The Irish standard., 1908-03-07
MUCH l0vE-.AFTER DEATH
A $25, 600 Monument For James
Ryder Randall.
Living, How the Brilliant Man
Was Neglected.

| Under the caption-"Much Love
After Death"-Charles j. O'AIalley
writes editorially in last weeks Syra-
cuse Sun:
For several weeks this journal has
chronicled a list Of honors proposed
to the memory of James Ryder Ran
dali by the good people Of Maryland
and Georgia. In Maryland, a gener-
Gus legislature has voted $4,000 Cor
a monument in his honor. The peo-
sum for another memorial. 1t is pro-
posed to bring the amount up to $780,
900, we understand and ABOUT $4,000
Of this is now in hand.
This is bitterest irony. While RaE-
dali lived he had scarcely whereon to
lay his head. He had no home; he
never had any surplus money in all
his life. At an age when most men
are retiring from active effort, Ran
dali began editing a Catholic weekly.
In New Orleans he lived like Il pauper,
in order to send as much as possible
of his small salary home to his FAM
lily. In two years service he never
went home but once. No man better
knew the face of self denial than he,
and now two Southern states that
should have seen that he had bread,
are building monuments t. him dead.
What farce.
| One thinks instinctively of the sad
experience of Theodore O'Hara, au-
thor Of the world-famous "Bivouac of
the Dead" in penning this record of
Randall. O'Hara did much to honor
his native state and in this poem he
immortalized her heroes. Ills poem
on Daniel Boone is fully equal to the
better known lyric. BuS there were
days and days, AMI months and
months. and years and years, in
Louisville, during which the pnet had
mo visible means of support" as the
| S164 oASy oSoSuc VI LHdI CNuuIuOll-
wealth pathetically phrases it. Final
ly, although he knew nothing IF farm
ing, he went to Georgia and tried to
wiring a subsistence out of the earth.
It was q pitiful attempt. and the poet
took i'll and died, through unwonted
exposure. Then Kentucky acted. She
appropriated a large sum-ten times
more than would have made his life
bearable-and brought back his bones
and put great monument above his
head. Again what a farce
Down South, too, Poe lived in mis-
cry and won high fame. Stephen COL
Inns Foster made the life and land
scape Of the South familiar to mil
lions, lived the life of a tramp printer.
and had costly statues, busts and me-
MORALS erected to llim-dead. Sidney
Lanier lived a pauper's life Ind now
has monuments and honors. Father
Ryan seldom had a. dollar for which
he did not have a bitter need, as let
ters of his make plain; now lie has a
monument at Norfolk and another is
to be erected to him at Mobile.
Let us look at ourselves. For years
Francis Thompson wrote poetry and
published books over in Englaad, and
all our Catholic magazine editors ard
editors of Catholic weeklies knew he
was a Catholic. But they never
printed appreciations Of his work
while he lived, with exception Of the
Ave Maria, perhaps: with exception of
the Catholic World, none ever bought
his poetry. He is dead now, and ev-
cry Catholic paper one picks up is
lauding his gentle character and the
glorious splendor of his verse. When
too late they have found him out. The
greatest Catholic poet of modern
times had to live without their appre-
citation, but now they really seem to
think that fattery can "soothe the
cold, dull ear of Death" Again what
a pitiless farce!
| Out upon such mockery! If these
men. who were visibly chosen by God
and specially lowered by Him, had
been merely political hacks-crea-
lures of mud and slime, and tricks
and myriad treasons, and countless in
gratitudes, they would have been we'll
cared for during life. Everybody
knows this. We see it every day, and
God must see it in wrath. We pension
old soldiers devoted to patriotism. but
few of us give thought 10 our
poets, painters, sculptors, musicians,
and such like while they live. When
they die we hasten to howl lauds
above their graves.
| We Catholics ought to do better
than this. now that our influence is
rising like a dawn. We ought to see
that these people are as we'll cared
for as are the political hacks. Back