The Irish standard., 1909-10-09

green, a hundred feet in diameter at
the base, perhaps, and forty or fifty
feet high. We climbed the slope. The
top was perfectly round, twenty ~
thirty feet across. with Il depressi ~
which made the outer edge a ridge.
Around and below us, on every
side. lay the country. flooded with the
pale yellow light of the winter sun.
The view embraced eight OF ten miles
in all directions, a rolling green plain
fading away into grassy hills. Here
and there were small clumps or rows
of trees. Low stone walls followed the
contour Of the land, making big and
little fields of irregular shape. The
dark streaks were bitches, the wind
ing thread of silver little stream.
counted ten houses within vision on
that great stretch. Each had two or
three acres of titled ground. The rest
was grass. The only living things n
sight were tiny scattered flocks IF
sheep and herds of cattle.
I'VE arc overlooking several es-
tates." said John Fitzgibbon, "Ballr,
Irwin, Sanford. 'Murphy-corners Of
all of them are iff' sight. Oh, yes, there
were farms. here once. hundreds Of
them BIT all the people are evidfsd.
They emigrated to America, or else
WHEREOF died The dozen or 30
farms you see are held by men with
long leases. They are prosperous, al
though the rents are very high. The
others-there was no help for them.
The great clearing out started at the
time of the famine fifty years ago. The
people could not get enough to cat,
let alone money for the landlords
Then the world demanded cattle. and
the landlords decided to turn these
fertile lands into grazing ranches.
They deposed those who had fought
their way through the famine. So they
all went"
Leaving Mullaghaduhy hill, our
course lay off to the southwark, over
low, rolling hills and long meadows.
The surrounding scene was still the
same. Beyond the low stone walls.
skirting the road lay miles Of green
fields, with not sign of farm or crops.
Every few miles a thatched house
stood by the roadside, with a tiny
patch of vegetable garden and clus-
ter of hay ricks, brown in the sun.
These are the huts Of the herders. Each
man had two to three hundred acres
under his care. That's it," said Mr..
FitZgibbon, "the best land in Roscom-
mon, fit to support thousands. And
on land where ten families might live
in decent comfort the only occupants
are cattle, man and dog. A man
and dog! Not a crop on twenty mil .s
Of it-and the people wanting for food
over yonder." .-
AS we had driven along l had no.
ticed peculiar formations in the
ground here and there. Across the
fields lay low ridges, sometimes two
or three hundred yards long. In some
places they looked like lines of
grass. in others they melted into the
level ground. They were grass grown
asked what they were. 1.-The remains
of walls and bitches Of the old farms
answered Mr.. Fitzgibbon. You'll find
them all over these lands. When the
tenants were evicted the walls were
thrown down and grass grew over the
places. You will see here and there
clump or row of trees. They mark
where the farmhouses used to stand
The houses were leveled, and the walls
that inclose the road we are now m
were built of stones that once shelf
cred evicted tenants"
1t was CHASTITY. began to see these
marks Of devastation everywhere. The
fields on all sides were SCARED with
the green ridges, as though the whir
of oppression had left great welts or
the surface of the land. In two .n
three places we came upon the crumh.
ling ruins of houses which for som.
| :, e
| reason had not been carried away