The Irish standard., 1903-11-28
in which our Cicilian fellow citizens

in which our Cicilian fellow citizens
are concerned.
'Yet the strain of Anglo-Saxon blood
seems not to have been greatly taint
ed by this fiery mixture. 1t clears it.
self, like running water, in genera.
ton or two. The foreign quarters in
London do not increase greatly in pop
ulation, indicating that their descend.
ants pass into the general body of the
people. We have always found that
to be true with our own earlier emf
grants. The later additions from the
south and east Of Europe are more
alien matter, and come to us in great
e1 masses. But the children of the
most remote of them take kindly to
our schools, and show from infancy a
pathetic desire to make themselves
American. Why shall not their de-
scendants become as indistinguishable
in time as those of the refugees from
Huguenot, France, the ravaged Pala-
tinate, and famine stricken Ireland?
1T is the heredity of thirty centuries
with which we have to battle in our
more favorable environment We can
not expect to make much impression
upon it in less than one short human
generation. 1t will be time to despair
if we shall find the children of our
Cicilian emigrants swearing bloody
oaths and brandishing razor edged still
ettoes. Our earliest large body of
emigration brought an unfavorable
beredity from another unhappy island,
which had been the sport Of military
and civil conquest for a thousand years
and the scene of tribal anarchy for
perhaps as many more, though it has
seen no such tragical mixture of races.
We have no better citizens than their
descendants have become after only
two generations. So let us not be in
haste to condemn our undigested citi-
zenship."
The Tribune does not miss the op-
portunity to try and detract from the
magnificent history of the Irish peo-
pie, our earliest large body of emf.
grafton brought an unfavorable hered-
ity from another unhappy island;"
the reference is plainly to Ireland.
Where, will the Tribune please inform
us is there to be found more glorious
heredity than that of the Irish people,
with perhaps the exception of the de-
scendants of the Greeks and Romans.
Ireland was civilized, had excellent
schools, made much progress in the
useful arts, in music, literature and
architecture, long centuries before the
Anglo-SaXon came to England. Her
schools were renowned throughout civ
lliZed Europe, while the ancestors of
the Anglp-SaXOns We're roaming about
in the sWamps of what is now north
Germany, recognizing 10 other law
than might makes right. At that time
the Anglo-Saxon had not even got SO
far as to recognize the tribal relation.
Talk about 'Ileredity," - the Tribune
must have used the wrong word. Sure
'ly the Tribune did not mean what il
appears to say. 1t would not he we'll
for anyone to try to prove anything
against amy country, because of ii crime
committed by one of it's people. In
South Carolina, where we find as good
specimens of the Anglo-SaXon as am.
where in this country. Il man named
Tillman, not an italian and not an
lrlshmhn. deliberately shot another
man to death. and Il jury on which
there were none of these people with
bad "heretlity," freed him. The Tri-
bune will have difficulty i'm proving to
any but Anglo-SaXOn bigOts. that the
Irish people have bad heredity.
Again. census reports would have aid
Ell the Tribune in arriving ut the
truth. Ireland has the distinction of
being the most moral and free from
crime country in the world to-day. She
stands ut the head of the list, and
were it not for political crimes, which
are the result of peculiarly oppressive
political conditions, Ireland would be
almost free from crime.