Morning journal and courier., 1882-10-07
An Irish Frteze-Factory.


 [Rev. H. g. Pagan in London Timesl
 Kings county is proclaimed Every few miles you meet a couple of black uniformed constabulary patrolling carbine on arm. Yoa do not go out at night if you do, you would be pretty sure to be taken up by some over- jealous member of the force. Driving past very pretty park you catch sight through the trees of red coat. What Has the catching weather driven them to turn the soldiers into the hayfeld? Alas, no! The renter of the park, agent to several gentlemen who have never seen the county for years, is under protection. But in Fully there is no sign of protection. A TOW of dozen cabins children barefooted; men off at the hay, for which they get from 2s. to 3s. day-the only prize in the way of harvest work that falls to their lot. Most of them have the half acre Grish) which the Irish laborer is now beginning to insist on. They grow early founders" and later champions" few cabbages, and perhaps patch of oats to get meal for stir about. The level of comfort is not high. Wages (seldom over 9s 8 week, without any extra at harvest for the regular mem will have to rise before it rises. The cabins, very highly rented (e2 for a one- room cottage and it's half-acre), keep out the weather better than many cottage in Nor- folk or Devon. But the earthen floor, the darkness, and the almost total absence of wall l-decoration make them look uncanny. Every grocer in little town sells whiskey. What in the world are the licensing magis- trates doing In the old Orange colony of Tyrralrs Pass see even the post office has it's spirit license. But book shop, or any books among the miscellaneous stock, look for in vain. Yet the people are in way in- tensely literary. How they will gather round you if you read a newspaper debate, keep ing up running fire of comment "Fine language, fine language; he's the man he's clever fellow" In the National school, too, the reading Is far better than in the same standards in England; none of the nasal twang which we accept as inevitable. The elder girls read even hard poetry with real feeling, and are adopts at explaining hard words.
 Here is the miil-a big, gray building of five stories; outhouses sadly dilapidated. big wheel in good repair and turning merri- ly. No wonder things are 8 little tumble down The place failed in the famine time, no one left to buy it's friezes and for nearly thirty-five years 1t was let go to ruin. Not three years ago one Peter Gafney took it t-- tall man, with good honest eye, rather ! dreamy manner, as if he was thinking of improved machinery, and hands such as Dickens says are the proper hands for those who invent things. Altogether a man who l inspires confidence; you feel he will tell you tho truth, which is more than can be said of all his countrymen or of all Englishmen, especially those in trade. The mill was emp ty; he bought the machinery as he was able got labor from the cabins aforesaid and now makes blankets (cheap and excellent, much prized for miles around) and friezes and hn- seys and coarse flannel and rough tweed l His ambition is to extend his trade so as to | be able to buy better machinery and turn out | fine flannel and tweeds equal to those of 1 Blarney or More Vale. He has as yet only seventeen hands at work his girls get 6s., his piece -weavers from As. to 25s. It Is the day of small things; but here is man do- l ing more good than score of agents and l landlords a man whom all who really care l for Ireland's welfare should wish God speed i; l for in helping himself he is helping others, employing labor giving the laborer a chance of holding on till the day (which must soon come) of higher wages and more constant | endowment Alas fashion And custom are 1 against him. The fashion of despising things
 Irish has filtered down till the very peasant 1 girl is dressed in English cotton instead of l native linsey. If people cared for their country, not only would the landlord be resi- | dent for at least some part of the year, the l agent being his right hand man, his good | second, instead of being allowed to be first
 aye, god and lord of all; but the priest | would use his immense influence and would
 preach in favor of Irish goods, himself set
 ting the example by wearing nothing else.
 It is not emigration that the island wants, it
 is migration. Here in Kings county and
 Westmeath is field after field of first-rate 1 land going down to mere thistles because !
 ter, to break up and lay down again in grass
 after crop of oats. Stock pays better than l ever. The thing to make 1t pay better stll is to ''hunt out the small farmer" though 6 ! visitor might fancy that it would pay best oi 1 ali if those corners were used up and thrice
 the number of hands employed, along witt
 suitable machinery, the small man also being
 taught the use of it and heartened up to uss
 it. But landlords do not see this, nor agents
 so the struggle is to clear land which, unlike
 the barren West, could well support fivefole
 the present population and there is no on'
 to give employment but men like my frient
 Peter. hope he will soon get his better
 machinery. I hope this Dublin Exhibition
 may arouse the American Irish to something
 like real honest patriotism. Let them us'
 their "vote'' to get Irish goods, even II nc
 others let in duty free. Let them start line of packets to convey the goods direc from some Irish port. They could easily d.
 it with the money they fritter mischievousl,
 away in senseless cablegrams and dynam1t l hoaxes and sham stores of arms, and all tn
 absurd nonsense which only ends in nor police, more soldiers, more suspicion ant
 hatred between classes, more burdens on thi
 their overburdened motherland, which s' longs for rest. Let them come out like mel
 and women into the field of labor, where tn 1 worlds victories are to be won, and give ul
 that ''talk of the lips'' which in Ireland' case has so verified the wise mans word b.
 "tending to penury." Let the servant girl | in American cities, whose slxpenSes i'll O'Donovan Rossa's purse, wear none bu
 Irish fabrics-poplins they can well affor' ] for Sun6ay How deserving of honor their patriotism how superior we feel it t. be, ali misguided though it is, to any feelini in the mind of the same class in England
 Who will guide it arightP Who will mak
 them helpers in this grand work which th ! Irish people have now in haud Let ther
 tSe demand, and be sure a crop of Pete
 &sffneys will grow up to meet it, and in tn
 success of such men, far more than In tn growth of big factories needing steam powe
 and gathering big population round them
 do forasee prosperity for Ireland. Ihes little local mills suit the habits of the peo pie they can give a shift of work whe there is nothing to do on the land the bring money into poor outlying places an
 they keep where it is wanted the population . which is far too indiscriminately being in
 ,,roved off. I have now been moving abou for two months, mainly among the oountr } naon1e What have said of Gaffney hay } sinre f, ,und to be true of half dozen rror } man in Wicklow, in Clare-everywhere. am so olao' to find that these men are we ranresented at the Exhibition. There are 7 o.nod many o,e them, and one. Michael HuE
 of Derrycarve, in Derry, of whom the
 teudant in char.r says, 'He found 1t too e nensive living in Dublin, so he left his goot ! pwitb me. ) shows some fannels for shirtlr of first-rate quality and English style of fiji Sch