Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-25
KELTIC STOCK.
Influence of People of Western Europe
nm Americans Nation.

From the Boston Herald.
II would be interesting if the amount Oh
the Kettle or Celtic stock that enters INTO
the composition of the American people
could be determined, approximately at leas'
What is Kettle? OF the two speliings OIL
the word the former conveys the rlghl plo-
nuuciation, which, of course, is the 1uhua-
mental quality. The name originates Win
the Greeks, who called western people
'.Keltai" The substitution of C for
appears to be due TO the circumstance thaI
the Greek letter corresponding TO our
has the sound of *" AS in ceramics
orr use of the &C. has led to false pro-
nunciation radically other than the normal.
If a fair estimate of the Kettle element
in the English people could be MADE, 10
gether with what is due to Scotch, Weisn
and Cornish blood, as well as 10 lrish
immigrat ion-not to mention the Kettle ele-
ment that enters into many peoples or
continental Europe-perhaps 1t might be
found that the Kettle proportion IN the
American makeup would be at least 90 per
cent if not very considerably more. Inc
Kelts or Gauls constituted very large eie-
ment in Europe. This is attested by the
name of the Spanish province of Galicia,
and by the kingdom of Austrian Poland,
which bears the same name. The basic ele-
ment of the French people is commonly re-
garded as Gallo, and the same evidently
strongly enters INTO the composition VI INC
Swiss, the Italians and a considerable part
of the Germans. Brittany, in France Is
regarded as almost purely Kettle.
Ethnic analysis, however, Is something
exceedingly difficult. The lingua! test. SO
commonly applied, is misleading. Kettle or
Gaelic tongues are common to peoples who
racially are radically different. Ireland, for
instance is to-day the most typlcaly Kettle
country Yet in the Irish people several
strongly contrasting racial types are repre-
scented so markedly that 1t might be diff
fcult to tell which predominates. 1t might
be said that one type characteriZes one
county or district, another another. Out
side the elements known as distinctively
Kettle there is the English immigration of
Cromwelrs time and later, which in GER
tain districts has blended with the native
races Again there is the Scotch blood,
known as "Scotch-Irish,' so strong in the
north of Ireland; this, of course, includes
a deal of the Scottish Kettle. The Irish
Kettle element, as we know 1t, is marked
by several separate types. One is tall,
slender and dark, another Is tall and light,
a third is short and dark, a fourth short
and light, and a fifth is regarded by vari-
| Gus anthropologists as derived from what
appears to have been the autocthonous race
of the island. race long preceding the KEEL
| tic people and held to be akin to the Firms
and to Asiatic peoples. These various ele-
ments have induced great number of vari-
| ants and blendings.
| The racial or rather national tempera-
| ment is another quality that differs very
| materially. The Irish nature Is probervially
| light hearted, volatile quick-witted and
| deliciously humorous. These traits in
| great part ally it to the French, although
| what In the French we know as Gallo wit
| is quite other than the Irish. Possibly ii
| may be an expression of the same native
impulses under different environment. The
| Polish people have similarly sensitive and
volatile traits. The Russians however, are
| likewise volatile; it might therefore be
| difficult to say whether in the Poles it is a
Kettle or Slavonic quality Possibly ii
may come from an ancestry commonly ex-
| pressed in both Kelt and Slav. On the
| other hand the tall and dark Kettle type
| is Enthusiastically grave, non-humorous
often POLITICALLY imaginative and tending to
| melancholy. The Irish type of this sort ap-
| pears to have much in common with the
| Highland Scotch. 1t is notable that the
Spanish Galicians, or Gallegos, patient
| Woodworking people, also prone to
| melancholy. Some anthropologists hold that
the Iberians, the basic stock of the Span.
ish people, were Kettle. This might ac-
| count for the gravity and the idealism OF
the Spaniard Possibly some day anthro-
pology may find means to determine with
| exactness the racial ingredients of any
given individual, with the corresponding
mental, physical and temperamental quail.
ties. Until then all estimates of racial pro.
portions will doubtless remain largely
guesswork 1t should be sufficient to know
that we are all human beings, and conse-
quently Observation-Disclosures our race OF
complexion may BE-.