The Irish standard., 1904-11-26
The Cottars and Fishermen of the West Are
Earnest Patriots, Fighting For Po-
litical Reform.
They Care So Much For Their Country s
Freedom That They Supply the War
Chest at Bitter Cost.

of Ireland, no one took fire or seemed
to care so much as potato-peeling
whether England ruled Ireland or not.
The king and queen who had lately made
a progress through these wilds, were
spoken of punctiliously as "their Ma
jesties," while the feet which had put
into a neighboring haven, was always
"his NIajesty's navy" In short, it
seemed certain that the Nationalism
which so vastly perturbs British poll
ties was after all no more than a cum
ming agitation got up in the large Irish
towns and in the House of Commons,
without any genuine backing from the
peasant holders whose wrongs are
given out as the prime occasion of the
campaign. Indeed, began to suspect
that hardly man in the countryside
save the parish priest and the school
master had any inlkling Of the practical
difference between Colonel Sanderson
and Mr.. William O'Brien.
1t was only by an accident that 1
stumbled on to the hidden track that is
leading me to the truth. bought me
boat and as soon as she had been
oyerhauled and painted white, there
pressed the question of a name for her.
A passing fancy suggested the name
of the local saint-a holy hermit not in
the Roman calendar who was an Irish
man through and through-and it
seemed decent to paint her style on
the boats Prov in the beautiful Irish
characters. But although the natives
of this coast buy and sell, and make
love and marry, and work and wor-
ship, in Irish, they read and write, if
at all, in English; and although the
carpenter, the smith, and half dozen
other helpers We're able and willing
to inscribe the name, it was to be in
English letters. Upon this deadlock,
however, there suddenly broke a
younger and more expansive Celt with
the unguarded admission that he had
lately 'cut out Irish letters to go on
banner" The cats head was out Of
the bag at least as far as it's whiskers.
For there were reasons which need not
be set down in this place why that
banner could not have been for the
church.
A few days ago the cat came out as
far as her launches. 1t was the
butchers doings. Once a week a sin
gle sheep is killed and it's edible parts
are dispersed among the few house.
holds which in these regions represent
wealth and luxury on an average in
come Of hundred pounds year. A
shoulder of mutton fell to me at the
last distribution and the butchers lit
tie son bore it to me over the soppy
mountain. The day was fine, and
therefore the diverse Of the sheet Of
newspaper in which the joint was
wrapped was as whole still legible.
And among the belated snippets Of
war news and records Of East Irish
murders I spied the name of the vii
lage, or rather the straggle of cabins
which fringed neighboring ford. The
names figured with the names Of other
stragglers of cabins and hamlets and
villages in a long list of moneys con-
tributed to the Nationalist funds, and
the amount recorded against it was a
respectable one. 1t was as plain as
daylight that the poor fellows who
hardly taste butchers meat once a
year, whose diet is potatoes and weak
tea, with hardly ever a taste of the
bacon and eggs and milk which must
all be sold to pay the rent, and whose
clothes are compiled in the proportion
of three-fourths patches to one-fourth
of the original stuff, care so tremen-
| dously about their country and its
political emancipation as to furnish
the war-chest at a bitter cost.
Whether their sacrifice is made
fruitfully or barrenly and whether
their leaders are worthy or unworthy
| of the trust they receive are questions
| which do not belong to the present
notes. have written down this much
solely to show that even remotest Con-
nemara is politically self-conscious,