Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-02-16
NASBY IN IRELAND.
A Terrible Indictment OF Irish Land
1ordism-The Yillainies of the
System Exposed.
Conceived in Lust and Greed, Born OF
Fraud and Deceit and Per-
petuated by Force.

Petroleum V Nasty" X. ID. Locke has
recently taken tour through Ireland, and
in Boston recently he addressed an i'm
mense meeting upon the subject OF the Irish
cause. His address Vas one of the severest
| arraignments OF landlordism in that unhappy
island we have read. Among other things
/ he said
! What is landlordism? 1t is condensed
| yillsiny. 1t is the very top and summit OF
| oppression, cruelty and horror. 1t was con-
ceived in lust and greed, born OF fraud and
| perpetuated by force. 1t does not recognize
! womanhood, manhood or childhood. It's cold
| hand is upon every cradle OF Ireland. Its
! victims are the millions OF people in Ireland
who cannot get away, and the instruments
used to hold them are bsyonets and
| ball cartridges. Irish landlordism l.
! legal brigandage-it is organized hell.
1t reaches from the bottomless depths
OF the hell where il was born to the
summit OF British greed and rapacity, and
that has never yet been measured. Wes-
ley said that African slavery was the sum
of all villainies. Irish landlordism comprises
all the villainies that the devil ever invented,
with African slavery thrown in, merely as a
flavor. Irish laudlordism makes African
slavery virtue by comparison. When
| negro slave got too old to work he was pro-
vided tor while life lasted. The Irish ten
ant, when he becomes old and cannot work,
| is thrown out upon the roadside with his
| wife and children to rot. He has created
lands with his own hands which he is not
allowed to occupy. He has grown crops
which he is not allowed to eat. He has la
bored az 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 bsyonets, controls his
lands. In short, to sum it all up, the Irish
la Id 4
childhood is robbed OF its care, youth of its
Joys, manhood CT its rewards, and old age of
its solsce. Under this infamy, every smile
ends in the contortions of pain. Every laugh
i shades off into a moan. The sight of an
English landlord owning Irish estates gets
| up in an American sort OF respect for
Nero" The lecturer introduced a brief his
| lory of how landlordism established itself in
| Ireland, and why it was permitted to exist,
! his object being, he said, 10 let Americans
know that there is an Irish question-that
| the Irish have not only reason for their ac-
ton, but thousand times the reason that
| our fathers OF '76 had, and that their cause
is one that must enlist the sympathies of
every man who loves the right and hates the
wrong. In the four weeks "Nasby" was in
| the south OF Ireland he visited one hundred
and fifty eight cabins. This is his picture OF
enc OF them: THE idea that human beings,
made in Gods image, having the power to
hink to reason and to act could live even
exist, in such a howell, was incredible.
Wading through mud and slush coming
over the shoe tops, | bent my head and
entered. The room, if so it could be called
by any stretch of imagination, was so low
that i could not stand erect. The cold,
bare earth that constituted the floor was
damp and slippery, as the rain came trick
ling down through the open thatch and
formed little pools on the groEnd. Near a
suggestion OF fire were huddled woman
and four children, the eldest not more than
eight years OF age. As L entered they all
arose. | was Mortified to see that they were
without stockings and shoes, and the clothing
was 70 torn and ragged that it afforded no
warmth whatever. The mother and her lit
tie girls were blTe with cold. Their features
were pinched with hunger. Their whole APP
pearance indicated the want and suffering
they had been enduring for years. Over i'll
one corner Of a room was what they called
bed. 1t consisted of four posts driven into
the ground. On striDgers were laid few
rough boards, and on these boards were
dried leaves and heather, covered with
few old potato sacks. There is where
this family of six persons slept
There was no window in the house,
the only light and ventilation being
furnished by the door and the cracks
in the matched roof. As for meat, that is
something they never dream oil eating. Only
once year do they dare TO hope to taste it.
On Christmas day they manage, if they can,
to boil the half of pigs face, and they mix
their stirabout with buttermilk to make
gorgeous feast. That is the only meat they
ever have, and the pleasure OF this indul
gence is destroyed by the terrible remorse
that follows extravaganza. Two meals OF
potatoes day-tbat is the diet they are
born to, live upon and die upon. As to
their clothing, that is something too horrible
to talk about. In ride of five miles-from
the door OF the hotel in Cork to Blarney
csstle--I counted over five hundred women
barefooted, whose feet had never known a
stocking or shoe" Referring to the land
lords and scions OF royalty, "Nasby" asked:
Have these people, from first TO last, ever
added one penny to the wealth OF the world?
Is there any one thing they have ever
done to push forward the progress of
the nations? Not thing. On the con-
trary they have been the dead weights,
they have been the incubuses, they have been
the blocks in the way. They simply live and
eat, and drink and wear, and disport them
selves in the gardens at Sandringham, and a
hundred other gardens; they have castles
and servants, and carriages and special
trains, and all that sort of thing, and one
hundred guinea pug dogs; and to support all
this, with the horde of nobility hanging upon
them and their retainers, the men of ireland
are starving, and the women of Ireland are
going shoeless, stockingless, and well-nigh
naked"