The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-09-04
THE CoLLEEN'S TOLL.
How the Poor Irish Lass Slaves for Ten
Cents n Day.

THE CoLLEEN'S TOLL.
How the Poor irish Lass Slaves for Ten
Cents Day.
Robert Z. Porter IN the Philadelphia Press.
have just completed weeks tour of
the County of Donegal, the extreme North
western county of Ireland. All railroads
were left behind eight days ago at Letter
kenny, and the journey made by jaunting
car. At first l tried the Royal Mail car,
but that did not answer the purpose. The
horses were poor, and could not stop on
the road and converse with the people nor
walk through the villages. After the first
sixteen miles 1 discharged Her Majesty's
cart, hired trap of my own and with
stout blacksm and intelligent driver
started for the Western shores of Donegal.
The Irish jaunting car is snug little two
wheeled vehicle with two seats back to back,
and perch in front for the driver. The
horses generally used would startle an
English 'cabby.' While sure-footed, they
are full of spirit and go, and trot briskly
over the hard, billy roads. A sense of
exhilaration is felt as you dash along in
this rollicking, devil-may-care trap, the
driver whistling or singing some merry air
with running accompaniment of whip
cracking. After the stuffy railroad car
riages and the dust and smoke of railroad
travelling my new mode of conveyance
seemed delightful, and not in the least
fatiguing. No more table d hotes; no
more walters with foreign accents and stub
pen coats; no more pert barmaids flirting
with local loafers, while you, with five
minutes for refreshments, are begging for
a sandwich and beer; no more factories to
walk over, and for a time, at least, no more
Coke-towns to visit A new line of inquiry
presents itself and novel method to per-
form it. Not that intend to pass over
or slight the great industries Of Ireland,
present and prospective. Each will be
treated in turn, and all the industrial cen
tres will be visited, but for the moment l
propose to invite the readers attention to
some of the cottage industries of Ireland
as found them in tour through Donegal
county; beginning, as have said, at Let
terkenny, thence Westward via Errigal to
the Gweedore district, then Southwest
across the Gweedore River to Dunglow,
direct South to Glenties, the centre Of the
knitting trade, Southeast to Adara, East
ward to Donegal, returning by way of
Dunkineely and Kilfybegs to Kilcar and
Carrick, and then back to the place from
which write.
nup Conr ar TNnIrSTRIFS OF IRELAND
The distance travelled must have been
close upon thirty miles a day, and was
entirely through the regions where the
various knitting industries, muslin en-
broidery, and to some extent the weaving
of home-spun wooden cloth, are carried on
in the cottages of the peasants. No one
who has not actually visited the towns and
villages above named can form any idea of
the Importance of this class of industries
to the inhabitants of Donegal Thousands
of families are kept alive by the few shill-
ings week which the women and children
can make at handwriting and muslin enl-
broidery, commonly called "sprigging," "
There is literally nothing that the men can
turn their hand to during the long Winter
months, and should these industries be
Withdrawn from the counties in which they
are now carried on, or the demand for
them cease, famine and starvation must
follow.
In fact, the people in this county live
SO near the starvation line that the migra-
ton of what would seem to us a small in
dustry, the failure of the potato crop in a
certain district, or destructive storms, from
which most communities soon recover by
drawing from their surplus, mean to the Irish
peasant starvation. Three years agoa cry
of famine was raised from the first district
/ visited, Gweedore. Mr.. Trevelyan, act
ing on the information supplied by the
local inspectors, declared there was "no
exceptional distress" A noble English
lady, who went direct to the district to
study Irish misery for herself, found &c.
900 persons being fed on penny-worth of
Indian meal day.
Yet the British authorities were assuring
the world that there was ono exceptional
distress" in Ireland.
ARE THEY WORTH SAVING?
purely UHece peOpl6 are hOI1H saving.
Yesterday l was told at Glenties that it is
not infrequent that human beings are
brought to the workhouse so nearly starved
that it is impossible to revive them
and that they die. My own experience in
Donegal is precisely that of Mrs. Ernest
Hart, who in 1888 drove 400 miles through
this sad country at time when the people
were actually starving, and yet she was
never begged from but once. Donegal is
entirely different from the Southern coun-
ties in this respect Although have seen
hundreds of people slowly dying from the
want of sufficient nourishment, not once
have been asked for copper.
Work, work is what they clamor for,
and this they can not get. English writer's
talk Of the Irish being shiftless and indi-
gent. 1t is false. will ask these writer's
few questions which they must answer.
THE UTTER FALsITY OF BRITISH AS
SYMPTOMS.
In the vicinity of Glenties there are
more than 5000 Irish women who walk
from three, four, ten and even fourteen
miles every week or every fortnight to the
knitting agencies in that town and bring
back the socks, the stockings, the gloves