The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1915-08-21

IDENTIFY an educated man and a gentle
man-as the world uses the term.
But let me point out that while the
corner-boy has the excuse of igno-
rance, and the out-of-work the excuse
Of necessity, for betraying national
principle and taking the uniform of
his tyrant, your cousin, in all proba-
bility, has neither excuse. Only that
strange, slavish spirit which inspires
certain percentage of the weaker
minded of all conquered peoples to go
forth proudly in the service of their
conqueror, and give him a dog-like
fidelity, is evidently this gentleman's
inspiration.
You, dear madam, are probably I'M
familiar with the hypocritical cant,
which the London Daily Mail, the
English tricksters, and their Irish
mouthpieces-usually termed Irish
leaders-give to the gullible West
Britons of Ireland, to be by them
unctuously echoed as genuine and
lofty Irish sentiment-and in conse-
quence you probably consider your
Cousins letter the climax of all Irish
patriotic sentiment. 1t will profit you,
even though it grieve you, to be dis.
illusioned.
A Beaten England Will Mean a Resur.
rected Ireland.
1. He says that.f England is beat
en- there will be no Ireland left to
fight for. Your cousin should patent
this discovery. For several hundreds
of years ignorant Irishmen (whom we
mistakenly call heroes and patriots)
tried to beat England in the belief that
beaten England would mean resur-
rected Ireland. What fools were Owen
Roe, Sarsfield, Tone, Emmett, Davis,
Mitchell, Rosa, and the rest!
2. Your cousin with singularly
rare idealism in these sordid days) is
fighting because he would consider it
"cowardly and criminal to stand by
when an attempt is made to subvert
all principles of liberty and honor
on the continent of Europe. Since the
noble gentleman is sacrificing himself
in such ideal, high, and holy cause
in Europe, take it for granted that
since nobility, like charity, should be-
gin at home-he spent his previous
years fighting England for having-not
during one brief year, but long and
terrible ceturies-subverted all prin-
ciples of liberty and honor in the
motherland that bore him. I cannot
conceive of gentleman with such
noble sentiments as are expressed in
this letter keeping his gun in the lock-
er, and his hands in his pockets, while
his native land, was violated; and sud-
denly boiling over with holy indigna.
ton when the London Daily Mail told
him His King and Country called to
him that the brutal Germans we're, in
some corner of the world, violating
those principles of liberty and hon.
or" for preserving which in all ends
of earth-from Ireland to Boerland
and from Egypt to China-noble
mother England has made name
for herself which will resound down
the distant ages. I cannot conceive,
for instance, of his leaving English.
butchered women and children un.
avenged and unburied on Dublin
streets. while, flashing his sword and
his noble sentiments to the world g
dazzling, he flushed to Europe to
avenge the wrongs of the foreigner.
l am positive that such high-spirit-
ed gentleman must have been for
years spilling his blood on the vio-
lated bosom of his motherland. Yet
the papers have kept up a success
full conspiracy of silence about him.
A Few Hard Facts.
4. The gentleman is concerned that
his exiled fellow countrymen in Amer.
lea do not know how different are
things at home today from what they
were fifteen years ago. To let the
gentleman go to the war Of the stran-
gers with a mind unworried upon this
point, I'll proceed to enlighten any
ignorant Irish-Americans there may be
upon the change that has come over
ireland in fifteen years. I'll give them
and you-a few hard facts.
Fifteen years ago, at, and after
the Boer war, Irish men and women
were not being raided. arrested. Jailed.
and exiled from their land for the
crime Of thinking nationally. Fifteen
years ago. free speech was not being
suppressed in Ireland Fifteen years