The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-07-27
THER0SY COLLEEN BAWN
HOW SHE BLOOMS AMONG THE
BOGS AND TIE HEDGES.

A-o Oao7AAAL GA4A5 III Luo Country lis
tricts of Ireland-Eow They Work on
Week Days and Dance on Sundays
and Are Red-Cheeksd and Hand
some.
(CopyrgttD
LIMERICK, July lS-In the remoter dis
tricts, away from the villages, among the
peaty Dogs and the hawthorn hedges, the
roses bloom red in the cheeks of the Irish
peasant girl. However, she manages it on
the stirabout and potatoes, she grows lush
and vigorous and full.of sap, like the green
things that fill the island
The colleen bawn is straight, she is not
infrequently tall. her shoulders are bread,
her waist large, but supple, and she LOOKS
as strong as q young man. Her hair IS
brown, perhaps with a shade of chestnut;
sometimes it has ripple in it. but oftener
it is lusterless and straight, and, very pos
sibly, 50 heavy as to be almost mop-like.
have seen peasant girls with braids that
were like clubs, the tresses when unbound
reaching the knees.
Her forehead is low, and the wave of hair
IS drawn back to leave it uncovered, her
eyes are frank and blue, her complexion
darkened IL and put into it shades of yellow
brown, and the red in her cheeks is as deep
as IN the peoples that brighten the wheat
fields 1t Is a splash Of color, daring, as if
an artist had flung it on a dark SPOT of his
canvas; mora brilliant than one ever sees in
the drIer climate of what they are here
pleased to call "the states" spreading it's
warm blush quite from cheekoOne to chin.
The peasant girl Is often fine looking,
sometimes superlatively handsome, but
never With what an American would con-
slder any dellcacy of beauty. She has few
OF the soft curves of more luxuriously
nurtured young womanhood. Her arms
are not rounded, they look muscular and
hard. Her bust is fat like an Amazon's.
she is not dimpled. But she is sturdy, as
becomes a scion of the "foinest p1santhry in
the world" Her greatest charm is her
fresh and splendid vitality.
She wears a red kerchIef over her head
or foldedsabout her shoulders, and petit
coat OF brown or dark blue stuff, which she
weayes herself and which stops half way
between her knees and her ankles. Six
days in the week her feet are brown and
bare. They are large feet, aud look better
in their naked shapeliness than when dis
gulsed for Sundays and holidays under
coarse yarn stockings-these she knits-and
the cheap laced shoes, with the peculiar
combination of thick soles and high heels.
which come to the small market towns.
For defense against the weather she has
long black cloak gathered at the neck and
provided with hood, and which is proba-
bly, the most characteristic article left of
the old peasant costume
The colleen Dawn, as | nave seen her, is
perhaps at her best at pattern" There
are not so many patterns now as there used
to he. All the peasant customs are, if not
dead, retreating farther aud farther into
the businesses of the boys, and the girls have
many things less pleasant to think of than
dancing at the crossroads of Sunday
afternoon. So it was with an especial thrill
of pleasure that | recognized the peculiar
screen of the bagpipe as The jaunting car
tilted its way over a little rise, while the sum-
mer sun was warm and the honeysucke and
ivy climbed over the walls last Sunday
The ancient Paddy, who was our driver
turned with a smile that dug deep channels
for all his wrinkles. "Shure, we're in luck. -
he CALCULATED. That's the 'Rakes O. NAL
low; They'll be arther jggin' at the
Widow ScannelPs cross, an the divil wild
me if it isn't the first patthern I've seen in
nigh on a year"
The scene as we approached it was ami
mated. -Four roads met in a cosy little hol-
low, where the hawthorn hedges had gro wn
to messy trees Overhead the crows circled
cawing ceaselessly, and on the smooth, white
clay road, hard as any dancing floor, the
bareheaded girls and the sunburned young
fellows stood opposite each other, and
footed 1t with sort of silent enthusiasm
that is Celtic only in very modern DAYS
Gathered round the dancers were crones
who might have been druidical priestesses
and groups of square-built flaming checked
| urchins, bare-legged, and wearing each but
single garment The old piper in tattered
knee breeches walked to and fro on the
short grass among the daisies, and blew
| till his cheeks pulled out and every colleen
and gos soon of them ali beat the time.
"Arrah, look to yourself, Patrick"
Good for ye, Maggie Tobin; that was a
| foine stepm So the onlookers admcnished
and cheered them on while the Jig was in
| full swing.
At the approach of strangers whist,
| yep went around "there's Teddy comm, -
and Maggie, whose big, supple figure had
| been all abandon, her head, her arms and
| her whole body dancing as heartily as her
| feet, first became awkward, the angles
came in her elbows, her smile faded. she
| dropped out of step and fell back hastily to
| lose herself in the little crowd, while Pat
| rick looked neither to the right nor to the
| lett, but danced stolidly on, and the piper
| pped his loudeSt, both dlsdaining to pay any
| attention to the intruder, who felt az much
| repulsed as if she had attempted to storm a
barrlcaded cabin, or had hot water flung on
neF from WlnIOW. IL was rabner a PAIN
full reminder of the strained relations"
between the cabins and the big houses, ;"
but In a minute the vagrant, harmless
character of the tourists seemed to be recog-
nized, for two chubby little colleens clad
chiefly III their own innocence, scrambled
through gap in the hedge and reappeared
hastily with a tin pail holding milk at
penny glass; with which they with I'M
dying nope pursued the car for half mile,
churning into butter, with their steady dog
trot, all that they did not spill.
The afternoon dance-if nowadays she
has the heart for dancing-is only very
little bit of the peasant girls Sunday.
Early IN the morning one sees her coming
through the wet grass, down the long lanes
from every little cabin under its own clump
of trees-a mile maybe from the country
road-perched high on the rounded slope of
the hills. Her skirt is of fresh homespun,
but no longer than that she wears on week
days. Her head is still bare or, maybe, if
she is past Is aud out at service, she has
achieved the dignity of a straw hat with a
bunch of cheap fiowers-a piece of gorgeous
ness which accords we'll with her ideas of
the days proprieties, but interferes with the
travellers notions of the picturesque and
traditional. Fortunately or unfortunately,
according to the point of view, the
straw hat is only occasional. The
narrow country road leads her through
Il