The Irish standard., 1897-06-05
IMMIGRATION OF ERIA's DAUGHTERS
THEIR DEPARTURE FROM HOME IS
A CALAMITY TO IRELAND.
oEA1A-sEn1ENcE OF An IRISH NATION
IS WHAT THE PATRIOT BEHOLDS IN
THE REPATRIATION.

The Irish-American patriots, John +.
Finerty, of Chicago, and John Brennan,
of Sioux City, Iowa, see no cause for
rejoicing in the large immigration Of
Erin's fair daughters to the United
States this year. On the contrary, their
hearts feel sad when they reflect what
the departure of so many young women
from their island home means to the
race of which they are the life-blood.
The Irish Standard reproduced last
week from the Chicago Citizen what Mr..
Ffnerty thought of the hegira of the
young women of Ireland. The follow
ing is what John Brennan says Of it in
the Northwestern Catholic:
The great daily newspapers Of Ameri-
ca, half pathetically, half facetiously,
continue to record the arrivals of whole
ship-loads of Irish girls. In the express
sions of welcome accorded them Shere is
no discordant note. It is caed mile
failte. They meet the requirements of
the immigration laws: They are young,
virtuous, healthy and self-supporting;
and while the domestic economist halls
their coming as welcome reinforce
ment to the household service of the
country, the political economist with
ampler vision, halls them as a strong,
fresh current of human life-b1ood swell.
ing the stream Of American nationality.
God help them, poor girls. Little they
know of census returns. They, only
know that they crossed the Atlantic
ocean to generous land in which mil
lions of their kindred have found a
home, and which again extends her low
ing arms to receive them to her warm
young breast, and so, brave girls, all
fearless they face the bitter binding
storms that sweep the highway Of the;
world, to seek the reward for honest la
bor denied them at home; exiles of hope
and Of charity, ambitious to save the
hard-won pennies afforded by the better
wages of America for the helpless ones
they left behind.
But their coming is pathetic specta-
Gle that will excite in the hearts of Irish
patriots on both sides of the ocean, most
serious misgivings for the future. They
are the life-blood of an ancient nation,
crushed as with wine press, by mis-
government; and in their departure the
patriot beholds the hand writing on the
wall-the death sentence of an Irish ma
tion. In the Divine economy they ought
to be the mothers of race of men, the
highest hope of their island home. But
fate would have it otherwise. They will
be blended indistinguishably in the life
of greater nation and forever lost to
their own land of beauty, Of love and
of sorrow. They bade eternal farewell
to gray-haired sires and dim-eyed moth
ers; and they were in many cases the
eldest members of helpless families, the
younger members of which will cherish
as a dearest ambition the prospect of
some day Joining the exiled sister in the
land of freedom and Of plenty.
Philosophers may cheer us with the
slender consolation that it is the lot of
man to move as well as to mourn; that
their coming is matter Of destiny or
compliance with the purpose Of Provi-
dence. But we could never so regard
the expatriation of race In their de-
portation we can only see the same set
tied purpose of British policy resolved
on the extirpation of people, the tear
ing of the stalk from Irish earth, to be
flung upon the ocean and to drift to the
ends of the earth-anywhere out of Ire
land. We can see that God for His own
purposes permits the sacrifice; but we
cannot penetrate the veil that covers
those purposes. We can only acknowl-
edge His wisdom, and sorrowfu1ly bow
before His inscrutable decree.
The New York Sun described the Irish
girls as follows:
They were about as lively a set as
ever set foot In this country, and when
they caught sight of the big city of
was boundless. At Ellis Island one can
often see immigrants who look glum,
or have an expression Of dull care, or
walk as though their bodies were too
heavy for their spirits, or seem to be
afraid Of something. or are in trouble
because they do not understand the IAN
guage OF the country. But these 500
young Irishwomen had smiling faeess
Il