The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1889-04-27
SUFFERING and DEATH.
An Americans Visit to the Arran
Islands and His Testimony Against
Irish LandIordis1n.
TERRIBLE ARRAIGNMENT
Vivid Dissertation of the Wretchedness, MIS-
cry, Hunger and Starvation So Common
in That Section of Ireland

fl7Q DEsCTiJLlOu VI bLE " fT1ehOAloan0'S' LII
cry, Hunger and Starvation So Common
in That Section Of Ireland,
Edgar l.. Wakeman devOtes ono OF
his graphic papers, "Afoot IN Ireland, :"
to a sketch of the Arran Islands, before
whose pathos and Indignation even
Michael Davitt's heart-rending story OF
the same poverty -b]ighted regions seems
cold and under stated. w rites Mr.
Wakeman:
How to Gttingly tell about these peo-
pie of the Arran Islands is, I confess, an
almost Impossible task. / was never
before among men whose condition
seemed to 80 appeal to universal hu-
mar.ity and knowledge. Are they
stranger Yes, but one's very heartache
here makes him shrink from limning
thenl Quaint? Yes, but there is All
indescribable pathos in that very quaint
ness. Picturesque? Yes. but who has
the hardihood to attempt the portrayal
of that picturesqneness which hutters
like wind-whipped rags over helpless
ness, starvation and death? Why are
they as they are? Simply through CEN
suries of British lan5lordism. How can
that compel and retain such wretched-
nessp Because these three islands are
worth G10, ,O00' to their landlord own
ers. That SUM must be forthcoming in
,.tue portion, or out the skinny framed
toliers. 90 from their bare novels upon
the bare rocks This i5 about SIG per
capita, to be earned and saved each
year IN starvation, beyond starvation.
If one in every five, which is an oyer
generous possibility, is, from age and
sex, physically capable OF being the
family bread~winner {for these land
iordsl. 600 OF these wrotches must each
annually earn and save & little more
than $50. Earning and saving that
amount here each year simply means
the most awful labor, privation and sof~
fcring possible for the mind of civilized
man to conceive.
These people exc out their miserable
existence from three bitterly scant
sources~-fshlng, preparing keip and
the most shadowy 1rlfle of agriculture.
Their awful poverty renders labor at
either of these less aud less remuner-
ative, if possible, each year. They
never have had tie mooney with which
to purchase vessels end tackle for sue
cessful fishing in these cruel seas. Their
boats are ancient, clumsy, rotten, and
their gear the Oldest and rudest hnown
tojtishermen in any part Of the world.
Their sacrifices and hardships are in
calcnlable. The fury of the Atlantic
here is greater than Oh any other known
coast, save at the northwest of ireland
among the terrific maelstroms, where
the opposing Atlantic and Artic Cur
rents meet. Yet in these unsafe dories,
fragile curraghs and unwieldly and rot
ten smacks they brave the hercest seas,
and, half naked, the most awful wealth.
ers, fearlessly seeking the CHASING
twenty miles from land, the turbot from
twenty five to thirty miles distant, while
the cod and ling are taken from forty to
Fifty miles away in the open Atlantic.
This would not be q remarkable feat
among our own sleek, well-paid, we'll
fed Gloucester fishermen who ply their
vocation on Georges, Browns, West
ern and Grand Banks in their two
mated schooners, ranging from Is to 100
tons burthen; the swiftest, most buoy
ant and seaworthy, and still the most
beautiful and graceful vessels af1oat.
But the risks and heroism of these half
starved island men are matchless
Year after year they go out to certain
death by scores. Back at Arran they
''wake" the old rags and belongings of
those who are drowned, and settle down
into starving widowhood in dumb and
sodden acceptance of ''God's will. :"
Even il the men return alive it is often
empty-handed. If the sea-harvest has
been a good one, little or nothing but
food has been got. For it there IS little
10 sell, Lnat Is enough reason Tor the
buyer at Killarney and Galway to get it
for few pence. If there is much, that
is made reason why pounds in value
shrink to shillings in reward.
Kelp gathering and making is de-
structive Of health, dangerous, and here
wholly unremunerative. Kelp, as is
well-known, through the word IS often
applied to seaweed itself, is the product
from the burning OF seaweed, from
which the alkali soda used in the man
ufacture OF soap and glass was once
chiefly secured, and from which iodine
is still obtained. These seaweeds cling
to the sides Of rocks In deep as well as
shallow water. In gathering 1t, whole
families Of islanders through the sum