The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1881-11-11
CALUMNIATING A NOBLE RACE.

! Mr.. John Walter, the owner Of the London
I Times, has departed from the Iule Of his life
I and spoken with some freedom TO an inter
viewer. Among his contributions to the wis
dom Of current debate is judgment on Phil
adephia's pavements, overhead railroads
and the irrepressibility Of the Irish, which
are worth word Of comment. He holds
Philadelphia the most execrably paved city
I in the known world. with money wasted IN
ludicrOusly misplaced and miscalculsted pub
/ lie edifces, which, if properly expended,
would give the citizens some of the comforts
as well as the burdens of city lif,. The over
head roads he regard as, all things consider
ed, more desirable than the underground
lines, providing Of course, that instead OF
being the hideous man'traps now Ieigning in
New York they be constructed as the Penn
sylvania line is from the river TO Penn Square
To this point the opinion Of the eminent pub
iicist falls in with the asertsined convictions
of most accurate observers, but when he
deals with the Irish race in this summary
fashion 1t is impossible to credit the saCac-
ious penetration of the preceding remarks
as uttered by the tongue capable Of the fol-
/ lowing narrow, unjust, unphiosOphc and IL
belous calumny: "Dae Irish. " he says, ''are
fractious. turbulent people. They are so
by temperament, individually and collective
". Take, for instance, your own country.
Look at MARYLAND and Pennsvlvania riots
some years ago. Who We're the prime fac
tors in these disturbances? The IrisE; and
so you will find it the world over The Irish
have been and always win be difficult people
to deal with
Men who were not bad and meant to tell
the truth have been burnt and quaItered for
utterances, which were holy writ compared
to this incredible ont pouring of prejudice
Mr.. Walter cannot have read the history Of
the generous, magnauimous people thus ira
duced or he would have shrunk from the al
ternatives his words placed him between. A
people who have endured spOIiati4n and try
amy of the exquisitply cruel sort which the
fecundity Of the robust English intellect
seems alone capable Of inventiug can hardly
be called intractable. hatthere has been an
alien Eng.iSmnan on the sol of Ireland dur
ing the last seven hundred years Is an ire
fragabIe te,timonyto the law abfdiugd0eilitv
Of people whose blood has washed every
battlefield where the British flag waved over
a victorious army. It does not become the
mouth OF a Briton to denouuce the race that
gave tie House of Hanover Wellington. a
Burke, Sheridan and a Pa!meiston, a Mel
son aud DJnGonald it does not befit a
race saved from the universal dominion of
first she Bourbon and then the Bonaparte on
the fields of RaWil.eS. BIeuneim, NaIpiaquet
OudeHarde, Namur and the Dykes. or on the
sweeps of Torres Vedras, Vitturia. Bavonue.
Toulouse and Waterloo To stignatize the
most valiant If unfortunate race in Chrfsten.
dom as turbulent
Where the British monuments rise highest
Irisn vaior illustrates them; where Brftisl
institutions shine most reSplendent Irish ge
MUS illuminateS them where the rights of
race we're most securely guarded the saCac
ity and wisdom of Irish statesmen through
ont the problem and foruu 'atpd the eterna
truth. Nor Is i- i'm a country where the mem
ory of Jefferson. a Jackson. a Hamilton. q
Patrick Henry and a sullivan is pprpetuateS
i'm the compact of our independence tina
such words as Mr Walters are ftlv spoken
The rosters of our armies from 1T75 tiII lS6,
are too eloquent Of the bravery endurance,
and valor ot the Irish race to let us rerar,
the charge this Eug'i~huan is imuui-n
enoTgh to make as anything less than mon
strous
Nor is it true that the particular ravnits ht
cites in Maryland were dirrctlyor Indirectly
closely or remotely. the thought, impulse o
handjwork If the Irish race. It is a calum
ny so gross that ifs mere statement refute.
it. The Irish race are turbulent as the Mis-
sisSippi is turbulent when the veuturesnm,
hand of man seeks 90 carry its ma1esti,
channel through an inadequate aperture
they are turbulent a. the ocean when To,
storm disturhs its equipoise; they are turhu
lent as all men are when the npr. of a spoil
or IS on their reck when the might that e.
not right seeks % make them flesh of hate,
fish. home of hated bone, when the d-~tinr
of conquest without the maguanimity of kin
ship seeks tn win them over To- a race whusu
every utte~anCe l. an insult and a wrong
They are a difHcuit people 10 deal with a
the children Of Israel were difficult uudt
the stranger domination uf Egypt. But j
they were all these withcut reason and NOR
than these without cause, it is not for a.
EncIi>hman to say it in country wher
their citizenship has Illustrated the best twp
Of civilized society Philadelphia Times.