Five hundred workers went from
Westport Quay to Glasgow the other evening. More than two-thirds were
women from Achil Island, sturdy and sun-burnt, quaintly dressed in
short red kirtle, brilliant striped shawl, and enormous lace-up boots,
of fearful crushing power. Though not forbidding, the women were very
plain, ethnologically of low type, with small turn-up noses, small
eyes, large jaws, and large flat cheekbones. The men were ugly as sin
and coarse as young bulls, of which their movements were remindful. A
piper struck up a jig and couples of men danced wildly about, the
women looking on. Five shillings only for forty hours' sea-sickness,
with permission to stand about the deck all the time. Berths were, of
course, out of the question, and the boat moved slowly into the
Atlantic with hundreds of bareheaded women leaning over the sides.
Another boat-load will land at Liverpool, to return in September and
October. The best-informed people of these parts think that under the
proposed change the young female population of Mayo would be compelled
to stay in England altogether, and that their competition in the
English labour market would materially lower the rate of factory wage.
"They live hard and work like slaves when away from Ireland," said an
experienced sergeant of the Royal Irish Constabulary. "And yet they
are lazy, for on their return they will live somehow on the money they
bring back until the time comes to go again, and during the interval
they will hardly wash themselves. They will not work in their own
districts, nor for their friends, the small farmers. Partly pride,
partly laziness; you cannot understand them. The man who attempts to
explain the inconsistencies of the Irish character will have all his
work before him. Make the country a peasant-proprietary to suit the
small farmers, and the labouring class will go to England and Scotland
to live. The abolition of the big farmers will cut the ground from
under their feet. You will have Ireland bossing your elections, as in
America, and cutting the legs from under your artisans. For let me
tell you that once Paddy learns mechanical work he is a heap smarter
than any Englishman."

If Home Rule should become law, and if England should be over-run by
the charming people of Connaught, the brutal Saxon will be interested
to observe some of the ancient customs to which they cling with a
touching tenacity. Marriage with the Connaught folks is entirely a
matter