The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1901-08-02

fairly apportion the honor and glory
OF political and military achievement
in the American revolution without
awarding an important share to those
whose names and familiar traditions
belong to Ireland as well as to Great
Britain and the continent Of Europe.
Let anyone try to imagine what the
history of Boston would be without
counting the descendants Of the HUI
guenots, the Bowdoins, the Reveres,
the Fanuells, the Chardons, the Brim-
mers, the JOhOnots and the SigOur-
neys, or how the story of the revolu-
tion would read without the mention
Of a Molneau, a Knox. Stark, a
Sullivan, a Bowdoin or a Revere, and
he will be convinced that an import
ant ingredient OF the Yankee charac-
ter has been overlooked by the his
torian who imagnes that it was
wholly deduced from indigenous an.
tecedents. Freneau, of Huguenot
stock who wrote the lyrics of liberty,
and Paine, the Quaker agnostic who
eloQuently proclaimed the rights of
man, and Alexander Hamilton, the
West Indian of Scotch and HuguenOt
extraction who inspired the Federal
constitution, contributed quite as
much to the symmetry of the ideal
of the Yankee as did Samuel Adams,
the chief promoter of independence
and the ''last of the Puritans."
Mankind are perverse in their no.
tions of what constitutes the type of
a race or class. Look for instance at
the typical Yankee, as universally
portrayed in the illustrated perlodi-
calls Of the day. Who ever saw or
heard described by a credible witness
such being in New England. 1t, was
not until our Northern armies during
the civil war had penetrated the rural
districts OF Tennessee and Kentucky
that the prototype of this ideal was
known to exist anywhere, except in
imagination. Yet the honest fellow
in the swalow.tail coat, the bell
crowned hat, the goatee and strapped
pantaloons was so far from the North.
ern standard that he had never seen
the stars and stripes, never celebra.
ted a Fourth of July and had no ira.
dtions to recount OF British aggres
sion except the battle of New Orleans.
Some have supposed that the Pc
culiar intonation and pronunciation
of New Englanders in certain rural
districts are peculiar yankee" char
acteristics, but those who so imagine
have probably never talked with the
high-bred Londoner-not the mere
cockncy, but the real English gentle
man who asks you to ''saoke" with
him, or to lend him Il ''paound"-nor
with the true Virginia gentleman OF
old family and high breeding, who
pronounceS in the same manner.
There is good reason for believing
that at the period of the first English
immigration such was the accepted
pronunciation among the most culti-
waited people of England, and the fact
that it has been retained through ira
dition only proves long descent under
such circumstances of independent
ease as to have prevented any inter
ruption by strangers ready to impart
new pecuiarities of speech, as a sort
of phonetic slang.
In the average New Englander
there may be such combination OF
peculiarities as to render him distinct
ly sui generis: but it is not because
the race is derived from a single stock
through which these pecularties are
transmitted. The unity Of character,
purpose, tastes, genius even, springs
from long enjoyment of equal oppor.
tunity, free competition. harmonious
cooperation, and above all. from the
enlightenment which springs from
unrestricted co-education.
The lesson which one history teach
es beyond all fear of contradiction is
expressed in the wise aphorisms o.
Lowell. ut was in but certain
sense compulsory on all that the des
tiny of the free republics of Americ;
was practically settled.