The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-07-14

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while the wreiched PEASANTS staryc the
rent Collector Makes His Hounds.
o,4tRaa4,aes Loadoa c.Ioaiet.
ASH have only just returned from visit
Ing, with my husband, GweedOrc aud tho
Other distressed districts. Donegal, | should
be- glad II you would allow msto say a
lew words as to the actual condition Of the
pssSants in that part Of ireland. Last
year the potato crop was lost throughout
| the whole Of Donegal, and to add to this
disaster, iolloWingas 1t did on four success
sive bad harvestS, terrible storm swept
over Donegal on October /, uurOohng and
leyelinS the cottages and sweeping away
the whole Of the cats and hay.
The people thus found themselves
Obliged to face the winter. with
no store Of food for their families
and stock, and no seed potatoes for the lol'
lowing spring. Enormous exertions have
been made by Dr.. L0guC, the Bishop OF
llaphoP, and his clergy to iind funds where
win 20 feed the people and to buy seed.
pota,Ues, and these efforts they have been
aided by the Society OF Friends and by
Mrs. Power LalOr. Owing to their rXer'
tong u great extent OF Donegal has been re-
sown with potatoes, and TO the present
time tenant farmers and their families have
been. kept from actual starvation by sell:
inv their stock and by receiving gifts OF
Indian msal. The funds in the hands Of
the Clergy are, however. nearly exhausted,
and how to keep of the famine till the new
ly.soWn potato crop has been gathered IL
filling their minds with the greatest anS'
iety. 'For three years, said the Blshop 10
ma. last week, Il have been fighting the
famine, and now 1t seems that at the mo.
ment Of victory Us II 1t would prevail"
In q weedore, to which Captain Hill has
sent his bailitf to collect rents, the tenants
are reduced TO the lowest ebb Of poverty
In All estate, every inch Of which Is either
bog, rock or sand, some portion o. the land
has been brought into state oil cnllivA-
ton by the unttring labor oil the peasants.
The 'iarms' in strips, often not more than
eight feet or ten feet wide, run from the bog
to the shore, aud are being year by
wear encroached upon the ecu and sand;
others lying more inland have been IT.
claimed from the sea by years Of toll. Ev'
erything- building, draining, ditchiDg-,
hes been done by the tenants unhelped.
10 stimulate industry the rents on the prop
srtY have been raised on the property
from time to time from EI00 TO nearly
Rl.2OO year, and TO teach the grim lesson
Of poverty 1900 acres Of mountain CON.
mouage grazIng, which belonged TO the ten
antstrom time immemorial, were taken IRON
them some years ago without compensa
ton, and thus people who once owned
llocks and herds and were proud OF Their
hospitality 10 strangers have been reduced
TO stats oil penury most pitiable TO be-
hold. While Captain Hill ID pressing for
rents, hundreds Of his wrptched tenautry
are being kept from starvation by doles Of
pennyw0rth Of meal q day and
all the children on the property are being
fed By the gift Of two biscuits each per
diem. Poverty and misery such as are
now 10 be seen in Gweed0re are enough |
TO make the most stony-hearted weep. In
one sIpgle.roomsd cottage We entered u
reversed tub and y board did duty for
table, and broken iron pot containing
stirabout, was the sole cooking utenstl, the
only article Of furniture In the place being
the wooden cradle, in which tue Wretched
mother rocked newborn baby. The
father, In rags. was busy planting out the
seed potatoes Just given him.
But It Is not only in Gweedors that the
peasants ara starving. In GencolumbkilI
5. 600 persons ara being fed by public char.
lily out OF population oil 1900, and
throughout Donegal the distress Is most
acute, about II, GOO perSons requiring food.