The Irish standard., 1886-08-21
of any kinda rule In the west and
south about $3.50 week is common

uedI OIL NUtnlUS 1DOVc uiby cSlC0 d Oty
for unskilled labor, except in O. few
favored towns like Belfast, and in these
one occasionally hears Of Is cents a
day. I talked with young man who
was going to Enniskillen-a town OF g.
600 people III Ulster~-to work as coach
painter. He was to work for % shil-
lings week~-say just about 81. He
said that the same work was paid about
SO cents a weelx more in Belfast. a
printer IN Galway told me that his
! wages were nominally a pound week,
but that he worked enough overtime to
get "a shillirigs 1851 as an average. Ills
living costs him about 81.
But the lot ct tbs farm laborers and
small renters is hardest Of all. The
homes of these are usually most rniseI~
able excuses Of human habitati0ns.
They are seldom surrounded by shrub
berry of any kind, and never by any
fruit Trees. The only orchards in the
country axe small enclosures Of fruit
trees owned by the nobility or wealthy
farmers. They are very few, however.
seldom caught sight Of all apple Or
pear tree, and yet these fruits both
groN we'll in Ireland. Tenants on
Leases sometimes have fairly comforta-
ble and attractive homes, but the year
ly tenants are much more numerous, and
these have only one permanent Work---to
get money enough to pay the rent. Very
large numbers Of them are in arrears
for soma years rent. Their houses are
stone huts Of only one room and one
story as a rule, and the pig and chick
ems, When they are fortunate enough to
have amy, usually share the hut with
the family. They are not delicate
about these matters, and not too proud
to associate On even terms with the pig.
Many of them cannot even afford to
keep pig, and the keeping Of a cow is
a condition Of afhuence which few Of
them reach.
Not one child in ten among these
yearly tenants and farm .aborers ever
gees 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. IL the
towns there are usually solne schools
available fer the poor, but The oppor-
tunSties are not good. and vary few Of
the chjldren of the very poor even in the
towns got any schooling at all. 1t is
often said that the people OF Ireland
are to blame for their own condition;
but if this ba admitted, it ~ ust be ad-
mitteil also that very little can reason
sbly be expected from people whose
education is absolutely nothing
English and Scotch landlords usually
live Oh their estates at least part of
the year; the land is generally let in
large tracts on long leases, and the peo-
pie who cultivate the sell are usually
retained FOR long terms Of service. The
Irish landlords have more commonly
looked upon their tenants as necessary
evils, and have not identified themsel-
YES with their people. They have
locked upon tenants as rent-paylng
machines. For years past it has until
very recently been the rule to raise the
rent as often as the tenants improved
condition seemed to warrant. Ii the
tenant saved something and managed
to get a pig or cow, the landlord only
argued from this that he was able TO
stand more rent, and increased 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 hauling manu-,
upon it, these very improvements were
regularly made the ground of increas-
ing the rent, so that it was really
against the tenants interest to improve
things at all. If the Irish tenants un-
thrifty the landlord may be straightly
charged with giving him exactly that
kind of an education.
While in Galway, I saw the Saturday
markets, which are attended by the
country folk for ten or twelve miles
around. One Of these market women
came into shop to sell her little store
Of marketing, which consisted Of four
spring chickens: and nothing more.
She wanted two shillings and sixpence
for the four, and the man offered her
only two shillings. AS she stood there
trying to get her price the water drip
ped from her soaked garments in little
pools on the floor. She finally took two
shillings. She had trudged these many
miles that morning in the rain and got
only fifty cents for her chickens and
her work. The bitter, biting poverty
of the tillers of the soil III the west of
Ireland was we'll exhibited in that Cal
way market.
Near such towns as Belfast, Cork
and Limerick, tenants pay $40 to $50
an acre for good land, and three or four
miles away they pay about half as
much. Seven or eight miles away from
railways 81 and $5is more common,and
much land is let for even So and $3 an
acre. Indeed, what are called fair