The San Francisco call., 1898-06-12

put they thought that, in view of the
 tragic events of 1S90-S1, of which Mr
 Gladstone's famous letter to MT. Nor
 Icy was the first and the death of
 Charles Stewart Parnell wa; the last,
 the most they themselves could be ex-
 pected to do was to keen silent They,
 accordingly, remained away from the
 rouse or Commons during the speeches
 uellVered in eulo~y of Gladstone. This
 clrcumstance has been the subject of
 aoNerse comment in the anti-Parnellite
 press, and that section of the Irish
 press has, further, found occasion for
 contrasting the action of the Parnellite
 members Of Parliament with that of
 ene DuDl1n Corporation, which, though
 mainly Parnellite, at meeting held a
 lew days ago decided to send deputa-
 tlon to take part in the funeral cere-
 monies at Westminster to-day. The
 whole controversy, however, is but an
 other phase of that which has gone on
 In Ireland for the last seven years. De-
 spite the action of the Dublin Corpor-
 atlon, which was decided on at a meet
 Ing hastily summoned and small, to
 boot, the Parnellites are ranged on one
 side in this matter and the anti-Par-
 nellltes on the other, and there is abun-
 dant evidence that if John Redmond
 and his colleagues had taken any other
 course than that actually adopted by
 them, they would have been repudiated
 by their supporters in this country.
 There is no need for me here to argue
 the matter, but at least one point on
 which Parnellites lay stress may be
 mentioned, It is that when Parnell died MT. Gladstone took exactly the line
 of saying nothing about the greatest Irish statesman of the century, while many of his followers In England by no means contented themselves with
 being merely silent. Possibly if l,- sl-.- analogous to that which the Parnellites are now, blamed for not taking. things would have been different to-day from what they are.
 The '9S celebrations in Ireland con- menced during the last week. On Sun
 day there were demonstrations in Rathfernhem County Dublin) and sev- eral other places which were scenes of action in the inSurrection of 100 years ago, and on Monday night there was
 torchlight procession through the streets of Dublin. All the nationalist
 parties united on each occasion, and genuine enthusiasm prevailed. The speeches delivered at the various meet ings showed at least one thing, namely, that the concession of local self-gov ernment to Ireland, which is now about to be made, will not have the effect of
 plotting out the past or doing away with the desire for a full measure of Irish freedom. That desire may not find full expression just now, but that it exists and will continue to exist is ab- solutely certain. Meanwhile, it is great ly feared in nationalist circles that the American-Spanish war will deprive the 'eS celebrations of what promised to be the most notable feature-the presence at them of representative Irish-Ameri cans. The advent of deputations from the States has been looked forward to for months past with the liveliest sat iSfaction, and the mere mention of the at popular gatherings, whether in Dublin or in the provinces, has invariably aroused a furor of en- thusiaSm. 1t has also, I rather fancy, greatly exercised the minds of Govern ment officials who never like to see Irish Americans in Ireland, for politi- cal purposes, or even for purposes only | connected with politics 1 or thirty years ago, in the 1 Fenian times, a broad-leaved felt hat | and pair of sQuare-toed boots were, | in the eyes of the agents of Dublin ] eion as to the wearer's loyalty, and not | all the talk of an Anglo | American alliance, l fancy that the | same suspicion would to-day be | aroused in Dublin Castle by the advent l 'f Irish Americans in large numbers to he shores of Ireland. Of course, there s now no law to enable arrests on sus- 1icion to be made, and in any case he rulers of Ireland would to-day hes tate to interfere in any way with Irish Americans on Irish soil; so that In ,oming over here this summer, even hough avowedly for the purpose of aking part in the '9S celebrations, will not run any risk If disagreeable consequences, however Castle ha l Dy their presence.
 For the past few years a considerable part of the business in the Superior Courts of law in Dublin has been con- leoted in one way or another with the ycle trade. It was Dublin man named Dunlop whose invention of the pneu- natic tire may be said to have revolu- ionized the whole cycle industry in hese kingdoms. MT. Dunlop himself made, of course, a considerable sum out if his invention, but others in Dublin made a great deal more, among whom he now world-known Messrs. Ducros, Charles Wisdom Healy and a Dr. Fred ,rick McCabe are the most notable. Harvey Ducros and his son of the same name, from having occupied a very tumble position, suddenly-that is to ay in the course of a very few years developed into men of what would be even in America, vast wealth, and began to live in very con- iderable style in the suburbs of Dublin Nor were there wanting instances of persons like city clerks making smaller ut still respectable fortunes by cycle hare speculations. The result was that Dublin became smitten, so to say, with he cycle share fever. Company after was fioated here, and not one if them ever failed to procure enough money from Dublin alone. The Irish .apital, in fact, became the favorite hunting ground for the cycle company promoter.