1?0 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK II. 



take fivepence a week to supply me, and I do not get so 

 much. With some of what I get I buy tobacco, with the 

 remainder I buy tobacco water, and steeping tow in it, 

 I make that do instead of tobacco. For clothing I must 

 depend on chance, as some one may give me a cast coat 

 or other article. I got this coat from an old shipmate I 

 happened to meet at the quay. 51 



With regard to his fellow-labourers, Toole continues : 



" Of all the labourers that used to work with me, I do not 

 know above a dozen that have passed the age of sixty : 

 they are unwilling to beg, and work on to the very last of 

 their strength ; hard work, when they are not able for 

 it, and bad keeping, kills them off. Five of these old 

 men past sixty, that I formerly knew as workmen, are 

 begging about; as many more are living in the country 

 among their children, that have got some land ; and I now 

 remember three above that age, who, rather than beg, 

 still hold out working, though, between age and sickness, 

 they are badly able to do so. I have not known any 

 old man belonging to this place leave it from shame, in 

 order to beg elsewhere. When a man is known to have 

 been honest in his time, he is best relieved at home ; be- 

 sides, the men generally work so long, that when they 

 come to beg they are too weak to travel far/ 5 



One witness said, that he recollected the time when it 

 would have been a disgrace that any near relative should 

 be seen begging ; but, he adds, poverty is now so great 

 that the shame is worn off, and children are learning to see 

 their parents beg without feeling it much. 



Another witness said, that the age of the old people in- 

 spires compassion, but that the young, when in want of em- 

 ployment, are in greater distress than the old and infirm. 



