The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-04-06

nearest garrison towns. But as rule
the lives of Irish gentlewomen are mar
rover, more colorless, and far more
conservative than those of their Eng
ish sisters. q
The dearth of young men in every
place but the metropolis is q melan-
choly feature of social life in Ireland.
Families cannot afford to keep their
sons at home idle, while in all classes
except the most humble it is q tradition
that the daughters should stay at home
and 90 white-handed. l have heard Of
evening parties where half dozen cav
alters, ranging from eighteen to eighty,
were apportioned to thirty or forty
ladies. True, I have seen nearly as
much disproportion at Norfolk tennis
party, but there one did not so pity the
maids, who were in many cases birds Of
passage, and in other places had many
opportunities for pleasure.
The higher education has scarcely
reached the Irish country homes. In
Dublin there is an excellent women's
college, the Alexandra, but it's pupils
are mainly drawn from the professional
4 and mercantile classes of Dublin itself.
In the country places womeAi are
leading very much the stagnant lives
.of the women Of the 3O's. They have
i the gentler virtues and are not numer-
Gus enough--if that be not an unfair
I and ignoble explanation-to form the
little lotteries which in other lonely
! places are apt to degenerate into tat
tiers and gossips. They have little out
door life. There is no reason why
Kathleen and Ely should not be anna
teur gardeners, for instance, and assist
the old gardener, who is rather handi-
capped for help; but there is the old
ftradition of the helplessness and soft
handedness of the young ladies, often
enough they pine and fret in the lonely
and lovely country. For, if you will
observe, the beauty Of a place becomes
nneaning less to the blunted senses OF
people lonely for their kind.
8s Insthis class match making is, no
doubt, going out of fashion. It yet
prevails in the. smaller farming class
and among the shop keepers OF the
country towns It demolishes honest
sentiment where it exists as a custom.
y IA girl said to me one day in q country
shop, a handsome, clever girl: What
for should Y save my money? # I
stinted and scraped year in and year
out, what good would it do me?
There's nobody in this town to marry
only ould shows of widowers, an
they're lookin' for girl with three
hundred dollars" 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 9
scornful disbelief when one limited at
the existence of such 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
orthe other to terms by splitting the
difference in. the number Of pounds or
1 cattle or sheep that were to make the
dowry. There is generally conven-
lent intermediary Of this sort present.
though it is with outward reluctance
the parties give in, and .'only because
they wouldn't go ag'in Mr.. -
word. All the time the boy and girl
aregazing shyly and awkwardly ut each
other IN an id joining room. not know
Ing whether they are to be husband
and wife, or # the bargain" will be
broken OF. 81. 4
The strange thing is that the system
J. works well. Irish women are OF all
women most faithful to the marriage
| vow. Domestic ties ID ireland are very
close and tende Occasionally there So
| such tragedy as : girl coming fresh
from convent school being handed
! over to y man at "a Do her grand her.
| Even en- the tragedy does not end g II
/ uni ith fulness; and an nm vile,
S even where the people are less innocent
md primitive than IS old, IS practically
thing