Wichita eagle., 1888-01-18
IRELAND'S TOILERS.
SAD SCENES IN A PICTURESQUE
BUT LONESOME COUNTRY.

Life of a Woman of the Working Glass.
| Toiling in the Field-Work Blackered
Stumps of Fingers That Are Never
Idle.
The Irish woman of the peasant and work
ing classes is in every truth mistress OF her
home That home may be but a half clean
scratching on mother earth walled in with
stone and rooted with straw or Seaweed, but
there she is queen. She is the equal Of her
husband slaves with him, but is not his slave.
She keeps rhe money and does the ruling,
and unless her man drinks is as fully mistress
of her home, her children, of her goings and
conings, as any American wife alive. She is
not tidy. A long heritage Of poverty, hard
work, and harder living on bare floors, with
multitudes of children, with no kindly teach
ings, no gentry class of parish visitors and pa
irons to encourage tidiness, she does not
know how to make the best of her second or
third hand clothes, of her dirt floor, her black
porridge pot, of her own sturdy person.
PERPETUAL ToILER.
Yet she is never idle She tolls in the field
She goes down to the seashore and cuts sea-
weed, for which privilege she must pay her
landlord so much added on to the rent. She
carries this home in basket almost as big as
a barrel. She digs potatoes, binds up the
wheat, or oats, or hay, and piles turf to dry.
If their small farm is up in the mountains
she often descends to the valley and brings
up basketfuls-back loads-of earth to scat
ter over the thin, unfertile soil on the rocks,
so that they may plant cabbages or potatoes
upon them. She does this silently, cheer
fully, with her husband at her side. A dress
once in six or seven years is all she will have
when she goes into town with her pig to the
fair, her load of turf, or her firkin of butter.
Her work blackened stumps of fingers are
never idle, for she knits, knits, knitS all the
while on stockings and socks to sell at the
shops, and so add by a six penny bit or a three
penny bit to the slender boarding of money
kept warm in her bosom for the rent.
If there is no turf on her little farm her
fuel must be bought from some bog owner
near or from the town. Often she will sell
the weeks churning from the cow for six
pence or ninepence. Clearly in her own
person, putting to shame the shopwomen and
shopgirls in her nearest town, it is amazing
that she still lives in an untidy home She is
superstitious, deeply religious, and lives,
she and her husband, but for one thing, and
that is to save enough money to send one of
their strong young sons OF daughters off to
America. 1t has been said, and is probably
true that in all Ireland there is not poor
family such as these l have written Of who
has not some one OFF in America who occa-
sionally helps them on by sending home a
little money.
PICTURESQUE BUT LONESOME.
Often in our lonesome walks through this
beautiful, picturesque, but lonesome country,
we see old women following over fields where
the cattle feed, with big sacks ON their backs,
picking up clods Of manure, which they will
take home and dry for fuel We travel miles
over this country, through small hamlets and
villages and around small farms where fam
lies live in the conditions of this average
peasant woman. In the west of Ireland and
southwest the income of farmer and his
wife, on their little patchin' of land, will,
from all sources, not exceed ESQ, or $3.50 of our
money The rent and the poor rates deducted
from this leaves but little indeed upon which
to clothe and feed eight or ten or more human
beings. That they keep light hearted under
such struggles, and smile at you if You smile
at thenl-that they struggle on and even save
enough to send the ''bye' or the girl off to
America is miracle of patient thrift and
perseverance shall never understand
If their landlord or landlady comes their
way it is painful to watch their behavior.
They do not begin at him or her about the
drain, or the sewer, or the well, or the Chin
ney-for they have none of these-Flo and |
have walked through a settlement or village
of matched cottages with not a single Chin
ney on the whole thirty houses but they
draw up on one side and almost go down on
their knees, with bobbing and bowling, and
pulling their forelocks, ''God blessing her
ladyship for nothings, and kissing her hand if
they get chance, humble, reverential and
polite. Did traditions make them do this;
old traditions and new experiencess-Catha-
rine Cole in New Orleans Picayune.