The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-14

lrelandS patron saint ore heard over the
length and breadth of this land. Not even in
the island he freed from toads and SER
penis will his memory be celebrated with
as much pomp and enthusiasm as will be wit
messed in the towns and cities of the American
Union. The feast of st. Patrick has a dual
quality. 1t is at once religious and national,
and so is bound up with the strongest and
most enduring sentiments of the human heart.
Hence its power in awakening whatever OF
love and reverence for their native land re-
mains in the breasts of the scattered members
Of the Irish family. Love of country is
virtue which deserves respect, and when wisely
displayed commands it. We can sympathize
with the principle underlying the honor paid
to the memory of st. Patrick We rec
ogniZe it as form OF protest
against the disappearance of Ireland from
the list Of nations AS a protest we hold
it to be ineffective and unnecessary, especially
now, when Ireland has once more found
voice to protest within her own shores against
the injustice to which for ages she has been
subjected The system of celebrating this
festival by public parades, involving large
outlay, is founded on a misapprehension as to
the value and effect of such demonstrations.
The men who engage in them are for the most
part simple, honest, industrious citizens. In
the new home they have not forgotten the old
land where rest their fathers bones-the
scenes halowed by the memory of
mothers love. Looking back from amid
the feverish struggle and toll Of their present
existence they see like an oasis in the desert of
life the Green Isle of their early youth. They
see their land as men behold their mothers
face through the long forgotten years, smiling
and radiant to them, though to all the rest Of
the world haggard and bedimmed with tears.
The Irish people have never abandoned the
hope Of recovering their independence. They
have submitted to power they could not resist,
but never accepted their defeat as final. The
st. Patricks Day parade is chiefly important
to the average Irishman because it is a visible
confession of his faith that some day 'Ireland
will be nation once again" The more intel
| ligent Irishmen hold aloof from these displays,
because they look on them as unwise and use
less. They recognize that when the parade is
done Ireland is no nearer to being free, nor is
the world any more sympatheticaliy disposed
toward her cause 1t is we'll know that
the contrary is the case. People who do not
understand the underlying sentiment which
prompts these displays are liable to be Of
Tended at them. Others who see the mass of
workingmen separated from their natural
leaders, the men OF education and intelligence,
who persistently decline to take part in them,
are likely enough to form very untavorable
and very erroneous idea of the intelligence
and standing OF the Irish people in this COM
munity. While other nations are judged by
their intellectual giants these parades ex-
pose the Irish in America to the danger
of being judged by the Drawn and
muscle rather than the brain and
intelligence of the race. II these celebrations
did no more injury than this there would be
sufficient reason for their discontlnuance; but
they do infinitely more damage. In this city
alone they take thousands of men from their
work and induce poor, struggling workers to
expend in idle and foolish display money that
were better applied to benefit their families.
At low calculation the Irish residents of
New York expend yearly on their st. Pat
rick's parade one hundred and fifty thou
sand dollars, which they might better cast
into the sea. If, instead of wasting this
money on German bands and gaudy banners,
they were to apply it to the erection of an
Irish hospital, for the relief of the suffering
of their own race, or found with it an aid
society for the benefit of poor Irish emigrants,
how much real good could they not accom-
plish Such an expenditure of their money
would secure for them the friendship and
good will Of oil citizens and would be
more practical way Of displaying their
patriotism than all the parading
they could do in a century. 1t is charged
against the Irish people that. though warm
hearted and impulsive they are eminenty I'M
practical as people. They certainly, in this
country, lay themselves open to the charge
for while they possess means and opportunity
OF doing much good for the weak and helpless
of their own race they allow themselves to be
blinded and misled by the blatant patriotism
of men who hatter only to use them. 1t is
sad that men who in the ordinary affairs of
life do not lack quickness of perception or in
telligent understanding should allow them
selves to be led into foolish course by selfish
and designing politicians, who lead in these
foolish displays In order to acquire the right
TO sell with advantage the influence they de-
rive from hollow pretence of patriotism
large section of the Irish residents are in
favor of disseminating these annual parades,
and we hope the wisdom of this course will
recommend itself to the common sense of the
societies that are principally responsible for
their continuance.