The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-02-03
80
IRISH SENTIMENT STRONG.

Correspondence Intermountain Catholic
Leadville, Colo, Feb. 1.-The follow
ing paper, which shows how strong the
Irish sentiment, freeborn, and untram-
meled, is in America, was read by Miss
MOTlie O'Keefe at one of the prominent
Hibernian socials recently:
THE past year has witnessed some
or the most remarkable events in the
history OF the nineteenth century,
events that have aroused the sIumber-
ing fire of patriotism, unfinching brav-
cry and the bitterest, aye, the deepest
hatred of many a heroic soul
our great and glorious republic, our
land of the brave and the free has
reached forth a helping hand to the
Cubans who have been struggling for
so many years to free themselves from
Spanish rule. How well we succeeded
is a common tale. Every child that is
able to talk can tell you how the war
ended.
yet in the name of humanity the
United States, that has been a haven
to the oppressed and prosecuted of all
lands, is trying to subdue the insur-
gents in the Philippines, who are fight
ing nobly for their freedom. Can we
blame them, We who live undeY the
folds of the Stars and Stripes. and who
love and reverence the Green Banner.
II they want neither Spanish Dona nor
American Masters?
But the lust of conquest is upon our
government. The great victories we
have won on land and sea have alIed
our generals and politicians with a
sense of their own worth and imperial
ism is now the cry of the hour. Let
those who advocate this measure stop
for one moment to consider the laboring
classes in our great cities earning bare
ly enough to furnish them the necessi-
ties of life. Will hundreds Of uncivi-
liked beings admitted to citizenship help
those conditions? From all quarters
of the nation will come no, for an an
swer. Things will go from bad to worse
and some of the foremost men of ahe
day predict the time is not far distant
when our lower classes will rise and
cast off the powers that are sapping
their verv life.
''On the brink of another century. at
the season when there should be peace
on earth" we find proud, naughty Eng
land engaged in strife with the Beers
in South Africa John Bull, true to
his old-time tactics of oppression, is
trying to rob these people of their free
dom. All eyes today are watching the
fight that is in progress. Already the
God of victories has blessed the arms
of the Beers. Slowly but surely Eng
land is beginning to see she has no
band of poor peasants to deal with, but
men who are determined to do or
die
I'VE Irish-Americans cannot fail to
synpathiZe with these people on the
other side of the world. Their fight is
against the same power as ours, and
their hatred runs in the same channel.
Had the Irish nation been successful in
it's attempt to throw off England'S yoke,
many of you who sit here tonight would
never have left your Irish homes I
dare say there is not one of you, when
you read in the papers that your fellow
Irishmen throughout the length and
breadth of the land are ready to help
the Beers if the blood of your Irish race
flows through your veins, you will re-
joice with me that the spirit of EN-
NETT, Wolftone and O'Brien is still liv-
ing, ready to break forth at moments
warning.
Never has England's policy in deal
ing with her colonies been shown more
clearly than in the desperate war now
raging. For the past week the news
has been coming in that the Beers
have a chance of winning, and I know
that you will join me in beseeching God
that we may yet have the happiness of
seeing her proud head bowed low in
the dust; for if ever nation deserved
retribution, it is England. Arrogant,
proud, sinful England! May the day
come when, shorn of her possessions,
she may stand scorned and humbled
before the nations she has tYrannized
over for so many years.
Vengeance divine to punish sin moves
slow
The slower is it's path. the surer is it's
blow