New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1880-02-11

century. FAMINE IN IlZJ,
and hundreds persisted. Famine in
1741, and four hundred thousand
perished. Famine in 1855, and a
writer of that day says: ''Two-
thirds of our population are starv.
ing. - Famine in 1926, when a
writer says: ireland is the land Of
anomalies-the greatest restitution
on the richest soil. The greatest
wretchedness in all the world is
here. The complexion of the peo-
pie blue or green, according as they
have been compelled to devour
weeds, decided by the color of the
weeds they devour.' Famine in
1916, which some of you remember.
in 1916, when the Government of the
United States sent five hundred
thousand dollars to relieve the ia.
mine in Ireland, and that great gift
on the part of our country was met
by the ten million pounds, or fifty
million dollars, voted by the Eng
lish Parliament for the relief of the
famine in Ireland. Beneficience in
New York responding to the ten
thousand dollars given by Queen
Victoria out of her own private
purse, that the hunger Of Ireland
might be-. fed. Persia, China,
Egypt, India joining Christian ma.
tions in charitable crusade, yet
hundreds of thousands Of people
perishing, many of them as heroic as
the Irish who said to her husband:
'|Come here, let us all die together
rather than touch that which belongs
to another" A famine 50 terrible
that the remembrance oft in nine
teen years sent three million six
hundred and fifty mine thousand of
Irish people to this country. And
now the famine Of 1880: Iknew it
would come. I saw the deluge in
England, Ireland, and Scotland last
summer. I saw the harvests that
had been partially gathered float
away on the floods. | heard promi-
nent citizens in the streets of Bel.
fast, and Dublin, and Londonderry
say: ''We shall have famine; it is
inevitable And it has come, but
with this alienation: that whereas
in 1916 it took the news two weeks
to come by steamer, and the reply
two weeks to travel back, now,
thanks to the heroes of ocean tele.
graphy, the cry comes in flash, and
the answer goes back in a flash, So
that in the morning Ireland cries
''Hungry!" and before nightfal]
America responds, ''The bread
is on the way!' Oh! my country,
laden with three years of magnifi.
cent harvest, fon your rail-trains
hasten down the breadstuffs for DIV.
ing Ireland.
Oh! merchants of New York,
standing in this new morning of ma.
tional prosperity, keep the telegraphs
going while with your prompt bene.
ticence you command the foreign
grain markets to come to the rescue.
And ye people Of smaller means, be.
fore to-day you gather at your ia.
bles for the MONDAY repast, plan
some way for the relief of the starv,
ing people who came to tables in Ire
land where there is no food. I i'm.
plead you in the name of Him who
said, 81 was a.hungered, and ye
gave me meat Through merci.
full God, the most of US have been
kept from hearing in our household
the unavailing cry for bread. Nc
parents heart is stout enough tc
calmly hear cry like that. I dc
not wonder that some of these PEG.
pie IN famine get desperate. If
saw my family starving, and I could
get neither food nor work, while all
around there was plenty; ifI saw
my children dying by inches, and
there was a superauity all about,
and 1 could neither purchase MOI
implore held for them-Rather than
finish that sentence. l will say,
Good, keep ME from the tempta,
tion!'' Oh! hunger is an awful thing
when it comes down on household.
The work stops, laughter ceases,
conversation ceases, and there are
hollow eyes and there is a pinched'
ness of the features; and there is q
suppressed ferocity, and there is a
looking out Of the window for that
which comes not, and there is in.
supportable despair. The yoracity
of such was well illustrated When
the ships Of relief came to Ley.
den, and the bread was thrown from
the ships decks to the wharf; and
history says so great was the vora
city of those poor, starving creatures
that they picked up the bread and
choked themselves to death. All! il
is an awful thing to starve, but thai
process is going on now.
Oh! sirs, Ireland, in the day Of
her sorrow, has right to call upon
America. She has always been ou1
friend. Benjamin Franklin, at the
close of the last century,, wrote tt
this country, saying, ''The Irish
people are the friends of the Ameri
can people. So it was proved in 1776
so it was proved in 1912; so it was
proved two centuries ago, when there
was famine in New England, and q
shipload Of breadstu&s came from Ire.
land to Boston; 50 it was proved in
1861, when our national troubles
broke out, and in the front rank oil
armed courage flashed the Irish.
mans bayonet, and from the first
conflict to the last was heard the
[rishman's battle.shout. Some o1
you know the name of Tom. Francis