The record-union., 1898-01-16
BY Maud Come.

nave DeCn asked 10 write Oh AIlS sell
and of my work l do not like to write
of myself, first, because l am only
doing what is SO very natural for an
Irish woman to do. serving my country
to the best of my ability-there is moth
ing worthy of note in that-and second,
L think that the personality should al
ways become absorbed in the cause
when that cause is great and noble.
1t is a fault we Celtic people are apt
to fall into, of Identifying the cause
with the workers In it so much that
we at last see it only through them.
This is a great mistake, for an ideal
can never fail or disappoint one, while
human being, no matter how great
or how strong, may always fail. No
man can be absolutely sure of himself;
physical inffrmities may come, and the
greatest brain, the strongest heart, the
most iron nerves may weaken, and then
If we have worshiped a great cause in
his own person the glory of the spirit
ual ideal becomes hidden and obscured
for time by an earth cloud.
But l am wandering away from the
subject, and as speaking of my work
and why I took 1t up gives me an OPP
portunity of speaking of Ireland
through the pages of your great and
influential journal to the people OF
America, l am very happy indeed to do
so.
L was educated a good deal abroad,
and on going home to Ireland / could
not help but being terribly struck and
panied by the bitter, cruel class hatred
which existed and which was mani
tested so plainly by the conservatives.
landlord classes among whom 1 lived.
This was some ten or eleven years ago,
at a moment when the success of the
Land League had terrified the property
classes and made their feelings very
bitter
MORTIFIED BY EVICTIONS.
To give an instance of what 1 mean,
shortly after my return to Ireland l
was stopping at the house of a large
land owner in one of the center coun-
ties. l had heard vaguely that there
had been some evictions, but hardly re-
allied what it meant.
So few people do really realize what
human suffering and misery really is.
There was a large and brilliant dinner
party. | sat near my host, who sud-
denly raised his voice, and, addressing
himself to the table generally, said:
What fools these tenants are, They
think they can fight me, Such tenant
(naming one) refused to pay his rent;
said he couldn't. I warned him what
would happen when 1 evicted him and
destroyed his cabin. Tonight as I was
riding home 1 passed by where he and
his family are living, in a ditch his
wife is dying; I don't think she will
live till morning, and all she has to
shelter her are a few branches. Served
them right"
I looked around that gayly lighted
table, at all those bright faces. No one
looked shocked or even surprised! At
one end of the table some gentlemen
began speaking violently against the
Land League, and then the converse
ton turned to other subjects.
1t was incidents such as this that
first made me think. I then began to
read Irish history; for, strange as it
may seem to Americans, I had, like so
many others in my position, only been
taught Irish history in English history
books, which means that in a certain
and so-called educated class in Ireland
there are no people in the world more
utterly ignorant of the history of their
country.
If they would study the Irish history
more carefully, and especially Eng
lands dealings with Ireland during the
record reign Of Queen Victoria think
the Irish "unionist" ranks would grow
very thin. They would feel ashamed of
continuing to allow themselves to be
used by England as the instrument for
carrying out her policy of determination
of the Irish people.
Some Of them to-day are beginning
to realize that their policy has been
short sighted as we'll as wicked, and
that the ruin and determination of the
Irish people will necessarily also bring
about their own complete ruin. Some
of them are beginning to understand
that it would be wiser as we'll as nobler
to cast their lot with the national party
and help in building up a united Ire
land and defending her from English
robbery and plumber.
LORD CASTLETOWNS WARNING
The question of the financial relations
between England and Ireland. which
has been brought so much to the fore
of late by the finding of the Royal Com
mission of Inquiry that Ireland is, in