Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1880-02-21
picture OF Hungry Ireland.

One Of Meloveliest regions Of Ireland,
the famous picturesque County of Kill
larney, is now the scene of almost indie
scribablc wretchedness. "Every pros
pect pleases and only man is vile," in
the treatment of lis fellow-man. One
of the villages -Cahersiveen- said 10
be the property of Trinity Colltge, Dub-
lin. It's thoroughfares and buildings,
the streets lined with squalid novels,
torn a monotonous panorama of misery.
A correspondent, visiting it and accom-
panylng the clergyman, who has the re-
Sponsibility of distributing relief, affords
vivid photograph of scene which is
repeating itself with varying details but
slckening frequency all over the island.
The rain was mercilosSly falling upon
crowd OF women who had gathered
round the building long before the APP
pointed hour IN order, tosmake sure of
their pittance of Indian meal. The
showers saturated their garments and
their bare feet sank deeper in the mud
and water, while the hunger which was
devouring them, set its mark on their
pinched faces. They had walked miles
that morning, some over bog and noun
tam, paying by this labor, more exhaust
ing probably than that expended in the
cultivation of the soil, the price of the
few pounds Of meal which was dolcd out.
to them. Many of them hung back, not,
wanting, for shamc's sake, TO commit
their first act of beggary. A respecta-
bic artisan, with neither money nor meal,
refused to ask for it, and his mother re-
quested the priest not to mention even
her taking it, lest her son should be
ashamed and angry. But hunger
breaks down the strongest pride, and
probably all of the 500 received their
bounty before night-fall. ...
In other parts of Ireland hundreds
stay by the meager peat fires in their
cabins, in order not to consume by OK
crcise the vitality which is slowly oozing
out of them. Others, without fuel, bring
turf and see-weed ten or fifteen miles
upon their backs. Many of them are
without beds, many more with nothing
but rags to cover their nakedness from
the cold. +.
OF terrible fires, of pestilence, of
flood, every body in this country has
some conception. Few there are who
have not seen or known of the victims
of such calamities, or been brought into
such contact with these catastrophes "a
to appreciate the terror or the horror of
of them. The thousands that have been
made homeless, the scores that have
persisted in the flames of forest fires or
of those which have nearly blOtted cities
and towns out Of existence; the panic
stricken crowds that have fed from, or
the fever stricken crowds that remained
with, the yellow-fcver and the cholera;
and the destruction of life and property
from sudden rise in rivers or the burst
ing of the lood-gateS in reservoirs, are
more or less familiar to large numbers
of people residing in.the United States.
These are all swift, sudden, and start
ling in the ruin and the death they work.
But OF the horrors of famine, the slow
torture and process of living death,
which blights populous communities as
the hOar frost blackens vegetation, q
spectacle once COMMON in Europe, still
not unknown in Ireland, Italy and Rus
STA, and almost habitualin some portions
of Asia-of This form Of human misery
and death we in this land of peace and
plenty, where the harvest always fol-
lows the sowing, know absolutely moth
ing. And our Imagination, aided by
the testimony of eye-witnesses, alone
can appeal to our benevolence, Per-
haps, because they are not in the least
hardened by the sight of it, the Ameri-
can people are always prompt and gen.
erous in their reply to such appeals
Detroit Free Press.