The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-12-18
STATUS OF AFFAIRS
In IRELAND TODAY
The Visitor Brings Away an Impre ssion
OF pathos.
POVERTY OF THE. PEOPLE is REAL

POVERTY OF THE. PEOPLE is REAL |
The Potato Famine Has Caused |
Great Distress, but the Greatest
Cause OF Trouble Is That There Is
Not n Sufficient Margin of Indus-
trial Opportunity on the Island to
Keep the Young Men Of the Island
at Home.
London Letter in Washington Star.
The deepest impression Of Ireland
which the visitor brings away is that
of pathos. a haze of melancholy broOds
over the remembrance of the country
such as follows one from the funeral
of a friend. The temperament of the
Irish is so sunny, their condition so
miserable; they are people so brainy,
so gifted with wit, with all the ele-
ments of happiness, and there is so little
to inspire these elements i'm the life of
Ireland today that the contrast kindles
sympathy. The average Irshman rises
head and shoulders above the average
Englshman in the same sphere wher-
ever one meets him. whether he he
the country squire in scarlet jacket,
who dismounts from his hunter to point
the way to the ancient ruin which one
is seeking, and goes a mile out of his
way to put the traveller on the right
track, where the Englishman would
have pointed vaguely with his whip
and galloped along; the carman who
joStles you over the cObblestOnes of
Dublin on his sidesaddle vehicle, reck-
less of life and limb, bolting around
corners with your hair on end, while
he discourses on local history and le-
gends with the sparkle of Miles
O'Reilly through his talk, where the
beer-sodden London cabman would
have been plotting lies to blk you out
of an extra shilling, or the village
priest, who. seeing a stranger, asks
what service he can do you, while the
English parson stiHly touches his hat
and marches along.
Yet the poverty of Ireland is to the
poverty of England as the poverty Of
England to that of the United States.
Much sympathy is wasted over the
hard times i'm America by the London
newspapers, with half-stawinE Ireland
on their one hand and wholly starving
India on the other. These are consid-
cred prosperous days i'm England, yet
were cleveland times" in the states
half so typified by unemployed. by beg
Ears, by ostentatious rags and news
paper chronicles of starving men and
women on the streets, by homeless
families sleeping on the wet grass
under the glare of the lamps from the
palaces overlooking st. James Park
revolution would be in the air, the loot
ing of the dwellings of plutoCrats, which
the Bryanites are credited by their Op-
pOnents with thirsting for, would be-
gin. Statesmen may brood over causes
and remedies, the reporter has only to
relate the sights which fall under his
eye. 1t is enough strain on the SYM
pathies and the purse to stroll about
London streets, beseged by pleadings
for pennies. offerings of matches, shoe
strings, flowers, the din of street sing
ers, barrel organs, sweepers and the
swarms of vendors whose business is
but thinly disguised beggary, but Ire
land is many degrees worse.
POVERTY EVIDENT.
Even in these sharp days many
children are running barefOOted and
bareheaded in the streets of Dublin,
while the few garments they wear be-
tween head and feet are beautifully
well ventilated. In besg Y they quite
surpass the English. but their pleas
are so much more skilful and 50 adroit
that even where one doubts their need
it is worth while to encourage them
for the sake of drawing out their un-
expected retorts. But the needs of most
of them are to plainly visible to De
questioned. Raggedness and poverty
find their homes in Dublin, though thC
puzzle is not why there should he sucl
ItrNp1inp tbapa "a lp\E
absence of almost any visible means
of support, the people manage to live
even as well as they do For Ireland
IS a country with nothing but a past
not as PROSPEROUS a past as might
have been, but with even less prosper
ity in the future. Dependency is the
prevailing tone of all classes of peo'
pie who discuss her prospects. From
Dublin Castle down to the beggars
they all tell the same story, that tn,
young men are leaving the country
that the old folks are living mainly
on remittancos from sons who hav,
gone abroad to make their livings
that manufacturing cannot be mad,
to pay. The people blame the govern
ment Cor the admitted bankruptcy o
the country, while the governmen
on its side bamee the native polite
ians, but none differ about the facts
Farming lands are being deserted ev
erywhere, and given over to pastur
age, and in the villages and cite
most Of the factories have their win
dows boarded up.
THE DRINK HYPOTHESIS.
Temperance people declare that over
production of whisky is the complain
from which Ireland suffers But al
Jrishman primed with whisky where
from bubbles a stream of bulls an,
repartee is preferable to the Brtol
who in his drink always exercises hi
inalienable right to beat his woman
The drink hypothesis fails moreover t
solve the question because the flow q
alcohol keeps pace in England wit
Ireland, though the condition of Eng
lish workingmen is constantly better
ing, while that of the Irishmen is hard
ening.
There are two sides to the stories q
an Irish famine i'm the coming winter
The government asserts that there
nothing more to the talk than poll
ticians' famine. The politicians, wit
many of the clergy and citizens a
large, contend that the distress wi
be nearly equal to that which over
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