The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-11
EMERALD ISLANDERS IN
THE UNITED STATES.
srrMAs M'MANUs WRITES OF HIS
KIN IN AMERICA.

~reSs Made by the Irish in This
country-They Are to Re Found in
Every Nook and Corner of the
land and They Are Filling All VO-
.ations-They seldom Forget the
Land of Their Birth or The Old
Folks at HOme-How They Have
asserted Their Sterling and Last
ing Qualities.
OF an Old American plutocrat, who hated
the Irish like poison, it is told that cross
ing the Atlantic for the first time he de-
sired the steward to be sure to awake him
in the early morning on which they were
due 10 sight the Irish coast in passing.
Though the morning was both wet and
Wild. and comfortless and cold. the poor
old fellow gathered his garments about
him and went out on deck and leaned over
the bulwarks and took a good look at the
Green Isle. And as he shuffled back over
the deck again he said: Thank God, that
I've lived 20 see one country the Irish don't
rrur'
And it is not only once, nor only fifty
times, that it has been said of us, The
Irishman is the best soldier that goes into
battlefield-anywhere Que of Ireland"
In America, anyhow, the Irishman has
been a marvellous success as a fighter, as
a worker and as al was going to say
ruler. but shall content myself with-poi-
tician. l have Russian friend who says
he was only a short time in America till
he concluded that in this country every
Chinaman was wssherwoman and every
Italian an organ grinder, but the Irish puz-
zled him to classify. At one time he
thought every Irishman kept a saloon,
then that he was a public prize fighter,
next that he was a lawyer; in quick sue
cession after that he was a policeman,
municipal officer, a navy a soldier,
ward boss, a judge, a servant girl, a city
Mayor, an orator, a criminal, clergyman,
and a man pulling the wires of the uni
verse. In his dilemma, he says, he ap-
pealed to an Irish friend for guidance.
"Haghr said his friend. "Why at home
were every mothers son a king, And
that" said my Russian friend, lis the only
blessed thing not one of you Is in Amer
lea" Never mind" said he. Perhaps
wen remedy that yet"
After looking about me in America, 1
saw conclusive proof that my countrymen
were not, by Providence. intended for
merely one or FOR merely thirty-one voca-
tions. All arts, all trades, and all tricks,
from California to Connecticut, have their
large and faithful following of Irishmen;
vet 1 modestly admit that he seems to fit
best into his niche where he is dominating
the crowd, and has yoked to his car the
German, the Scandinavian, the Hun, the
Dago and the American. You may see
fresh Irishman, as green as they grow
them, one day granted job with the pick
for Gods sake; pass that way twelve
months later and the odds are that you
find him not only managing MS former
comrades, but bossing the man that en-
ployed him. There is strong ana asser-
tive individuality about The Celt and II is
intolerance of restraint more than ambi-
ton of advancement that makes him push
for the top.
A fiashlight on his character in this re-
spect is the story of the Irishman who
landed in a strange country when a po-
litical fight was raging and who, on be-
ing surrounded by both parties and ques-
toned, What side are you on?' replied,
without any hesitation. I'm agin' the
cover ment" For there is only one rule
under which he will cease to chafe-his
own rule. This chating, then, supplements
and sometimes supplies the place of alb
stract ambition. The German, the Dago
and the American are all right, he ac-
knowledges, in the spheres for which
their Creator meant them Than he, there
is no man more heartily pleased to see
them prosper in their proper sphere. But
NV countIyman in America feels an I'M
easiness in his conscience until ne has re-
pressed them into that sphere. The Dago
is a tolerabe hand at the pick, and the
German and American, with the Jew,
were born for the drudgery of commerce.
No Irishman is so narrow as to deny
them their privileges here, and none so
ungenerous as not to acknowledge their
brilliant abilities. But, then, he cannot let
his generosity run away with Justice and
permit them to try their inexperienced
hands at thing they know nothing about
and are not adapted for-to wit, ruling
city or a state. In Milwaukee, the most
German city in America, there is ward
that boasts only one Irishman, vet he is
boss" of the ward Yet he is far from
being intoerant or tyrannical here. He
will permit the German and the American
TO clamor against him and against the
laws he has framed for their benefit and
protection; he will let them curse him. il
it does them any good, and till their pa
pers with rank abuse Of him. Knowing
that abuse of benefactor is one of the
surest geological signs that mark the
genus man he magnanimously smiles and
Keeps straight on benefactoring.
Your Irish political leader is the Gin
ciunatus who has been, by Providence,
called from the spade to lift the reinS of
power in America TO guard you and to
look after your destines. There are in the
New Island Gas we call America in our
Gaelic at the present day some thou
sands of influential politicians who. If
they had by accident remained in Ire
land would now be daily plying a turf
spade or swinging a fir hatchet and
nightly philosophizing to eager fireside
circles, and whose names for wisdom and
knowledge would be famous for half the
length of their own glen. l call to mind
three men who as young fellows in tears
Quilted the same hillside in Ireland on the
same day. The landlord the pinch of pow
erty and the paternal rule of England
sent them forth. They were truculent viii
lains, said the landlord, and would not
raise their caps to him; they were sedi-
lous scoundrels and a burden to the
earth, said the British officials; ireland
hadNnothng to offer them, poor fellows
said poverty. To-day one of them is a
mighty respected judge, another an influ-
entail congressman and the third returned
ma rt1