The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-11-17
ireland AS IT'S.

d. r. Locke, (Nasby) who visited
ireland prejudiced against her people.
gave four-column description in the
Toledo Blade of the condition of af-
fairs in that unhappy country, from
which we copy the following extracts !:
Irish landlordism is condensed viii
lainy. 1t is the very top and summit
Of oppression, cruelty, brutality and
terror. It was conceived in lust and
greed, born of fraud, and perpetuated
by force. 1t does not recognize man
hood, womanhood or childhood. Its
cold hand is upon every cradle in Ire
land. Its victims are the five million
of people in Ireland who cannot get
away, and the instruments used are
bayonets and ball cartridges.
1t is q ghoul that would invade
grave yards were there any profit to be
gotten out of grave yards. 1t is the
cOldest blOOded, cruelest infamy that
the world has ever seen, and that any
race of people were ever fated to groan
under.
Wesley said that African slavery
was the sum of all villainies. Irish
landlordism comprises all the villain
les that the devil ever invented with
African slavery thrown in. Irish land
lordism makes African slavery vir-
tue by comparison. For when a negro
slave got too old to work, he was given
some place in which to live, and suf.
ficient food to keep him in some sort
of life, and clothes enough to shield
him from the elements. The Irish
tenant, when he becomes old and can
not work, is thrown out upon the
roadside with his wife and his cllil-
dren, to die and to rot. tle has ere
ated land with his own hands, which
he is not allowed to occupy. He has
grown crops which he is not allowed
to eat he has labored as no other man
in the world labors, without being
permitted to enjoy the fruits Of his
labor. The virtue of his wife and
daughter are in the keeping of the
villain who by virtue of bayOnets con-
trolls his land. In short, to sum it all
up in one word, the Irishman is serf,
slave.
went from Dublin to Cork, the
most prejudiced man against the Irish
that lives between the earth and the
sky. In fact, when Mr.. James Red
path found me in Dublin, I was en-
gagged in a disputation with Mr.. Charles
Stewart Parnell, the President of the
Land League, in which was endeav-
oring to convince him that he was a
demagogue, that the Irish had no rea-
son for agitation, that whatever of
suffering there was in the country was
attributable to some inherent weak
ness in the Irish character; that Ire
land could only be properly ruled by
the English, aud that they ought to be
thankful to the kind Providence that
had given them q superior race to pro-
tect and care for them.
Mr.. Redpath, who gave the best
years of his life to the killing of slav-
cry in America, and who is doing all
that one large sOuled brainy man of
nerve can do to kill another form of
slavery i'll Ireland, said to me, Come
| with me to the south Of Ireland for
just one day. / won't talk to you. I
! won't even give you printed page to
read, but / will show you something
that will astonish you, as it did me.''
went with Mr.. Redpath to Cork
and the first day we took a jaunting
car for Blarney Castle. MFR. Redpath
was silent, which, with the purpose he
had in view, was the highest wisdom.
In the five miles drive 1 counted 500
| women without shoes or stockings
walking in the cold mud.
This was Mr.. Redpath's argument,
aud it was an argument better than
any man could make from platform.
"This is nothing" said the wise Mr..
Redpath ''these people are fairly
prosperous-for Ireland. / shall show
you something worth while before
night"
It 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 their
feet, but found it at the foot of the
Galtee Mountains.
The picture was not a cheering one
The sun refused to shine, the rain was
cold, and the whole prospect looked
bleak and desolate. Then our driver
was loquacious fellow, who had at
his tongues end hundreds of instanc-
es of the oppression of landloads and
the terrible sufferings of the poor
evicted tenants. He Talked fast, and
his whole heart being IN the subject,
he talked well ,oftentimes emphasizing
his stories by pointing to barefoOted,
bare-legged and bare-headed women
who went trudging along the cold, wet
road, with no protection from the
frightful inclemency of the weather
but light shawl that scarcely covered
their bodies. These women, whom he
pointed out as evicted tenants, were
not the rough, degraded looking beg
gars that are commonly supposed to
Ovsrrun Ireland and make the tour
lists life one of continual ammo vance.
They were bright. intelligent and
handsome, and, notwithstanding the
horrors of their situation they were
comparatively cheerful. But it was
an unnatural cheerfulness, for 1t was
noticeable that there were lines about
the mouth and around the eyes that
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