Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-11-10
How Redpath Converted Locke
on the Irish Question.
What Was Seen and Heard in Galtee
Mountains.
Some of the Horrible Results of Irish
Landlordism.


tween the earth and the sky. In fact
when Mr.. James Redpath found me in
Dublin was engaged in disputation
with Mr.. Charles Stewart Parnell, the
president of the land league, in which
| was endeavoring to convince him
that he was demagogue; that the Irish
had no reason for agitation; that what
ever of suffering there was in the coun-
try was attributable to some inherent
weakness in the Irish character; that
Ireland could only be properly ruled
by the English, and that they ought to
be thankful to the kind Providence
that had given them superior race to
protect and care for them.
Mr.. Redpath, who gave the best years
of Ills life to the killing of slavery in
America, and who is doing all that one
large-souled, brainy man of nerve can
do to kill another form of slavery in
Ireland, said to me, "Come with me to
the south of Ireland for just day |
won't talk to you; | won't even give
you printed page to read, but | will
show you something that VIII astonish
you, as it did me-"
went with Mr.. Redpath to Cork,
and the first day we took a jaunting car
for Barney Castle. Mr.. Redpath was
silent, which, with the purpose he had
in view, was the highest wisdom. In
the five miles drive l counted 500
women without shoes or stockings
walking in the cold mud.
This was Mr.. Redpath's argument,
and it was an argument better than
any man could make from a platform.
FERMoY AND BEYOND
The next day we took train for
Fermoy, a distance of perhaps fifty
miles. In Fermoy, a tolerably pros
porous village for Ireland, the women
did not only have no shoes or stock
ings, but they had scarcely anything to
wear.
'This is nothing" said the wise Mr.
Redpath; these people are fairly
prosperous-fo Ireland. | shall show
you something worth while before
night"
1t puzzled me somewhat to under
stand how anybody could be worse off
than to be walking in cold mud with
out any protection whatever for the
feet; but found it at Mitchellstown, at
the foot of the Galtee Mountains.
Boarding one of those most execrable
of all vehicles, an Irish jaunting-car,
we left Mitchellstown at 8 O'Clock in
the morning in a soaking rain-storm,
the cold, misty drizzle goirg through
our heavy overcoats, and almost pene-
trating our very marrow.
Our driver was loquacious fellow,
who had at his tongues end hundreds
of instances of the oppression of land
lords and the terrible sufferings of the
poor evicted tenants. He talked fast,
and, his whole heart being in the sub
ject, he talked well, oftentimes empha-
sizing his stories by barefooted, bare
legged, and bare-headed women, who
went trudging along the cold, wet road
with no protection from the fright
full inclemency of the weather
but a light shawl thrown over
the ragged dress that scarcely
covered their bodies These women,
whom he pointed out as evicted ten
ants, were not the rough, degraded
looking beggars that are commonly
supposed to ,.overrun Ireland and make
the tourists life one of continual annoy
ance. They are bright, intelligent, and
handsome, and, Notwithstanding the
horrors of their situation, they were
comparatively cheerful. But it was an
unnatural cheerfulness, for it was no.
ticeable that there were lines about the
mouth and around the eyes that told
only too plainly their story of want and
suffering.
Even with these living evidences we
could hardly believe the stories of cru
elites committed by the landlords and
their agents which our driver kept
pouring into our ears. We could not
realize that they could be true. They
seemed so absolutely barbarous that
We utterly refused to accept them, and
did not, till having gone about nine
miles from Mitchellstown we stopped
at little roadside cabin, as they called
it, although we would have more prop
erly denominated it hovel.
MICHAEL DuGGAN'S CABIN.
At the invitation of our guide we
ahghted, shook the rain from off our
great coats, and entered the place to
inquire for the man who worked the
little holding back of it. He was not
at home; but his wife, a comely buxom
woman Of about forty years, asked us
TO be seated, at the same time offering
small stool Oh which one of the girls
OF the family had been sitting near the
hre taking care of an infant.
While our guide was inquiring for
l' Duggan, we made All inspection of
sne mousse, where man, his wife, and
seven children lived. There was one
ptlh9ipai room, in which we were
standing, which was about ten by
we've ieet and eight feet high There
wa Tas no moor, except me original earth.
Inc mere was only one window, and that
had never known pane of glass. In
one END OF the room thnre was a dingy,
smoky fireplace, around which were
ihuudied three or fon children, scanti-
" dressed in loose cotton slips that
came just below the knee. At the 9TH
81 enc OF the room brood of chickens
disPported themselves in a pile OF furze,
"hlle every few minutes a huge po-ker