On entering some of the cabins he soon discovered the
cause. He was at once confronted with specimens of misery, which, he
says, no tongue or pen could give the slightest idea of. In the first
cabin he entered he found six famished, ghastly skeletons, to all
appearance dead, huddled in a corner on a little filthy straw, their
sole covering being what seemed a piece of ragged horsecloth; their
miserable shriveled limbs were hanging about as if they did not belong
to their bodies. He approached them in breathless horror, and found by a
slow whining moan that they were alive--four children, a woman, and what
had once been a man--all in fever. Mr. Cummins met other cases as
fearful, more especially one similar to that described by the writer
quoted above, where a corpse was lying amongst the surviving members of
the family, sharing their straw bed and their scanty covering.
At a meeting of the Killarney Relief Committee, the Earl of Kenmare
being in the chair, the parish priest, the Rev. B. O'Connor, made a
statement, which, except as an illustration of the unprecedented misery
to which the people had sunk, I would hesitate to reproduce. He said: "A
man employed on the public works became sick.
Pages:
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463