The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-01-04
IN FRATERNAL MOOD

In meditative article on Christmas and
New Years holidays United Ireland speaks
in hopeful vein of the unity of all fac
lions and sends greeting to the sons and
daughters of the old land wherever they
may happen to be located. It says:
Today, no doubt, there IS more than
enough in our national life ON which to
dwell in a spirit of disappointment and in
dignation, if not of bitterness and despair.
But all that is sealed book here during
the Christmas time, when even the prts-
oner in his cell and the pauper in the
work house feel touch of that inexplica-
bic spirit of joy which fills the air during
the week sacred to the Savior of the world
OF Christmas we may almost say what
Washington Irving wrote Of the grave,
that it covers every error, buries every
defect, extingu;shes every resentment.
The Christmas healing OF the wounds OF
the year is not an eternal healing; but who
can gauge, who can measure the height
and depth Of the evil prevented by this
annual baptism of the spirit IN the waters
of charity, and kindliness, and love? At
the New Year we make our good resolu-
tions. How many of us would make our
New Years resolutions mad our hearts not
been attuned to the sweet and holy influ-
enoes of the Yule-tide? "a merry Christ
mas!'' They are simple words, but as
neighbor halls neighbor with them, they
circle the land with golden memories, and
Ike the daisies pied and violets blue OF a
mel]ower season, paint the mills and val
legs with delight. We Irish, above all
other peoples should thank God for
Christmas. We have been cruelty tried
by fate; tried from without, and tried from
within; but through it all, year after year
as Christmas comes round, the dominant
note of our character triumphs, and good
feeling and good fellowship SIT enthroned
in a million ingle- nooks. 1t is now we re-
member that if Irishmen take different
views Of this or that-of politics, on the
one hand, or of religion on the other
they are all one people planted by fate in
the same little green island, destined, an
der heaven, to work, out their place in the
world as one united and homogeneous COM
muKLty. We know that certain sections of
our countrymen look more to London
than to Dublin as the center of their ma
tional life; but, while the spectacle is pain
full to witness, it does not make us despair,
for it will one day cease. After all, an
Irishman is nearer to an Irishman than
any 'Englshman or Scothchman can be.
Evidences of the fact are given us every
day IN the world Of spOrt-On the cricket
crease, in the football field. on the race
course. But there are more significant
evidences. There is mot thinking Bel
Eastman who does not know that during
the painful crisis through which the cap
ital of the North has been passing during
the last three or -four months, and out of
which it has not yet come, unfortunately,
Dublin has looked on with heartfelt regret
of sister city, while London has sat down
IN cold blood and counted the cost-the
cost, too, not to Belfast and to Ireland, but
the cost to England and to England's ma
w. No, at the bottom, and essentially.
we are one people just as the Americans,
drawn from nearly, all nations under the
sun, are one people. No division on ques-
tons of home rule, OF the Pope, or the
nf r1ro uyinp fho
inde,ible, invinc.ble sentiment which
comes from being born on the same soil
and from breathing the same air. It is
quite true that It takes many generations
to make the Ulster Presbyterian Scot into
real Irishman, but Irishman at last he
must be, as certainly as his fields grow
shamrock, or the trees his forefathers
planted around his homestead become at
last covered with the green Ivy of old Ire-
land. It was so with the Dane and Nor
man. Time at last makes all things even
and all things r:gat. And some day, I'M
less, indeed, the shamrock should cease to
spring up unbidden n the meadows, and
the ivy to wind it's immortal arms around
the ruins Of the. land, some day this sem
.t:ment Of brotherhood, which IS SO strong
In the hearts of Irishmen at Christmas,
will become more than sentiment, IN
deed, and maynap crown the nation with
the only diadem that becomes her brow.
This is the day y.hen the eroakers, and,
the cynics and the paszInlist mnsI stand