Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 June 1890 — THE CONNEMARA GIRL. [ARTICLE]

THE CONNEMARA GIRL.

Her Dress, Her Food, Her Charms, and Her One Dream of Life. > The Connemara girl! She weighs about 180 pounds. She wears a woolen peticoat woven by herself, and over her head and serving the purposes of both shawl and hood is a white peticoat, held in place by her left hand under her chin. The red-petticoat reaches only half-way down her calves. The stride of this child ofthe bog is Amazonian, yet very graceful. Her days are spent in carrying seaweed for manure, turf for the fire, and water for the illicit still. Sometimes she carries the turf a distance of two miles on her back in a wicker basket. Her load generally weighs about 100 pounds. Her stockings have no soles, and she is too poor to buy shoes. But she wears the legs of heavy stockings to protect her calves, when the edge of her heavy petticoat, wet with sea water, slaps against them. Her hands resemble a piece of tanned leather, they are so hardened by toil. The brown cow that browses in the bog is no more innocent than this maid of the crag and bog land. Such a wealth erf color, such satin skin and such vigorous health are not seen in America. In the evening, after this maiden has worked like a donkey, she goes home and eats a supper of potatoes (boiled potatoes) nothing else. Her father or mother may drink a cup of tea, but that luxury is denied to the girl. The tea costs too much. When the potatoe skins have been fed to the pig the Connemara girl heaps on the turf, for there is plenty of it there, and nods herself to sleep in the chimney nook. Or, it may be, if there are visitors or neighbors in the house, she will lilt or hum for them to dance by on the hearthstone. This lilt is one of the quaintest things heard in Ireland. The sounds resemble closely those of an Irish pipe. They are produced by the vocal organs in conjunction with the tongue. The tune is usually very rapid, and the lilter catches her breath frequently. And what do you suppose the Connemara girl’s by night and by day is? ‘Tis that she may gather S2O together so that she can go to America, the land of catarrh and pneumonta; of indoor work, where she will lose her satiny skin and splendid vigor; where her eyes will ache for a sight of the Tweve Pins of Connemara; where—but, pshaw! she’ll cross the sea when she gets her passage money.