The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-01-19
THE OLD IRELAND AND THE NEW ONE New One Is Buoyant and
 Hopeful IS IN THE MAJORITY Robert Crozier Long Reviews Condi- tons of the Island After An Ab- sence of Fifteen Years.
 Sees Improvement.
BY ROBERT cRozlER LONG.

Dublin, January 12-Reviewing my journeyings I find that three of the four quarters of Ireland are bouyant, stren- uous, self-reliant, hopeful The fourth quarter is still the old Ireland, decaying dwindling, physically and intellectually weakening, Respondent. hungry.
 That sums up Ireland as I have seen 1t in the last month of 1907, after an ab- sence of 10 years My summing up Is the result of a three weeks visit, during which l visited the most characteristic centers of both the Old Ireland and the New. The New Ireland Is alive; the Old Ireland, older now than ever, is very near the point of death
 Spiritual Regeneration.
 East Ireland, North Ireland, South Ire land, are in the throes of a complete eco- homie and spiritual regeneration from which great nation may be reborn. But Wset Ireland is dead to all movements save to the stimuli of eternal hunger hunger for bread, hunger for land hunger for & more benignant destiny. Only the Shannon separates these domains of hope and despair It is mere stream. But so great is the contrast between these two Irelands that it seems 1t is no stream, but an ocean that divides them.
 The New Ireland is marking a slow, but continuous march to prosperity. The Old Ireland in the west is swift decay. Not even the right to purchase their farms compulsorlly will save the peasant cotters of West Ireland. The march of starvation and decay could not be stopped even if the tenants receive their land for nothing. For hardly a single tenant farmer in the west has a farm that is worth cultifying. He cannot get a decent fo at fexb
 Working Out Their Destiny.
 The west excepted, Ireland is working out q new destiny. She is reviving her ancient and splendid language. But here again it is the New Ireland, east of the Shannon, which is ats work The west, where Irish Is still spoken as a mother tongue, takes a little interest in the move ment to preserve it. The potato-fed peas ant of Mayo and Donegal, on the verge of hunger and wearied with ungrateful labor, has no time for intellectual reviv- als.
 Fifty years hence, I believe, the Gaelic language will be spoken in the streets of Cork and Dublin. Irishmen now agree that only through this revival can Ire land attain full nationhood and express the genius of her people in It's traditional form.
 Dublin is no longer a suburb of London III poetry, the mover ana the arts. ohe is beginning to keep her clever young men at home. The most striking feature in Dublin life Is the large number of clever, ambitious. patriotic young Irish men-poets. novelists and polemists-who are agreeing to stay and help their na- tive land. Irish novelists, critics and his- torians bring out their works in the Irish capital.
 In one word, Ireland is alive, as shs has never been since the forties The overthrowal of landlordism has been the signal for the creation of this New Ire land and when that overthrowal is com plete Ireland may begin the brightest page In her history.