The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-29
REGENERATION OF IRELAND.
AN ENTHUSIASTIC FRESHMAN TELLS
OF AMERICA'S INFLUENCE.

Has ReiuNenated Farms ana ne
buiIt Homes-EnIichtenmc Diff
fused by Those Who Have Return
ed From the Statcs-Irelnnd for the
Irish Now.
Copyright 1900 by Seumas MaeManus)
New York. Jan. 26.-Pubnc attention has
been so absorbed in politics for the past
decade or TWO. so far as Ireland is con-
cerned. that the social and industrial re-
generation which has been going on has
been almost entirely overlooked. Yet it
has been so far reaching and rapid, there
have been such great changes for the bet
term the last twenty years chiefly
that we can now say, gladly, ana
truthfully, Ireland is a regenerated coun-
try.
The changes in ways and means have
been so radical as TO surprise outsiders.
The picture of ireland in the foreign
mind to-day is that of the Ireland of half
a century ago. The real Ireland is diff
ferent 1t is now comparatively prosper
Gus and its people are comparatively hap
ply. Except in few more remote and
barren parts, the former hard Struggle for
existence is not known to-day and the
pinch of hunger is not felt We have
more ease. more leisure, more of the COM
forts of life, and we look forward with
less anxiety to the morrow
Thanks to political agitation, the re-
modelled land laws-though still far from
perfect-have given to the poor struggling
farmer a certain security to which he
was a stranger His rent is lower and he
is not withheld from improving his land
IL, oil. ,f
rent Partly as a consequence of this and
partly as a consequence of the possession
of little more wealth, his land is better
titled and drained, and he rears more
stock and of a better quality. The result
ing ease of mind is conducive to enlight-
eminent and moral progress. We have no
system of compulsory education, but the
1rishman's respect for learning amply fills
its place No matter how much he needs
his children's work at home or on the
farm, they are sent off every day one or
two or three Irish miles, to the little ma
tional school. So, of the rising genera
ton in Ireland, fully 95 per cent. will be
educated.
when Irishmen Fled From Ireland
1t would have been absurd even to
dream OF such a state of things fftv
years ago 1t has been variously esti-
mated that from 100000 to 1000 900 people
died of starvation in the years of 1916. 1877
and 1SS, though Ireland's shipping ports
were thronged with ships laden with cat
tie and corn for export futile revolu-
ton of Young Irelanders gave the English
government the excuse to advocate the
shipping of our people TO America and
elsewhere, and the landlords concluded
that bullocks and Scotchmen would be
more profitable on the green hills of Ire
land than the troublesome Celt So
scourged by three scourges. the landlords,
the government and the famine, our peo-
pie were driven to the ports and into the
famine ships, and hundreds of thousands
swarmed westward over the ocean.
The history of the emigration of these
years was second only in its sadness and
fearfulness TO the history of the famine
Itself, for untold thousands of those hud-
died together in these plague ships per-
ished on the ocean. Ever since from the
cd ireland to the new, there has been
white way under the ocean paved with
the bones of myriads who were harried
and hurried from their homes and their
hills Yet in spite or it all, Ireland is to-
day a country of Celts and prosperity:
and, because of il ALL there is to-day a
greater and more prosperous Ireland in
the new world
OF the several causes which have united
90 bring prosperity and progress back to
the old Ireland, I believe there has been
no more important factor than the new
1reland-the Ireland that has grown up
In the United States of America.
Americas Magnificent Influence.
How has America benefited Ireland? In
several ways. 1t has benefited Ireland
primarily, by the vast sums of money
which have been flowing in steady
stream eastward over the ocean in the last
half century; it has benefited ireland by
relieving its congestion. and il has bene-
flied Ireland by its moral influence
no Aot Of. ,el, f,.,r A
land cannot easily be realized. II has been
far greater than any person only superb
cialy acquainted with the facts could sus-
pect To get an adequate idea of it, one
must have lived amongst the peasantry in
remote parts where every family is repre-
scented by one. or two. or three or five in
America, and where the American letter.
with its uufailing money order is ever
coming. When the boy and the girl leave
home for the New Island Gas it is put in
our Gaelic, the one thought ever present
in their minds is, not how they will ben
eft themselves. but how they viii benefit
the father and mother and the brothers
and sisters they leave behind. And of
all those, the number is very. very small
that ever forget or neglect the loved ones
at home who. night and morning on their
knees, pray a "Pater and Ave" to God
and Mary, for the absent ones.
The sums RENTED by these boys and
girls furnish those at home with the means
10 till ana 10 stock their land much better
than they did before. and TO live in much
greater ease and comfort There is no
more touching and beautiful phase of this
question than that presented by the Irish
servant girls of America. who toll sorely
and perseVerngly With the one hope ever
in mind-that of RENTING the monthly
five, or teu, or fifteen dollars 10 their poor
father at home, the thought of whose
struggles often makes them cry over tncir
work in the kitchen.
Ten days before last Christmas I
dropped into some of the postofliccs of
New York 10 watch the long lines Of poor
Irish girls, each with yellow application
blank in her hand, patiently waiting her
chance to obtain the little money order
which was TO bring cheer and joy at
Christmas tide to the cabin hearth in the
lttle isle beyond the sea. The goodness and
the faithfulness and devotion of these poor
girls impressed me so that l said to my
self: surely God viii not forget a coun-
trV That produces such WOmenr