Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-11-15
ERlOAY. NOV. Is, 1889.
\ Resrespect-Eooi Know Noshings.


A Resrespect-Eooi Know Noshtngs.
The assembling of the people who
Oommemorated the Centennial of the
establishment of the Roman Catholic
hierarchy in the United States day before
yesterday was in many respects mem.
orable, outside Of the ordinary incidents
in which the Oldest Christian church
celebrates those who have been auxiliary
to its success, or who have been identi-
fed with its early struggles. Roman
Catholicism in the Unitsd States knows
no more venerated name than Baltimore,
which gives to it's primstical see the note
which sounds all the summonses of
Bishops and Clergy. And yet Baltimore,
which, during the past week has wit
messed and sympsthized with a grand
Catholic and hierarchical display BAL
timore, whose Mayor received, in state,
the other day, the members of the Gath.
oaic Congress, was the point from which
radiated the most bloody and remorse-
less religious persecution recorded in
modern times. Thirty-four or thirty five
years ago the "Plue Uglies'' and "Dead
Rabbits Of Baltimore made many q
fantastic confagration of the Nero order
IN the present peaceful and courteous
Baltimore, which the other day received
the representatives of the Roman Catho.
lie Church with distinguished considera.
tion.
There was really something epic and
unexampled in the opposition to the Know
Nothing episodes, which had their brutal
eenters in New York, Boston, Philadel-
phia and Baltimore. They were blood.
thirsty and mufderous. They began
with the burning of converts in Boston,
and this inexpressibly brutal experience
radiased south to Charleston, South
Carolina, and to Louisville, Kentucky.
1t looked, for a moment, as if the whole
fabric of our civilization was about to
go down in an era of blood and thunder,
with Bill Poole, the romantic hero, who
had emblszoned on his Wellington up.
pers the legend, 'If you don't believe
I'm a butcher boy just smell of my
boots" as the modern Gustavus
Adolphus. The Irish in New York
were quite equal to hand to hand fight
with the butcher boy, and they won, the
disputed question being as to Bill's last
words, running as to whether he said,
II die a true American" the romantic,
Arkansas traveller version, or to the true
one, which represented him as turning
his face to the wall, with the melancholy
remark, "Mose, my mutton's cooked"
All through the country the Know
Nothing brutal propaganda ran. Sisters
OF Mercy and Sisters OF Charity were fiy-
ing everywhere, like hunted hares, poor
creatures. In New York the athletic
Irish, who represented the foreign ele-
ment-it was an indiscriminate Know
Nothing crusade against all foreigners.
and the Irish had to do the lighting for
the los-had knocked out their cowardly
and malignant opponents. In contest
OF muscle and nerve t,.ey proved to have
most muscle and most nerve. Bill was
cofined, and his compaiisros talked in a
low key, because there were foreign. born
people, and the children Of foreigners in
New York, who were ready to fill all the
cemeteries of the city and county
with Bill's fellow criminals. With the
malignant John Harper as Mayor of the
Empire City, if the confsgration of the
churches and converts had not ceased,
civilization in the leading American city
would have had its choice between a
grave in the Hudson, the Sound or the
Narrows. The foreign population, with
the Roman Catholic Irish at their head,
and very few people Of any other nation
atty in sight. turned and made their
fight on Manhattan Island. John Nor
rissey was harder hitter than Bill Poole,
and he lived to see brighter and more
brilliant era-one of tolerance and libsr-
governing the U nited States. They
were simply Knocked out, and they rec.
ognized the might of the fists and rsyoly-
ers OF Morrissey and his compeers. and
OF an accompanying condsmnatory spirit
all through the United States.
In Philadelphia, after burning the
convent on Fourth street, below Arch.
the Know Nothings killed couple of
honest and brave men, and dragged
them, with rope, by the neck, through
the principal streets. The Irish. who
represented the fighting foreign element
in that very rugged agitation, assembled
in West Philadelphia, and announced
their purpose to reduce the city to ashes
unless the foreign element should be &C.
corded fair play. At this stage Governor
Porter arrived with the militia, and sue
ceeded in restoring order.
The last flicker OF the Know Nothing
bigotry was in Washington City. The
Plug Uglies went over from Baltimore to
overrule the citizens of the National
Capital in their municipal election.
They were msandering up Pennsylvania
avenue on their jocund mission when
hey deserted battery of artillery of the