The Irish standard., 1899-08-19

sons of Erin be in such places?-you
find them in too large numbers in asy-
lums and poor-houses in the land OF
plenty, in the land of fullest opportunity
will tell you why this happens. I
have studied their career from the At
lantic to the Pacific. I have asked the
cause OF their misfortunes, and every
where it was said to me, there is but one
cause-drink. I have gone to elee-
mosynary institutions where children of
Ireland were found, and I questioned
them one by one, and only one cause
led them there-drink. I have gone to
courts, municipal and state, and found
that OF all classes OF people sentenced in
those courts some seventy-fve per cent
were brought thither, directly or indi-
rectly, through drink. AS judge in
Chicago told me, OF Irish people com
ing before the courts ninety-five per
cent were brought thither by drink; in
other words that were it not for the one
tell curse, scarcely any Irishmen would
be before the courts. l have talked
with. employers OF labor, and they told
me that they wished to employ Irish
men, because Irishmen are so quick, so
agile. can do more intelligently, but they
say they are often afraid to employ them
because OF the temptation that causes so
many OF them to drink Oh course dur
ing the last twenty years a wonderful
change has been passing over Irishmen
in America, and they are now going
forth as one OF the most sober clements
IN the population. But while we con-
graduate ourselves on that fact, l think
1t were injustice to them, it were doing
them wrong, not sometimes to speak to
them OF the evils OF the past in order
that such evils may never attend them
in the future. say it with the deepest
conviction after ministry of nearly
forty years spent in America, that if
Irish emigrants coming to us had
brought with them the pledge OF Father
Mathew, and had adhered to it, there
would be now in America no element OF
the population so powerful, SO wealthy,
SO respected as the 1risll-Amercan peo-
pie (applause). And when l recall
these things-wlen I remember what
ought to have been, and then remember
what was the cause OF the failure, l feel
the strongest indignation arising in my
soul. and in my love for the Irish people
l speak forth anathema to Intoxicating
drink, and l swear before the living
God. so long as my hand can be raised,
it shall be raised i'll opposition to in
toxcating drink (app1ause); SO long as
my tongue can move, it shall be moved
in praise OF sobricty and in cursing in
toxicating liquor (rcnewed applause).
What the Irish people have been and
are at home you know better than 1 do.
But yet | know something, for follow
with the deepest interest the whole So
cial life OF Ireland. l know that there
are to-day in Ireland 10000 public
houses-tfat is, one public-house for
every ego souls, men, women, and chill
dren included. Subtract from these 236
the children who cannot drink, and a
large number Of men and women who,
thank God! don't drink, or drink with
the greatest sobriety, just fancy how
few there are to support each one Of
those public-houses, and how consist
emily those few must spend the fruits OF
their labor to support these vestibulcs
of hell! II l were to give, without ex-
PLANTATION, these figures throughout ELL
rope, and they are so given, people
would hold up their hands in horror at
the crime committed in Ireland We
are ready to explain and say: ooh, all
the crime was drunkenness; otherwise
our people are as good as any and per-
haps better than any. In Gods name,
then, why do you not take the matter in
hand and blot out from the fair face OF
Erin that stigma which attaches to it
before the nations OF the world. l am
certain that if you examine closely the
causes that led to this number OF arrests
you will find that, directly or Indirectly
ninety per cent are brought home to in
temperance. We know the Irish peo-
pie, and after forty years of ministry
among them | have come to the con-
clusion, that as priest l have but one
sermon to preach to them; that 1 am,
as it were, losing my time when I am
speaking on any other subject; that one
sermon is in denunciation of drink and
drunkenness. Give me a sober Irish
man, and I trust him anywhere, amid
any peril. His faith, his virtue are Sc
cure; and hence, when hear these
dreadful statistics OF so many arrests for
one year in holy ireland, remembering
that they are due to inten1perance, am
ready to call upon every lover of Ire
land and every lover OF religion to labor
with all the energy OF soul and body to
Dut down that one acCurSed cVil-in-