The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-03-18
ELOQUENT TRIBUTE
TO THE IRISH RACE
st. Patrick's Address by Rev.
Dean Harris.
STORY OF PERSECUTION
A SPLENDID ENTERTAINMENT
FOR BENEFIT OF ORPHANS.

CeTeDTdIEU Z. IdLTICh
fitting manner than in the entertain
ment given in the Salt Lake Theatre
last evening. The virtues or the patron
saint of Ireland were set forth III
music, song and oratory. The feature
of the programme, was, OF course, the
fine lecture of Rev. Dean Harris OF
Ontario, Canada, who spoke for over (
an hour on the ''Indestrucuble Race,
in which address he paid glowing
tribute 10 the Irish people. But the
songs of the home land were no less
enjoyable to the large audience, while
the numbers given by the children
choir of st. Mary's Cathedral stirred
the enthusiasm OF the people 70 the
highest pitch.
The first number on the programme
was the Star Spangled Banner, by
, the children The little girls made
beautiful ta.bleau, dressed in white,
with little tots not more than years
( of age in the front row. Each mad a
! flag that was waved in time TO the
music. The little green faS with the
/ harp could be seen occasionally. Ihe
little folks sang Three Leaves of
/ Shamrock" with Clara Fatek as the
soloist, who performed her part Well
! The musical programme was closed
/ later by these same little singers. This
/ time they sang Killarney" and she
Irish" The posing in both of these was
! effective and the dancing in the num-
/ Der brought the greatest applause OF
/ the evening. In this last number little
/
/ the wonderful singing of the solo part
| George D. Piper was greeted warmly
when he appeared to sing Beautiful
/ Erin" and SO great was the applause
at the close that he responded to the
encore and gave The Dear Little
] Shamrock of Ireland. Mrs Eottle
! Levy Kahn sang ASHORE" with great
| feeling and beauty, and was called out
for an encore. She then sang that old
/ favorite, Come Back to Erin h $
| Goddard sang 1.-The Minstrel Boy" as
a base solo and pleased the audience
so well, that he. too, had to respond
to an encore. He sang Il Start for
Philadelphia in the Morning" in his
best style.
Dean Harris Address,
At the close of the musical pro-
gramme Joseph Geoghegan stepped to
/ the front of the stage and in few
| well chosen words introduced the
speaker of the evening, Rev. Dean
Harris. who was greeted with hearty
cheers as he came upon the stage. After
some very highly complimentary re-
| marks for Salt Lake, Bishop Seaman
and the cause OF charity that had
called the audience together. the dis
tinguished visitor entered upon his lee
ture. review of the history of the
Irish race.
Dean Harris is an able speaker, being
quite dramatic at times, always clear
and impressive, and never tiresome. His
address was interspersed with the
poetry of Ireland which was recited
with beauty and effectiveness He be-
gan by paying a tribute to the mem
DRY of st. Patrick, a gOdly man who
carried Christianity into Ireland 1,6OO
years ago. The story of the conversion
of the people from paganism to Chris
tianity was graphically told; how at
the hill of Tara the bards and SOL
diers pledged themselves to keep the
faith and how they and their follow
ers had kept that faith
1t was told that the Jews from the
earliest times from the crossing OF the
Red Sea. had been the only people
who preserved the true worship of
God; but at the crucifiXiOn of Christ
they filled full the cup of their In
iquity and were cast out forever. Four
hundred years later Patrick planted
the true faith in Ireland and there il
had been preserved down TO the present
day.
IF God chasteneth those he loves"
said Dean Harris, then the people of
ireland are the chosen people of God"
With this statement as d basis he told
of the 800 years of persecution, ty
ranny, pestilence and sorrow that had
fallen upon the Irish race. He SPOKE
of the horrors of the days of Crom-
well, of the prosecutions and injustice
under Elizabeth, of the times of James
], when 3S5, 900 acres of Ulster were de-
populated; of 1854, when old Ireland
lerS and VagabOndS who followed the
English army. But the greatest stress
was laid upon the penal code that Car
lyle said was conceived in hell" The
speaker went through this code and
showed up its iniquities in all their
| ugliness.
Dean Harris thought it a high trib-
ute TO the race that it lived through
these awful times and in this cOnnec-
ton praised the priests who kept the
! faf ir1fc To raI
j wants of the people, although there
was a price on their heads while they
were doing it and they were forced to
hide in the mountains, or the outhouses
OF the people. The speaker told the
story of the 10000 young men and wo-
men that Cromwell shipped out of Ire
land to the Barbados and other Islands
of the sea to reduce the population of
ireland and how not one of the 10000
was ever heard from again. He told of
the ShiplOads that were sent TO Amer
lea to work as slaves, and how their
sufferings and the songs they sung of
their native land converted their mas
ters.
Horrors of Famine
Then all the horrors of the famine OF
1914 and 1916 were painted, when the
people died by the thousands rom
starvation while at the. same time
there was no break in the expectation
to England of oats, wheat flour beef
rushing to get away from starvation
were attacked by the fever IN the ships
and died in shoals, painting like fish
out of water. The banks of the ST
Lawrence river, he said, vas honey
cOmbed with the unknown dead OF
Ireland. The entire responsibility for
al this Dean Harris placed upon the
heads of Sir Robert Peel and his cabi-
net. charging them with all the famine
and all the ship fever; but" he said,
''let the dead past bury its dead"
From this dark picture Dean Harris
turned to the brighter present and the
still brighter future. He spoke of the
many Irishmen who are winning dis
tinction in all the avenues of life and
of the work that is being done by the
churches, the schools, the asyIums and
the colleges The close was an elo-
quent tribute to the faithfulness. the
integrity and the loyalty of the Irish
character
A pleasing features of the evening
was the presence in Bishop ScanIan'ss
private box of Madame Modjeska who
was a highly pleased spectator during
the entire programme. After the close
of the exercises the great actress in
sisted upon kissing each one of the lit
tie girls who took part in the singing.
and then treating the entire class to
candy.