Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-03-17
ERIN-G0-BRAGH.
st. Patrick's Day-Ced Mile Failthe.
Emmett Guards---'sLam Dearg Aboo."
HIBERNIANS- CRUISKEEN LAWN.
----
Temperance Society-Acushla Machree
Literary Society = The Immortal
Shamrock.
ERIN-GO-BRAGH.
HIBERNIANs-CRUISKEEN LAWN
Temperance Society-Acushla Machre

For upward of thousand years the
Irish heart and the Irish mind have OBJ
served the Feast of st. Patrick. To-day
in all ends of the earth wherever there
is church and congregation of Irish
men, honor is paid to the Patron Saint
of Erin. In all large cities Of the United
States it is day of great glee and jolli-
fication, and Memphis has been no ex-
ception to the custom.
1t is right and proper that lrishmen
should celebrate st. Patrick's Day with
the warmest emotions of love and ven
Grafton. 1t awalxens in them spark of
the long ago when the wolf-dog lay
down by the harp of Irene, and the min
strel sang songs of the Gael
when her Kings, with standards of green
unfurl'd,
Led the Red -Braude Knight TO danger,
Ere the emerald gem Of the Western world
Was set in the crown OF stranger.
1t also brings back to their minds
many of the golden legends of their
land, for every Irish hillside has its chant
of chivalry and its tale Of love, every
glade and hamlet charming history,
and every lake and river tradition Of
the sweetest fancy. qmai
The very fact of the shamrock being
used as an emblem of the Trinity and
causing the hearts of heroic people to
change from the dark ways of heathenism
to the bright ways of Christianity, is
enough to make it worthy Of the highest
honor The Round Towers are in ruins,
the Baal-fres have been long extin-
guished; but the light of pure religion
still blazes, and the love of the shamrock
still lives.
Why wonder, then, that the music of
Patrick Day" is sufficient to make an
Irish mind think of Tara hall, where the
harp of Erin lies mute, as if its soul
were fed" of the hill of Hottie. rising
like an emerald cone above the deep-blue
waters of Dublin bay; of the Giants
Causeway, whose crystalized columns
glisten in the noontide sun; of the lakes
of Killarney, as beautiful as the rivers of
bliss; of the vale of Avoca, where the
innet and the goldfnch chirp their matin
hymns; of the winding waters of the
Slaney and the Shannon, the Barrow
and the More, the Blackwater and the
Boyne, so mingled with battle, song and
story?
True, there are some dark pictures,
too. for the Irish mind to think of-pic-
lures wrought by oppression and penal
laws, by tyranny the most bitter and
calling. Ay, that tyranny has spread a
mantle of misery over land gifted by
nature, has driven tide of sorrow into
the souls of a generous people, so that
farm and Preside look dismal and dreary.
The lark may sing in the lawn, the white
thorn may bloom in the hedge, the green
ivy may creep DER the wall, the daisy
may adorn the field, but the heart of old
Ireland weeps. However, here in the
land of the free" all Irishmen enjoy
themselves as best they may.
At halfpast nine o'clock this morning
the Emmett Guards made their first ap-
pearance, thirty muskets strong, arrayed
in their new uniform-green jackets and
caps, trimmed with gold, and gray pants,
with gold cord down the standardized
from their armory to the headquarters OF
the Hibernian Mutual Relief Society, on
the corner of Main and Adams streets,
when column of societies was formed
and procession took place in the fol-
lowing order;
Old Memphis Brass Band.
Emmett Guards.
Sodaity Band.
Hibernian Mutual Relief Society.
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