The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-05-28
LAUDING OF The NoRWEGlANs.

LAUDING OF The NORWEGlANS.
We publish today on the first page OF
| the Irish Standard an interesting address
delivered in this city on May II by
1gnatius Donnelly, the literary icono-
clast and uXorious philosopher, who re-
| Gently fell victim to Cupids darts and
married a young lady who first saw the
light in the frigid regions of the mid
| night sun. Anything proceeding from
to tongue Or pen of Mr.. Donnelly de-
| serves attention, whether people agree
with him or not. What he said of the
| Norwegians was appropriate to the oc-
caslon. They were celebrating their
own Fourth of July" and they expect
| ed to hear themselves eulogized by the
| ablest orator in the Northwest, who is
| now linked to them by ties of consan-
guinity, and by hooks of STEEL" as Lord
Bacon would say. Mr.. Donnellys ad-
dress to the Norwegians reminds us Of
| spreadeagle speech we heard on
Patrick's day many years ago In Michi-
| gan. The orator undertook to show that
| the Irish were the finest people on earth:
| that their origin was lost in the mists
of antiquity, and that the Celtic Ian
Guage used by their ancestors was
spoken by Adam and Eve in the garden
of Eden. Mr.. Donnolly traces the white
race back 10 the Scandinavian peninsula
The Irish Standard has not the re-
! hottest inclination to deprive the Nor
wegians of their ancient glory and
prowess among the nations 1t agrees
with Mr.. Donnelly in almost everything
he has said of them historically. When
he claims, however, that Norway is the
habitat of The Caucasians Of the entire
world and that its aborigines wero The
primitive progenitors of the white races
of Europe and Asia, he will find that
no philologist or ethnologist will agree
| with him. OF course, he is aware Of that
fact.
| The Celts, from which Mr. Donnelly
has sprung, seem to have been the first
OF the Aryans to arrive in Europe from
Persia and Armenia and the fertile val
leys watered by the Oxus. the Araxes
and Euphrates, the bissful site OF Para
disc as many learned Biblical scholars
suppose
The Gaelic language of his forefa-
theirs is considered by the phiologists
and linguists to be the twin sister of
Sanscrt. and like it is the oldest OF the
Indo-European family. The learned men
OF today are studying it because of its
antiquity, and one of them says that "a
person conversant with it could have
talked Hebrew to Moses, Greek to Aris-
totle, and Latin to Cicero
The Celtic is radical language, while
tho Norwegian language is y derivative
one. and is not the root of others. That
| is the consensus of opinion Of eminent
philologists in Germany, Switzerland and
other countries outside OF the British
Islands. Schleicher q German scholar,
shows in his compendium Of compare
tive grammar the position which Irish
holds as Il language in the wide field of
Aryan speech and gives 1t position
next after the eastern and classic off
shoots of the great Aryan tongues.
Tho Celts came TO Ireland fourteen
centuries before the Christian era; and
2,700 years ago they had written laws
in their own language. Six migrations
had reached the island before them, but
hn tn1 re
their masters. They were brave, chival-
rous, skilled in war, good navigators,
proud, boastful, superior in outer adorn-
ment as we'll as in mental culture to
ing race, they assumed the sovereignty
of the country, and became it's landed
proprietors and arstOcracy. In the 4tll
century after Christ they had their own
history written in their own language,
and mo nation OF modern Europe says
Sir James Macintosh, can make SINH
lar boast"
What Mr.. Donnelly says of the Nor
the eleventh century is perfectly COR
rect. The Norwegians subdued by the
Celts remained in the country and ANAL
gamated with their conquerors. In 1913
the offspring of the fusionists gave an cX-
hibition OF their fighting qualities in
| Wexford when $4,000 British rcdcoats
and their Orange auXiliarics were
slaughtered by them in the course Of a
| few months.
THE IRISH PARLIAMENTARY PARTY.
! In the last issue of United Ireland"