Omaha daily bee., 1909-12-26
A REAL LIVE TONGUE
Thousands of New Workers. are Able
to Speak 1t.
USED BY MANY EVERY DAY
Due in Part TO immigration and in
Part to Revival which the Gaelic
League in Encouraging in Ire
land and America.

NEW YORK, Dec. S.-Two Irishmen in
New York made a bet one day. Though
both were born in the little green isle they
were not the same kind of Irishmen. One
was an enthusiast and one was a scoffer.
The enthusiast bet that in half an hours
walk, taken at random through New York,
he could raise an answer in the Irish
language every time he chose to speak 1t.
The scoffer scoffed.
They went down West street first and
stopped at the first group OF dock Iaborers.
The enthusiast let fall a salutation in the
Gaelic. He got an answer so quickly that
st cost him the drinks for old Ireland be-
fore he got away.
Next he went into a dry goods store. Be
hind the counter was a Girl with blue eyes
rubbed in with a dirty finger" He ut
tered a sentence in Gaelic, and though IL
did not cost him the drinks this time he
got an answer and a quotation from a bit
OF Irish poetry, and the girl was born in
New York, too.
Last they wandered out on an old pier
where come the boats of a little old New
England line. Out on the end they found
a shack where at a desk sat a white-haired
clerk, as he had been sitting for the last
thirty or forty years,
The enthusiast sized up the old man and
tried an observation i'm the Gaelic on him.
He got an answer that nearly wrunE his
hand off. and then the old clerk showed
the visitors a box Of books in the Irish
language. some OF them dating back to
the early days OF printing, which he had
stored in his office.
Thousands Know the Tongue.
Some Irishmen declare that q. 900 people
IA New York City can speak Gaelic. Others
fix the number at double that. 1t is al
q matter OF estimate, but when It is re.
membersd that Irish Is still spoken all
through the west OF ireland, in Donegal
and Galway, Sligo, Mayo, Cork, Kerry
Clare and most of all in the Isle Of Arran
and that Irish immigration TO America /,
stin going on at the rate Of 1000 a year
Il is not strange that the old tongue still
fingers In the streets Of NeN York. In,
largest Irish city in the world.
But in addition to this the Gaelic league
both In America and ireland, is making
Il a matter OF pride with educated Irisf
people TO be able to speak their aboriglnR
language. Twenty years ago an educated
person in Ireland was apt to be a hi
ashamed TO confess that he knew the Ian
guage. He feared that 1t would proclaim
him from the backwoods. Today 1906
children are studying their own lauguag,
in the national schools ot ireland and Their,
are chairs OF the Irish language in mos
OF the universities OF Germany. France an,
Scandinavia and here and there in America
The best Irish scholar Ia the world Is
Scandinavian professor.
The Gaelic League OF America has for il
object the awakening OF interest ia Tn
ancient language, art, customs and histor,
Of Ireland and the nancla assistance o
the home society for the same purpose
Much money goes to Ireland annually 70
the purpose.
work Of the Gaelic League
The league has eight societies in Ne'
York. several each in Boston and Chicag
and others in Buffalo. Baltimore. Phils