Kentucky Irish American. (Louisville, Ky.) 1898-1968, 1917-03-17
IRISTIMEN IN THE SOUTHLAND
After Dinner Adde'S Of Irwin Cobb
Irish Historical So o New York.


an assemblage OF men and women
of Irish blood and Irish breeding
than In any other banquet hall on
earth For q am ono who is Irish
and didn't know II; but now that
do know IL. am prouder of that
fact than OF any other thing on
earth except that I am an American
citizen.
1 wonder If it ever occurred 10
you what differences are TO be
found in many country and in al
most any country between the tenn
peraments and the spirits and the
customs of those who live in the
North of ii and those. who live in
the South of IL?
The North OF Ireland. as we all
know, has fathered the great bust
ness men of that little island, and
the great manufacturers and the
great theologians, many of them F;
and, regretful 10 say, II has also
produced a spawn of human beings
who, in the face of the fact that
in every other land where men
have equal opportunities, the Irish
man has won his way to the front
and has held his own with prince
and potentate, yet cling to the
theory that in Ireland. of sill the
spots of the world, the Irishnian is
not capable OF governing himself.
But IL was to the South of ireland.
and ii is TO the South of Ireland
today that one must turn to find
the dreamer and the writer. the
Ideaist and the poet. 1t Is to the
South of ireland also that one must
turn to seek for a people whose
literature and whose traditions are
saddencd by the memory OF the
wrongs they have withstood and
the prosecutions they have endured
and still endure, and yet whose spir-
its and whose characters are uplift-
ed and sanctfied by that happy
optimism which seems everywhere
on this footstool to be the heritage
Of the true Southerner.
In measure these same things
are true of our own country. The
North excels in business. but the
South leads in romance. The North
opens wide the door of opportunity
to every man who comes TO its Dor
ders with willing hands and eager
brain, and commands. him TO get
busy. The South opens a door. too.
but il is the door of hospitality,
and il bids the stranger enter in.
not so much for what he can give.
but for what he can take In the
way of welcome. ! think there is
a reason, aside from topography
and geography and climate and en-
vironment, for tsese differences be-
tween the common divisions of our
great country. And / ann going to
come to that reason in minute.
AS a boy, down South, there were
two songs that stirred me as no
other songs could-one was a song
that l loved and one song that
I hated, and one OF these songs was
the battle hymn of the South, DIX
leland" and the other was March
ing Through Georgia." But once
upon time when was half-grown,
a wandering piper came TO the town
where lived, a man who spoke
with .brogue and played with one.
And he carried under his arm
wierd contraption which to me
seemed 10 be compound OF two
fishing poles stuck in a hot-water
bottle, and he snuggled il to his
breast and il squawked out its
ectasy, and then he played on il a
tune called "Garryowen." And as
no played it found that my toes
tingled inside my shoes, and my
only throb to the air of Dixie"
And took counsel with myself and
said, why is it that l who call
myself pure Anglo-Saxon should
be thrilled by an Irish air?" So
set out to determine the reason
Tor it. And this is the kind of
found out I was: My
mother was of the strain, the breed
IF Black Douglas of Scotland, as
scotch as haggis, and rebels. all of
hem, descendants OF men who fol-
owed the fortunes of Bonnie Prince
Charles, and her mother lived in a
county in North Carolina, one of
i've counties where up to 1920
saelic was not only the language of
he people in the street, but was
he official language OF the courts.
I was in that selfsame part of
Worth Carolina that there lived
ONE Of the men who. nearly a year
efore our Declaration of indie
endence was drawn up. wrote and
igned the Mecklenturg Declara-
ion, which was the first battle
ny raised for American independ-
nee. On the other side ! found.
y investigation. that my fathers
ne ran back straight and unbroken
D q matched cottage on the green
Ide OF hill in the Wicklow
and his people likewise
ad some kinsmen IN Galway. and
pine. in Dublin. with whom fol-
wing the quaint custom of their |
md. they were accustomed to take (
"a and fight afterwards. ! found {
had a collateral ancestor, VINO was
Ut with the pixies In the '9S ana /
3 was taken prisoner and tried /
n high crimes and misdemeanors I
sainst the British Government, and
as sentenced TO be hanged by the r
eek until he was dead and might y
cd have mercy on his souli And o
: was hanged by. the neck until I
) was dead, and am sure God /
d have mercy on his soul, for that &
ul of his went marching on, r
ansmitting 10 his people, of whom q
am proud TO be one. The desire
rebel against oppression and "
ranny. had three great grand II
theirs. two of them Irish and one o
them Scotch, who we're Revolu- L
mary soldiers. and had father CT
40 was a Confederate soldier. And 81
these facts, too ! am quite proud. s
: /. find that my strain, being a