Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-05-07
FIGHTING RACE"
ON DEATH ROLL
AT VERA cruz
lrishmen, However, Had to
Share Honors of War With
Men of Other Chimes.

WASHINGTON. May I'm the
roster of dead and wounded at Vera
Cruz The Fighting Race which in
spired Joseph 1. G. Clarke to write in
verse of Kelly and Burke and Shea at
the time of the Maine explosion dis
ester, still is in evidence.
The very first man TO fall when the
American marines landed on Next
can soil was Daniel Aloysius Tag
gerty, of the Second Regiment L. S.
Marines. He was shot dead while
signaling from the top of building.
He was born in Sussex equity, and
though his home was in Massachn-
sets, he re-enlisted in Newark. Fol
lowing Haggerty's name on the roll
of death is Fitzgerald. Among the
wounded are Cahill, Lannon, Boyle,
Leahy.
But the American navy, more than
at the time of the Spanish American
War, now reflects the cosmopolitan
character of the people of the United
States. The old Fighting Race" still
is behind the guns, and 1t polishes
brasswork and holystones decks on
the warships of the United States,
but not in the same overwhelming
proportion as it did sixteen years ago.
AT that time the "Kellys and
Burkes and Sheas" were represented
ln the American navy in numbers
that We're all out of proportion to
the Irish element in the population
of the United States. But now the
descendants of other European irnmi-
grants-Germans and Swedes Poles
and Italian, and F'renchmen and Rus
sians-are to be found on the war
vessels of the nation, at least in equal
proportion to the numbers of Celtic
man -warsmen No more eloquent
proof of this can be found than the
list of ninety-one officers and men of
the navy and marine corps who were
killed at Vera Cruz. Here is the list
of dead exclusive of the two Irishmen
who fell whose names We're given
above:
De Fabbio, De Lewry and Vitaro;
Jams, Nordsiek and Peterson; Cam
eron and Mcmillan; Fried, Frehlich-
stein, Bernstein, Harshberger, Kap-
pier, kwapich, PinkoWSki, Mayor
nowski, Schumacher Firdth, Guecke,
Nanz, Schultz, Schwartz, Ebel, Hol-
singer and Pulliam.
And there is a long list of plain
every day apparently American
lanes such as Stevens. Fisher, Lane,
Smith, Bennett Clay, Copeland, Grey,
y Robinson Taylor and Reed.
Bespeak the Change.
The names bespealk the change that
has been going on in the personnel of
dozen years. 1t is drawing youths
and men from almost every race that
comes to our shores and it is going
into every part of the country to find
them. The Irishman of the navy is
not dying out. There would have
been more of him on the Vera Cruz
roll had the fighting been between
ships at sea, instead of ashore. The
kellys and the Burkes and the Sheas
are mainly fireroom men and engine
room men. They do not get into the
landing parties, but they are in all
the sea fights. Yet the other races
have been enrolling in the navy as
never before-Germans, Swedes, Rus
slams, Italians, Frenchmen and all.
And ninety-five per cent. of them
are American citizens. For several
years the navy and the marine corps
have enlisted no aliens They have
not been needed to fill UP the ranks
and they are not wanted. De Fabbia,
who died ct Vera Cruz. was an Amer
lean citizen So were Frehlichstein
ana De .,ewry and Schumacher and
Fitzgerald, all among the dead.
One of the first mon to fall for his
country at Vera Cruz was a Jewish
boy.
Ask a naval officer in Washington
from What race Of people the best
sailors and marines are drawn and
he will say there is no answer; that
good men come from all races and
that they are all Americans When
they are ABOARD ship.
OF the ninety-one des d and wound
ed at Vera Cruz only thirty-one are
from seaport towns and cities. Sixty
are from inland places. This is about
a proper proportion. Two-thirds OF
the navy personnel today Is recruited
from the farms and the factory towns
of the United States. OF the sixty in
landers. twenty are from a COM
paratively small group of States in
the Middle West. There is one Cana
dian and one Englishman in the Vera
Cruz list. Standing forth in the en-
tire list as names with a distinctly
foreign flavor are but thirty. The rest
are plain, everyday American names.
Clarke's Poem.
Clarke's immortal poem tells this
story of an Irish sailor listening to
his eomrade reading from a newspa-
per the list of the dead on the Maine.
The opening stanza is as follows:
Read out the names!" And Burke
sat back
And Kelly dropped his head,
While Shea-they call him Scholar
Went down the list of dead.
Officers, seamen. gunners, marines,
The crews of the gig and yaw',
The bearded man and the lad in his
teens,
Carpenters. coal passers-all.
Then, knocking the ashes from out
his pipe,
Said Burke, in an offhand way:
'.We're all in that dead mans list, by
Grippe!
Kellyand Burke and Shea"
swell, here's to the Maine, and I'm
sorry for Spain"
Said Kelly and Burke and Shea.
The final stanza reads:
"Oh, the fighting races don't die out,
:. If they seldom lie in bed
For love is first in their hearts, no
doubt V
Said Burke; then Kelly said:
"When Michael, the irish archangel,
stands,
The angel with the sword,
And the battle dead from a hundred
lands
Are ranged in one big horde,
Our line, that for Gabriels trumpet
waits,
Will stretch three deep that day.
From Jehosophat to the Golden
Gates
Kelly and Burke and Shea"
We'll, here's thank God for the race
and the sod"
Said Kelly and Burke and Shea.
Sf Saw