Identifier: irishliterature04read (find matches)
Title: The cabinet of Irish literature; selections from the works of the chief poet, orators, and prose writers of Ireland
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Read, Charles A. (Charles Anderson), 1841-1878 Tynan, Katharine, 1861-1931 O'Connor, T. P. (Thomas Power), 1848-1929
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Publisher: London : The Gresham Publishing Company
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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nd there is thehalf an acre of land attached, the entire beingheld from the local Board of Guardians. Thehouses cost about £80 for erection; thepurchase of the land from landlord andtenant, together with engineers and lawyers j fees, amounts to about half as much more; j and the return at so much a week comes to I about £2, 10s. It thus appears that therent of the little cottage and holding wouldnever repay the princij^al; and at first sightit would look as if this were a misuse of the : local rates, or that it has been done throughchaiity. It is true, indeed, that this is agreat boon to the labourer, because underthe old system he was as a rule ill-housed,wretchedly paid, and liable to ejectmentevery Lady-day. In that way he neverstood independent with his labour in themarket. The local rates are not, however, badly ex-pended in being laid out in this manner.First, it secures hands for the harvest andother busy seasons of the year; and in abroken harvest the farmers would verv soon
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COll.SO.N KHRNAHAN From a Photograpk by ELLIOTT £- IHV I ■il COULSON KERN A HAN. 345 lose by the scarcity of help ten times theamount they now do by this trifling increaseon the rates. In the second place, being intheir own cottages, as tliey nosv are, theywill be more self-supporting, and less likelyto be a burden by sickness on the rates. Inthe third place, and looking at it from anational point of view, it helps to fix ourpopulation (what we sorely need) in the soilof our country. The cottages, moreover, give a neat, prettylook to the country; whereas the old cabinswere an intolerable eyesore. Our people,too, will have the opportunity of learningand practising cleanliness; when, do theirbest, they could hardly be clean situated asthey were before. It may not be in a daythat we will be able to make a great strideforward, but the improvement, sooner orlater, is sure to come. There is Mikes footstep! See with whatgladness his poor wife hastens to the door! O Mike asthore, what kept

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