PHILO-CELTS.
The Brooklyn Society is making excellent prog¬
ress However, we would urge on the old mem¬
bers who are competent to teach to be on hand ear¬
lier than they generally are. Sometimes students
have to wait a considerable time before they are at¬
tended to.
Would it be out of place here to surmise that if
there were pecuniary gains from regular attendance
that we would be forced to recur to this state of af¬
fairs from time to time?
Patriotism is our only incentive, and the fruit
will, undoubtedly, indicate the nature of the tree.
The Society has lately adopted a system of teach¬
ing which, we think, will materially assist the stu¬
dents in acquiring a conversational knowledge of
the language. — It is this — when the class go over
the First Book a few times, they are then made to
write to dictation. The sentence is given out in
English and each student in his turn, is obliged
to translate it into Irish, and all write it on their
slates. These simple sentences, contained in the
First Book &c. have already been studied by the
pupils. If the student whose turn it is should fail
the next in line &c. tries it until a proper transla¬
tion has been made. When the lesson is thus writ¬
ten and translated, the teacher adds another fam¬
iliar phrase, etc. to it and then requires the pupils
to translate the whole so as to make sense.
For instance we suppose the origi¬
nal sentense to be "Knowledge and
great esteem," the pupil will answer —
"fios agus meas mór." Then in rev¬
iewing the lesson the teacher may add,
"Knowledge and great esteem were at
the man," or, directly, the man had
knowledge and great esteem. Then
the little verb ḃí is brought into requi¬
sition, ḃí fios agus meas mór aig an ḃ-
fear, a complete sentense formed, and
an instance of the Eclipse shown
Again, "Wine is better than blood,"
the pupil answers "is feárr fíon 'ná
fuil." The teacher adds another sen¬
tense or clause and repeats both —
"Wine is better than blood, and milk
is better than water'." The pupil
translates, "is feáar fíon 'ná fuil, agus
is feárr 'bainne 'na uisge'." In this
way the pupil is brought to connect
phrases and construct sentenses.
The greatest difficulty the student
has to contend with in these little sen¬
tenses is, the placing of the verb in its
proper place, and the distinguishing
of the Declarative and Assertive verbs
It should be impressed on the minds
of the pupils, by frequent repetitions,
that in all, or nearly all, short declara¬
tive sentenses, the form tá of the verb
is used; as, tá an fear mór, the man
is large; and that the assertive form
is is; as, is lá breáġ é, it is a fine day.
If all who are competent to teach attended reg¬
ularly, all the classes might be thus instructed.
Those, of course, who speak the language can learn
to read and write it in six months, and it is a won¬
der that all who do do not try to do so.
Finn — President Finn was absent from a meet¬
ing a few weeks ago, and when asked for the cause
he replied "I lay down after supper, fell asleep,
and did not waken till ten.“ We hope there will
be no more nodding after supper.
Ex Prest. Gilgannon visits the hall frequently,
but sometimes a little late.
Miss Ellie Donnelly is a very regular attendant
and is making excellent progress in her studies.
Brother Dunning is not as studious as usual.
Brothers Heaney and Cassidy are apt to
win the gold medal at our next examination
— one of them.
Brother Graham attends pretty regularly.
Brother Mallany can read any Irish matter that
comes before him — after four months' study.
Our Treasurer, Miss F. O'N. Murray does not
be as early as usual.
Our Hon. friend, Denis Burns calls all the
time. We wish there were many like him in New
York and Brooklyn.
Brother Walsh attends pretty regularly — a little
late though.
The Misses Guiren, Kearney, Rogers, Dunne,
Moran etc. appear now and again.
Brothers Sloan, Hyland, Kinsella, and Lennon
are very irregular in attendance lately. Why?
The Misses Dunlevy, too, are a little late
Vice-Prest. Lacey is always on time.
For the future we shall report all irregular at¬
tendants.
Brother Morrissey, oh, but he is the bitter Dem¬
ocrat. Put the old chap on the ticket and he will
go it straight.
Let all our subscribers remember that this is¬
sue closes the Third Volume, and that the Gael en¬
ters on its Fourth year. — So that the time is up to
renew subscriptions. Let every subscriber try to
get another, so that the Gael's circulation may be
doubled.
Remember the Gaelic Journal too. But, by the
way, we sent subscriptions from the Society and
Mr. Gilgannon a long time ago to the Journal and
they have received no copy of it yet. We hope
our Dublin friends will look after the matter. It
is not pleasant for us to send other people's mon¬
ey without a response in return.
