Who Knows What Transformation Might Lie In The Pride
And Power Of Possession!
There was a single laborer working before the castle raking up the
gravel walk, I think.
"I would he were fatter!" If he were only in as
good condition as the beautiful dogs of superior breed which we saw in
the castle yard; but the dogs are fed at the expense of the proprietor
of this fair domain, the thin laborer at his own. We returned by another
way. After we left the grounds we noticed with sad eyes the miserable
cabins and barren fields at his gates. People of the upper, middle and
comfortable classes are so used to horrible cabins, thin laborers, old
women, barefoot, toothless, ragged and wretched, begging by the wayside
to keep out of the dreaded workhouse, that the sight makes not the
slightest impression. People tell me over and over again that they
deserve their poverty, for it is the result of extravagance and
drunkenness. This assertion makes one stare and then consider whose
faces show the greater evidence of the action of different liquors. It
would be an easy matter in a national gathering to pick out the class
and the strata of society that is the support of the liquor traffic in
Ireland.
XXXV.
WORKHOUSES - THE POOR LAW - A REASONABLE SUSPECT.
Returning from Rappa Castle we must pass the Ballina workhouse. My
friend had business there. As it was Board day, and I had about an hour
to spare, I thought I would look in and see what I thought of it in the
light of a possible refuge for many evicted ones.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 213 of 404
Words from 56165 to 56438
of 107283
