Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-07-16
st. Patrick's Town.

sue four sones and fifteen sixteen dach-
| tiers by her..
st. Patrick's Town.
/ Skerries is a fishing town where St.
/ Patrick lived for several years. and a
quaint little chapel which. like 80 many
others in Ireland, is attributed to him.
although it could not possibly have been
built for several centuries after his time.
But in the history of these ancient sane
tuarieS few hundred years does not
count
| Scattered along the coast 1T intervals of
two or three miles, and generally at the
submits of hills overlooking the sea, are
/ "Martello Towers, fifty, Sity and some
I times ninety feet high and from twenty
10 forty feet in diameter. ! have never
been able to find out why they are called
/ by that name or what it signifies. but like
similar tower structures upon the coasts
/ of Italy, France and Spain, they were
erected in ancient times for lookouts and
to signal to the country round the ap-
proach of pirates and other enemies who
might threaten the peace of Ireland by
sea. They were built long, long ago. way
back before the invasion of the Danes,
when Ireland was divided up Into little
Kingdoms. whose rulers were generally
| fighting each other, but usually got to-
gether al the approach Of foreign foe.
| While ruins are picturesque and Ivy
clad castles that date back beyond the
. :,
! lists from a new world like ours, it is
! nevertheless a blessing occasionally to
find something else to see and write
about. 1t was a relief when the chauffeur
brought us up to the entrance of an old
! fashioned factory in the compact little
| town of Balbriggan, which has given its
| name to certain kind Of kntghted goods
! that are worn the world over. It is a
! quaint bunch Of high houses. built Of
! stone and brick on both sides Of narrow
but neatly kept streets, which seems I'M
, necessary when miles of green fields and
| glowing gardens encircle them and give
| them every chance to spread out. Hut
you will find the same tendency to snug
gle up as closely as possible In all the
| manufacturing communities of Europe.
The men folks at Balbriggan fish and
| farm the soil. and the women work in
the mills, but the law, which Is strictly
enforced there. prohibits child labor and
compels the children to attend school for
at least 12S days in the year until they
perintendents of the mills tell the same
story that I heard in the cotton fac
tories of South Carolina and Georgia last
spring, that they prefer adult operatives;
that the children are careless and ineffl-
cient and seldom earn their wages, but
they are compelled to employ them or
lose the services of the parents.
Home Of Balbriggans.
There are two factories in Balbriggan
and Undertaking by machinery invented
here more than one hundred and fifty
years ago and since initiated everyx here.
Both factories still remain under the con-
troll of the families which founded them
Smith Co. own one and Deeds,
Temple & Co. the other; but the
shares are now distributed among a large
number of people by inheritance from
generation to generation.
ho
and take their name from this town The
manufacturers here tried to get a law
giving them an exclusive use of 1t for
trade mark, and appealed to the Brit
ish parliament after the patent Office
officials refused their application: but
the best they could get was a private act
giving them the exclusive use of the title
Irish Balbriggan5." which is partial
protection, and requiring the English
manufacturers to label their goods so as
to show that they were made outside of
Ireland. About half the product is ex-
ported, and the manager told me that
they sell to Marshall Field Co.
of Chicago. H. B. Clafiin & CO. of
New York and to several other big Amer
lean jobbing houses direct. But the goods
are very closely initiated in America, and,
as one of the managers said, the wearer
would never know the difference"
1t makes a Protestant ashamed when
he reads the history of Drogheda and sees
the ruins that CromW ell left there. Thou
sands of men and women and children
We're butchered in the name of the Lord
in this quaint odd town by Cromwells
soldiers when he took it by storm in
September. 1919. 1t was ferocious mas
sacre, and Cromwell admitted the facts
while proclaiming himself the agent of
the Almighty to punish a rebellious peo-
pie. This is what he wrote with his own
nand:
Record of Cromwell.
THE governor, Sir Arthur Aston, and
divers considerable officers being there,
our men, getting up to them, were Or
dered by me to put them all to the sword,
and indeed. being in the heat of action.
| forbade them to spare any that were
III arms in the town; and l think that
night they put to death about two thou
sand persons, divers officers and soldiers
being fled over the bridge into the other
part of the town, where about one hun
dred of them possessed st. Peters Church
Steeple, some the west gate and others
| strong round tower next to the gate,
called St. Sundays These. being sum-
moned 10 yield for mercy, refused
| Whereupon / ordered the steeple Of St
| Peters Church to be fired. The next day
the other two towers were summoned.
| When they submitted their officers were
| knocked on the head and every tenth
| man of the soldiers was killed The rest
| shipped for the Barbados. The soldiers in
| the other tower were all spared as to
| their lives only and shipped likewise for
| the Barbados.
Il am persuaded that this is righteous
| judgment of God upon these barbarous
wretches, who have imbrued their hands
| in so much innocent blood, and that it
will tend to prevent the effuslon OF blood
| for the future.
| Two of the towers have remained these
| two hundred and fifty years just as grim
old Oliver left them. and there is much
| else of interest TO the antiquarian in the
| town although today it is given up to
| linen factories flour mills. tanneries and
| SOAP works and has a large provision