The Irish standard., 1900-03-24

for good and bad positions and can't
get them. Besides these self-assertive
youths the young Irish peasant is
mere baby in cunning and business abil-
ity. They mock his clownish ways,
they laugh at him and call him a
"greenhorn" they make him appear a
thousand times more incompetent than
he is. They would do the same to an
English or Scotch peasant; but the
Englishmen and Scotchmen, as many
as possibly can, stay at home. And yet
the fine young Irish peasants come out
here, sometimes unnecessarily, and ex-
pect to get good situations. No, they
must take up the pick, or drive wa
gon, and be the "hewers OF wood and
drawers of watcr"-the 'slowest OF the
low"-whereas at home they were
"among the princes of the people"
Let young Irishmen, I say, stay at
home, and not be fools. If anyone of
them, after reading this, finds himself
as l have, described in this country, let
him blame his stupidity in not taking
good advice when offered.
have heard that many youths are
| leaving the country for fear of con-
scription in the army. This is nonsensi-
cal. England will never dare come to
that in Ireland.
| So much for Young men. The same,
and ten times more, applies to the con-
dition OF emigrant Irish girls i'll this
country. You must excuse me, dear
sir, from entering too deeply into this
subject 1t is too painful "a one to me.
For 1 love our Irish people deeply, as
YOU also do, and the spectacle OF their
misfortune makes my heart bleed, On
my visits to Ireland, on returning, l
have seen the wailing, moaning mothers
kiss their weeping, innocent, unpro-
tccted girls as they embarked on the
accursed tender that daily bears Ire
lands lie away. Oh, if many of them
knew the misery that was in store for
them they would weep tears Of blood at
that parting. If they knew that they
were leaving Ireland for ever-leaving
innocence and happiness, throwing
away the beauty of their fresh, young
lives-going into the jaws OF hardship,
lmayhap into the jaws of hell!
The working girls of tile American
cities, for the most part, spend their
lives in factories, where aught is heard
| from morn till eve but the mad whirr
! of machinery, with now and then, per
haps, a ribald Jest or all obsens remark
to relieve the monotony They arc
cooped up without air, swel.cring in the
heat from Kissing boilers and painting
piston rods. They may not see Gods
sunlight from weeks end to weeks end
They troop out OF these sweathouses,
| hard of feature and free of look, their
faces pallid and unhealthy, dark rings
about their eyes. The terrible strain
| of the work and the unhealthy atmos-
phere soon tells on them Place one
like Charles Kickham's peasant girls
from the Amer side in one of these
terrible places. Place one like Dalton
Williams Munster Peasant Girr'-
would it not soon be ano4Gr case Of
"thc lily of the mountain foot that
withcred far away'-another case Of
Consumption has no pity Il ;thlue eyes
and golden hair?
1 You, my dear friend, Mr.. O'Brien
together with the priests OF Ireland, are
doing grand work in cndcavoring to
make the people stay at home-in ell
dcavoring to raise them up, to help
them to make their own livelihood, and
thus to keep them on the soil till Ire
land sees better days.
i And if the priests should not thus
warn their people, shall not the land
soon be entirely depleted Of its popula,
ton? They shall have parishes OF graz
ing land, not of people. The old faith
will be threatened with extinction, fol
the place of the Catholic tenant shall
be taken by the northern Scotch adven'
turers. May God avert this curse from
ireland. But God helps those who helr
themselves. A great deal depends or
the priests and the leaders. Let them
organize a crusade against emigration
and they will be doing good work
among their people that will rebound te
: the future welfare of ireland.
II 81. Pahick's Day at Elkten.