340
AN GAODHAL.
from England, the Puritans, to the number of 102
landed from the Mayflower, at Plymouth Rock,
Dec. 21, 1620. Contemporaneously with the land¬
ing of the Pilgrims, another batch of persons were
sent out from England to Virginia, where a small
settlement had been previously made by the
London Company. This batch consisted of 100
women who were sent out to become wives to the
planters, each planter paying 120 pounds of toba¬
co as a price for his wife. — her passage money.
The reader will undoubtedly conjecture
what class of women could be bought for 120 lbs.
of tobacco, and the class of men that would take
them as wives. These then, with the convicts
who served their terms of penal servitude in New¬
foundland were really the first English settlers in
the country — and these were the forefathers and
foremothers of those who would now arrogate to
themselves the title of respectable Americans! The
"Johnny O'Briens", were then of royal blood, as
they should be today if right prevailed.
We regret exceedingly to be obliged to rake up
these matters, but we were forced to it in defense
of our countrymen and of truth and justice.
The most respectable portion of our fellow-citi¬
zens are those, and their descendants, who have
come to the country within the last sixty years.
Educated Irishmen are coming to this country of
late years to avail themselves of business oppor¬
tunities which alien misgovernment denies them
at home, and, certainly, they should not tamely
submit to be insulted by the descendants of the
class which we have analyzed above — even though
they have the monetary power of England at their
control, and tho' England pats them on the back
through interested motives, yet she despises their
social pretensions, because she knows from whom
they have sprung.
We indicated in our last the antecedents of the
Vanderbilts and Astors, and hope we shall not be
forced to refer to the (to us) ugly subject again.
We claim to have impartially presented this
matter to our readers, and those whom it affects
should be very thankful to let bygones rest when
respectable people forget to keep them in view:
They must remember that the state of affairs to
which we refer is not so far distant as to be wholly
forgotten. There are scores of people living in this
city, the united ages of three of whom would reach
far beyond the date of the foundation of those col¬
onies, and their descendants should certainly pause
before they advance a claim the investigation of
which only leaves them in a very unenviable posi¬
tion.
Our New England friends must remember
that though the Puritan Pilgrims whom they claim
as their immediate ancestors cannot be charged
with being of the degraded order of society, (they
were similar in that respect, we presume, to the
"Salvation Army") ; they were not so numerous
as the other accretions to the colony before indica¬
ted. They were only one hundred and two includ¬
ing men, women and children, whereas the young
women alone, who came to Virginia, numbered 100,
and the ex-convicts must be more numerous than
either, for we find, from the English Criminal Code,
that about this period there were 700 executions per
annum in England, so that those sent to penal ser¬
vitude must, at least, be ten to one, thus making
a total per annum of 7,000. This accounts for the
rapid increase of the English colonies in popula¬
tion, for very few emigrated in those days except
those who were forced to. Our old readers will
remember the quaint expression applied to persons
of doubtful character, — "He will soon go on the
herring" — meaning the transport ship.
In view of all these proofs our respectable Ameri¬
icans ought to be very grateful to be let alone much
less to challenge a review of the social antecedents
of their progenitors.
The following is an extract of a letter from Mr.
M, J. Collins of the Nat. Mil. Home, Montgomery
Co. Ohio.
The glorious festival of our Patron Saint was cel¬
ebrated here in this home, in a very pious and chris¬
tian like manner. Three Catholis priests came here
from Dayton, at 2 p mp on Sunday afternoon, and
assisted the Rev. Dr. C. Kemper to hear the con¬
fessions of the old Veterans, and on St. Patrick's
day nearly all the Catholic — German as well
as Irish, received Holy Communion, and the “Hi¬
bernian Society" of the home went to the altar in a
body, and received Holy Communion; it was very
beautiful and edifying.
We had High Mass on St. Patrick's day, and on
the centre of the altar there was a large and very
beautiful picture of St. Patrick, and on each side
of it hung the Irish and American flags. I suppose
you are not aware that we have a splendid choir of
veterans and a new organ.
The Rev. Fr. Cusack delivered the sermon — it
was more of a lecture than a sermon — Subject —
"The Government aided Proselytizing Schools",
and the "Famine in Ireland" — the subject was a¬
bly and well handled, and it caused the hearers to
shed tears abundantly. When the Government
Proselytizers came to the starving multitudes and
said to them, — "Here change your religion and
come with us, and you shall have plenty to eat and
wear" — but our people spurned them and died by
thousands on the road-side and in their cabins —
Martyrs for the Holy Faith that St. Patrick so firm¬
ly planted in their Christian hearts, and the "Blood
of the Martyrs is the seed of the church." And he
said the sufferings and martyrdom of so many
Christains and their blood have cried out loudly to
Heaven for vengeancl and the even handed justice
of God requires Him to do justice to Ireland — "Re¬
venge is mine, and I will repay", says the Lord!
He said if the Irish people would be true to their
religion and to their God there seemed now to be a
bright prospect before them and their deliverance
was near at hand.
