with an ach-
ing heart. l had seen what it would do
you all good to see. Even after hearing it
l am sure you will increase your gifts,
generous as they have been. until this
great chasm of distress can be bridged
over. When l tell you that have seen men
utterly break down when slipped pal
try shilliug into their hands, and women
clutch loaf of bread as though they We're
afraid that some one would suddenly ap-
pear to take it from them, you can family
imagine what / have experienced in the
last few days. The friend who accompa-
MED me observed that l felt large lump in
my throat all the time. I could find no
fitting language in which to express my
sympathy.
The first case \ remember was that of
an old woman who sat OH the muddy
threshold of her hut as we went by, lift
ing up her hands as if in supplication and
crying, - Nothing has passed my lips for
twenty-fOur hours" l never knew the
value of a loaf of bread till that moment.
When we gave her half loaf she took it
with the eagerness of a famished dog. She
trembled with age and weakness, for she
was over seventy years of age, and hunger
had reduced her to the likeness of a
skeleton. There was glare in her eye
that told of famine. She stood in the
middle of the road and thanked God that
Americans had not forgotten 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, a
girl Of a few months, in frantic embrace.
moaning as she rocked to and fro. She
looked up with startled gaze as we entered
the door, which we could only do by bend.
ing, and gave a low cry as though in very
terror. After a few minutes she was re-
assured, for she thought me an 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
it was impossible to supply milk for her
babe. She would be compelled to see it
die by inches in her arms. But for the meal
which the relief committee supplied the
family would have literally had nothing
to eat. But cannot recite all the indi-
vidual instances.
Let me give you a sample of what saw
| in many scores of huts, and in a few which
are thatched and of stone, and stand on the
! edge of a bog which affords them peat for
fuel. They contain three small rooms.
One is the room where the household
lives. Through a small hole in it's roof the
kitchen smoke is generally forced to escape
There is almost peat famine this year on
account of the wet weather. The only fuel
| consists of bunch of green twigs
Another room is for the COW if they are
happy enough to possess one, which is
very rarely the case. The COW is part of
the family and always goes in and out
through the front door. In the third room,
which is perhaps eight or nine feet square,
the family sleeps.
They have one bed, with two thin, worn
out blankets, and here four of house.
hold of nine must sleep, not lengthwise,
but crosswise, covering themselves as best
they can. The rest pile up a small bundle
Of straw in the corner and sleep on it.
Pressed by hunger, they have eaten all
their store of potatoes. The only food in
the whole house is few pounds of In
dian meal, which they mix with water,
and make into stirabout. This is all
they have and all they will have until the
autumn. What wonder, then, that they
should be disheartened and discouraged?
| have asked again and again what part of
their wretchedness is due to intemperance.
l am assured that it is caused solely by the
utter failure of the crops. And with all
this poverty the majority of the Irish are
cheerful. The people are enduring the
great stress of suffering with pluck and
courage which are truly admirable. 1t is
my hope and prayer that the American
people will not feel that enough has been
already done.
Pinched as the Irish are to-day their
condition is one of happiness in cOmpari-