The Irish standard., 1902-11-29

have offered to buy their holdings at
liberal figure, but notices have been
served OH sixty, threatening evictions.
Trouble is likely to follow. The land
lords trust pledges itself to pay DE
Freyne his delinquent rents, so that
he will sustain no loss, IL In return
he will stand firm.
The police watch the country like
hawks. They follow me all the time.
If talk to the people or to the Irish
leaders they keep Il closer watch. 1t
makes one think Of Russia. When I
drive OIL an estate two or four police
follow in jaunting cars or on bicycles.
England is trying to rule Ireland by
Il reign of terror. The whole country
is held down by armed men. Emerg-
ency men hold the evicted huts, not Of
GERS OF the law. Roughs gathered from
the big cities are used as an outing
force by the landlord, who pays few
dollars q week for the use of the force
to choke and drag out, and If resist.
ance is offered to break the doors and
windows. Lately these roughs have
rcsortcd to the use of batterng rams
to break down the walls of the huts,
and the country is dotted with such
ruins.
Congestion does not mean the den
| Is.tf ,c In To {l,p fla
but density considering the miserable
land. No single holding supports
family even in misery. The home
patch is kept up by money from rela
tives in America. Husbands and sons
80 to England and Scotland yearly to
work eight months in the harvest there.
They save $50, maybe.
Hundreds Of families have Il total
yearly income, including crops raised
and consumed by themselves, the labor
of sewing girls, the work Of servants,
and ALL Of less than $50. The condi-
tions are harder than the privations
and suffering in the worst Chicago
slums.
For the great mass Of population
there is no fixed employment. The peo-
pie have been driven for years from
good lands to bogs. They reclaim
few acres by grinding work. Then the
landlord orders them out again to take
new-madc land, and they are driven
further into the dampness of the bogs.
This practice has been kept up for
years, with the result that there is
plenty Of good land, but it is all held
by big owners and used for cattle and
sheep.
The people are herded on the bad
lands. They grow a few bushels of
dry potatoes. They only do well if they
get two stinted meals Of potatoes daily.
So it is through Galway, Mayo, parts
of Roscommon and Sligo counties.
The tenants generally show the
breeding Of men. They are sturdy.
and do not differ in stype from the
small American farmer. Many are
young men, clean cut and industrious,
yet the English police argue that a
tenant is good only as slave Of the
landlord.
I witnessed a typical eviction on
these estates last Tuesday, when a
man 20 years old, with his aged wife
and invalid daughter, were evicted
) from the home his grandfather made.
His holding included thirty acres, dis
!, tributed over a neighborhood two
thirds of which was under water.
Sixty police armed with rifles, a sheriff
and several deputies and dozen
emergency men were marshaled to
: evict them. The rain beat down and
| the wind was bitter cold, but the aged
! people and the invalid daughter were
) turned out into the roadway without
pity. There are threats Of 100 more
evictions on the two estates in the i'm
f. mediate future,
The Murphy slaants, 300 strong, held
: secret meeting last Tuesday night,
which was able to attend. The ten
? ants came over the fields in groups
? Of twos and threes, lodging the police