Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1906-03-17

lighter vein and is one of those
effusions for which its author is So
noted:
The best bigorapher of a saint or
sinner is the fellow who knows least
about him. In the first place he will
not be prejudiced against his victim
and take advantage of the fact that lie
is dead to jab him in the short ribs
and expose his shortcomings to a cruel
public. nor will he be so blindly in
fatuated with his subject that he will
put more sugar coating around him
than the average pill can boast.
Let me confess that / know nothing
OF ST. Patrick saving what l have read
about him since the fall of Troy and
the discovery of America. Every year
when I was on the Times the St
Patrick day editor began to assume a
greenish cast of countenance with The
advent OF March he browsed on sham
rocks daily and thought so hard that
knobs of brains as big as marbles
formed over his eyes. Like virtue,
everybody respected him but passed
him up, for 1t was known he was
wrestling with st. Patrick day article
which he reeled off yearly with the
tiresome pertiQacity of the fond papa
repeating the smart sayings of the
baby.
Regularly on the seventeenth day
of March the result OF his labors was
seen in screed on the saint; all
about his birth. his parents and god
parents; his captivity. his debut and
labors in Ireland: his character and
death. and this sketch, invariably
column in length, was illustrated with
an alleged portrait OF the saint clad
in a Mother Hubbard and TRANQUILITY
standing on the neck OF a wriggling
serpent After this terrific mental
strain the editor retired to the hospital,
as also did the foreman and many
readers of the paper. hut his best girl.
whose love was something beautiful,
cut the column ont and pasted 1t along
side of many similar ones in her scrap
book. There were so many of these
columns thus collected that the scrap
book would have made the famous
Mosque of st. Sophia lok like Marvin
Hart after he suffered from Burns,
Unlike these society column people.
St Patrick always signed himself
plain Patrick. instead Of the swell
name of Patricius. which was really
his. In those troublous times. however,
there were such worries and vexatlons
in Erin's isle that the people received
him gladly by any old name, and his ,
torians of the day. who were evidently |
up in poker declared that. no matter
how king or knave played the deuce, yet
they always stood. Pat, and allowed
him to hold the age in every deal.
Referring to article 9a99 by our ST
Patrick day editor. find that the
early life of the saint was by no means
4 bed Of shamrocks. Nowadays when
We see these gilt.edged soul-savers
striking our city, met by the brethren
md sisters in glad rags, welcomed by
\iorbach's orchestra-when we witness
he killing of the fatted calf and yell
ow-legged chicken. and observe them
,elted with bouquets and dollars while
he fool killer lies asleep-we turn aside
md weep to think that either our lack
If cold nerve or our folly in casting
,ur lines IN shallow places has pre-
rented us from landing suckers even
Is they. Nowadays also, when an
evangelist begins training with his vic
inns he says TO observation-disclosures
,lices. brother Jones hold the subject
Ii his pew. Brother Brown sing Come
q Heaven: while l 60 through his
pockets and get that twenty cents"
ST. Patrick was ignorant of these
leyices of the truly good; and this
doubtless explains why the people still
owe him.
When he landed in Ireland there
vas no one to welcome him save
;warms OF pagans, short on clothes andi
ong on hair He had to face all man
ler of dangers, travel by foot from
place TO place and exist on the poorest
are. II is on record that he never
wen tasted a potato during his stay
n Erin. but this was doubtless owing
4 the fact that the potato was not in
on the national menu until
tome hundreds OF years later and then
~ the Murphy family, after whom 1t
vas named.
The good old saint was one Of those
ranks who do good for goods sake,
not caring continental for worldly
applause. He hated to see the road
o heaven lonely, and by time he re-
fred from business the straight and
narrow path leading from Ireland to
he better land was congested with
Christians wearing halos as big as
)arrel hoops.
The saint never asked any sinner TO
'oct danv hfmsalf or no generous with