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Show .DISCUSS THE KELTIC KILT. Talk of Forming Royal Irish Guard Revives Ancient Lore National Costume in Disuse Since End of of Sixteenth. Century Waterford's Imposing1 Demonstration to Redmond Red-mond Great National Assembly Is Called to Meet in Dublin June 12. i'-y-'x (Special Correspondence.) .-' . Dublin, May 1. That there is to be a regiment or regiments of Royal Irish guards, by way of compliment to the fighting qualities of "her majesty's Irish troops'" in South Africa,-is taken for granted in England, and the newspapers news-papers and rampant imperialists of that hysterical country are now suggesting sug-gesting and discussing what kind of uniform they should wear. The kilt of a color once popular among Irish clansmen in ancient days seems, jui't now, to appeal most strongly to their fancy, and William Gibson, son of Lord Ashbourne, the lord chancellor of Ireland, strongly advocates it in the London Chronicle, and in the midst of much bosh has some plausible arguments argu-ments in its favor, all of which he delivered, de-livered, the Chronicle interviewer teas us, while clad "in this exceedingly picturesque pic-turesque costume." I Mr. Gibson becomes eloquently historic his-toric over 'his idea and declares it was the baroaric races surrounding the Roman Ro-man and Greek -peoples that wore trou-serslike trou-serslike garments', while these dominant domi-nant races wore the kilt. "The Greeks werrtffhus clothed when they won the famous victory of Marathon over the Persians, who were clad in the degen-. erate breeches." The kilt which he would devoid of the "strife of color," indicative of the tartan, its hue being that of saffron, approaching in tint to Cinamon. This would make the costume cos-tume of the new royal regiments resemble re-semble very closely in color the thing called khaki, the most prosaic and dirtiest dir-tiest looking of all colors. "The average Irishman." says Mr. Gibson, "will often almost starve before be-fore he consents to put on an English uniform, which, perhaps, is not unnatural un-natural when the past history of the two countries is considered. I feel sure that if the newly formed Irish regiments regi-ments adopted a uniform resembling ; the dresft of their ancestors the Irish .ould be proud to don it." j Doubtful, Mr. Gibson. Clothes will not induce ever your "average Irishman" Irish-man" to take the "Saxon sh'lling," though the racial spirit that delights in adventure and stirring conflict and the dire poverty that crushes hope and love of home with hunger's fingers may and often hat. . HISTORY OF THE IRISH KILT. In answer to the question as to when the Irish lost their ancient, national dress and adopted the hideous dress of England, the erudite son of the lord chancellor replied: "The kilt in all its glory certainly lasted in Ireland till the end of the sixteenth century. Derrick in his 'Image 'Im-age of Ireland,' illustrated with woodcuts wood-cuts caricaturing the IrisCa kilt and its brevitv, wrote: '.' 'Their skirts be verie Strange, Not reaching paste the thigh, With pleates on pleates they pleated are. As tljick as pleates may lye.' "Up to that time Irish dress, save in the matter of color, was identical with tha Scottish. The saffron color was forbidden by law in the middle of that century and the mantle or plaid came within the .sumptuary laws,of Henry VIII, who forbade the poor to use of more than seven yards in its construction, construc-tion, twenty yards being allowed to the rich." Probably, continues Mr. Gibson, because be-cause of the various sumptuary laws imposed by England the kilt became a sign of poverty and inferiority, and it may also be said that the Irish were so busily engaged In political and religious re-ligious controversy as to have neglected the outward and visible sign, of their essential unity. 1 PADDY ATKINS' NEW GARB. Mr. Gibson concludes his learned disquisition dis-quisition on the picturesque, but somewhat some-what scanty costume, which he would have Paddy Atkins wear when specially spec-ially guarding the sacred person of her majesty, Victoria, and duly installed as a bare-legged prop of the throne as follows: VThe Irish have so intensely strong a j national idea that they would welcome I an.v expression of it, and that idea J ZJf- '' 'l could have no more complete expression expres-sion than in the uniform of an exclusive exclu-sive Irish regiment. The Irish gentry would require little encouragement to take it up. The Irish soldier instead of being encased in the ludicrous wrappings wrap-pings of modern civilization would thus have, like the Scottish, a costume comfortable, com-fortable, economic, national and picturesque pic-turesque and one which would recall to Irishmen that theirs is one of the oldest old-est civilizations in Eurooe." Napoleon called the Highlanders "bare-buttocked savages," and the royal Irish guards in saffron kilts might similarly be dubbed by some enemy they had soundly trounced, but that wouldn't hurt; the English have already al-ready made us familiar and indifferent to that, and equally vituperative epithets. epi-thets. The Irish faculty for sarcasm may make the kilt idea ridiculous and, besides, it is not by any means certain that the Irish of the sixteenth or any other century were generally clad as Gibson depicts or that a plain saffron kilt was ever a truly national costume. Archaeologists tell us that a cloth, somewhat similar to the tartan or plaid was worn by . the ancient Irish, the number of colors in the fabric indicating indicat-ing the social oj political position of the wearer. As the Scotch originally were an offshoot of the ancient Irish Kelt, the tartan may be regarded as a symbol of what was once a distinrtive article of apparel of Ireland in olden days. The Scotch in later centuries being less resiatful to "benevolent assimilation," as-similation," they have been allowed to