The Irish standard., 1905-11-25

Irish men and women in the United
States, whether native sons and daugh-
ters of the sod, or bound in sentiment
only to the Emerald Isle because of the
songs and tales repeated by those, who,
after finding habitation in the adopted
country to which they looked forward
as the land of promise, bark back in
memory to ancestral scenes. are inter-
ested in the propaganda of DR.. Douglas
Hyde who arrived in New York last
week, says H. B. Chamberlin in the
Chicago Record-Herald. He will spend
four months in lecture tour, during
which he will address American COL
leges, Irish societies and public meet
ings.
Youngest son of Rev. Arthur Hyde, a
Protestant clergyman, DR.. Douglas
Hyde is Gaelic scholar noted for his
learning and his enthusiasm for the lit
erature and language of his native land.
He is member of one of those fine old
academic families, possessed of pride
in all the honorable traditions and
ideals, of their race, and eager to save
from decay the customs and language
in which they have found expression.
Like Burke, Goldsmith and many other
renowned Irish literary men, Douglas
Hyde was educated at Trinity College,
Dublin, where he took the degree of
bachelor of arts with the first senior
moderatorship and large gold medal
This was in 1884. His college career
was exceptionally brilliant, and as un-
dergraduate he won first honors in
modern literature, German, French.
Italian and Celtic. In 1887 he became
Ill. D. and later successfully passed
the examination for the degree Of doc
tor of divinity, although he has never
been active in religious orders. From
the first he manifested a great interest
In all pertaining to the old Irish Ian
guage, and instead Of the usual tour
affected by young men of his position
on the continent of Europe, after grad
uation, he Travelled extensively in his
native province, making a study of the
ancient Irish tales, songs and folklore
Of Connacht. At this time he came in
close touch with the Irish peasantry,
and was more than ever impressed by
the mystic appeal, emotional color and
wealth of tenderness contained in the
language of the past. His tour and
studies bore fruit in a book consisting
of tales in Irish, with notes, published
in 1889 under the name, "Leabhar Sgeu-
luigheachta." This won for him recog-
milton from the Celticists, and was fol-
lowed by other books dealing with the
songs, tales and folklore of the Irish.
Among these are Beside the Fire:
Folklore of the Irish Celts," which was
translated into French: "The Love
Songs of Connacht," which ran through
two editions; Three Sorrows Of Story
Telling" "Cois ma teineadh," "Story of
Early Irish Literature" can Sgueluidhe
Gaodhalach," "a Literary History of
Ireland" Medieval Tales From the
Irish," "Ubhla den Chraoibh," vol
ume of poems in Irish; "Casadh an tsu-
gain," drama in Irish; "Tri Sgealta,
edited for the Oireachtas committee;
"Filidheacht Ghaedhalach," teratise
on Irish poetry. "Raftery's Poems"
The foregoing Irish titles of Dr.,
Hyde's works will lend understanding
to the story told of the Trinity College
professor, who, when the movement to
revive the Gaelic was first organized
asked another professor, What is the
Irish language?" and received as an
swer: "a mausoleum of shockingly
spelt adjectives."
To DR.. Hyde the Irish language, with
it's extensive vocabulary of $4,000
words, its wealth of idiom, its storied
past, preserved in books and manu-
scripts of immense extent, its melodi-
GUS verse, it's treasury Of imagery and
legend, is more than a mausoleum. II
is the ancestral tongue Of a people
noted for the vitality of it's national
spirit, and as such. he holds, should be