230
AN GAOḊAL
TWO LITTLE MEN.
FAMINE 1880.
Two little boys, aged twelve and
fourteen years, walked from Skibber¬
een — two hundred miles — to ask the
Dutchess of Marlborough, at Dublin,
Castle, to help them to save their fa¬
ther from starvation and eviction.
From the sunny South of our suffering land
Two little brothers went hand in hand —
Two little brothers of tenderest years
Went in the midst of the rain of their tears,
With their young hearts torn with torture of fears,
Wended and begged from their home in the glen,
Apostles of sorrow, two brave little men !
Behind them their father was crying for bread,
Their mother was weeping the day she was wed,
But, brave little fellows, still onward they sped;
Round them the bays were adrape with their gloom
The shade in their path was the shade of a tomb,
The sound in their ears were the wails as of doom,
As lone as a shriek o'er a desolate fen,
Still onward they journeyed, — these two little men!
What did they care for the cries of the night,
What did they heed of the sights that affright,
When they thought of their home far behind,
With its mercies of Squalor, and Hunger, and
Wind,
Where the blood of their blood were starving
and blind —
Starving and chained as if pent in a pen?
Still onward the journeyed — those two littlemen!
Round them were gleams of the beautiful Spring
Birds were about on their weariless wing,
Singing the songs that the fetterless sing;
But they in the spring of their wearisome days,
They in the sorrow and shame of their ways,
They had no anthem of praise to upraise,
Seeking some shelter in desolate den,
Alone, unbefriended, our brave little men.
Up did they fare in the dawn of their youth,
Up with their rags and their hunger, and truth.
Up with their innocent lips did they plead,
Up with their faces grown grim with their need,
As victims of Famine, gaunt pleaders, indeed;
They went to the "Castle," asked right, and
what then? —
Their voices were hearkened to; brave little men!
Men with your manhood; those boys are your
shame:
With the strength of your might, are you worthy
your name?
You beg but some niggardly crumbs for your
right
You ask but one gleam of the glory of light,
You seek but one glympse from the gloom of
the night,
You clamour in conflict with voice and with pen,
Oh, men you are shamed by those two little men
From Songs For Freedom, by Father McHale.
Perseverance in a good Cause Deserves Applause.
It is now a long time since we wrote the above.
Like "Many men of many minds," &c. it is an old
familiar "head-line" and we now desire to turn it
to some practical use.
If the cultivation and preservation of the lan¬
guage of Erin be a "good cause" — a patriotic cause
— and we take it that very few will say that it is
not — then, we claim the title to "perseverance".
But, instead of the "applause" to which, the sen¬
tence declares, we are entitied, we solicit the act¬
ive cooperation of our countrymen.
Twenty-one months ago when we founded the
Gael a good many friends of the Irish language
shook their heads and prophesied its collapse be¬
fore six months. The first number declared
that the Gael would not collapse while we
lived in health. We now reiterate that declaration.
The principal reason why our friends so proph¬
esized was that the Gael would not "pay", and,
therefore that we were not such a fool as to ex¬
pend money on it.
Neither are we such a fool as that. It is true that
we laid out some money on the first issues but it
is now self-supporting and that is enough without
we making a "fool" of ourself.
Now, as to the matter of foolishness, we have
not entered a theatre or any place of amusement
since we came to Brooklyn. We do not spend
money on liquor, whatever we have spent — and it
is not much — is in connection with the Irish lan¬
guage movement. How many dollars have our
criticisers spent in play-houses and liquor stores
during those years of our exertion in the cause of
our country's language ?
These remarks are forced upon us by the conduct
of some of our patriotic friends. They think that
the cents laid out on the Gael are thrown away
while the dollars spent in bringing disgrace on our
nationality are not considered at all. As already
stated the Gael will be published while we live in
health, but the volume of its circulation will de¬
pend on external aid. We shall take pride in cir¬
culating it if we are assisted. For every dollar the
Gael receives one hundred copies will be distribu¬
ted as advertisements. So that those who endorse
the sentiment — "Perseverance in a good cause de¬
serves applause", will applaud the better by circu¬
lating the Gael in every possible way, thereby gen¬
erating sentiments which will ultimately culmin¬
ate in a general uprising in favor of cultivating
our ancient language.
