ways the rallying point for beggars; and this morning the Roman Catholic Dean was upon the top, and I went out to take my seat, but was happy to retreat into a shop, for I supposed that all the inmates of the workhouse were poured out for want of food, and were sent to prey upon the inhabitants. In this dreadful flock there was not one redeeming quality—not one countenance that smiled, nor one voice that uttered a sally of Irish wit—all was piteous entreaty, without deceit; for no proof was needed of sincerity, but the look they gave us. I was urged to my seat through the crowd, and no sight like that had ever met my eyes as when that coach whirled from that haggard assemblage.
SOUP-SHOPS.
It is well known that among the many devices for the cure of Ireland's famine, the soup-shops and "stirabout" establishments, ranked among the foremost, and the most effectual for some time. These were got up in many places at a great expense, so much so, that had they expected to have fed the nation on beef-bones and yellow Indian for centuries to come, they could not have been more durably made and fixed. There was quite a competition to excel in some places, to make not only durable boilers, but something that looked a little tasty, and he that "got up" the best was quite a hero. But the soup-shop of soup-shops, and the boiler of boilers, the one that sung the requiem to all that had gone before, was the immortalized one of Soyer, the French soup-maker and savory inventer
