The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-06-04

>~~ ~NS
Dublin courts the other day, when a
man was tried for the crime-of all
crimes in the calendar-of marrying his
mother-in-law, says Seumas MacManus
in the New York Sun.
Surprising to relate, too, he was q
Scotchman-John Lundy of Dundee
The ages old reputation for canniness
which his countrymen enjoyed this
man has seriously jeopardized.
The man was acquitted-as all sym.
pathetic people will agree he should
have been. He was acquitted by the
Jury on the ground that he did not
know he was committing crime. His
counsel asked that a sailors clasp
knife which had been taken from him
on his arrest lest he do himself griev-
,ous bodily harm under the pangs of
separation from his mother-in-law,
should be returned to him.
The court ordered it's return; and
then his counsel humbly suggested that
the man should get the Victoria cross!
The court remained silent.
AS this year-19O4-is the Tom
Moore centenary, the Irish National
Literary society is bestirring itself to
get up a suitable memorial to Moore in
Dublin. Since the long past day Of the
poets death our metropolis has certain.
iy been rather backward in coming for.
ward to do public honor to his memory
and it will be we'll if proper. recogni
tion be given even at this late day.
=, OF course a good body Of the very
best Irishmen do not regard Moore as
by any means our national poet. Some
of them even think that he was merely
a society balladist-and only drawing
room patriot, moreover. The question
of their accuracy or inaccuracy of
judgment can hardly be settled salts,
factorily, though indeed great deal
of circumstantial evidence can be ad
duced upon their side Of the debate.
But apart from all this there cannot
:be any doubt that the gentle and un.
fortunate James Clarence NIangan was
a poet with whom Moore could not
.compare-a poet wonderfully rich in
the Imaginative quality; touching,
heart reaching, powerful in his mode
of expression; and Irish, too, in every
fibre of him; Irish, too, in his grand
qualities; Irish in his shortcomings,
arish in his wonderful strength and
irish in his pitiable weakness.
Yes, while the memory of Mangan
survives, the claims of Moore to be our
national poet can never be established.
Tom Moore pleased our ears, but poor
Clarence Mangan found his way into
our hearts.
It seemed very strange to me when
discovered that so little was known
of this wonderful and absorbingly in
teresting genius, Mangan, among the
3fterary people in America-a genius 50
strikingly resembling in many particu-
lars their own unfortunate genius Ed
gar Allan Poe-a resemblance not mere.
~ in intellectual character and points
of conduct, but even in the quality of
odd rhymes and in the subject and
handling of some poems, notably the
poem 'The Bells'
In spirit, though, these geniuses diff.
fered. Mangan was possessed Of a
pure idealism, and his nature was sweet
and gentle.
OF course the reason why Mangan
has not been better known to Ameri.
cans is that during all his career he
persistently refused to write for Eng.
iish magazines or the English public
He wrote only in little Irish publica.
tions for little Irish public, Singing
great songs unto little clan.'
So his name and fame, while cher.
ished by those to whom only he wished
to be endeared, did not reach the wider
English reading public. Some years
ago Miss Louise Imogene Quincy Sc
iected and edited fine edition of his
poems for a Boston house. Last year,
the year of his centenary, D. J. O'Don-
ohue of Dublin edited and issued here