The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-06-13
MR.. SIBBALD'S TURN.
One More Round In the Forestry Fight
Hard Words for Mr.. O'Mealia.

Hard Words for Mr.. O'NIealia.
To the Editor of the Jersey city NeWs:-
An old lawyer once said, when you
have no defence, blackguard the other fel-
low" Mr.. O'Mealia's case must be par
ticularly desperate, judging from the
strength of the torrent of invectiye he
pours out in his latest public utterance. ]
am surprised that he should SO lose his
temper as to think that an attempt to
vilify those whose opinions differ from
his win put him, or the cause which he
champions, in the right light before the
public, and / will add, parenthetically,
that it is customary in discussion to pre-
serve p%oliteness as far as possible, and to
call Your opponent Mr.. Jones or Mr..
Smith. A departure from this custom
must be attributed either to the heat of
debate or to ignorance of the propriet1eS.
In this case / will believe the former to be
the cause of the omission.
If Mr.. O'Mealia intends to adorn his
future communications with any of the
particular flowers of rhetoric with which
his last letter is so copiously b~edecked, /
must decline the argument. have neither
the inclination nor the capacity to throw
mud. 1t is an easy matter to label every
assertion 'lie" and to call it's author
liar" but invective is not argument.
Moreover, the intelligent public is not
likely to be edited by the mere bandying
of epithets. / trust, therefore, Mr.. O'Mea-
liza will have the common decency to re-
frain from the use of language which
cannot by any stretch of the imagination
be called polite. and is certainly unwar-
ranted, and which, coming from the lips
of one who has constituted himself the
champion of secession, is not calculated to
imnraec tho nIh1in fin hIu with tho
righteousness of his cause.
Mr.. O'Mealia asks whether / am willing
to admit colored men to membership in
Court Bergen. Let me answer him by
asking him another question. If intel
lectual giants such as Fred Douglas and
B. K. Bruce were proposed for member
ship in Court Jersey City, would he black
ball them?
Some time ago a member of Court Ber-
gen visited a certain court in this city,
while q circular communication from the
High Court of the World in relation to
the color question was under discussion.
This court is one of those in which a Ger
tain nationality" predomfnates. Court
Bergen's representative was requested to
give his opinion on the subject. He did
so, and of course it was on the lines on
which Court Bergen has always travelled.
In the middle of his remarks, a gentle
mar with a brogue as thick as a black
smiths apron sprang to his feet, and
with a vehemence worthy Of a nobler re-
.A. We licked them once and we
can do it again" The sentiment (f it
can be called such) was applauded to the
echo. / suppose Mr.. O'Mealia will tell me
that this man spoke as Al American and
that the applause was the tribute of
American hearts, and that Dublin vas
not an issue.
Two years ago a ''grand demonstration"
of the Foresters of Hudson county took
place. A parade was one of the principal
events on the programme, in order that
the public might see us and judge what q
fine organization we were, and how strong
we could turn out. Court Bergen was
one of the courts which took part in
that turn out, but it was the first and
last. The flag of a certain nationality
fioated from one end Of the line to the
other, proving conclusively that the
courts that carried them were purely
American, and that Dublin was not at
that time an issue. The uniformed rank
of the Knights Of Pythias paraded the
same day, but they were satisfied to
carry the American flag only. Last year
Ihad not the good fortune to see how
they demonstrated, y but from converse
lions l had afterward with persons who
witnessed the procession, the impression
seemed to still prevail with the public
that the nth of March had been trans
ferred to the month of September, and
that the Ancient Order of Hibernians
were having two parades a year.
Would Court Jersey City initiate a man
who said that he would renounce Forestry
in order to obtain final absolution? The
fact that the man in question did say so
cannot be disputed, although Mr.. O'Mea-
liz denies it with the peculiar vehemence
which marks his letter. 1t is probable
- a IL, +,-ao Al rranf1nV, a ~ ~ a., n.4
made the statement, the A. o. T. was not
recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.
I believe it has been o recognized for the
last year or two, and that in the ayes of
the Church it has the same standing as
have the Ancient Order of Hibernians
and the Knights of Labor.
A newspaper is not the proper place to
consequently, l have little to say about
the incorporators of Court Triumph, ex-
cept that | recognize some of the names
as those OF gentlemen who have not been
members of Court Bergen for three or
four wears, while the others well, my
advice to Court Triumph is, to get itself
Incorporated. If Court Bergen had been
INCORPORATED some years before she was,
she would have had a good many more
dollars in her treasury, and one, at least,
of the present incorporates of Court
Triumph would have been serving his
In q different manner than at
present. But, of course, a little matter
like that makes no difference to the
American Order of Foresters. So long as
a mans skin is white, the color of his
heart makes no difference.
We are perfectly aware that some of the
persons named as the incorporators of
Court Triumph left Court Bergen in a
very demoralized condition. Some of
them got out 50 quick, at the hands of our
Arbitration Committee, that it is no won
der they were demoralized. AS for the
twenty-five more, why does not Mr..
O'Mealia give us their namesS
Court Bergen is not an English court,
but is the most American court in Hud-
son county. The Englishmen in it don't
number ten. The action taken by Court
Bergen must be attributed almost entirely
to the native born American members,
who were not hoodwinked by the spread
eagleism INDUCED in by those who head