Morning journal and courier., 1888-12-15


 lodiously;-an to the eye quite in gipsy fash
 ion, save that these Irish girls are never idle; and Ii 8 moment can be snatched from the
 brief rest their fingers fly at knitting, cro- quoting or rude laee~work with marvellous
 application and dexterity. But these simple
 toilers are not without their hours of enjoy
 ment, wretched as are their conditions in
 life; all of which furnishes argument to
 those who believe in never-ending oppression of the Irish people, that the peasantry of
 Ireland are quite well enough off, and on the whole very contented lot. In the remoter districts the large numbers temporarily em- ployed, something as with hop-picking gath erings in America, attract the "traveler" or mendicant, the old Irish story-teller, the peddlar, the itinerants of all harmless sorts and best of all, the fiddler. Wherever a fiddler is in Ireland there music actually rages; and wherever music has come the Irish leg is an irrepressible member So in the pleasant nights of May there are still to be found near the fax-felds the old Irish princkums or merry makings; and there are then such frolic and dancing as you of high- CT degree may never know.
 The ripening and pulling of Irish flax take place between the middle and end of July in favorable seasons. Almost instantly after the loose terminal blue-bell blossoms have opened the petals drop to the ground, and the seed bolls form with wonderful ra- pidity. Scarcely have these assumed their globular form before the flax begins to ripen and turn with the bolls a golden brown col- or. It is just at this turning stage that it must be gathered to insure the largest and most valuable yield of fibre. The same help is used as in wedding, save Ehat all available men are also engaged, and daily wages of one shilling to eighteenpence are paid. The greatest expedition is necessary,
 for 1t must be got in the steep pond at the earliest moment, and every stalk must be
 pulled from the roots. But these flax pullers
 are born and bred with the proper twist for the work, the girls and women frequently
 excelling the men in dextrousness, speed and perfect pulling. The right hand with the lower edge upraised grasps firmly a small handful of flax just beneath the bolls, the motion at the same time given straight ening the stalks and laying them all parallel with each other; for if in grasping the flax it is twisted or punched irregularly, it will retain it's "contrariness" through all the succeeding processes. As the clutched
 bunch is held taut, the left hand firmly
 clasps the roots, and with what the worker describes as an ''aisy jerk" the bunch is freed from the ground, 6 gentle shake re-
 moving the loose soil. About twenty of
 these are laid together with great precision,
 the roots being kept even by gentle "but-
 ting" and then tied or knotted the same as
 the American sheaf of wheat. This is called
 "beas of Hat. The greatest endeavors are
 made to get the flax out of the ground and
 into the steep-pond for 'ErettiDg" rotting,
 usually called "steeping'' in Ireland; for un-
 due exposure to the air after pulling has
 tendency to harden the glutinous substance
 which eements together the flores of the
 fax.
 The Irish steep-pond is the same rude af-
 fair that it was centuries ago. Ordinarily
 hole or excavation of from one to five feet in
 depth, three to ten yards wide, and ten to
 fifteen yards long, it will be found in some
 meadow-swai1 or hillside hollow, where it is
 allowed to fill with surface water, where
 the water from some tiny stream may be ad-
 mitted; for the water used in Housekeeping
 must be soft, or at least free from lime and
 iron. The fame of the Courtray or. Belgian
 flax is not only secured by its careful cul-
 ture, but largely from the manner in which
 it is steeped. It is brought from within
 radius of two hundred miles to Courtray on
 the river Lys, or Leye; placed in crates about four feet square; sunk gradually to equaliZe fermentation; and the Lys is deep, sluggish stream, the almost impercep- tible movement of water through the flax l removes the gluten while permitting reten- tion of the oily substance essential to the fibre's "life" Flax -shesves laid in the Irish steep pond butt to band, weighed down with sod and stone and allowed to remain from eight to ten days. Millions of dollars have been wasted in efforts to steep flax arri- ficially in vats; but nature alone can proper ly attend to that. The steep-water, invalua-
 ble for enriching soils, but wholly wasted here, can be used but once. From 1t the sheaves are carted to the "spl -ground' of grazing or mown meadow land. Here the rush bands are removed and dried, and the now sticky, dirty flax, held on the left arm, and spread from left to right, the loaded carts following just outside the rows When the steeped flax is thus drying, whole flax re- gions are given the appearance of being laid with mammoth carpetlng in gray-brown a emerald Wet weather endangers ruinous secondary fermentation; bnt a drying wind" gives su- perb fibre. The flax is now 'lifted;" with
 the same rush bands tied again into ''beats" or sheaves; and is then "stooked" and | 'capped" precisely as grain is shocked" in American fields. It is allowed to stand in
 the 'stook" few days for farther touring"
 and is finally stored in the cabin loft; stacked with wonderful precision and sym-
 metry; or ca1ted direct to the roaring 1 ''scutch-mill."
 It is an interesting place around scutch- mill. One will find from three to four huns dred diminutive flax-stacks with prettily | matched roofs. The chatter and rush, with the flying sheaves, remind one of the pleas ant old fashioned American "threshing- time;" while here and there, crowding the
 road, ranged between the stacks, or ovar- flowing into near paddocks, are great num- bers of carts, dragged here by ragged don- keys raggeder humans, awaiting their "turn" at the mill, room for storing or stacking their loads; the motley crew of at tendants finding rare occasion for the appli- cation of most unique blarneying, appeal and iuveotive. But the mill itself is veri- table devil-fish to the farmer. It is usually | owned by canny, well-to do, north of Ire land Scotch English Irishman, long of finger and hard of heart; and he let's none go with-
 out ''scutching" the owner as we'll as his
 flax. The mill removes from the flax the roots the branches and withered bolls-as
 the valuable seed IS all lost in Irelaud-the woody heart and the finty outer sheath. Twenty-four cents per stone (fourteen
 pounds) of marketable fibre is paid for the
 milling, which is equally divided between
 mill l-owner and laborers. But the real rob
 ping is in the "waste." The scuteher deftly
 manages to transform half of the farmers
 crop into waste" For this he is paid but twenty four cents per one hundred and
 twelve pounds. During the rest of the sea
 son the scutcher works over the "waste" into what is commercially called "re-scutohed | tow," selling the same for about one hundred dollars per ton. The fibre comes from the "breakers" of the scutch- mill in ttstrikes" of one and one-half pounds weight; and these | are tied with twist of flax into "stone" 1 bundles; and the Irish flax farmer, with his
 little crop and his big family, all piled upon
 one groaning cart, trundle off to the mar ket, where after great bullying by the flax | factor or buyer, he may receive six shillings
 per stone for his tritling product; and when | the seed farm labor and scutchinH are paid l for, fate has been most kind to him if he | have enough remaining to pay his rent and
 keep the emergency men, the battering- ram and the horrible actuality of eviction from his ever-comfortless door.
 EDGAR L. WAKEMAN. LENGTHY.