show their, colors, . while articles of di ess that were distinctively rational in Ireland were prohibited. But anyway here's fun to the brawny Kelt in his saffron kilt as he disports his bare and bulging calves around the gates of Buckingham and Windsor palaces. DISHEARTENING EXODUS. "Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey," sang Goldsmith, and surely in no other land have ills so uninterruptedly uninterrup-tedly and pitilessly hastened as in this. The prosperity, and happiness of ether peoples are guaged by their growth in population; in this country according to the economic ethics of our rulers the decline of the producing classes is the sign of social progress. The world is being loudly told by the English press that. Ireland is now consented am', prosperous and happy, and that all complaints are forever silenced by the visit of the queen. Would .that the statements had even a basis of truth, but the emigration statistics of the Irish registrar general just published tell a different tale. It is a sad moral they point for a country whose life blood is daily ebbing away from its shores. The exodus for 1899 is a disheartening dis-heartening one, the figures showing that 43,760 fled the land, being an increase in-crease of nearly 10,000 as compared with 1S9S. The total number of emigrants of native birth who left Irish ports from May 1, 1S51, to the 31st of last December is 3,796,131, of whom 1,981.443 l were males and 1,814,66 females. The highest number in any one year of the iperiod embraced (and which does not include the terrible famine years of 1846-4&) was 190,322 in 1852, and the lowest low-est 32,241 in 1S98. In the decade from 1866 to 1875 the average annual number num-ber of emigrants was 74,667; in the previous pre-vious decade, ending with 1865, the average number per annum amounted to 88.272, and from 1S52 to 1S55, both inclusive, in-clusive, the average annual number was 14S.985. The upward jump in the statistics of depopulation of last year shows that the long, sad tale of misery and misgovernment is still unrelieved by even one bright ray of promise, and one can have but little hope that this is not the beginning of another period of continued increase in the departures into exile of a peasantry who are so passionately fond of their native land. And the worst of it is it ia the young and strong who are going. Of the 41.-232 41.-232 natives of Ireland who left the country last year, 3.542, or 3 per 1.000 of the province in 1891, were from Lein-ster; Lein-ster; 15.75S. 13.4 per 1,000, were from Munster; S.701, or 5.4 per 1.000, were from Ulster, and 13,231, or 18.4 per 1.000, were from Connaught. The comparatively compara-tively large numbers who fled from Connaught and Munster is no doubt largely due to the famine which prevailed pre-vailed in districts of both provinces' in 1898 a calamity which the authorities denied at first, and did little to alleviate allevi-ate at any time. In referring to these statistics1 of the registrar general, with their terrible story of saddened hearts and depopulation, the Freeman's Journal Jour-nal makes the following comments: "We hear a great deal about the queen as 'wife and mother.' During the last fifty years 1.S27.56S Irish girls have been forced to leave their country by an artificial and cruel system of i government of. which her majesty is the head. How many wives and mothers, moth-ers, virtuous, home-loving and pious, are behind that terrific total of a nation's na-tion's womanhood how many maidens driven to a doom even worse than the poverty from which they fled? One painful reature of these returns is to be found in the ages of emigrants. Last year 82.9 per cent of them were between 15" and 35. It has been the same all along. The young, with their national school education, are going ever and ever: the old, the feeble, the lame, tho blind, remain. Has any country in Europe ever been bled so continuously and so disastrously? From Germany there has been a great emigration, emi-gration, but yet the German population popula-tion has Increased by. over 50 per cent since the war with France. There it was the natural emigration of adventurous) adven-turous) youths, seeking their fortunes in strange lands. Here the emigration goes hand in hand with a steady decrease de-crease of the population, for it is not the natural emigration! of a properly governed and healthy state, but the decline that comes from bad laws and bad administration." QUEEN SETS TOURIST FASHION. There is one little ray of light, however, how-ever, breaking, and that is the promise that the influx of tourists this year will be greater from, across the channel than this island ever before witnessed. The queen set the fashion by her visit just ended and be thanks to her for that and as she haa expressed her delight de-light with her stay and is greatly improved im-proved in health, of course the fashionables fash-ionables of London and elsewhere will now deemi it a duty to come over here and take a drive In a jaunting car over the roads on which her majesty took her daily airing. Besides the natural beauties and exquisite scenery found in every part of Ireland aro better known than formerly, for we have a tourist association here which by invitation and publication has done much to make known every attractive foot in the four provinces. The railroads, too, have- been doing their share, anit through them and others hotel andi other improvements have been raada which makes touring here now as pleasant and comfortable as in any oi the continental countries. It is but a. very few years ago since the arrangements arrange-ments and accommodations for travelers travel-ers in every- section of th country outside out-side of the chief cities were miserably inadequate and uninviting at the best. We have changed all that, or at least a good part of it. and now one wishing wish-ing for a sight of some bit of scenic loveliness need