The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-29

NiieAA AldS DvSA very popuAoA WIN tiS AAi~N
peasantry since it was written, close on
a century ago, says:
Love is the soul Of a neat Irishman,
He loves all that's lovely and loves all
he can.
And yet, though there seems to exist a
wide spread impression that strong, pas
sionate, masterful love is a characteristic
of the Irish temperament, love-making in
Ireland is really a very calm and placid
business, and, the old song have quoted
Notwithstanding, the average Irish peas
ant takes unto himself mate with clear
a head, as placid heart, and as steady
a nerve as if he were buying a COW at
Ballinasloe Fair.
Love by no means decides all the marri-
ages that are made in Ireland. The match
if often arranged, in a ludicrously COOL
businesslike and mercenary fashion be-
tween the parents of the boy" and The
girl" the young people themselves not
being allowed, and indeed, not expecting
any voice in the matter. But if there is
little romance in the origin of most of
The matrimonial contracts made in rural
Ireland, they are as rule, entirely sue
cessful. The marriage thus prosaieally ar
ranged are as happy as happy can he.
Pat and Mary fall fondly in love with
each other after they are made husband
and wife; children quickly spring up
around their hearth and the older they
grow the more passionately do they cling
10 each other. Their domestic felicity is
rarely, if ever, disturbed by jealousy, for
Pat makes the faithfuiest of husbands
and Mary the fondest and truest of wives,
and as there is little or no Illicit passion
the crimes which spring from that source
and make desolate so many homes in other
countries are almost unknown in Ire
land.
The great marrying season in Ireland is
Shrovetide During the forty days of Lent
the Irish peasantry, in obedience to the or
dinances of the church, abstain from mat
rimony as we'll as from eggs, butter and
milk. Some time before the approach of
that holy season a farmer with, marri-
ageable son or daughter, whom he desires
to see settled, tells his friends and neigh
boris of the fact. He usually conveys the
intelligence in an indirect, off-hand man
ner. He meets friend at the fair or mar
ket and says, with laugh: (" Whisper
here, Jim, I'm training up my little Mag
gle for your Johnny" "Ah, now JIM" the
other says, you do me a great favor en-
tlrely. But mind you, my little Johnny is
very particular. The boy do be saying
what a CRATE fortin he'll want with his
wife" The subject having thus been
preached, the parents discuss it whenever
they meet, and 1t often happens that a
long time elapses and many a discussion
and wrangle takes place before the terms
are finally settled. The farm generally
goes with the male, and the great diff
Guilty in the arranging of matches is the
fixing of the girls dowry, consisting part
( ly of money and partly of furniture and
culinary utensils, as a set-off against the
land.
A favorite proverb of the peasantry in
regard to matrimony is: Either marry
very young or become a monk very
young" Early marriages are the rule in
Ireland, and the poorest marry the earli-
est.
And yet many of the Irish poor enter in
to matrimony as a sort of provident in
vestment for old age. A very intelligent
Irish peasant once said to me: "a poor
man ought to marry young. that his chill
dren may be able to assist him when he
grows old When Pat and Biddy begin
housekeeping their little cabin is soon filed
with children, and the more their flock in
CT eases the more they say: "Shure, the
childer will be a CRATE support to us in
our ould age" And happily this invest
ment for old age never fails them. In no
country in the world is the affection be-
tween children and parents so strong in
no country in the world is the duty of
children to provide for their aged parents
held so sacred as in Ireland Four gener-
atoms may be seen in many of the poor
est cabins in the West-the children. the
young father and mother, the old grand
parents, and an ancient great-grandmoth-
er or great-grandfather. The large sums
of money which have been annually sent
by children in the colonies and in America
to parents in Ireland during the past half
century are another striking demonstra-
ton of this intense filial affection.
But happily many of the marriages in ru-
raj Ireland have their spice of romance.
The match is made by the boy and girl
themselves. An Irish peasant maid in the
heyday of her youth, with her pretty figure,
her abundant black hair, her large eyes,
with their indescribable half-arch, half
shy expression, is quite Irresistible; and the
boy has too often an impressionable heart
and a "deludhering tongue" to render ii
always necessary that the parents should
make the bargain" The youthful couples
meet at dances or on Sunday after mass
even wake is turned to account for lit
tie courting-and they are in hearty accord
with the boy who said. 1T is a CRATE
pleasure entirely to be alone, especially
whin yer sweetheart is wild ye." do you
drame of me, Mike?" said the girl to her
lover as they walked arm in arm down the
lonely glen. "Draine OF you, it is, Kate?
Shure It's the way wild me that l cant
sleep dramin' of you, me darhn'r Yes,
they have the fiattering tongue, those Irish
boys. "Och, ] wish l was in jail for steal
in ye," was the compliment one of them
paid to a pretty colleen. Even when they
get a refusal they have a soft word" 10
say. Eileen was engaged to another boy,
and so she had TO say no to Tim wheg he
asked her. Wsha, thin, said Tim with a
sigh, Il wish you'd been born twins, so
that / cud have half Of yez.'
The girls in Ireland can afford just as
well it. indeed, not better. than the girls
Of any other, country. 10 take up an inde-
pendent position in regard to matrimony
for the proportion they bear TO the males
is not so large in Ireland as in other lands.
The boys, therefore, have often a great
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