The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-26

in the spirit of a free lance chivalry he
was ready to serve any flag and any
cause save one. Wherever the recruit
ing sergeants of the armies of Europe
carried their canes and t1uttered their
shoulder knots, men from every county
and every town of Ireland came up to
them, offering their blood and brains in
exchange for a chance of six feet of
honorable earth and chance to
strike, some time and somehow, a blow
at the traditional enemy. To the
minds eye they seem to line up, those
legions of gallant, hopeless children of
Ireland, fierce, tender generations, hab-
tied in every uniform under heaven,
talking every speech on earth with the
brave Milesian brogue and ready at any
instant to fight anybody and every
body, but above all, one enemy, with
the cheerful pugnacity which came
with their first breath, only to leave
with their last.
l know of nothing which expresses
more pathetically the position of the
1rishman abroad than the ballad which
belongs to the Spirit of the Nation
collection, the ballad of The Irish Bri-
gade. 1t represents the comrades of
that famous cohort gathered together
on the eve of battle. THE mess tent
| is full and the glasses are set and the
gallant Count Thomond is president
| yet The veteran proposes a health
| to the French king, which is drunk in
| a rapture of loyalty and applause a
| toast to King James, which is received
with reverence and one to George the
| Elector,' which is greeted with cheer
| full derision. Then comes the tragic
note. Good luck to the girls that we
wooed long ago where Shannon and
Barrow and Blackwater Gow." Dear
| and beautiful names of dear and beau
tiful rivers, to be forever remembered
by Elbe and Rhine and Maine and
Seine and God knows how many alien
streams besides. So the song sweeps
on to the last toast God prosper old
Ireland and at that toast the cheeks
of the brave men pale and in another
moment they rush out to fight as they
have fought before. as they will fight
again.
That song of the Irish Brigade is to
me a deathless allegory, the abiding
parable of the good and brave men, the
generous and the faithful and the true
who have carried their love for Ire
land into strange lands and surren-
dered their genius to strange services
and have shown to all the world what
the 1rishman can do where he had a
chance to do and to dare and to suffer
and be strong and above all things be
| free.
| After a while, however, a new field
| opened out for Irish enterprise and r.
| hearts no longer were to give them
selves to France and to Austria, to
Prussia and to Spain. Across the At
| lantic a number of gentlemen were
signing a declaration of independence;
a gentleman from Virginia was review
ing inSurgent troops near Boston, in
Massachusetts, and and a new oppor-
| tunity was offered to the Irshman
| abroad. Irish soldiers and Irish gem
erals helped Washington to victory.
There We're Irishmen at Breeds Hill
and at Valley Forge, Irishmen whose
zeal for the young colonial union was
quickened by the thought that the enc
my of liberty abroad was the enemy of
their liberty at home. From that day
forward the American republic became
the shelter Of the exile, the hope and
the home of the Irishman abroad.
whenever says John Bright in one
of those eloquent speeches in defense
of Ireland which he delivered in tho
days of his greatness, whenever the
Irishman thinks of freedom and hap
piness, he turns his eyes to the setting
SUM-" America became in the pictures
que phrase of a lover of Ireland. the
next parish to Innisfail. No need now
to stiffen the regiments of France, to
swell the levies of Austria and Spain.
over the Swans Bath, in the track of
the Wild Geese lay a land of freedom
where the impetuous eager Celt might
know the joys and strive for the prizes
denied to him in his own home. And
so it came ito pass that for the last CEN
fury much of the best of Irelands breed
have passed in ceaseless stream
across the Atlantic to serve and to
strengthen the great republic and to
offer to her something of that passion
ate devotion which they feel for the
island that might have been and that
should have been enriched by the fruit
of their zeal and toll and courage.
Many books have been written. many
may yet be written on the Irishmen
who have gained glory in and given
glory to America. The mere catalogue
of their names would make a goodly
volume. Out of all that wealth and
wilderness of names l will take at this
moment two the names of two soldiers.
The Irshman abroad was in his begin
ming always a soldier. The path that
the army made was his only path to
honor. And of all who trod that path
none We're deserved honor more than
the two soldiers who served the Stars
and Stripes. Phil Sheridan and Phil
kearney, the two Phillips, alike in their
Irish blood, in their splendid courage
in their love for America. The two
men We're soldiers of different types.
Sheridan was great soldier in every
sense of the word, a man born 10 com
man. to lead to conquer. Phil Rear
ney was a glorious soldier of fortune.
His brilliant meteoric career reads IKE
page from Dumas or page from Le-
YER Like the adventurous musketeers,
like the irrepressible companions of
OMalley and Tom Burke, he loved
fighting for fighting's sake. He WIS of
the type that had served France and
Austria and Spain in the earlier @cneT-
atoms. The great American civil war
had many illustrious Irish solli RS in
the ranks of both sides in the great
tsrusgle. 1t knew none more r."
turesque more fascinating or more GG~-
ing than Phil kcarncy. He seemed :
sum up in his bright individuality all
the qualities of the freshman abroad
who fought under a foreisn flag because
he could net fight under his own. But
Phil Kearney, happier than his prede-
cess0Ts of Austria and French and
Spanish service fought for a flag that
was his own For the American flag is
the flag of the Irishman abroad.