Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-11-14

ASPAy w Nh w. w Nv" SAASJ ANNAAA
time to make such solid substantial
fences, "those stones were every one ta-
ken from that field there, and having no
other place to put them we made fence
and our rent was raised on US for doing
it, worse the luck
We looked into the field whence these
stones were taken. 1t was as uninviting
piece of ground as could be imagined,
still full of huge boulders. rocks, weeds.
and the never-dying heather. 1t was
not capable of supporting sparrow, yet
for the slight Improvement that had
been made, the rent had been raised.
Great inducement for man to work
ANOTHER CABIN.
Seeing a little low, thatched cabin
just off the road, we asked IN all SIM
plicity, if it had any history, for it was
beginning to dawn upon US that almost
everything in that vicinity had some
story connected with it. But we were
totally unprepared for the reply.
"No, there's no history about it. It
is simply the dwelling place of a family
of people who are daily expecting to be
evicted because they can't pay the rent,
the father having been unable, through
sickness, to work all of the season."
The idea that human beings, made in
Gods image, having the power to think
to reason and to act, could live, even
exist, in such hovel as that was so in
credible that we insisted on going over
and seeing how 1t was done.
Wading through mud and slush COM
ing over our shoe-tops, we bent our
| heads and entered. The room, if SO it
could, by stretch of the Imagination,
be called, was so low that we could not
stand erect. The colo bare earth that
constituted the floor was damp and slip
perry as the rain came trickling down
through the broken thatch and formed
little pools on the ground. Near sug-
gestion of fire were huddled woman
and four children, the eldest not more
than eight years of age. As we entered
they all arose. We were Mortified to
see that they were as usual without
stockings or shoes, and their clothing
was so torn and ragged that it afforded
no warmth whatever. The mother and
her little girls were blue with cold.
Their features were pinched with hun
ger. Their whole appearance indicated
the want and suffering they had been
patiently enduring for years.
Over in one corner of the room was
what they called bed. 1t consisted OF
four posts driven into the ground. On
stringers were laid few rough boards.
On these boards were dried leaves and
heather, covered by a few old potato
sacks. There was where this family OF
six persons slept There was no win.
dow in the house. the only light and
ventilation being furnished by the door
and the cracks in the thatched roof.
THEIR FOOD.
1t was too horrible, and we went out
again into the rain. There we could al
least get breath of fresh air. We ask
ed our guide how this family managed
to keep the breath of life in them. He
said they lived as their nelghbOrs did
on potatoes and "stirabout."
What is stirabout? p"
alt is a sort of mush made of Indi
an meal and skim milk. They have
that occasionally for a little luxury, OIL
when the potatoes are so scarce that they
think they must husband them.
You don't mean to say that those
people actually live on that fare, anC
that they have nothing else? They a
least have meat with their potatoes 2"
God bless you. sir. and the homes
mans eyes filled with tears, "they nev
er know the taste of meat. There has
not been bit of meat in my house since
last Christmas, and then we were fortu
nate enough to get bit of pigs head
But up here they don't even have that
Surely this must have been an excep
tiopal case. 1t was impossible that ever
in that country there could be more
than one or two instances of such uttel
and abject woe and misery. But Mr.
Duggan told US to the contrary. HI
said that the house we had just left wa
only fair sample of what was to b.
seen all over the Galtee mountains. II
be convinced we trudged painful,
through the rain for seven long hours.
We toiled through fields that in Amer
lea would not be accepted as a gift
Here if the exorbitant rent charged fo
them could not be paid. the holders wer
evicted. We went through roads s.
wretchedly bad that teams could no
travel over them. Yet taxes had to b
paid by those who had holdings on Ell
ther side, We saw fields that had beel
reclaimed from the original state, hat
been made productive, and had been tn
cause of the eviction of the holder be
cause he could not pay the rent whicI
the improvements brought upon him
! | H. bod boop tbro1yn of tba lapd ond !