es. All tumblin' down, all
tumblin' down. Nobody dares invest money for fear he'd be robbed of
his property, the same as the landlords was robbed, an' will be
robbed, till the end of the chapther. 'Tis nothin' but robbery ye hear
of, an' gettin' other people's property for nothin'. The Home Rule
Bill would dhrive all the workin' men out of the counthry to England
and America. They must have employment, an' they must go where it is
to be had. Engineers have been threatenin' this line for forty years,
first one route an' then another, but divil a spade was put in it.
England found us the money to build the line, an' the labourers get
work. Where will we get work whin nobody would lend us money to build
lines? An Irish Parlimint wouldn't build a line in a thousand years.
For nobody would thrust thim wid the cash. Yes, wid ninepence a day
and thirteen shillings and sixpence a week, I'm comfortable enough.
But begorra, the pump leaks, an' I have to pump a quarther more than I
should. Av the pump worked right 'tis little grumblin' ye'd hear from
Luke Whelan."

Mr. George William Wood, contractors' agent, said:--"The men work as
well as they can, but they do not get over the ground like English
navvies. They are very regular, very quiet, very sober, and never give
the least trouble. Of course, they had to be taught, and they did not
like the big navvy shovels. They were used to the six-foot spades with
no cross-bar. Yes, you might think it harder work with such tools, but
then the Irish labourer dislikes to bend his back. The long handle
lets him keep his back straight, there's the difference. However, we
insist on the big, short shovels, and they have taken to them all
right. These men are not so strong as they seem, and they are not
worth nearly so much as English navvies. They may be willing, but they
have not the same stamina. The English navvy eats about two pounds of
beef for his dinner and washes it down with about two quarts of ale.
These men never see meat from one year's end to another. They live on
potatoes, and bits of dry bread and water. At three in the afternoon
they are not worth much, clean pumped out--might almost as well go
home. No, they don't live in hovels. Those who go home but once a
week are housed in good wooden sheds, or corrugated iron buildings,
with good beds and bedclothes. There are about forty of them in a hut,
with a hut-keeper to look after them and to keep order. For this
excellent lodging