The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-09-30

Blarney castle is now owned by the young
Lord of Barney, who has inherited great
estate surrounding it, He has had much
trouble with his tenants and some of the lands
are lying idle One of his tenants not long
since refused to pay the rent demanded of
him and he was evicted. The young lords
agent tried to get another tenant, but when a
tenant is turned out OH such grounds it
would not be safe for another man to take
the property. The lands of this tenant were
left idle for a year or two, and short time
ago he was reinstated upon his own terms.
As we drove from Cork to Blarney other
empty houses were pointed out to us, and one
driver told us that these were idle ON account
of such evictions.
The country drives through Ireland are
very beautiful and about Cork they are like
driving through continuous gardens. The
roads are piked and they are as smooth as a
floor. The green fields are separated from
them by walls of stone and hedge and great
trees, the trunks of which are covered with
ivy, hang over them. Now and then you
pass. the entrance TO the mansion of some
great lord, who has his porter's lodge beside
it, and who owns his acres often by the tens
of thousands.
Along these roads about Cork, and here and
there scattered over the landscape, are
numerous one-story cabins, of stone or Of
stucco, washed with a coat of glaring white
wash They are usually of one low story and
an attic, and their roofs are of matched
straws. This thatch, in many instances, is
old and broken. The grass grows in it, and
the moss springs up all over it. The edge Of
the roof is often no higher than a mans head,
and many of these huts have but one room.
Few have more than two. They belong to
small tenants, men who have from one to
thirty or forty acres of land, at a rent Of
from s. to $40 per acre for it. Think of pay
ing 800 a year rent for forty acres of land,
with cabin hardly fit for hog pen on it,
and you have the condition of these people
Nearly the whole of Ireland is rented out
by landlords who live in England, and who
spend their money there. Many Of them
never come to Ireland at all. Others have
never seen their estates, and there are many
who get from $4,000 to s200,0O0 a year in
rents. These rents are collected by agents,
and land in Ireland rents from 50 to $50
per acre. A good average would perhaps be
s. or So per acre. Some rent as high as S45
per acre.
Speaking of large estates, three men own
estates in Ireland OF more than 100000 acres
each, and fourteen own estates Of from So
900 to 100000 acres each. The whole of Ire
land is not as large as Ohio, and it is owned
by a very few men. The workers of the
country in the fewest instances own the land
they till The products of the country are
shipped out of it, and the money earned by it
is spent abroad. A member of parliament,
whom met at Belfast during the riots, tells
me that from $50 600, 900 to $50, 900 600 is sent
10 England in payment of Irish rents yearly.
[ have heard it estimated elsewhere at $751;
100000 year But the $4,000, 900 is striking
enough. What state in the Union could stand
such draw year after years 1t is no wonder
that the laboring classes Of ireland are the
poorest in Europe and that their condition of
living is the worst
The country of Ireland resembles in its
natural character many Of the United
States. 1t is made up Of gently rolling hills
in the south and those along the coast rise into
low rocky mountains About Cork it is a
garden, and as far as you can see rich crops