The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1893-05-07
Places Where the Peasantry Are
Often Trimmed at Both Ends
Of Necessity.
Despite This Fact They Are Priced
Resorts for Gossip and
Gosther.
Wonderful scorn and Fine Play Precod-
Ing Bargains for Poultry, Pigs OF
Tlax-Intcresting Scenes.

day as there could be found between "a
fale drop of the right sort" and "a drop OF
the rale right sort" which from time i'm
memorial has been inssparable from the
proper conduct Of either. The actual
difference ia this. The Irish fair. whether
held ut the little village in Donegal
OF Kerry, or attended by thousands, as at
Ballinssloe, Athlone, Cork, Belfast or Dub
lin. is an affair for tho display and sale OF
animals only-horses. cattle, asses. pigs.
sheep, goats and occasionally poultry. Per.
haps 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 Limerick or Athlone; of cattle.
a. Mt Ballinasloe; of horses, IS
at probably the greatest annua horse
fair in the world, that of Dublin.
or ms at Cushendun. for the exclusive sale
of the noted Cushendsl ponies bred on the
heathery mountains of Entrim 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 one the notion that half the worlds
butter ia made in the UNI wales of Ire
lands south.
The market day, or the other hand, is a
universal and inteIminable affair. Hardly
a day passed in my nearly a years wander
ing in Irelnnd where l did not come uron
som town or village where the fair
or the market was in full progress. The
area of Ireland is 90. 1876 square miles less
than that of the state of Illinois; yet Ire
land boasts of 266 market towns
where market days are held from one
to three times every week in the year.
All this is picturesque and interesting 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 it we'll enough, for it brings the people
together for trimming at both ends of the
yardstick; but the tenant system behind it
naturally renders this very custom a me-
cessity to the %peasantry.
The tenant farmer, particularly one with
q tiny holding. must have, because his con-
dit{en is never else b precarious. a handy
means of ready money. The market
harpies discern with unerrino scent all who
are pressed for rent OF interest money. and
they instantly combine against his need
and dependency with matchless cum
ming and blarney. Thus those most
trif1es they are forced to sell are invariably
plucked at both ends of their need--hy
the constant necessity of providing rent
money for the landlord, and, at the small
market towns nv the buyers who. just as
fortune telling Gipsies learn all the closet
ghosts of half a county before they begin
operations. knowing that this one or that
~ fror, khio plpco or that Hara mt ratur,
home without money, contrive to send him
back ''o'er On aisy road for the lightness
that's in his pocket"
Still another reason makes the Irish mar
ket day popular, though disastrous to the
acquisition of means among the masses of
the people. it better opportunity for secur-
ing comfort and competency were possible.
The stranger to Ireland can hardly conceive
of the barrenness of diversion or incident
in the lives of tho Irish peasantry. Education
and books there are not. save in favored
regions. Something must occupy tho hu.
man mind aside from the scourgings of
everyday toll. The market day, in its ex-
change of countryside greetings. lnforma-
ton, forgivable gossipings, simple excite
ments and general hurly-burly, with this
primitive folk stands entirely in the stead
of the weekly paper of our own remote
country districts. Indeed it is far more.
The telegraph and the railway penetrate
nearly every county of England and Ameri.
ca, In more than one-hnlf of Ireland, there
are country folk who have never seen a
railway car. The market village is still the
ultimate of their horizon. The little hold
ing on the mountain side or in the valley,
the little chapel where they gather for Sun
day mass. the little village where market
day brings them all together, the rustic
dance or wedding with their rude and
boisterous convivialities, the wake which
most powerful priest or prelate cannot pre-
vent by direst sacerdotai thunderings, and
finally the little grave yard where all must
eventually come, provide the farthest mstes
and bounds of their humble lives.
One may wish it different, but it is idle
to discuss it at all save on the exact lines of
their uneyentful lives; and because the warm
Irish heart occasionally yearIs for some
thing more "heartsome" than it knows in
its scHnty cabin surroundings, | do no,
want the regard of that bettet-couditioneC
man who would deny every soul cnyironet
as these every hou of DIVERSION and light
someness that can be got from either far
wedding or wake, even II the poor souls re.
turn to their dresry homes "a thrihe heart,
and soft" for the days or nights ''divar
sian."
Whatever trife tho tenant-family ma,
have for disposal on market or fair day, tn
entire family accompanies it. The oil
mountRin-but of q cart is got out and spar
lESty pFeub6I lhc ilGht po1IiC, tIG EHRGe
donkey or lily kept horse is given an e1tr
portion of fool and additional combing an
scraping, that his old bones may gam ne,
~luster; and long before dsybleak, frer
mountain boreen and mist-hiddcn vale
chatteIing gtoups begin moving toward th
village.
The childre DEAR are slowed ava
alongside of the pigs, duckR, chickens an
vegetables, Tor the common excitement hn
kept them awake all night ana now over tn
%stoniest Of lrish ronds they are 'slapi
rings around their swate s%elves;'' the youth
may be trudging hopefully alongside; bu
the "ould woman and the "ould man" al
ever found lovingly bumped together upo,
the only seat the cnrt affords, often agree
ably exchanging putfs from the same con
Portable pipe.
Blu step with me here beside the wa
near the town, and see the motley Gre
constantly augmented in number froI
every hY-way lane and interesting roat
What a queer, kindly lot they are. He,
are the byes" edging along in co%ncentri
groups, settling qnestiong of neighboi
hood moment in tremendous but friendl
harangue and dispute. Every manne
OF cart drawn by every manner {
animal. but chiefly by rebellious donkey
and all piled with every {
lrlsh produce and humans. chatter and RAJ
tie through the misty morning-catts an
nheep bleating piteously. with geese GRAZ
ing their necks in yiciously- hissed interrs
Ration; with goats and kids lamentinR
pathetic altos and treb!es; with pigs sprinI
Ing on all fours from side to side whi
snorting violent protect and surprise; nj
you Will notice as you must all over II
land, TINT the Irish pig boasts a pink
color that vies with the most radiant flu.
of the rarest sea shell.
All along tho WY are old men. humpt
and RlYaTa n1fnlttfna and nrotapttn1