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Show HIGH TRIBUTE TO THE A. 0. H. The New York Kvening Telegram, in an interesting article on Celtic studies at Harvard, makes reference as follows to the endowment by the Ancient Order of Hibernians of the Fnited States of a Celtic chair in the Catholic university of Washington: "The only endowed chair of Celtic in the United States is that at the Catholic Cath-olic university in Washington, pre-I pre-I sided over by Professor Joseph Dunn,, who was formely a pupil of Professor Robinson's, at Harvard, and later a student under Celtic scholars in .Germany .Ger-many and France. The story of ' the I establishment of Dr. Dunn's chair by popular subscription among Irishmen is a familiar one. Of it Douglas Hyde says eloquently in his 'Literary History of Ireland:' "'I hardly know a sharper contrast, in the history of human thought than the true, traditional literary instinct which, four years ago, prompted fifty thousand poor, hard working Irishmen in the United States to contribute each a dollar toward the foundation of a Celtic chair in the Catholic university ; in Washington in the land of their j adoption choosing out a fit man and sending him to study under the great Celtists of Germany, in the hope that his scholarship might one day reflect credit upon the far-off country of their birth: while in that very country by far the richest college in one of the wealthiest universities of the world allows its so-called "Irish professorship" professor-ship" to be an adjunct of its divinity school, founded and paid for by a society so-ciety for the conversion-of Irish Roman Catholics through the medium of their own language.' " The college here referred to is Trinity Trin-ity college, Dublin, founded by Queen Elizabeth on the confiscated estates of Irish Catholics, from the revenues of which the institution is still largely maintained. Its "Irish professorship" w-as, as Dr. Hyde observes, established for the purpose of aiding in the work of Protestant proselytism in Ireland. This was sought to be done by means of Protestant Bibles and tracts trans lated into, the native Irish language I and circulated among the poorer elements ele-ments of the Catholic people, in addition addi-tion to a more material agency in the shape of creature comforts, including soup, from which practice the prosely-tisera prosely-tisera got the sorbiquet of "soupers." But, needless to say, the soupers didn't succeed in their "converting" project in Ireland, though they had the Trinity colleg-e "Irish professorship" at their back, as well as ample funds contributed contri-buted by pious old ladies in England. The Evening Telegram, after quoting Dr. Hyde's eloquent tribute to the Irish "literary instinct," as illustrated by the A. O. II. fund for the Celtic chair at Washington, goes on to remark that: "One thing that has operated heretofore here-tofore against the endowment of chairs of Celtic in American universities and colleges is the fact that the Irishmen. Welshmen and Scotchmen who are most interested in the literature found among the prosperous business men." But there are Scotch millionaires, Andrew Carnosrie to-wit and w have Irish millionaires too. What of them? Apparently their tastes are not in the direction of the ancient literature of their fatherland, so highly appreciated by scholars not of Irish or Celtic blood. N. Y. Freeman's Journal. " |