The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-05-07
WAKEMAN'S WANDERINCS.
The Poet Travellers Sketch Of Irish
Country Fairs.

gains for Poultry, Pigs or Flax-In
teresting Scenes and Groupings.
tCopyriEhtJ
London, April 94.-E'Or the purpOs,
of Illustration there is as little differ
ence between the Irish fair and the lrisf
market day, as there could be found be
tween "a rale drop of the right sort,
and "a drop of the rale right sort" which
from time immemorial has been INSOFAR
able from the proper conduct Of either.
The actual difference is this. The Irish
fair. whether held at the little village in
Donegal or Kerry, or attended by thou
sands as at BaliuaslOe, Athloue Cork,
Belfast or Dublin, is an affair for the dis
play and sale of animals OnlN-hOrscS,
cattle, asses, pigs, sheep. goats,
and occasionally poultry. Perhaps
eighty Irish towns and cities hold
from one to four fairs each Year. Some
are Tor the sale of one class of animals
only; of hogs. us at Limerick or AthlOne
of cattle, as at Ballinasloc; 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 CUShendal ponies bred on the
heatherv mountains of Antrim overlook
ing 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 is made in the sunny wales
of Ireland'S south.
The market day, on the other hand, is
universal and intcrmiuable affair. Hardly
a day passed in my nearly years wan
dering in Ireland when | did not come
upon some town or village where the fair
IL.
area of Ireland is %, l25 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 tray
eler, but my observation leads me to be
lieve that there is vastly too much mar
ket, Of the sort and vastly too little to
market, of any sort in Ireland. The shop
keepers, petty traders and "Shebeen" men
like it well enough, for it brings the peo-
pie together for trimming at both ends of
the yardstick, but the tenant system be-
hind it naturally renders this very Gus
tom a necessity to the pcasantry.
The tenant-farmer, particularly one
with tiny holding, must have, because
his condition IS never else than precari-
Gus, handy means of ready money The
market harpies discern with unerring
scent all who are pressed for rent or in
terest money, and they instantly combine
against his need and dependency with
matchless cunning and barney. Thus
those most needing fair return for the
pitlable triGes they are forced to sell are
Invariably plucked at both ends of their
needy the constant necessity Of pro-
viding rent money for the landlord. and,
at the small market towns by the buyers
who, just as fortune telling gYpsies learn
all the closet ghosts of half a county be
fore they begin operations, knowing that
this one or that one from this place or
that, dare not return home without
money. cOntrive to send him back or an
aisy road for the ighmesS that's in his
pocket
Still another reason makes the Irish
market day popular, though disastrous to
the acquisition of means among the
masses of the people, if better opportu-
nifty for securing comfort and competency
were possible. The stranger to Ireland
can hardly conceive of the barrenness Of
diversion or incident in the lives of the
Irish peasantry. Education and books
there are not, save in favored regions
Something must occupy the human mind
aside from the scOurgings of everyday
toll. The market day, in its exchange Of
countryside greetings, information, for
givable gossipings, simple excitement and
general hurly-burly, with this primitive
4blh StdllttS tAItlItlS III Inc SItdQ OF the
weekly paper of our own remOter country
districts. Indeed, it is far more.
The telegraph and the railway pene-
trate nearly every county of England and
America. In more than one-half of Ire
land, there are country folk who have
never seen railway car. The market
village is still the ultimate of their hori-
zon. The little holding on the mountain
side or in the valley, the little chanel
where tbpVr atbpr for Gs1,p1a,v ,,,or-
little village where market day brings
them altogether the rustic dance or we'd
ding with their rude and boisterous con-
vlvialities, the wake which most power
full priest or prelate cannot prevent bv
direct sacerdOtal thunderings, and finally
the little graveyard where all must
eventually come, provide the farthest
metes and bounds of their humble lives.
One may wish it different, but it is idle
to discuss it all save on the exact lines of
their uneVentful lives; and because the
warm irish heart occasionally yearns for
something more "heartsOmeN than il
knows In It's Scanty cabin surroundings. I
do not want the regard Of that better
conditioned man who would deny every
soul environed as these, every hour of al
version and lightSomeness that can be GOT
from either fair, wedding or wake even
II the poor souls return to their dreary
homes "a tritie hearty and Soft for the
days or nights 'divarsion"
Whatever trifle the tenant family NAV
have for disposal on market or fair daV.
the entire family accompanies it. The
old mountain-but of cart is got out and
sparlngly creased the night before: the
ragged donkey, or ill-kept horse, is given
an extra portion Of food and additional
combing and scraping, that his old bones
may gain new luster; and long before
daybreak, from mountain boreen and
mist-hidden valley chattering groups be-
gin moving toward the village.
The children dear" are slowed away
alongside the pigs, ducks, chickens or
vegetables, for the common cxcitemcnf
has kept them awake all night and now
over the stOniest Of Irish roads they are
''slapin rings around their swate selves -
the youths may be trudging hopefully
alongside; but the could woman" and
"ould man. are ever found lovingly
bumped together upon the only seat the
cart affords, often agreCably exchanging
putfs from the same comfortable pipe.
But step with me here beside the way
near the town, and see the motley crew
constantly augmented in number from
every by-NyaY lane and intersectipg road
What queer, kindly lot they are, Here
are THE byes. edging along in concentric
groups, settling questions of neighhorhood
moment IN tremendous but friendly ha-
rangue and dispute Every manner of
cart drawn by every manner of animal