St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-03-02
BRILLIANT EFFORT.
Oonneliy Addresses the Irish
American CluO

Donneliy Addresses the Irish
American Ciub.
A large and appreciative audience
gathered last night at the rooms of the
Irish-Amerlcan club in the Endicott
Arcade to hear Hon. lgnatius Donnelly
speak upon The United States-Its
Place in History" President Butler,
of the club. introduced the speaker, who
was, he said. more widely known than
any man in America. Mr.. Donnelly
delivered tiOwery and most eloquent
address and carried his audience with
every period. 1t was filled with
bright little gems of eloquence,
and a spicy, piquant flavor
was given his discourse by many
an apt quotation. He said he believed
the world to be too full of God to leave
room for accident, quoting Shakes
peare's familiar ''Seven ages of man."
In speaking of Abraham Lincoln Mr..
Donnelly said: ''In one of the great
speeches at the beginning of that strug-
gle eliminating in our civil war Of that
man whose greatness grows upon us
the further we become removed from
hin-Abraham Lincoln Again he
said: when we look over this spleu-
did land we see a people the best
clothed, the most cultured and the best
fed race that live on this planet. Be.
hind all this there is Great Designer"
He then went back into the remote
past and showed how rude, uncouth
aud uncultured were the prOgenitors
of modern man. He told how
they lived in rude buts unfit to
even stable animals in. lie told
of the primitive coracles = rude
wickerwork frames over which skins
were stretched to form a boat-the
forefather Of the ocean leviathans, 1.-THE
floating palaces of today" He told of
now the ancient Irishman always car
ried heavy battle-ax over his shoulder.
He would meet another, converse with
him in an amicable way, and then, in
case he disapprOved of any utterance,
would suddenly crush in his skull.
Tine ancient Irishmen," said Mr.. Don
nelly, fused to mix the brains of their
enemies with lime. This would harden
when shaped into spears, and
became an awful and ire
sistlble weapon in offensive
warfare. In this way a mans brains
often became more powerful after death
than when living" He told of the
superStitions of the olden times. and
said, "Our ancestors were much like
the Sioux" Mr.. Donnelly recounted
how the women of Gaui, who, as Caesar
said, were often more ferocious than
the men, would. when they could fight
no longer any other way, lie down on
the ground and continue the struggle
with their legs. often kicking the
wind out of the Roman soldiers. "Out
of these ruder elements" continued. The
speaker, "came the gentle and refined
woman of this age" He believed, he
said. that the picture of Lady Macbeth
drawn in the Shakespeare plays. 80
called" laughter, was a true likeness
of the woman OF that period. He be-
.leved that we were fortunate in being,
as it were, on the edge of barbarsm.
In the cases of highly civilized races,
like the Chinese, who bad been such for
thousands of years, there is tendency
totoo much uniformity. He quoted the
reply of an eminent German-Prof.
Lieher who said the greatest
race was the one with the greatest
necks and largest wars.s. at IS the
combination of this ancient Strength
with modern cultivation that makes