The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1895-05-25

A true-born Englishman's contradiction
In speech. an irony, in fact fiction;
"A metaphor invented to express &-5a
A man akin to all the universe.
Anything more motley and heteroge-
neous than the Anglo-Saxon blood, even
before the Norman invasion, made up,
as it was, from the veins Of Britons, Ro-
mans, Saxons, Picts, Scots and Danes, it
would be hard to conceive. It began
with the Celtic, of which it is a dilution
that very Celt with which certain
writer's are fond Of telling us it is in
deadly antagonism and enmity. Next
comes the Roman blood-blood shared,
more or less, by every people in Southern
and Western Europe, to say nothing Of
parts of Asia and Africa-and which we
know was derived from the mingling to-
gether of allsthe races OF ancient Italy
and Of the ancient world. Then follows
the blood Of the Picts and Scots, the
Jutes, Angles and Saxons, the Danes and
last of ALL the Normans, who, as DR..
Latham says, were. from first to last.
Celtic on the mothers side, and OH that
of the father Celtic, Roman and German,
and hence brought over to England only
the elements it had before-Celtic, flo-
man, German and Morse. All this shows
Eldl1llJ II1CI allS iuE1 Dl Gil!
race, composed Of pure Angelican and
Saxon elements, is sheer nonsense II
shows that the English Anglo-Saxon
ents as the leading European races, not
excepting the French; and that, hence,
is it simply absurd for Americans to call
themselves Anglossaxons, when they
have confounded, and are daily more
md ,f.,,1 fiir ho r,f
the English blood by infusion from the
veins OF all other nations OF Europe.
"The truth is that, made up as we are,
of so many nationalities, 'pigging to-
gether, head and points, in one trrckle-
bed we are as mixed, piebald, and hig-
gledy- -piggledy a race as the sun ever
looked down upon. Compared with us
the Romans, who first comprised all the
vagabonds of Italy, and finally incorpor-
ated into the empire all the semi-barbar-
ians Of Europe, were a homogeneous
race. To plume ourselves upon our All
glo-SaXon extraction is as ridiculous as
the inordinate pride-of ancestry rebuked
by Defoe. which led the sef-styled true
born Englishman' of his day to sneer at
the Iutch- +sE't
Forgetting that themselves arc all derived
From the most scoundrel race that ever
A horrid crowd of rambling thieves and
drones,
Who ransacked kingdoms and dispeopled
@ towns t.-
The Pict and painted Briton, treacherous
Scot
BY hunger. theft and rapine hither brought;
Norwegian pirates. buccaneering Danes
Whose red-haired offspring everywhere re-
mains; 81
who, Joined with Norman, French, COM
r.nI q .. i.t..H.
From whence your .true-born English
men" proceed.
"Out, then, upon this stereotyped laud-
alton of the Anglo-Saxon race. and it's
progressi There is nothing more dam
gerous to orr political unity than this
miserable can't about races, and espe-
'cially this gahble about Anglo-Saaon
blood, which we hear so often in the
United States. @
ut is just such talk as this which has
caused many civil wars in Europe. which
in 184S, set the Germans and the differ
ent Slavic races to cutting tach others s
throats, and it may lead to similar hor-
rors in our own country. It has already
reused the jealousy of our South Ameri-
can neighbors, whom our demagogues
are SO fond Of teaching us to regard as
an inferior race, and therefore doomed
to be our prey-the victims Of our mani
fest Destiny Those Americans who join
in these vauntings, proclaiming that We
are a great people because we are of the
same stock as the English, forget that
this self qualification is anything but
creditable to them that it detracts from
rather than adds to the. dignity of the
American character. Instead Of blush
ing or hanging down our heads on ac-
count of our mixed origin, we should be
proud Of it,for all history, ancient and
modern, shows that it is by the fusion Of.
races that all great and Vigorous new
races are made. All the powerful
nations Of Europe have been reconsti-
anewin this way, and
those are the weakest which have re-
ceiYed the least stimulus Of admfxture.
The purest population Of Europe, says
that distinguished ethnologist, /, DR..
Latham, are the Basques, the Laps, the;
Poles and the Frisians, confessedly
among the weakest and most insignifi-.
can't tribes OF Europe; and he adds that.
tthe most powerful nations are the most
heterogene The British are, Id:
many respects the most powerful people
of Europe, and they are also the most
heterogeneous. We are still more mixed.
and every day blends new elements with
our blood. making8 our pedigree more and
more d puzzle. Consi dering how much
Celtic, Scandinavian and other blood
runs Id oursveins, this Anglo-Saxon gIor-i
ification ID IoIr repub lie is peculiarly tn-$
2yidions. exasperating and misplaced.
America is not Angl glo= Saxon any more
than it IS Norman or Celtic; ii lis the.
grand asylum and home Of humanity {
where people OF every race and cline
under the whole heaven may stand erect
on one unvarying plane OF political and
religious equali feel that, despite the
lack OF lilies, power and &, they are;
nnen Tor a, that, and bless heaven that
q work to do. food toeat, books
TO read and the spriyileg sof WorsIi Iiip-.ss
ping God according to the dictates Of
their own conscis eos. Such 1nay its
ever remain. 81
a Neat Rejoiner,