The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-03-29

As far as rural Ireland Is concern ed, the Ireland of the farmers and the peasant proprietors, the people have never known such halcyon days.
 Farmers wives are better dressed than they have ever been, and their homes, as regards furniture, at any rate, are equipped like mansions. The farmers, themselves are sporting smart motor cars not mere toys, but sound cars with reliable engines. There is no dearth of petrol.
 Nothing is more remarkable in Ire land than the improvement in food, both as regards quantity and quality. In other days the people used to send the best bacon to England, and subsist at home on cheap American bacon. Today they consume their own best bacon.
 shops Full of Beef and Mutton.
 Cattle there are in plenty, and butchers have their shops full of whole carcasses. Mutton is also to be had in abundance. In no town or vil- lage in Ireland Is horsef1esh being sold for human food. Bread is plen- tiful, but it Is not any more appetising than it is in England, and 1t even darker in aspect. When I was at Newry an English correspondent, looking into storeroom, saw a quan- tity of peat or dried, bog. fashioned into squares. Asking what the mys- terious stuff was, he received the un- smiling reply, "shure, that's Irish war bread" I regret to say that he promptly made a note of this utterly misleading piece of information.
 There are food regulations and re- strictions in Ireland. as there are in Great Britain, but they are more honored in the breach than the ob- servance This refers particularly to the larger towns, though there is no scarcity in the villages of plain, sim pie food. In Belfast I saw 9 small, stout business man polish off a decent sized steak, such as would have been regarded as something phenomenal in a London restaurant.>-H He then hammered his knife on the table, and impatiently demanded another steak and did not look happy till he got it.
 In liquor, as in food, the Irishmar is better off than his neighbor across St. Georges Channel. Whiskey has still got a tang with it that stil requires qualifying with aqua pura Government beer' is a joke, not ar unpleasant reality. With a big glas! of good stout, still available, a large chunk of bread and a noble fragment of cheese, a cheap luncheon can bt had any day in any part of Ireland.
 In large towns, like Dublin and Bel fast, there is an abundance of pastries ard fruit cakes. At a well knowl known teashop in Belfast I had al afternoon tea better than that pro vided at the Ritz in the days befor, the war, and at much below the Rit price.
 Scarcity of matches is not at al prevalent, and I could always pur chase a couple of boxes at any tobac conist's shop. Children and wome1 have no reason to complain as t sweets for all varieties of these are t be had in great profusion in tn southern and northern capitals. Tn sugar supplied for sweetening tea generally of coarse quality, but ther is plenty of it. Ireland is particular well off as regards fish, especially tha very piquantly favored fish, the her ring, which has only come into popu lar vogue in England since it has ir creased -500 per cent. in price.
 While food conditions are thus goot the well-lighted streets of Irelan make for that nocturnal gaiety whic we experienced in pre-war days London. To walk again at night LII der the undimmed light of the stree lamps is like capturing the roseglo' of a lost Eden and that rapture is {