236
AN GAOḊAL.
cost of paper and press-work would be
no barrier to the Gael's continuance.
Having thus verified the adage that
Where there is a will there is a way,
we proposed to the Society that if they
would give us full right and title to the
Gael we would run it without fear of
failure. They were very glad to get
shut of it. We got the type to our of¬
fice and had the eight pages set up at
the end of the month along with at¬
tending to our real-estate business —
working on it some times until one
and two o'clock in the morning.
Having thus become master of the si¬
tuation, and having to meet the triffing
cost of paper and press-work only, we
announced that while we lived the Gael
should live; we repeated that in the
last issue.
Now, the irregularity: At the time
mentioned the Gael was only half the
size it is now and there was only half
the work. There were only a few sub¬
scribers then to write wrappers for, fold,
wrap and mail their papers: but not ha¬
ving ceased to send the Gael to all who
originally subscribed for it, whether
they paid or not, the list has now swell¬
ed to 2,800. It takes five days from us
to write wrappers, fold, wrap and mail
for all these. In a word, the Gael would
take all our time, and the time we de¬
vote to our private business the Gael
runs that length of time behind. And
hence the irregularity.
Had all those who receive the Gael
paid for it regularly we could employ
help to turn it out on time monthly,
and, also, train hands to continue it af¬
ter we are gone to rest.
From the facts and circumstances a¬
bove detailed, would it be too much to
claim that the existence of the Gael
exhibits an amount of self-reliance, and
unselfish fidelity to the Gaelic cause
unparalleled in modern times.
But we do not claim all the credit.
It is equally due to those patriotic men
and women whose names appear from
time to time in the “Sentiments of
our Subscribers."
The Gael's future. Of that there is
no fear while we live; and we expect
to have the 'million' readers yet. *
There is a small advertising journal
published in Portland, Me, and its pro¬
fits are $750,000.00 a year. Had the
Gael 500,000 of circulation it would
get advertising worth half a million a
year, and for the accumulation of a few
years of that the grandest hall in the
world could be erected for Gaelic pur¬
poses in New York City; for it was ne¬
ver our intention, nor is it now, to apply
a cent of the Gael's income to any o¬
ther purpose than its legitimate expen¬
ses and the promotion of the Gaelic
cause.
Irishmen, then, do your part as we
have been doing and before '94 your
million readers will be secured, and
by 1898 you can commence the erect¬
ion of a Gaelic hall the like of which
the world never saw.
* Don’t smile, reader, when old Bennet found¬
ed the N. Y. Herald it was half the size of the
Gael; and he did all the work himself, writing,
selling, fixing, etc., in a small besement in Fulton
Street.
In referring to delinquent subscribers in last is¬
sue we had in view such as we for four years and
upwards, and of that class over $1,200 is standing
on the debit side of their account with the Gael.
A few friends who did not owe for two years sent
us tart responses to that article, but as we made
use of the words, "considerably in arrears," they
ought to know that the hat did not fit them. And
another remarked 'If the life of the Gael depends
on no man's subscription," where is the use in sub¬
scribing for it? Our answer to the latter is. — What
he may spend on cigars, etc., would cover the cost
of paper and press-work for the Gael, as it was o¬
riginally published, and for such a sum we would
not permit it to die; so that our statement is fact.
And it was extracted from us by the sinister insin¬
uations of the Gael's old enemies which had come
to our ears; as, also, by some subscribers whose
tone would convey the idea that we founded the
Gael as a business enterprise, and that it was we,
and not the cause, they complimented by their sub¬
scriptions.
But the "use" in subscribing for the Gael is, to
scatter it broadcast, that the evidence of Ireland's
ancient learning and civilization be brought to the
public view. If the Gael contained nothing else
but the exposure it gives on its subtitle page to the
pretensions of those who are continually "throw¬
ing mud" at the Irish, it would be worth a dollar a
year to any Irishman; nay, but the thorough Irish¬
man would exert his energies to place a copy of it
in the hands of every citizen in the United States.
Turn our eye where you will and you see nothing
but English literature — Irish, the little GAEL!
