The Irish standard., 1907-06-15

had he to fear? Aye, sure enough
here was the peril so long overlooked.
and all the while threateningly so
near-the rent-the rent was always
due.
The Irishman was learning-fast
He, an offspring of the proudest and
the foremost civilization of the Middle
Ages, and survivor of a race that
scorned the might of tyrants-would
he submit to slavery! The 1rishman
had learned who sailed the ships that
freighted rum. who grew the juniper
that tinctured gin. and that they who
promoted and who denounced the traf-
=. lic were one and the same. The Irish
man had learned. too. that these same
vital Christians" hurled the might Of
their hypocrisy against the inhuman
trafnc in, and bondage of, the black
man; but ever built higher their stores
of gold, tainted with the blood and
agony of that bondage. And so the
1rishman began to understand that to
have money and tn gain power meant
to be royal in the minds and eyes of
his oppressors: and thus the fugitive
immigrant, driven to the very last
point of possible resistance-po poverty
and ostracism in a Christian land Of
liberty-solved the riddle of his race.
He had studied in hard and exacting
school: he had learned his lesson
we'll. Money, lands. power--these. then
were the prerequisites of religious lib
erty and social equality! Well. he
would own them one and all; and
more He had been hidden long
enough.
To gain wealth and power. and to
guard and extend the faith that had
guided his downtrodden race through
centuries of ruin and misrule too tar
rible to detail, was henceforth his aim
In life. To this undertaking he sum-
moned to his trust in God the human
attributes of industry, frugality. ntes-
rity. courage. chastity and charity
Everything that initiated against his
advancement he foreswore. There was
no price of self-denial too great for
him to pay. Having sounded the
depths of misfortune and inhumanity.
the terrors of the future faded before
Erin's pride.
Not every Irish immigrant thus paid
the price. but SO many did as to turn
the scale of fortune in their favor as
though by miracle. Not in a day.
year or even in a generation We're
born the mighty fruits of Irish indus
1t came to pass slowly, surely and al
ways for good; and there are men Yet
living who bear witness to the won
drous yield of the plan of progress de-
signed and fixed in the Irish mind and
heart by the immigrant servants and
laborers of that yesterday in history.
The world has been forced to rec
ognize the freshman as a moral. in
tellectual and physical personality of
uncommon capacity-a factor that
must be reckoned with. Why? Be
cause the Irishman does things. He is
naturally a freeman. firm believer
In the moral code. and has implicit
faith in God
In some quarters of the world 1t
has come to be the fashion to shout
from the housetops and in the public
places that there is no God. In 9TH
err quarters it is deemed expedient to
compromise with infidelty and athe-
ism in matters of religious rights. The
true Irish spirit glorifies in it's ,lncom-
promising faith in Almighty God, and
Irish manhood scorns To treat with
the Briton was grinding them into the
dust Of oppression: when British gold
was brbing every Irish renegade to
bear false testimony against kindred.
race and God. And when thus beg
cared and overwhelmed did the Irish
sue for quarter. yield their independ-
ence, or foreswear their faith" The
Irish love of liberty is deathless. nnd
unwaverine as their hope of heaven
above them
There have risen had Irishmen; men
who for wealth and promised position
turned traitor to their race--fores wore
the God Of Ireland; and they paid the
awful forfeit-every one. The history
of Irish traitors is lurid with the ven-
geance wreaked upon their unhappy
heads by their human tempters and
! their outraged God. And the Irish
race has not been free from acts of
violence and bloodshed. The impet-
uosity of the Irish people too often led
\ to fields of carnage and deeper woe.
! The zeal of the exultant Irish victor
has not always been moderated to the
demands of prudence and the Gold