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.


How the Poor Irish Lass Slaves for Ten
Cents n Day.
Robert p Porter IN the Philadelphia Press.
I 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 1 tried the Royal Mail car,
but that did not answer the purpose. The
horses were poor, and l could not stop on
the road and converse with the people nor
walk through the villages. After the first
sixteen miles l discharged Her Majesty S
cart, hired trap of my own and with a
stout black smare and intelligent driver
started for the Western shores of Donegal.
The Irish jaunting car is a 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, hilly 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 stufy 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
sandwich and beer; no more factories to
walk over, and for 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 L 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 Killybegs to Kilcar and
Carrick, and then back to the place from
which / write,
THE COTTAGE INDUSTRIES OF IRELAND.
The distance travelled must have been
close upon thirty miles day, and was
entirely through the regions where the
various knitting industries, muslin en-
broidery, and to some extent the weaving
of home-spun woolen 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 en-
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 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 ago 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 enc
exceptional distress" A noble English
lady, who went direct to the district to
study Irish misery for herself, found 1C,-
900 persons being fed on penny-worth Of
Indian meal day.
Yet the British authorities were assuring
the world that there was "no exceptional
distress in ireland.
ARE THEY WORTH SAVING?
Surely these people are worth saving.
I esterday was told at. Gientles tnat IL 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 1883 drove 400 miles through
this sad country at time when the people
we're actually starving, and yet she was
never begged from but once. Donegal is
entirely different from the Southern coun-
ties in this respect. Although 1 have seen
hundreds of people slowly dying from the
want Of sufficient nourishment, not once
have 1 been asked for copper.
Work, work is what they clamor for,
and this they can not get English writers
talk of the Irish being shiftless and indi-
gent 1t is false. l will ask these writers
a few questions which they must answer.
THE UTTER FALsITY OF BRITISH AS
sUMPTIoNs.
In the vicinity of Glenties there are
more than 10000 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
1 L. ~ ,.<oI-. Az Al, .-i<rr,e