The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1907-12-08
IN GALWAY WITH A CAMERA
PRETTY IRISH MAHDENS TIE
R10TOGRAPREk MISSED.
PLENTY Of Other Material That velas1Oez
Btl@ht Have Liked but the Yankee
Tourist Dtdnt Cars Fora Cirsus
Parade Long TO BBe Remembered.

az any Irish city that l ever saw 10 rivallinR
New York's East Side for dirtiness. and
yet a fair minded observer would be com
PEELED 10 tell Galway, when the time for
awarding the leather medal came, that she
was only a close second.
This does not 80 much mean that New
York is dirtier than l realized she was
when I was there as IL means that Ireland
Ia not as dirty as English and Irish and
American writer's nave pictured it.
Perhaps in some parts of Ireland the
pig still sleeps in the room with the family
but as a faithful chrOr. cler OF actual sights
/ cannot say that l saw such a sight in any
Of the numerous slumsa and villages l visited
In twenty counties l hate to destroy so
poetic an illusion.
There was something idyllic in the thought
Of = pink little pig and a pink little boy.
the two Of them the pink of neatness, lying
side by side in a happy hearted Irishman's
cabin while pig and boy and Irishman
starved to death, but the truth was some
thing better h that. There were pigs,
and little boys, but they were not neatly
pink, and they were not starving, and the
old man did not swing a shillelah or sing
songs as l was passing by.
Shillelahs were never so plentiful as they
are now, but they are made 10 supply the
foreign demand for them, and the Irishman
IL amused and perhaps a bit contemptuous
as he sees Americans, with never a drop OF
Irish blood in them. buying shillelahs to
take home for the sake If sentiment.
wish I might write that I saw evidences
81 destitution on every side-it wouldpIease
the sentimentalists- but I did not. There
were beRgars, but not 40 many as | had
feared would see, and they did notchase me
any harder than youngsters have chased me
in City Hall Park in New York demanding
q cent 10 buy sterilized milk.
In Sligo I was followed by a poor woman
carrying a baby. and "a she raised her hand
for aims her shawl dropped on and dis
closed her nakedness to the waist. hut I was
assured by a Sligo gentleman that she was a
professional beggar from out Of town and
that possibly the baby was not hers, and |
know for a fact that she vent TO a public
house with the money | gave her.
And all he time l was FumblinS in nv
pocket for cOppers she was wishing me
harry days. She stands out in my recollec-
ton as the most abject beggar | saw
But in Galway there is dir and soualor.
and IL is picturesque. There in the Clad
NaHh WV A'NVi7 ~ ONu udRN VINO are Md
eous enough and Spanish looking enough 10
have just left Velasquez's studio, where one
can imagine them posing as models for some
masterpiece Of the great realist.
Barefooted they are. and the homely ones
have a great desire to be photographed.
Many and many we're the pretty women I
saw IN Ireland, but my camera recorded
but few of their lineaments. while I was |
asked more h once by plain women to
their pictures.
One nailed me az | was passing her vege-
tabls shop in the Claddagh. She was cross-
poor thing. and in a land where pretty
features are as plentiful as blackberries
she was plain, but she besought me to take
her picture. ,
Nov, when a woman asks you to photo
graph her you don't feel like refusing her,
and l was too much of a novice to make a
ielnt at swapping the shutter and passing
IN, so stopped and tried to see a picture
IN the carrots and cabbages that were dis
at the door.
Such a simpering, conscious face as she
1lsplayed! l tried to engage her in talk
so mat she would at Least look naturally
but it was no use. Every time my
iinger strayed up to the little lever her lips
would become set in a smile. one eve would
'ook at the camera and one would look at
me- and she would become the incarnation
Of consciousness.
At last | snapped her and passed on.
After that took good care to hurry past
plain women.
The day before. at a railway tation,
had gone in to get a bit of lunch and dis
covered that one OF the Mattresses was a
little beauty. h thought came into
my head: What n model for "An Irish
Beauty" just ms one Of the Others, who
had no claim 20 beauty. said: Take me
.picture?"
j old her that ] was not a professional
all the while at the pretty one.
bat she suggested that | take all three
Mattresses just for fun. and in order to get
the beauty at any cost I assented and the
girls stood in expeCtant attitudes.
The beauty was so luscious looking that
the other two were simply obliterated in
the finder and felt myself lucky al having
a chance to carry away a permanent
Impression Of Irish m~aidenhood.
My hand was raised TO the lever, in an
other instant the face would b. mino. but
then the door opened and a man came
TO buy a measIy sandwich.
sOne OF the girls lett the group could
wee that in the finder. but / snapped hastily
and then locke up.
il was the beauty.
] have the other two. They are I'M
developed.
in the Claddagh a pretty little child came
TO me and asked me 10 AXE her "piccher."
hoping for some coppers in payment.
! nodded my head to her. hut a bare
looted derelict ahead OF me heard her re-
Iuest n wheeling around suddenly
Dade the child be OF and offered TO DOSE
'or me herself.
VeAasques would have jumped az the
shance. but I am not Velasquez and
my head and hurried on.
The vehemence Of the old woman's vi
'uperative assault on the little girl had col
ected a lot OF lOungers Of both sexes. and
was besieged for pictures. the pretty little
ytrl saying necessarily. Il asst you first. [
ist you first. l as't you first"
managed TO make her understand that
I she walke on far enough l would take
'ar picture. and only one other heard her.
little girl who was pretty enough TO
a film.
These two kept on. while the others
away when they saw l was ada