The Irish standard., 1895-03-09

or farmers. Sometimes If the change is
too violent for them they return to the
convent. Nowadays the convent schools
are taking up the intermediate education
and university exams, and no doubt this
will have it's bearing on the damsels now
in process of schooling. The old convent
school girls used to come home white
handed and delicate, and with whole
pack of dreams and notions to be buried
before they could endure being given to
the first eligible suitor.
Irish girls used to have as little to say
in the matter Of choice as French girls.
Once mated they generally became
efficient and blooming matrons. have
some in my mind, handsome and stately
persons, as they presided over their tables,
while the tall, pretty, delicate slips OF
girls showed what the mother was st
their age. These were of the upper class
OF farmers, what in England would be
called ''yeomen farmers Their house
would be white house among cornfields,
unpicturesque after the Irish manner,
but with an old fashioned garden and q
lawn full of shrubs. Such families have
lived in their substantial homes for gen.
erations, being independent Of eviction,
have gszed at the red flock paper, the
moreen curtains, the lowered carpet, all
subdued to a brown harmony. They
have their linen, their silver and china
handed down from mother to daughter.
In such families the mother, however
capable woman Of affairs, does not
seem to train her daughters. When
their own turn comes to preside over 9
household they may or may not learn, as
by miracle, how to do it we'll. Irish
women, as rule, are not good house
keepers any more than they are trained
servants, but the remarkable thing is
that they are not hundred times worse.
The mother will look fondly at her
pretty dropping daughter and say: ''Let
the child be you while she CAM or
! some such fond excuse for herself bear
ing all the burden of calf and pig feeding
| and rearing of poultry breeding and
butter making.
In this class matchmaking is, no
doubt, going out Of fashion. 1t yet
prevails in the smaller farming class and
among the shopkeepers of the country
towns. It demolishes honest sentiment
| where it exists as custom. A girl said
to me one day in country shop, a
handsome, clever girl:
"What for should save my money
It I stinted and scraped year in and year
out what good would it do me? There's
nobody in this town TO marry, only good
! shows are widowers, an they're lookin'
for girl with three hundred
had said nothing Of marriage, and
her non sequitur meant that in her mind
the possession Of money was closely
connected with getting husband. She
only shifted ecornful disbelief when
one limited at the existence Of such 9
thing as love. .
/ The matchmaking customs have been
too often described for me to go over
them here. Ny father has often assisted
at them when cattle buying in Munster,
and has even brought one or the other
to terms by splitting the difference" in
the number Of pounds or cattle or sheep
that were to make the dowry. There is
generally convenient intermediary OF
this sort present, though it is with OUT
ward reluctance the parties give in, and
sonly because they wouldn't go ag'n Mr..
IS 49, word" All the time the boy and
girl are gazing shyly and awkwardly at
each other in an adjoining room, not
knowing whether they are to be husband
and wife or il the abargain" will be brok-
en- of.
The strange thing is that the system
works we'll. Irish women are Of all
women most faithful to the marriage
vow. Domestic ties IN ireland are very
close and tender. Occasionally there is
such tragedy as. girl coming fresh
from her convent school being handed
over to man fit to be- her grandfather.
Even then the tragedy does not end in
unfaithfulness, and an unfaithful wife,
even where the people are less innocent
and primitive than Of old, is practically
thing unknown.
Irish women do not read much any
moro than irish mon, and where they
must have food for their imaginations
they supply il with English penny papers
The Family Herald circulates largely in
/ Ireland, 90 do the more trashy papers
tho penny noyelets. Where there is
flI alich mother % / have described earlier
tie reading must be done on the aly.
Continued On Kighfh Page,