The San Francisco call., 1909-09-05

hundreds of years and is soins
bother # a great deal more. is very
simple problem for some persons
have heard It dismissed with a single
sentence.
"The trouble with your friends the
Irish" 1 have been told more tnan
once. "is that they would rather asi
tate than work. If there was more IN
dustry and less oratory over there We
wouldn't hear so much Of wrongs II
they weren't afraid of work and Wouio
devote their energies to making Nv
ing, instead of making noise the
thing would solve itself"
L have heard that easy opinion ana
variations OF it many times. The the-
ory that the Irish are lazy is one OF
those curious fables that have sur
vived from the days when the extinc-
ton of the people was decreed on the
ground that they were pagan. To those
who accept the judgment 1T is or no
consequence that the Irish race has
lived through generations of ruthless
persecution and a grossly unjust land
system, and that only by the exercise OF
the most desperate industry has fought
off starvation.
If it were feasible 1 should like TO
bring these offhand philosophers to
KiItimagh. 1 should like to set them
down in the country round about, give
them each a house, farm tools, 10 acres
of average land and invite them TO go
ahead and make a living 1t is a
mathematical certainty that they
would starve to death if they did not
expire by despair.
The Irish peasant lazy! Let us take
a drive with Father Denis O'Hara and
have a look at the people.
But first, let us note the changes of
seven years in the reverend father him
self. His hair is bit whittier, and
there are more wrinkles around the
keen, kindly eyes. but his natural vigor
is not abated nor his eager. constant
service decreased. The priest is still
a father indeed to the $500 men. women
and children of his stony parish.
And with the forward movement in
economics and industry. visible all over
the land, he, too has advanced. Seven
years ago he was the parish priest.
with all the functions of councillor. ed
ucator and dispenser of justice which
that Office implies in the rural districts
OF ireland, besides being an active pa
triot, an adviser of an unfriendly gov
ernment, and one of the administrators
of the enormous work of the congested
districts board.
He is all of these things today-just
as devoted in religion, as enthusiastic
for government. as untiring in his
unpaid public office, as cheerful in his
separation from ease. But he Is a
little more. He has become a promo
ter and engineer since 1 saw him last,
and conducts big river work as con-
seientiously and ably as any of his re-
ligious celebrations.
But there was no change in the hos
pitality of the plain but homelike par
ish house. with the little study. Uttered
with books and papers, looking out
upon the beautiful church and convent
and school. monuments to the devotion
Welcome again. said Father
O'Hara. I'VE have not forgotten what
was written seven years ago 1t
brought us even closer to America
and you know that in all this parish
there is not a single family that has
not relatives across the water.
'Inded that's true; If it were not for
those exiles and their kind remem-
brance of the loved ones left behind. I
hot mo
people would do
But there has been an improve
ment, has there notT' 1 asked
There has, - indeed" answered
Father O'Hara-
You see. we were hampered in this
district by the lack of really good
land. Fifty years ago, and before,
when the people were driven of the
good lands into the bogs and up on the
rocky hills, great many died and
more emigrated. But those who did
not starve and could not go to Amer
lea had to take what land was left.
There is no fertile land in the neigh
horhood which we can acquire for
them, so they must do the best they
can where they are.
Nevertheless, as you have seen on
the roads leading here, great deal
mas been done. We have constructed
MANY main drains through swanlpy
industry, have connected short drains
to these. vastly improving the quality
of the land. Then. the board has made
free grants and small advances. assist
ing the land holders to erect decent
dwellings and outbuildings.
And a great service to the people
has been the rearrangement of the
scattered holdings. So far as possible,
each man is provided with compact
farm, equal in area and value to the
various fields and parts Of fields which
he cultivated under the rental system"
II suppose" l said, that there was
a good deal of lost notion or wasted
energy in cultivating ten or a dozen
scattered fields, as compared with q
group of fields all adjoining7"
Quite So" assented- Father OHara.
smiling. But perhaps you haven't re-
allied what I meant by scattered
patches.
He turned to his desk, and then
started to unroll before me a tracing
of a section of his parish.
..I am going to show you." he said.
..the handicap under which one man
was working. i have used this map to
astonish members of parliament before
this. Look, nowl"
He unrolled the tracing II was
marked with the roads. hills. clumps of
trees, water courses. etc., of the rural