The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1897-11-13

peared at the Grannen hut and began a
summary process of eviction.
'The furniture was ruthlessly tumbled
through the doorway and the kitchen
utensils through the window. Young
Mrs. Grannen was lying i'll on a bed
She was ordered to get up. She could
not do it.
THE constables, nice, gentle beings
that they are, would have dragged her
from the bed had it not been for her
husband. With the assistance of some
sympathetic bystanders he carried bed
and all out to the roadside, where she
lay moaning and calling upon Heaven
to help her.
"The neighbors sympathized deeply
with the Grannens, but were afraid to
offer them shelter, knowing that it
would mean immediate eviction.
"That night the poor womans child
was born. Her husband built fire
by the side of the mattress, and the
neighbors did what they dared in the
way Of comforting the distressed fam
lily.
"The poor mother lay as one dead
for almost Two weeks. Then one night
when the watchers were doing, she
sprang to her feet with loud cry and
darted away in the darkness.
"She ran into stream of water and
tried to drown herself. She was
brought back and bound with ropes
But she made no more attempts to es-
cape. She had become gibbcring
lunatic.
"She was not violent. She would sit
and smile and weep in turns, refusing
to recognize her baby in any way. And
when it's little life went out she did not
appear to realize it.
Only once did she arouse from her
mental lethargy. That was during the
absence Of her husband, when the land
lords son came riding along on his
daily tours about the FARMS He refined
his horse. looked down at the woman
and laughed.
Some dim ray of memory must have
penetrated the lunatc's brain. AT any
rate, before her mother in-law could
stop her she grabbed billet of wood
from the smouldering fire and hurled it
at the young mans head.
1T struck him full in the face. Half
blinded. he put spurs to his horse and
ran away. On the following day the
demented mother was taken to lima
tic asylum, where she remains to this
day
''Is it a wonder that in consequence
OF such oppression 5000 pounds worth
of glass should have been broken in
Dublin on the occasion Of tie queens
Jubilee Or that the black flag should
have been raised?
ut has often been said that England's
difficulty is Irelands opportunity. There
is not true Irish man or woman in
Ireland who does not pray that the diff
ticulty will soon arrive,
The first and vital necessity for Ire
land Is to become free. Few people
realize how desperately our condition
really is, and how it is necessity not
alone of national but of actual MATER
ial existence to shake off En5lands
rule.
Any one who takes the trouble to
study facts and figures impartially Is
forced to the conclusion that England
is quietly, hypocritically and SYSTEM
atically accomplishing crime which
international tribunal of Justice. place
her outside the pale of civilization. She
is doing her best to exterminatc the
Irish people. whose crime In her eyes
is that they dare aspire TO freedom.
No. there is no eXaSeeration in what
I say. Tho figures speak for them
selves
During the reign of the gracious and
Christian Victoria our population has
been diminished almost by onchalf. 1t
has fallen from S,5OOOOO to 1900, 900.
and the poverty has increased with the
loss of population.
LA iocp IoobouO l'tl',ouo "clc III H.
ceipt Of poor-law relief. In 1886, in
spite of the decline in population, the
number had risen to 100000. Today |
think one nay say that nearly n sew
enth of the population has to receive
relief
IL proportion as the population de-
creascs and the misery augmcnts the
taxes rise! In 1887 Ireland paid G6,75O.-
900 taxation. Today, when we are
called upon to iublate over the sixty
years of Victoria's reign, the taxes
amount to ell 500, 900:
think | have said enough to prove
that nothing could be worse than the
present state of things in Ireland, and
that 1t is OF vital necessity to us to get
free OF England. The Irish people un-
dersLan( this.
But more important to them than all
is the great national sentiment. The
wild, deep Celtic love of liberty will
never let them rest until freedom is
won. England's difficulty may yet prove
1reland's opportunity"
The New York Herald's description of
Miss Come reads more like that of the