The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1913-03-17

If the men Of our race who came
here as emigrants received social os-
tracism, no word can describe the
complete isolation forced upon these
women. They shared every hardship,
exile, poverty, ignominy, often even
insult to their honor and virtue. No
labor was too mental for them; OBJ
stacle-and thousands of our women
made the fight single handed,-was
permitted to hinder them in the strug-
gle for place and position.
In one generation they broke down
or weakened the barriers of poverty,
environment and social prejudice SO
completely that the sons and daugh-
struggle for power and place and
pelf'' in American life with little hin
drance compared with what they
met.
What shall say of the descendants
of these Irish exiIes, the daughters
of the present generation? In cul-
ture, in refin enent, in education, in
ability, to endure the stress and strife
of physical labor, in purity of life, in
healthy ferninity, the Irish American
women have no superiors.
How unselfish, too, has been their
work! Scarcely a priest or man in
the professional or business walks Of
life, of Irish descent can be found
who is not indebted for his position
and place, to the labor and the sac
rifices of the mothers and the daugh-
tiers of his people The money that
has made it possible for the men OF
our race to receive an education in
the higher institutions of learning, has
come in great measure from the hard
earnings-often at the risk of health
and strengthen their Irish mothers
and sisters, who forgot the long hours
of labor, the fatigue, the lack of So
cial comforts and opportunities for
social advancement, in the happiness
and comfort that came to them in the
thought that they were giving to
Gods service and to the great pro-
fessions, men of their blood to fit
ting1y represent and espouse and
plead for, the spiritual and material
advancement of their race.
Women of the Irish race, your work
is not alone OF the past. The respon-
sibiltty is yours to see to it that you
that knows doubling, for the f1del-
ity that knows no failing, for spot
1essness Of life and integrity of char
acter, for honesty and devotedness as
mother, sister and wife.
These are the memories, these the
rich traditions, this the inspiration
and the lesson that find in the his
tory of the Irish race. Let US leave
the history. let us come to today; let
me come to the voices of the present.
would come to you, to you who are
the last survivors OF that band of
exaigrants who braved the early hatred
and antagondsm that from time to
time showed itself as you sought to
rise above the mental walks Of life.
How like were your efforts for fair
recognition and just consideration to
the efforts of those men of Massachu-
sets who followed the flag of the Re-
public through the years of the civil
war and brought back the flag all
the more precious because it was torn
with shot and black with smoke? r
call to you, brothers and sons Of
those men, to you, heirs of the great
Irish heritage Of faith, of indomftable
perseverance, Of matches courage
you who here in this land are heirs
to the heritage of liberty and free
dom; to you, children of the toiler, of
1.-THE bold pioneers and defenders in
the field; to you, come and ask,
What shall we do with this inherit
ance?
Your answer shall be the answer
which your dimmed eyed and moist
ened checked forefathers made to their
ancestors as they looked for the last
time upon their native land and their
loved ones. That answer was pledge
that they would show themselves
worthy of all the best that they in
herited from those who had gone be-
fore them.