CH. III.] WIDOWS WITH YOUNG FAMILIES. 151 



old and feeble, but healthy ; only she is of a hardy race 

 of people she would not live at all in this state. She has 

 two sons, who are no help to her. Her children's houses 

 are little better than her own, and unless she happens to 

 come in at meal-time she gets nothing from them. 



3. Mary Manly is sixty years of age, and never had any 

 children. She is three or four years a widow. She held 

 three acres of land, for which she paid no rent, having 

 a freehold lease. She now has neither house nor land, 

 since she was turned out last May. While she had a 

 house, she kept lodgings and lived very comfortably. She 

 is now very low, and could not be much worse off. She 

 sold the most of her furniture, and must sell the rest : 

 she is depending upon charity. She is now in Dublin, 

 looking for law ; she went there on foot, to show her lease 

 to the Chancellor. 



4. Mary Halloran is forty-five years of age, and has five 

 children, the eldest of whom is only fourteen years old: 

 they all live with her, and she tries to support them by 

 washing, which is the only means she has of earning. 

 Her brother, a man who gets only petty jobs, helps her ; 

 she is not as badly off as some others, but she is worse off 

 than those who beg. 



5. Bridget Sullivan is seventy years of age, and has five 

 or six children, all of whom are married ; as yet she is en- 

 tirely supported by her children, and gets no assistance 

 from any other person. She has no house, and goes, turn 

 about, to each of them. 



6. Catherine Walsh has two sons, one of whom is not 

 able to earn a fraction, the other can earn 8d. a day when- 

 ever he gets employment ; nothing would please him better 

 than hard work if he could get it, but he cannot, and is 



