The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1905-03-17

s IN HONOR OF ST. PATRICK

The celestial Irish colony. in festive spirit
BY special d%ispensation, met to celebrate
the day
Which is sacred to the Irish race in
heaven as on earth
And relax assiduous piety in tuneful Irish
mirth.
Long the bards had been arranging to
hold a grand Fels Cecil,
Which would wake celestial echoes and
delight each heavenly soul
With Erin's classic music and sweet,
tranScendant song
Not yet lost to those departed from
earthly scenes SO long.
The committee on arrangements, ever
competent and true,
Comprised such souls as OlSin, Thomas
Davis. Brian Boru,
O'Carolan and Talbo Lord Edward and
Tom Moore,
Lyons, Hempson, Katharine Hayes, VINO
sang so sweet and pure.
No mortal e'er conceived a scene so elab-
crate and grand
AS that erected for the Feis by this de-
voted band,
TIL four provinces of Erin. her plains
ana mountains, too,
With surprising Splendor reproduced IN
panoramic view.
Enthroned upon a fieecy cloud, irradiant
anu DIISIl,
Sat the venerable Patrick with St. Bridget
on his right;
On his left the Lion of the Fold" the
faithful John McHale,
While around them stood the hierarchy.
the brightest of the Gael.
The committee had arranged to place ST.
Patrick in full view
OF the countless multitude of souls Who
on earth We're ever true
To his teachings; so with accurate and
able scenic skill.
His throne was situated just above cid
Tara's Hill.
In amphitheatral order was the multitude
And each soul occupied the spot from
whence in death 1t strayed;
In the center was the spacious stage, To-
Gated near AthIone.
While on the whole a heavenly light in
rich refulgence shone.
that mighty band,
AS it saw st. Patrick stand erect, his
crozier in his hand,
With sublime appreciation Of the homage
offered there,
He blessed his faithful followers and
then resumed his chair.
Pat Gilmore was selected by unanimous
desire
To conduct the music of the Feis and
guide the tuneful choir,
A task which found him fitted by his con-
fidence and grace
And an honor well deserved by such a
champion of the race.
The varied programme now begins. the
initial part appears;
1T had not been enacted within eight
hundre years
Since the halcyon days of Brian's court,
when harpers We're in sway
And wore gold circlets on their brows
and robes of colorS gay.
An ancient band of harpers was led upon
the stage.
In quantity gorgeous costumes only known
in history's page;
With heads erect. their features ShOne
with intellectual light,
Their demeanor full suggestive of their
old-time Bardic might.
AS Gilmore gave the signal their harps,
with sweet accord,
Rang out upon the heavenly air in pleas
ing, tuneful chord
Their voices pitched in perfect key, first
low, then rising higher,
Perfected by long service in the great
ethereal choir.
Their songs. in purest Gaelic. told of an
cient Erin when
Twas the land Of sanity scholars and OF
most gifted men:
When twas Europe's seat of learning
from which Patrick's light went
forth
IL lliDIi &c liz PAGAN ddIhIleSS WHICH
prevailed throughout the North.
They sang the Caoine. which oft has been
compared to the Lament
OF David over Jonathan" with bitter an
guiSh rent:
They sang of Erin's holy men, her poets
and her bards;
They sang in praise of ErinS faith, which
Patrick ever guards.
The harpers now retired amid the plaud-
tic loud a>I lows
And Gilmore in stentorian tones an
nounced the'd have a song
From that gifted Irish nightingale, adept
in Irish lays,
The matchlesS queen Of melody, the peer
less Katharine Hayes.
A vision Of sweet loneliness and pure. an
Rich golden hair encircling her classic
Irish face,
AS she stood, a picture, waiting there the
welcome to subside,
The beloved of that great multitude. it's
heroine, its pride.
Her voice, superlatively sweet, her hear
ers did enthrall;
Her tender cadence We're heard from
Kinsale to Donegal;
She sang Believe Me-" "Paustheen
r1snn." The Last Rose" and
"Shule Agra"
Which stirred her hearers to a grand,
spontaneous hurrah.
And now appeared. with harp in hand, a
venerable man,
With hoary locks, his sight restored;
twas great O'Carolan,
The widest known and best beloved of
all the minstrel band,
Which wrought that priceless treasure
the music of our land.
He struck his harp, the empyrean was
filed with sweetest strains.
That WIN live while Ger a vestige of our
Celtic muse remains;
AS his fingers deftly touched the strings
his face with pleasure shone.
Recalling pleasant memories of the tri-
uInphs he had won.
That gem of ~plaintive melody, "O'Caro-
lan's Farewell"
He rendered with a pathos which no
harper could excel.
AS, also, his Concerto and Receipt for
Drink" SO fine,
And his stirring "Planxty Peyton"-may
his memory ever shine.
Now seated on the stage, with anion pipes
upe his knee.
Appeared the famous Talbot; a familiar
sigh was he
10 those cOntempOraneouS souls from
Cavan, Lcuth and Meath,
Who, when in flesh. oft placed upOn his