OCR Text |
Show IRISH SENTIMENT STRONG. (Correspondence Intermountain Catholic.) Leadville, Colo., Feb. 1. The following follow-ing paper, which shows how strong the Irish sentiment, freeborn and untram-meled, untram-meled, is in America, was read by Miss Mollie O'Keefe at one of the prominent Hibernian socials recently: "The oast vear has witnessed some of the most remarkable events In the history of the nineteenth century, events that have aroused the slumbering slumber-ing fire of patriotism, unflinching bravery brav-ery and" the bitterest, aye, the deepest hatred of many a heroic soul. "Our great and glorious republic, our 'land of the brave and the free," has reached forth a helping hand to the Cubans who have been struggling for eo many years to free themselves from Spanish rule. How well we succeeded is a common- tale. Every child that is able to talk can tell you how the war ended. "Yet in the name of humanity the ! United States, that has been a haven j to the oppressed and persecuted of all ; lands, is trying to subdue the insur- ! gents in the Philippines, who are fighting fight-ing nobly for their freedom. Can we b.ame tnem, we who live unde the 1 folds of the Stars and Stripes, and who love and reverence the Green- Banner, if they want neither Spanish Dona nor American Masters? "But the lust of conquest is upon our government. The great victories we have won on land and sea have Ailed f our generals and politicians with a sense or their own worth and imperialism imperial-ism is now the cry of the hour. Let those who advocate this measure stop for one moment to consider the laboring classes in our great cities earning barely bare-ly enough to furnish them the necessities necessi-ties of life. Will hundreds of uncivilized uncivi-lized beings admitted to citizenship help I those conditions? From all quarters of the nation will come no, for an an-I an-I s-wer. Things will go from bad to worse I and seme of the foremost men of he day predict the time is not far distant when our lower classes will rise and cast off the powers that are sapping their verv life. "On the brink of another century, at the season when there should be "peace on earth," we find proud, haughty England Eng-land engaged in strife with the Boers in South Africa. John Bull, true to his old-time tactics of oppression, is trying to rob these people of their freedom. free-dom. All eyes today are watching the fight that is in- progress. Already the God of victories has blessed the arms of the Boere. Slowly but surely England Eng-land Is beginning "to see she has no band of poor peasants to deal with, but men who are determined to do or die. "We Irish-Americans cannot fail to sympathize with these people on 'the other side of the world. Their fight is against the same power as. ours, and their hatred runs in the same channel. Had the Irish nation been successful in 1 its attempt to throw off England's yoke, many of you who sit here tonight would never have left your Irish homes. I dare say there is not one of you, when you read in the papers that your fellow Irishmen throughout the length and breadth of the land are ready to help the Boers if the blood of your Irish race flows through your veins, you will rejoice re-joice with me that, the spirit of Em-mett, Em-mett, Wolftone and O'Brien is still living, liv-ing, ready to break forth at a moment's warning. "Never haa England's policy in dealing deal-ing with her colonies been shown more clearly than in the desperate war now raging. For the paist week the news has been coming in ' that the Boers have a chance of winning, and I know that you will join me in beseeching God that we may yet have the happiness of seeing her proua neaci Dowea low m the dust; for if ever a nation deserved retribution, it Is England. Arrogant, proud, sinful England! May the day come when, shorn of her posassions, she may stand scorned and humbled before the nations sho has tyrannized over for so many years. Vengeance divine to punish sin moves slow Tho slower is it's path, the surer Is its blow. |