Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1907-03-18
THE IRISH.

"1n the MOrnin'."
Thro' Erin's Isle,
To sport awhile.
As Love and Valor wandered,
With Wit, the sprite,
Whose quiver bright
A thousand arrows squandered.
Where 'er they pass,
triple grass
Shoot up with dew.drops streaming.
As shortly green
As emeraldg seen
Thro' purest crystal cleaning
Tom Moore.
Among the ancients, Hope was some
times represented as beautiful child,
standing on tip-toes, holding in her hand
a treloil. or three-colured grass. And
when the good st. Patrick preached the
doctrine OF the Trinity to the Irish, he
used to hold up a shamrock leaf TO illus
trste 1t.
So he added Hope to Love, Valor and
Wit and the Irish have been foremost
among the people of the earth in exem-
plifyiDg these cardinal points in the COM
pass of life.
God bless 'em. l've strain Of the
stuff myself, and I'm proud OF it.
For the Irish, bent with centuries oi
oppression and misrule, have done more
to optimizs men than any other rs'e.
They have loosed more sunshine than
auy other. They have made men smile
oftener than any other. And all this
they have done in spite Of the hard knocks
they've hsd.
It's a wonderful record upon which
they may mediate this fine Patrick's
morning-for sll such mornings are fine
to those who love the ould sod. It's a
record of shining through clouds and,
after all, that's the only record We have
any right to be proud Of
To shine when the skies are clear and
the earth benign and calm is we'll enough
but where ia the credit for such an atti-
tude? To smile when things look DARK
and gloomy and when the next meal 10
matter of large uncertsinty-thats the
stuff makes men and women worth while.
That's the Irish.
The world would be dull place with
out them. Wherever they go they carry
with them some Of the virtues attributed
by the poet TO the green trefoil. When
they love, what love it is When they
fight. what vslor they shoT And in
all their loving and all their fighting they
have place for their inimitsble wit.
When they sing, the whole world
wants chance at the chorus. And the
songs they would sing, but canno; for
tear,--these songs have been sung for
them by Tom Moore, and ifIreland had
never given men anything else, the gift
of such haladist, such q true poet,
would throw mankind in jail for debt, if
the debtors Law still held
They have that divine quality ol see-
ing the humor in things Ithelps along
so uobly. 1t ia the great safety valve OF
humanity. The man who cannot see
the humorous side In life is not only mis-
erable himself but he makes others mis-
erable, and almost without exception,
the men and women worth most to their
fellows have been those beat equipped
with this saving sense.
The world needs human shamFocka and
the emerald sheen that comes from them
is far better than the indigo shadows of
Blue Mondays, Away with the Blue days
of regret and remorse and longiDgs after
things that are past having and all that,
and In with the good green days Of deep
love aud high valor and nimble Wit
In, too, with the spirit that has kept
this struggling people above the waves OF
hardships and contempt. Did we strive
more for this and let the dollars annoy
us less, we would be richer in the things
that really count-richer in love and
yalor, and even wit would have better
chance to grow and. flourish. - Leigh
Mitchell Hodges, in Philadelphia North
American.