The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-07-27
BLOOMING IRISH uRtS..'
How theRosy-Co Colleen Bawn~ Flour
ishes Among Boys and
Hedges.
They+Works,Hard On Week Days
and Dance Hard On
Sundays.
The seEieua Business OF Life Begins Early
VI Observation-Disclosures OF Early
Marriage.


(ppep3AlsC orrespoadepce of TEE INDEpINDEAr.l
It17RtCxbj 6lS l8.-In the remoter dis
HictsnNsy1from the. villages, among the
bext 6kssn6l The hawthorn hedges. the
9pseas bloom red in the cheeks of the Irish
paaaant girl However she manages it on
gff&bout and potatoes. she grows lush and
vigorous and,tull of sap. like the green
th1nRl Fhat fill the island.
The no11eensbawni straight, she is not
iuffequently tall, her shoulders are broad,
hsrAvaist large but supple, and she looks
@ STRONG as young man. Her hair is
brown perhaps with shade of chestnuts
sometimes it has ripple in it. but oftener
il Il lustreless and straight, and very posi-
bly,. 20 heavy as to be almost mop-like. l
have seem pheasant girls with braids that
yere iHeclubs, the tresses when unbound
reached 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
clear, though exposure to the weather has
darkened it and put into it shades of yellow
brown, and the redkin her cheeks is as deep
a. in the peoples that brighten the whole
fields. It is q splash of color, daring as if
an artist had flung it on a dark spot of his
canvas; more brilliant than one ever sees in
the drier climate of what they are here
pleased to call ''the States" spreading its
warm blush quite from cheekbone to chin
The peasant girl is often fine looking,
sometimes superlatively handsome, but
never with what an American would con-
slider any delicacy of beauty. She has few
of the soft curves of more luxuriously nur-
tured young womanhood. Her arms are
not rounded, they look muscular and hard.
lnNh r1n& ru Enk r1yo
not dimpled. But she is sturdy, as becomes
scion Of the sfolnest pisanthry in the
world" Her greatest charm Is her fresh
and splendid vitality.
She wears red kerchief over her head
or folded about her shoulders and a petit
coat of brown or dark blue stuff which she
Weayes herself and which stops half wa,
between her knees and her ankles. Six days
in the week her feet are brown and bare
They are large feet and look better in thei
naked shapeliness than when disguised TO
Sundays and holidays under coarse var,
stockings-these she knits-and the cheal
laced shoes, with their peculiar combine
tion of thick soles and high heels, whic
come to the small market towns. For de
Tense against the weather she has a Ion
black cloak gathered at the neck and pre-
vided with hood, and which is probabl
the most characteristic article left of I'll
old peasant costume.
The colleen bawn, as ! have seen her,
perhaps 1t her best at q pattern" The
are mot % many patterns now as there M
10 be. All the peasant costumes are. If n
dad, retreatinR farther and farther in
havs many things less pleasant to think
than dancihg at the crossroads of q Sund
aftsRnoon. So j WAS with an especial thr
a. p3eapuIo thaEl recognized the peculi
oessech 81 the bagpipe af the iaunting c
tiltsd III way over little rise. while I