Morning journal and courier., 1889-07-13

ing OF valiene eWives-Weddinss and
Wakes.
ATHLoNE. Ireland, July /.
TO the Editor Of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
For the purposes of illustration there is as
little difference between the Irish fair and
the Irish market day as there could be found
between "a rale drop of the right sort"
and Ga drop of the rale right Sort" which
from time immemorial has been insepsrable
from the proper conduct of either. The ac-
tual difference Is this: The Irish fair wheth-
er held at the little village in Donegal or
Kerry, or attended by thousands, as at Bal
linasloe, Athlone, Cork, Belfast or Dublin, is
an affair for the display and sale of animals
only-horses, cattle, asses, pigs, sheep, goats
and occasionally poultry. Perhaps eighty
Irish towns and cities hold from one to four
fairs each year. Some are for the sale of one
class of animals only; of hogs, as at Liner
ick or Athlone; Of cattle, as at Ballinasloe;
of horses, as at probably the greatest annual
horse-fair in the world, that of Dublin; or
as at Cushendun, for the exclusive sale OF
the noted Oushendal ponies bread on the
heathery mountains of Antrim overlooking
the weird and stormy Irish Sea. But at
most of the Irish fairs all animals bred In
Ireland are exposed for sale; at many others
farm products may be found; while the
great butter fairs of Cork would almost give
ono the notion that half the worlds butter
was made in the sunny wales of Ireland's
south.
The market-day, on the other hand, is a
universal and interminable affair. Hardly a
day has passed in my nearly year in Ire
land when have not come upon some town
or village in my trampiags where the fair or
the market was in full progress. The area
of Ireland is twenty-three Thousand one
hundred and twenty-five square miles less
than that of the State of Illinois, yet Ire
land boasts of two hundred and sixty-six
market towns where market days are held
from one to three times every week In the
year. AL this is picturesque and interest
| ing to the traveller; but my observation leads
| me to believe that there is vastly too much
| market, of the sort, and vastly too little to
market, of any sort, in Ireland. The shop
keepers, petty traders and "shebeen" men
| like 1t we'll enough; for 1t brings the people
| together for trimming at both ends of the
| yard stick; but the murderous landlord sys-
| tenn behind it renders this very custom
through which the peasantry are so repeat
! edly and systematically robbed a necessity
| The tenant-farmer must have, because his
condition is never else than precarious, a
| handy means of ready money. The market
| harpiss discern with unerring scent all who
| are pressed for rent or interest money, and
they instantly combine against his need and
dependency with matchless cunning and
blarney. Thus those most needing fair re-
turn for the pitiable trifes they are forced tc
sell are invariably plucked at both ends o.
their need-by the landlord who keeps the
rod of eviction-horror hanging over theil
heads, and at the small market towns wher,
the buyers, just as fortune telling Ripsie
learn all the closet ghosts of half county
before they begin operations, knowing thai
this one OF that one from this place or that
dare not return home without money, con
trive to send him back "o'er an aisy road
for the lightness that's in his pocket"
/ Still another reason makes the Irish mar
ket-day popular, though disastrous to thu
/ acquisition of means among the masses o.
the people, If opportunity in their unfortu
| nate condition for securing comfort and com
| potency were given. It is almost impossible
for the American to conceive of the barren
ness of diversion or incident in the lives o.
the Irish peasantry. Education and book
there are not. Something must occupy tn
human mind aside from the scourgings o
human slavery. The market day, in its ex
change of countryside greetings, informa
tion, forgivable gossipings, simple excite
ments and general hurly burly, with thi
: primitive folk stands entirely in the stead o
, the weekly paper of our own remoter coun
try districts. Indeed 1t ia far more. Th
telegraph and the railway penetrate nearl
every county of our country. In more tina
nine tents of Ireland country folk have nev
still the ultimate of their horizon. The III
tie holding on the mountain-side or in th
valley, the little chapel where they gathe
} for Sunday mass, the little village wheI
{ | market day brings them all together, th
, | rustic dance or wedding with their rude an
boisterous convivialities, the wake whic
most powerful priest or prelate cannot pr
vent by direst sacerdotal thunderings, an
:, finally the little graveyard where all mu
eventually come, provide the farthest met,
l and bounds of their humble lives. One ms
| wish it different, but 1t is idle to discuss
all save on the exact lines of their uneven
! full lives; and because the warm Irish hsa
o yearns for something better than 1t ever MT
d know in this unfortunate land. do n
,, want the regard of that better-condition'
man who would deny every soul environ'
= as these, every hour of diversion and igh
Is someness that can be got from either fai
# wedding or wake, even if the poor souls
turn to their dreary homes ga thrifie hear
10 and soft" for the days or nights "divs
y sion." If you are member Of the ov'
1t wise and over.good class of the earth he
a compel a change in the governmental infar
which you would not endure. but viii
q through centuries has gradually wrought Il
D. texture of character from hopeless CON
Of tions; for one only demonstrates his O.
70 bigotry and ignorance when he feels scol
~ or expresses condemnation, for customs ol
T. people which practically attest the only l
as man traits that can survive generations
n heartless inhumanity.
Whatever trif1e the tenant family m
OF have for disposal on market or fair day,
he entire family accompanies it. The old mot
is tain-b of q cart is got out and sparint
creased the night before; the ragged donl
or lily kept horse is given an extra port
be Of food and additional combing and scr,
ia ing that his old bones may gain new lust