The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1909-07-03
THE IRISH EMBLEMs

THE IRISH EMBLEMS
Used on St. Patrick's Day Made In
Japan and Germany.
For it grows through the woods. thro
the bogs and the mreland, |
And we call 1t our dear little sham
rock of Ireland
That's what we sang last ST. Pat
rick's Day. And we meant every word
of it, too. And We hummed it airily,
merrily and patrioticaly as we parad
ed around town with neat little silk
emblem in our buttonhole supported
by chest as puffed up with patriotic
pride as prize pigeons. And the
more we walked about, the more
chesty we got, for we observed that
our fellow citizens were helping US
good aturedly to celebrate the feast
day Of our patron saint by wearing Of
the green. It mattered not the ma
tionality or race, for Teuton and Gael,
descendants of the Caesars, and "cullui
pussons sah,' all Wed with us in pay
ing homage to good st. Patrick, and
seemed just as enthusiastic as any
loyal sons of the Green Isle, Gays tho
Catholic Union and Times of Buffalo,
N. Y.
| It was an exciting. time. and we
thought Of! nothing but celebrating. 10,
is not so far away'in the distant past
that we require to strain our memories
to conjure up vivid pictures of the
events that then took place, but Is far
enough away for us to settle down and
ask some very pertinent questions
about things. The more questions VIC
have asked recently, the ,natter our
chest has become. particularly on the
subject of souvenirs worn on that occa-
sion.
It never occurred to us to ask from
what part of the globe came the sou
venirs and emblems we so patriotic
ally displayed. Not that we didn't
want to know, but we were too busy
celebrating. Recently, when we got
over the excitement, we do SO. We
confess this with a cramp in our con-
science. We got the answer and then
what a fall there was, my brothers!
That answer gave our racial pride such
a jolt in the solar plexus that we have
only just recovered sufficiently to gasp
out. protest.
| We were at first rather gratified to
learn of the extent Of our nationsl
celebration, for statistics showed thst
the sales of small Irish flags, sham
rocks and other souvenirs more than
equaled those for all the other holi-
days in this country, including Wash
ington's birthday, Decoration day and
Fourth of July. Merchants gave them
out with lavish hands to their patrons,
and societies distributed them in guam
titles among their friends. Approxi-
mately over thousand million Of
these emblems and souvenirs were Inn
ported by America for the celebration
of last st. Patrick's Day. From Ire
land? Most certainly not! This is
our supreme grievance, the thorn that
rankles and testers in our flesh. And
the following statement from a promi-
nent New York importer did 1t. He
said:
"At the present time scarcely an
Irish emblem used here on st. Pat
rick's Day comes from ireland. The
chief reason for this is probably that
not having the souvenir or dinner
favor habit over there to any great
extent, the manufacture of these
things is neglected. They do not
make anything like the same fuss
over the celebration that we do in this
country.
Japan sends over nearly a billion
Of the small Irish flags, plain green
silk shamrocks and the shamrock with
a rose in the center, every year. and
the quantities are increasing annually.
THE sentimental and comic post
cards, fancy candy boxes such. as hats
with clay pipes stuck in the bands.
boxes in the shapes of harps,. sham
rocks. and potatoes, better grade boxes
with plaster designs on the top for
ices at banquets. handsomely embossed
menu cards, and many other things
come from Germany. Eneland.. France