not be deterred from going by the fear that he cannot find a good, clean and reasonably cheap hotel. ho-tel. Without such an attraction andi assurances as this the Irih people have found out that tht tourist in thee closing clos-ing days of the nineteenth century will keep away from nature's attractions. " no matter how lovely and enticing they may be. Of course, the tourist from abroad cannot bring us the prosperity and development that depend on the confidence and self-reliance engendered! by a just and sympathetic government. I but the money brought and spent by many travelers in a land so poor 33 this will count for much in the welfare of the people. The Swiss mainly live on the tourist, and if the scenic attractions attrac-tions of Ireland were aa well known as those of Switzerland there is every reason rea-son to think that the influx of sightseers sight-seers here would wonderfully increase and grow larger year by year. However, How-ever, it looks certain now that many an Englishman will drop many a guinea here before the frason h over and thus while enjoying himself benefit others. It will do him good ti know the people peo-ple and it may plant the generous eed! of justice in his mind. WATERFORD'S OVATION TO REDMOND. RED-MOND. In the city of Waterford on Sunday last was held one of the mo5't imposing1 demonstrations witnessed in Ireland for a long time. Special trains brought j lare cor.'t indents from all directions, I and the "Urts Inlacta" waa gayly dec- I orated with bunting and triumphant J arches. The occasion was the first pub- i ",'c appearance in Ireland- oi Julia E. j Redmond since his election to the chair- 1 manahip of the reunited Irish pariia- j mentary party. Significant utterances were expected from him, and his I speech did not disappoint expectations. j Water ford is the city he represents at Westminster. He started out by ?ay- lng that he believed the chapter of the last ten years of dissension in Ireland was clcs-ed forever, and that there waa 5 not in the parliamentary party nor in the country generally a trace of dis- union left. This sweeping claim may, for the present, be overlooked as natural nat-ural under the inspiring circumstances. His most significant utterance, however, how-ever, was his eulogy of of the United Irish League, and hie declaration tha: it is at the present moment the only organization or-ganization in Ireland that has any vitality vi-tality or reality in it. He admitted there w:ri a large class of men callins thema.Mves nationalists who are not en. tnusiastic about the league, because it was looked upon as the league of one man (William O'Brien), but iU spread throughout the entire country would; eoon make the movement the property and expression of ail the people. The unity which has already come about came from the people themselves, and I not 'rom the leaden. ' i NATIONAL ASSEMBLY JUNE 12. ) He announced that on June 12 next a great national assembly called conjointly conjoint-ly by the parliamentary party and' United League, after consultation with other bodies, would be held in Dublin, . and added: ' "It will sit there for as many days as is necessary. It will discuss every phase of Irish politics; it will, as I hope and believe, place the national organization upon the most supreme national authority, .and then I would like to see tho man who, after that assembly has spoken, will dare to lift I his voice in the cause of dise?cnsion." Every elected public body in Irelandi will be represented in the convention, a feature which has never before been found in such gatherings. The clergymen clergy-men cf all denominations will be invited in-vited to attend, and it is expected that j many of them will accept the invitation invita-tion and take their rightful place ; among the people in helping to shape J the policy of the future. Mr. Redmond f concluded his notable speech eloquent- . ly and inapiringly as follows: J "The national cause of Ireland, the f cause of our national liberty, is neither retrograding nor standing still. The cause depends upon Fod and upon nature, na-ture, the forces at the back of that caus"a are such as cannot be arrested by anything that men can do. People thought when the home rule bill of ISStJ ; was defeated that home rule was dead. People thought when Parnell's movement move-ment was broken up and when he disappeared dis-appeared that the national cause waa dead. Ah. as a great Irishman said: 'These men might as well write epi- j taphs nu.pon the wind because the Aw- . lian harp wa3 broken.' No, the wind is" there. The forces at the back of the national movement are there. Whether there is a great leader like Parnell. whether there is a great movement like the land league, or whether there is not juMt like the forces of nature, nothing could keep them back. We have met with a setback. God knows this great trial may have been for our good. I believe that with nations as with men -these visitations come from an all-wise Providence, and it is quite possible that the tribulations and the sorrows and t the disappointmentcj of the last ten I years may. in the end, have prepared i . us by teaching u lessons of unity and I toleration to one another, may perhaps j have prepared us all the better for the exercise of the rights that we claim. s We are on this national movement ad- I vancing to success absolutely, in spite ' f of ourselves and of our exertions." ' Poor old Trinity college: How hath . 'its glories and its spirit departed since f the dayt" when Burke and other? mad J its walla rewound with manly words for liberty and humanity during the ses- sions of the famous Historical society. I During the repeal agitation the college . authorities struck from the curriculum ,: 1 cf stud-.ey Locke's immortal "Treatise j on Government," because it declared 1 that the members of a legislature wer I incimpetent to destroy that legislature i without a mandate from tee peoit. ! I . |