St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1897-06-19
IN THE OLD TIME.

nanincs Eighty Years Ago.
1t is not only astonishing, but really
humiliating, to observe with what VEN
| Grafton certain class of our good citi-
zens look upon everything of British
birth, or British origin; and with what
| sickly affeetation and parricidal con-
| tempt they speak of their own coun-
| try, its powers, its products, its govern
ment, it's manners and its institu-
tions. This is neither the effect OF
ambition, of power, of honest prejudice,
/ of party heat. Tt results from innate
| and conscious littleness. 1t is the obia-
| tion of low, groyeling, and sycophan-
tic spirit-of mind that shrinks from
independence and graduates totyranny,
as atoms to the center. !. It must
not be disguised -. that there is
| another class more numerous
and more respectable; possessed OF
| talents, if not of integrity; and of in
/ fuenee, if not of patriotism-professed-
| ly attached to their country, its inter-
ests and its honor, who, neyerthe-
| less seem to look up to the Eng
| lish with a kind of awful reverence; a
sort of bewildered adnliration-as the
source of all that is sublime and beauti-
| full on earthi
| From whence rises this strange at
tach1nent? Is it to be traced to those
Turing and amiable qualities that base
| and constitute the character of an Eng
| lishman? That inflated arrogance; that
assumption of excellence; that boast Of
| power, which admits of no equal and
allows of no competition; that insolent
but affected contempt of other govern
| ments and other countries; that inn
| potent but imposing attitude; that
nerveless but dictatorial spirit-in
short, that boasted and exclusive perfec-
| ton in arts and in arms, in morals and
in manners! Or does it arise from
| their superior observance of religious
duties? Is our admiration excited by
that false and affected piety-that hypo-
critical devotion which, amid lust and
rapine, murders, massacres and con-
fagrations, sacrilegiously appeals to
| the cross, and assumes at once the con-
/ troll and defense of the Christian world I?
! Re these the captivating traits
| dazzle our countrynlen? Are these the
| alluring qualities that Danish from our
breasts that love of country, that spirit
of independence, that self-respect and
all those local affections which nature
has implanted alike in the Indian and
the Arab? Or does the remembrance of
the maternal solicitude and protection
| of England during our flial yassalage
inspire US with this unbounded admira-
tion? Is the debt of gratitude for the
support of our infancy, and for the
/ manifold blessings bestowed upon us
in our ripper years, never to be dis
! charged?
Is our love excited by. the recollection
of her affectionate embraces at Lexing-
/ ton-her more than maternal fondness
in arming the merciless savages and
/ pouring them upon our defenseless
women and children-her employment
of the mercenary barbarians of Ger
many and the refuse of her own king
| dom to ravage our coasts, to burn our
cities. and to carry fire and sword into
| the heart of our peaceful country-in
short, to rob us Of our property and free
dom, and to reduce us to state of SER
| vile dependence, of base and uncondi-
tional submission? Does the recollec-
| ton of these things-does her own his
tory, or the history of our revolution,
| fill us with this immeasurable respect?
Or, must we descend to her more re-
cent achievements, and attribute it to
| her total disregard of the laws of ma
tions, and of those principles that gov
ern the civilized world-to the spelia-
| tions of our commerce and the Impress
/ ment of our sean1en; to the murder of
Pierce; to the base and cowar1ly attack
upon the Chesapeake; to the inhuman
treatment of American prisoners; to the
! petty pillage and wanton destruction of
private property at Havre-de-Gr 70
the shocking outrages at Hampton; TO
the burning of the capitol; to the horr;d
1nutilations and Eaassacres of our de-
fenseless inhabitants by her Scotch ruff
fans and savage allies, and, lastly, to
that bastard cruelty, that character
istic baseness, that bloodthirsty dispo-
sition displayed in the late murders at
Dartmoor prison ?-N. Y. Collector of
1915.
The Cause OF the Row.
Gibbs-H How did Bliffers come to hit
.,r,, o 5ssE