510
AN GAODHAL.
these cities are of the above described class of men.
When these innocent young men arrived on our
shores if such a company as that proposed were
ready to receive them — place them on good farms
and give them a start in the honorable and lucra¬
tive business of farming, they would become the
bone and sinew of the land, and of their race, in¬
stead of becoming the dispensers of poison to their
kind.
There is an opening here for Irishmen to mut¬
ually assist each other. Succeed in placing a
hundred or two families in a location, a town
springs up at once — churches, schools, workshops
etc. are erected and the people become prosperous
and happy.
Any farmer with 100 acres of good land — especi-
ly if he is its absolute owner — is the most inde¬
pendent man we know of. He can raise sheep,
horses, hogs, cows and all the provisions he wants,
fowl for his table, grapes for his drink, and fruit
for his desert, every thing he wants except tea
and coffee.
How foolish is the laboring man in these large
cities who lays out the savings of years of toil in
the purchase of a little house for himself and fam¬
ily when for his $1,000 or $2,000 he could buy a
couple of hundred acres of good land where he
could rear his family in independence and away
from the dangers which surround them in these
large cities; and if he be sick for a week his pay
is stopped, while the farm would produce his food
even while he slept.
There is no doubt but a large number of this
class will avail themselves of the Company's terms
Of course they will have an advantage. They will
pay cash for their farm — $500 for 100 acres, and
become its absolute owner. In a thickly settled
location they could not now get good land for any
thing like that figure, but by the manner in which
the Company will work affairs whatever location it
may choose will be thickly peopled in two years
Concerted action will accomplish anything. So
that the Company will double its capital in a short
time and confer lasting benefits on those for whose
welfare it was founded.
Already $300,000 worth of shares have been en¬
gaged by a few patriotic Irishmen and others
friendly to such projects and who, no doubt, con¬
sider it a good speculation. We are satisfied that
their capital will be doubled in five years. We
think if a dozen or so of persons in every large
city and town took some share that it would be to
the interest of the project, because the $10 stock
holder would take as much interest in colonizing
as the $50,000 one. We see daily, men looking for
a safe place to invest their money, — railways, mort¬
gages, banks etc. They can invest it here under
a security which no railway or bank can give — the
land, the same security which they have for their
government bonds, each stockholder being a land¬
holder to the amount of his or her shares.
We hope the remaining $700,000 will be taken
up right away so that organization may be
effected and business commence as soon as possi¬
ble. Those intending to engage or secure shares
should notify us immediately, with name and res¬
idence and the number of shares desired so that
it may be known at a glance when the work of
organization may be commenced
Perhaps it may be necessary here — though su¬
perfluous — to intimate that the stockholders are
the rulers and controllers of such projects as the
foregoing, and that we are merely its originator
and organizer with only a voice in its management
according to the number of shares which we may
personally own, if any.
When the Gael has succeeded in placing this
project on a firm working basis and the study of the
Irish Language as an ordinary routine of the natio¬
nal schools in Ireland, a free Ireland, it will rest
satisfied that it has accomplished something tend¬
ing to benefit and elevate the material and social
status of the Irish race.
A superstition existed in many parts
of Ireland that whenever a beautiful
young man or young woman fell into
decline or became ill that "Eyes were
laid on them," and were taken away
by the fairies and some old Seandhuine
or Cailleach left in their place; and al¬
so, if the party taken away by the fai¬
ries were recognized by an earthly be¬
ing before the death of the substitute,
the fairy spell would be broken and
the captive returned to earthly life.
The, An Seachrán Síghe, page 505, is
founded on one of these fairy tales.
MARTIN P. WARD.
The reader will please bear in mind
the instruction given in another page
on pronunciation and the sound of the
letters, in the effort to master the voc¬
abulary from time to time presented.
The Gael compliments its readers on
the very flattering state of Irish Nati¬
onal affairs which the opening year
presents; for even if a full measure of
Home Rule be denied, a spirit has been
evoked which will not brook the idea
of disappointment, at whatsoever cost
or measures.
