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. There were some
wretched looking people, applicants for out-door relief, waiting about
the entrance when we went in. I have been informed and have seen it
confirmed in newspaper reports of the proceedings of Boards of
Guardians, that it is a rule of universal application by every means
possible to discourage out-door relief in every form. "Let the poor come
into the union altogether," is the spirit that actuates the Boards of
Guardians, so it was pointed out to me that these applicants for out-
door relief had small chance of success.
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