The review. [volume] (High Point, N.C.) 1908-19??, 1914-02-05

Dunglow, County Donegal, Ireland
This is the old haunt-the habitat
of the "gombeen man." He is our
American city loan shark" trans
planted with all his blood-sucking
propensities and his starvation in
ducing qualities into rural Ireland.
Here conditions are right for his activ-
tiles Where the need for money is
greatest he prospers best. The poorer
the country, the richer he grows. And
poor enough this country certainly is.
Wide, lOW-lying peat boys stretch be-
tween great slopes of rising hillsldes
where the soil shows only between
masses of outcropping rocks. No
fields are there here large enough to
offer opportunity for work with horses
even if blowing and cultivating were
not made impossible by the huge half
buried rocks. Every enclosure de-
mands fertilizers as a condition prece-
dent to production. Nature is stingy
and hesitates to let go of any product
OF value to humans. Yet here and
SIDE; around it we see children that
are not starving nor insuffciently
clothed.
"Gombeen Man" Passing.
Here was the haunt of the gombeen
man. But as relative prosperity comes
N ne goes out. They tell us that CO.
operation has numbered the days OF
tAe gombeen man and that he is pass
1ng AS he formerly operated his
BUSINESS here he was the worst enemy
70 rural prosperity to be found upon
tie Island. THE gombeen man is
worse than the nonresident landlord"
Gays Paddy Gallagher of DungloW,
WHICH IS an extreme statement when
made by one whose father and family
nave suffered cruelty from many evic-
tons.
oeidom was the gombeen man adj
ANlt1edly in the loan business. Ere
q0ently ne was a trader or shop keep
., GENERALLY he kept a public house.
olsen ne was a dominating influence
ponVlcally' and held some office. In
'"ilaoly ne was an economic scourge
H anu made rural prosperity impossible.
we nave spoken of him in the past
n"7' not because he has altogether
leased to exist but because co-opera-
e elon seems to be developing a plan
-o1 rural credit which will eventually
gut aim out of business.
TaCFlEk GaIlaoharSe c$ou,,
a'rlck Gallagher, now the man
-a0f OF the local cooperative society,
4r;oJ 'S knows as much about the
1'S u the poor farmer in Ireland as
o1le' lie was born in a little one
H1 farm cottage and was at nine
MA ta1s OF age forced to leave home and
oo;s: ilnlself out as a farm laborer re-
s;,- the wage of three pounds for
NJ "ohons work. From these begin
,o;eo Ae mas risen to be a rural finan-
w. III county Donegal and has raised
abio coAdluon of the poor farmers from
$500 poverty to comparative comfort
posYs MS cooperative enterprises.
4bo IS What Paddy Gallagher says of
norss somOeen men, speaking from his
~n ~, soma! experiences and verifying
~ aaueh that he says from documents
Du account books:
w;+, y, IS one transaction of nv own
of n5a 'ne gombeen man. On the 28th
aar 1n@s' 1906, my father and I bought
\wa;oh stone Of flour and one hundred
Satta OF indian meal, each. NV
a\na~lz..p9 PAID for his 1925. was not in
Tx "ltaon to pay for mine until the
gata, u july 1906, forty-four DAYS
aantS The gombeen man then nre,
puted h i,e with bill for $5.31.s dis.
terest nn S o. rlgnt to charge me s1.O6 in
and no in Ss'z0 for only forty-four DAYS
cough '4 ~ out to him that my father
out me same goods on the same