The Warner weekly sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1885, 1884-02-22
II IRISH TENANT.
How He and His Family Live

Gthbul IRON Oi1cUtt SOuICbSs " "a ~" CSNNS
facts as to the Irish tenant. The parish of
Gler ,~olumbkille, in county Donegal, is a
fair sample of the west coast. Ia this par"
ish there are 500 families. In the famine
of 1880 700 of these families were on the
relief list, and on to the end of the famine
Of famine may be said to ever end in Ire
land 400 families had absolutely nothing
but what the relief committees gave them.
The committees were able to give each OF
these families per head per week seven
pounds Of indian meal costing fve-pence
farthing up to about So 80 per year.
These people all said that if theygOt half
as much more-EI0-1-2, it would be as much
as they would use in times of plenty.
Your pencil and figures W show you
that this would be equivalent in good years
to an expenditure per head for food for
every individual of 81 13S Cd a year, or for
the average family Of say four and a half,
e. 13s Sd per year.
THIS is the cost of food for the average
family per year, when the times were good.
When potatoes are cheaper than Indian
meal potatoes are eaten, but one or the
other cons j utes the sole food of the pee
pie. AS the cost is llways about the same,
the figures are rot changed in either case.
To this YOU want to add about 60 a year
IOT luAuTi6s LuAuEy III dn LUSH Cablu
means an ounce of tjbacco a week for the
man of the house, and the remainder of the
sG3 goes for tea. / admit this is an e~Xtrava-
pance, this tobacco and tea, and I doubt not
that u commission will b. appoiptad by Par
lament to devise ways and means so eXtln-
guish the uudheen Of the man and abolish
the teapot of the woman. This 60 a year
thus squandered would enable the landlords
to have a great many more comforts than
they now enjoy. l presume the Earl of
Cork could build another yacht on what his
t~enaptry sQuanders on tea and tobacco.
Add to this IL for clothing IAN extravagant
estimate) for each member of tie family,
and you hive the entire cost of the existance
of the Donegal family, e12 3s 6 sd, or in
American money, S57.6l!
The clothing provided by this pound q
year means for the man Of the house a pair
of broglns, which he must have to work at
all. a couple of shirts, a pair of corduroy
trousers, and second hand coat Of some
kind. The women and CHILDREN wear no
shoes or stockings, and their clothing /
have described before. Of bed-clothing
they have nothing TO speak of. 4 few po-
tato sacks, or gunny bags, or anything else
that contribute anything of warmth, make
mp that item.
Int queen anu tic IIluGEsS III nHl6S 4
sleep a down and under silk, and the
Queen has / 600 people about her person.
lily lord has his yacht in the harbor, and
the humblest seA--an on board sleeps under
w00len and has meat three times a day.
Some day there viii be a board OF equal.
izanon from whose decision there viii be
no appeal Then / would rather he the
Donegal peasants wife than the Queen.
Despite the fact that she sen eI00 to the
starving Irish, she won't need silken cover
ing 10 kesp her warm.
Il paE the rent and provide this SIS for
o and clothing consumes the entire time
Of every member Of the household. The
land viii not pay tit is impossible TO get
II on tie soil. So the man of the house
plants his crops, and Leaves them for the
women and children TO care for, and be
gees on 70 Eaglald or Wales, and works in
mines, or In haryest-ields N the season, OF
at anything to make some little money 20
I'll the insatiatle NAV of the landlord and
% Aeep absolute starvation from the house
Then the boz IN Anterica sends bis sti
pend, which helps. provlded his remitfencee
can be kept from the lynx-eyed agent, who
would raise the rent IN a minute If he knew
that remittances were coming.
But the WORK of caring for the crops lie
not all the women and children do. They
knit aud sew, every minute of the timethey
have from feld-work. making thereby from
two to three cents a day. This knitting /:
done for dealers who furnish the ma
lerixl and pay for the work, and
journeys OF twenty to forty miles to
get the material and the same distance back
again to deliver the finished work, have to
be performed.
Iii brief. there isnot a moment To be lost, !
nor an opportunity wasted to make a benny.
The penny not earned makes the difference
between enough food to sustain life, bare
as life Is Of everything that makes it dnsir
able. and hseiute pinching, merciless hum
ger. No n liter at what s~acriice, the pen-
ny must be cared and rsligiously applied
either for rent or for food. Clothing is al
stay in and food TO keep life IN the body,
these are the first.
What is the amount paid the drones Of
England in the form of pensions2 How
much does the queen receive? How much
does the little princes and princesses cost
the nation? How much the dukes and
d~ukelings. the -righthonorables and the
generals and colonels, and the secretaries,
Ind all that2 Look upon this picture and
then upon thatl" A nobility rioting Id ex-
travagance-a whole people st4rvingl
And yet there are those who believe The
people Of Great Britain have no e~rleyances.
but should settle down ~contentedly and III
quieti
If there is an American who doesnot hate
royalty, and MOBILITY, and ~aristocracy, in no
matter what form they come to view. he
either wants to be an ari tocrat himself, or