Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-25
HOME Love STRONG
People Cling to Barren Soil
and Will Not Leave.
PREFER DIRT AND POVERTY
Resist Efforts Of Government to Bet
ter Their Condition.
PECULIAR PEASANT TRAITS

Singular State Of Affairs Where
Poor Wretches Scorn and Sus-
pect Praiseworthy Benefactions.
RI WILLIAM r. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence OF The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
CLIFDEN. August Is. 1905.
The congested districts board of the
British government devotes its attention
entirely to the people living in the bleak
mountain lands on the west coast OF Ire
land. Its agencies are established at diff
ferent points from the extreme south to
the extreme north Of the island. The
poverty. the privation. the suffering are
found chiefly within a few miles from the
coast. where the territory is divided into
vast estates OF almost worthless land and
where it is very dificult for any person
to earn a living. The same conditions
have existed for ages.
Soil Barren, Yet They Love It.
The west coast Of Ireland has never
fertile. the people have never had any
more comforts than they have today. but
they have continued to live there, century
after century. clinging to the rocks. suf-
fering from the weather and the lack Of
and refusing to leave their wretched
novels for a more favorable climate and
better opportunities OF making q living.
1t. cannot be said that they remain there
In Ignorance. because thirty or forty
thousand men from the congested dis
tricts leave their cabins. their wives and
families for several months every year
and go to England and Scotland to supply
the demand for labor in those countries
The migratory labor system has been go
men have gone TO the same jobs genera
ton after generation. spending half their
time earning good wages In England, and
the other half looking after their little
gardens and cattle and goats in Con-
naught province. In Clare and Kerry:
Galway. Sligo and Donegal counties. 1t
is one of the strangest phenomena In hu-
man life that they should cling As they
do to their desolate. comfortless. nithy
stone huts in these bleak mountains. but,
be 1t ever so humble. be 1t ever so COM
fortress, there il no place like home.
They Cling to Their Homes.
One of the functions of the congested
districts board il to remove as many as
possible Of these families to localities
where they can make a living with less
labor and find more Of the comforts and
happiness Of life: but the most pitiful and
difficult part OF It's task is to persuade
them to 60. Mr.. O'Conlor, the solicitor
of the board. was telling me the otner
occupied a leaky stone hut on the noun
tain side, without the slightest comfort
within or attraction without. He had
few acres Of sterile soil on which. with
the greatest difficulty. he was able to
produce enough cabbages and potatoes to
keep his family from starvation: He had:
too, a small herd of goats. lean and
gaunt. that were trying to find sustenance
in the heather and the MOSES on the
rocks-and yet, even I'm this condition, the
old man stubbornly refused to move. No
inducement could persuade him to aban-
don the worthless, filthy habitat1on be-
cause it was his home. With the pride OF
a prince he defied the inspectors Of the
board charging them with the malicious
intent of trying to deprive him OF crop
erty that had been the home of his fam
lily. he declared. for 900 years And moth
ing could induce him to leave 1t for
comfortable cottage and q productive
farm fifty miles in the interior.
An Illustration.
They told me. too. of a girl about
eighteen years old who. being injured by
an automobile. was picked up and car
ried to the nearest hospital. which hap
pened to be twenty miles or more from
the place where she lived and the scene
of the accident. She was being tenderly
cared for in neat sunshfny ward. in a
comfortable bed. with sheets and pillow
cases of linen. with a nurse to attend
her and every delicacy that could be fur
nished to eat. and yet she moaned and
cried and begged to be taken home.
Finally the Americans who had been in
dent and had left a deposit OF money to
pay for every comfort and surgical at
tention that the girl could possibly need
consented to her removal because the doc
tor said, she was fretting herself into a
fever. So they brought the automobile
10 the hospital. placed her carefully In a
bed Of pillows in the tonneau and carried
her back into the mountains to her
home one-room cabin Of the most
repulsive and wretched sort. which. as
his horse In. The walls were of rude
stone piled one on another without NOR
tar. and the roof was made of straw.
There was no floor but the EARTH no
furniture but hard wooden bench. a
table and three-legged stool. There was
no window and the only light that there
was came through the door. which opened
into loathsOme barnyard. where the
filth was ankle deep and the stencil al
most insufrerable. And yet, when they
floor. she gave long sigh Of relief AID
satisfaction and thanked them for bring
ing her home
1t is true the world over that people
prize things that are worthless il they
happen to be all they possess. The less
We have. the more valuable it becomes;
the more We have. the less we value it,
This trait may be found In the mountains
of Switzerland, In Lapland. in Norway
and other countries where people enjoy
the least blessings and comforts and
where living is a constant struggle.
Work Of Congested Districts Board.
The congested districts board consists
of Sir Anthony Mcdonnell. under secre-
tary for Ireland, who has recently been
elevated to the peerage as Lord Mac
Donnell of Swineford; Sir horace. Plum
kett. Of whom 1 have written you: the
Rev. Dennis OHara, a Catholic priest
Of County Clare: Henry Dorian. the chief
inspector and executive cfiicer in actual
charge. and Mr.. O'Connor. the solicitor,
in charge of the office work. The board Is
constituted by an act Of parliament and
has large stan of agents and o-ncials in
the field.
The work Of the board may be classified
as follows: