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Show ; HOPE m PRQPCROT If! KEBNbMT J FL TOIKC (Cnrrcspond-ence Intermountain Catholic.) San Francisco. Dec. 6. Rev. Father; Peer C. Yorke made his first appearance appear-ance in the lecture pulpit since his re-I turn from Ireland, at St.' Peter's church; in this city on Sunday evening last, j Thousands turned out to hear the brilliant bril-liant young priest certainly the most eloquent champion of the Catholic faith 0:1 this coast. The fair-minded American people of S.-.n Francisco, Catholic a 11. non-Catho lic, love and admire Father Yorke, who, more than any other man in or out of ! the Church, is responsible for the j . breaking of the A. I. A.'s, that un- American organization that boycotted merchants and others simply because they worshiped God before Catholic al-tarv: al-tarv: who persecuted helpless and defenseless de-fenseless Sisters, whose only offene was that they persisted in doing good by nursing- the sick and feeding and cloth-j ing the oridians: and who insisted on mm-Catholic merchants discharging: tlr-ir Catholic shop girls. Theie was a time in San Francisco' wh"n this Canadian-born organization was a great power and threatened the liberties of ihe people- who did not agree with it. Ii was then this daring and devoted young Catholic priest jumped into the arena and fought all comers I to a finish and won. j What has become of all these A. P. A. leaders? Some have gone to jail; others tied the State or were driven cn:t, and the rest are in hiding. It was fitting, therefore, that after an absence of fourteen months in Europe. Eu-rope. Father Yorke should receive a loyal welcome home. "IRELAND REVISITED." Father Yorke's address was entitled! "Ireland Revisited." His descriptions j of tho s'm s he saw there after an ab-j ienee of fourteen years rre presented! with line word coloring, and the com-p-ten'ss of his review of the social, j commercial and political progress of; Ireland did not fail to compel the ap-I preciation of the large number of per-! ns who heard it. He eaid in part: j I hardly think it necessary to enlarge; upon an idea which is naturally in the heart of every person who has the opportunity op-portunity to return after years of ab- M'n'(: to tiie land of his birth. It is a feeling of the greatest pleasure and one characteristic of even.- living thing.! There exists in all human hearts the! desire to go back to the scenes of boy- hood'days. We keep in our souls the! memory ef those old days and we treasure the picture of them. We love the things in the land of our birth. We l j love to dwell on them, and nothing can ! be of greater pleasure to us than the ! chance to revisit them. ' 1 j That love we cultivate as the holiest : among men. Therefore, it is not strange ; that when opportunity offers we should ! delight to go back to see the old faces, to roll away all the cares and to be ! again with the days of our youth. Per-! Per-! haps these scenes may not always be the same, and it is possible that we may i find ourselves with feelings of dissatis-j dissatis-j faction. But it is also possible and ' probable that the same old colors will be lightened. At any rate, when we come back from them we retain a picture pic-ture of interest and pictureso.ueness and the happy recollection of the place where we first saw Heaven's light. My desire is to make you see Ireland as 1 saw it not all of Ireland, but such features of it as might strike the observant ob-servant traveler. Ireland is a subject that is constantly being discussed and needs to be constantly defended. GREAT CHANGES IN IRELAND. Let me first say that there have been great changes in Ireland. You probably know nothing of these, but the English Eng-lish press seldom tells anything about Ireland except when somebody shoots somebody else. But I have only recently recent-ly seen it, and to me, after an absence of fourteen years. I found the picture wonderful and inspiring. It is still the same dear land of legend and romance a land that has suffered air manner of tribulations, and is still advancing beneath the heavy burden. Ireland' is a land which has solved great problems and before which are great problems still to be solved. Even at this moment she is a bone of contention. conten-tion. Those of her enemies who are forced to say that she has suffered say that it has not been the conqueror, but the oppressed themselves who are accountable ac-countable for her condition. But it was ever the practice of those who injure one to slander the person whom they have injured. Let us, however, remember remem-ber that God is just. He may appear for a time to be on the side of the misrhtiest force, but in the end he will be found on the side of those who are in the right. "His mills grind slowly, but they grind exceeding fine." FIRST VIEW OF THE OLD LAND. Father Yorke next gave an interesting interest-ing description of his voyage across the continent and then of his voyage from New York to Queenstown. Continuing, Continu-ing, he said: "I shall never forget the first sight o. Ireland from a steamer. We saw th great green hills rise out of the xcean and knew that we had arrived at the land that is ever ancient, ever new. We were under a new sky the sky that laughs and cries. Almost before we knew it we were in the harbor. The j little tender came alongside as we hung o er the rails and gazed long.ngly at the shore. I couldn't help thinking what j came into the minds of those who had returned-with me thos'e who saw the familiar old hills growing larger, the houses becoming more distinct, and finally fin-ally the faces of their friends on the wharf. It is then that one thinks 0. the poet's lines: Livf-s there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself has said, and then, under native skies and anions! our people we feel the full strength ol his concluding line: This is my own, my native land. THE LAKES AND THE WOODS. "How lovely it is to look upon the lakes, the ruined castles, the feathery woods. Here we have woods; but these appear solitary, independent and alone. The woods of Ireland are like great ostrich os-trich plumes that rise thick and thin on the hills, clinging to rocks, kindly to vegetation. And the fair hills of holy Ireland rise as from the sea. green and near, and not hidden away in the interior. inter-ior. "Of conditions in the cities, I should say that the hotels are as good as ours; the trains are good and make good time. There has been a tremendous improvement everywhere. The people wear more comfortable and better clothes. I seldom saw children with bad clothes, and I was particularly impressed im-pressed with the neatness of the houses and the general indication of prosperity. prosper-ity. I found that the economic conditions condi-tions of the people is far better than it was fourteen years ago. I consider that the condition of the people of Ireland Ire-land is considerably better than that of the people in the same grade of life in this country. We hear many stories of their poverty and unfortunate condition condi-tion generally, but' you may be assured that Ireland has made great progress and is enjoying considerable prosperity. AGRICULTURE IN IRELAND. "Ireland is purely an agricultural country, and in this fact we may find a reason for her prosperity. After all the trouble between landlords and tenants ten-ants there has been a change of conditions. condi-tions. Now the people are getting money from the government to buy their farms. This easily accounts for the better bet-ter appearance of the houses. "There was a time when, if a farmer put on a new coat and went to pay his rent, his rent was increased because he had the new coat on. So was his rent increased if it was learned that he had given his daughter a. dowry. So the next time he paid rent he showed himself in his dirtiest, shabbiest coat, and when his daughter was married he said nothing about dowry. Along canie the spick and span Englishman and said: 'Those Irish are not clean, and if they could be clean they wouldn't, because be-cause their religion wouldn't let them.' That sort of thing accounts for much of the criticism directed against the Irish farmer. "I fpund that the people on the west I44-4-4-4-4-4-4-44 444-4-4-4-4-4-44 4 4-'4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4 4- 4 4 , 4 4- REV. PATHEE PETER C. YORKE. - t" 4- REV. FATHER PETER C. YORKE TOLD AN INTEREST- 4- 4- ING STORY OF THE PRESENT C0NTJITI0N OF IltELAj.MiJ 1JM A 4- LECTURE DELIVERED AT SAN FRANCISCO ON LAST SUN-. 4 DAY EVENING. THE CORRESPONDENT OF THE INTERMOUN- 4- 4- TAIN CATHOLIC SENDS A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE AF- 4- FAIR, AND ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE SOCIAL, 4- 4- ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE IRELAND 4- 4- OF TODAY WILL FIND IT WORTHY OF PERUSAL. ttttt tft 44444 ttttt- tt4-4-444tt 4 4t44 4-4-t.t44 coast are too much huddled, and suffer for that reason. These are the congest- I ed districts, and the latest agitation In ! Ireland has been to relieve these dis tricts. You often hear appeals, from these places for aid for starving inhabitants. in-habitants. All this is very humiliating to the people, and they say, and we echo their statements, that it is a thing unnecessary a thing that shou'd. not be. "The trouble lies with England. That nation is able to scatter money like water when it comes to foreign wars, j but she is very parsimonious when it comes to the condition of Ireland. ENGLAND'S CRUEL DESPOTISM. "Ireland is practically destitute of manufactories. This may; add much to her pecturisqueness, but not to her prosperity. And this has, like many other things, been the fault of the Englishman, Eng-lishman, whose conscience is always in his pocket. Still, Ireland has rested much of her hope on electricity. The rainfall there is great, and a movement is on" foot to utilize the mar y streams for manufacturing industry. Of course, I the people, work at a tremendous disadvantage. dis-advantage. Why, .not long ago, they started to make matches on a large j scale, and immediately the English poured matches into the country and j sold them at half price.. You know! something about trusts here. Well, they have some on the other side, too. j Again, America is a source of trouble in the line of . business competition, j America can easily land goods in, Ire-1 land and sell them cheaper than the! home product can be sold. England is a hive of industry and the apostle of free trade; so, of course, Ireland has to follow suit. Today American flour shipments ship-ments have accomplished the ruin of the Irish mills. The Irish farmer now receives only onerfifth of the amount of profit he did forty years ago. It is pleasing to know, however, that work is going on for the improvement of the people in spite of these adverse economic conditions. English capital is trying tg buy un the'products of the Irish farmer. The potato crops show the advancement. POTATOES FED TO CATTLE. The disease which caused so much trouble some-years ago has1 disappeared because of the use cf an invention sent from France. 1 The product Is three times as large as it used to be. I am sorry to say, however, that the potatoes are mostly eatt a by cattle. The principal princi-pal food in. Ireland nowadays is bread and tea. Unfortunately, they seem toj have given up the eating cf potatoes and the drinking cf milk, which, made such big men of their fathers'. There can be no doubt that the people are getting nevvudeas. They are not backward and not sleery. They are seeking advancement and want a ov-ernment ov-ernment that will enable them to advance. ad-vance. .They would find it hard to better bet-ter their religion. . Their churches, you will remember, were stolen by Cromwell. Crom-well. But they are not sitting down on the sidewalk and crying and moaning over the churches they lost. They are building new churches. In the matter of crime the Irish have little to do- with it. Outside of the two principal cities one scarcely ever hears of serious crime. If they had the murders that San Francisco has in a single week I believe the-people of Ireland would go Into a panic And as for drinking, the Irishman" takes not- nearly as much liquor as the Englishman or the Scotchman. Scotch-man. I must not forget to mention the great improvement in the workhouses. These are now in the hands of the Sifters Sif-ters of Mercy. They are well disci-j disci-j plined and have ccme to be looked upon 1 favorably as hospitals, or houses of refue-e instead of being considered places where people should be afraid to go. j . EDUCATION IN IRELAND. I Now as to education. The attendance in the common schools is greater than i in Massachusetts and is the greatest in I the world. This is proof sufficlei'd I against the charge that the Irish are j neglectful of education. The political problem may be summed up in the statement that the Irish are taking Ireland. In the County Councils they have shown intelligence and proved their ability for self-government. They are beginning to administer adminis-ter their own affairs for the first time in 600 years. The strength of Ireland now lies, not in the parliamentary party, par-ty, which is dead and gone, but in their County Councils and with the people. One of the chief dangers to the future fu-ture prosperity of Ireland is emigration. emigra-tion. At this time there are SO, 000 people peo-ple running out of the country every year. It is necessary and immediately immediate-ly necessary to stop this, and the way to do it is to permit the people of Ireland Ire-land a system of government which r.ill give them protection. They need a government which will start the fnills going again. That fs the only : way to keep the Irish youth at home. Another danger is Ireland's close proximity prox-imity to England and the possibility that her sns will lose her language, and her traditions be infused with English Eng-lish thought and become merely West Britons. If the Irish are to remain Irish, the wall they must build, and can build, is a wall of language between themselves I and England. Then Irish nationality ! will be safe. |