The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1886-08-20

and the keeping of COW is condi-
ton Of afiluence which few of them
reach.
Not one child in ten among these
yearly tenants aud farm laborers evei
goes to school day. There are no
schools for them, in the first place, and
if the schools were available few OF
them would be able to bear the neces-
sary expense of attending. In the
towns there are usually some schools
available for the poor, but the opportu-
mites are not good, and very few chill
dren of the very poor even in the towns
get any schooling at all. 1t is often
said that the people of Ireland are to
blame for their own condition.; but ii
this be admitted also that very little
can reasonably be expected from peo-
pie whose education is absolutely moth
ing.
English and Scotch landlords usually
leave on their estates at least part OF
the year; the land is generally let in
large tracts on long leases. and the
people who cultivate the soil are usual
ly retained for long terms Of service.
The Irish landlords have more CON-
monty looked upon their tenants as
necessary evils. and have not identified
themselves with their people. They
have looked upon tenants as renJ-pav-
ing machines. For years past 1T has
until very recently been the rule to
raise the rent as often as the tenants
| improved condition seemed to warrant
If the tenant saved something and
managed to get pig or COW, the
landlord only argued from this that he
was able to stand more rent, and in
creased the rent accordingly. What
| was still worse, if the tenant reclaimed
bits of waste land, kept fences in good
repair, and enriched the land by haul
ing manure upon ii, these very i'm
provements were regularly made the
ground of increasing the rent, so that
it was really against the tenants inter-
est to improve things at all. Ii the
Irish tenant is un,hrifty, the landlord
may be straightly charged with giving
him exactly that kind of an education.
While in Galway / saw the Saturday
markets, which are attended by the
country folk for ten or twelve miles
around. The markets are held in the
open air, in squares and open spaces
in the streets. In one place, cattle,
horses, sheep and hay were on sale; in
a second market all kinds OF vegetables
were on sale; and third market is for
butter, eggs and fowls. Only few
| women attend the first of these mar
kets as sellers. in the second men and
women are nearly equally divided; and
the women have a monopoly OF the
third Not less than two hundred
women had articles for sale in the last
named market. In some cases they
brought their produce by the help of
some one who came to one of the 9th
err markets in cart drawn by a don
key, but in large majority of cases
they trudged to the market on foot,
with their loads on their backs, and
about two-thirds of them came bare
foot and bonnetless, and in the rain.
Many of them came ten or twelve
miles to this market every Saturday.
One old woman of about 60 years told
me that she had walked in that morn
ing six miles, and that she did 80 every
Saturday morning in the year. They
carry their marketing on their backs in
basket held by a strap over the
chest. If they have butter and eggs,
their marketing may come to two OF
three dollars; but most of them do not
realize more than one dollar, and many
of them do not get more thar
fifty cents for their days work ant
marketing.
One OF these market women came
into a shop to sell her little store o
marketing, which consisted OF fon'
spring chickens. and nothing more
She wanted two shillings and sixpenct
for the four, and the man offered only
two shillings. As she stood there try
ing to get her price the water drippe(
g from her soaked garments in little
r pools on the floor. She finally tool
4 two shillings. She had trndged these
: many miles that morning in the raiI
f and got only fifty cents for her chick
y ems and her work. The bitter, biting
s poverty of the tillers of the soil in tn
r west of Ireland was well exhibited il
s that Galway market. Such a condition
t, would be excusable in Egypt, Turkey
|. or Poland, it may be, but ireland is
S part of the United Kingdom, and
s presumed to be part of the civillze
II world. 1t is ineycusable there. Thi
e part of the country is the worst pal
T, of the island.
k Near such towns as Belfast, Cor
h and Limerick, tenants pay $40 to 80
=. an acre for good land, and three G
It four miles away they pay about ha
h as much Seven or eight miles ava
is from railways 81 and So is more con
d mon, and much land is let for even :
st and SO an acre. There are immen'
l. tracts of waste land in Ireland. mostl
le peat bogs, and such land as this
3, worth very little. About Galway Il
20 land is rocky and the soil very thi
1t but the land Is very high for the qua
It, ity. Indeed, what are called ''fa
Of rents" always struck me as being enc
g nous. The landlord has dealt, and
"a still dealing, hardly by Ireland, thoug
II, the rents are not now so high as thu
as were a few years ago. l should 81
~ that they are even now twice as hil
ne as they ought TO be.
,y A Valuable Wood