AN GAODHAL.
627
For greater powers in former times,
Than England is, with all her crimes,
Have passed away, nor joy no chimes,
With scarce a name;
Can now be heard save poetic rhymes,
To tell the same:
There is a hope for Ireland still,
There is a way for every will:
There's a saying of Columkille, —
Let skeptics sneer;
There is a God that shall fulfil —
The time is near.
M. BURKE
New York, Aug. 17 1886.
I have just read your remarks in the
"Gael" on "$50,000,000" and as happy to indorse
every word therein. If I were a competent speaker
of Irish I could transact two-thirds of my business
in that language and, I dare say, I could add ma¬
terially to its extent and profit. The little of Irish
which I do speak (although not studied for the
sake of business) I find to be of benefit to me in
trade and it has undoubtly brought a large num¬
ber of people to know and respect me, solely on
account of my love for my native language. No
person knows or even dreams of the vast popula¬
tion there is in New York who speak Irish — I have
frequently been astonished to find customers who
talk Irish frequently but who never drop a sylla¬
ble until nature asserts its sway when hearing the
mother tongue. If any person doubt my words I
guarantee to prove them, if that person will stand
in my store on any day at any time for ten min¬
utes. When business will be brisk in about
three months, I think I am safe in asserting
that there will be no five minutes in the day in
which there will not be from one to five people
in my store who can talk Irish. Just at this mo¬
ment a woman is at the counter buying goods who
told me that she was only four years old when she
was taken from the county Cork, where she was
born, to London and there she learned Irish, and
talks it fluently when addressed in that language.
It just strikes me that if the proper pressure were
brought to bear on our Parochial schools that they
would be compelled to place the Irish language in
the list of studies. But again I think that our
people are so dead to every thought of the immense
value of their native language that it would be im¬
possible to organize the proper pressure.
I am sincerely yours, JOSEPH CROMIEN.
We are pleased to be able to place Mr. Cromien's
experience before our readers as he can speak au¬
thoritively. He is learning the language himself
and gives a liberal support to the movement — in
short if there were many Irishmen like Mr. Crom¬
ien, the Irish element in this country to-day would
be worth billions of dollars more than they are.
As remarked in our last issue, it is humiliating
to see the Irishman leaving his money with a for¬
eigner, when that foreigner would go blocks to
deal with his own countrymen, and would, on no
account, deal with the Irishman in return. There
is only one business carried on by Irishmen which
their countrymen, as a body, patronize, — What is
that do, you think? The undertaking business!
Here, when death reaches out his arm, the Irish¬
man is reminded of his racial bond, and here, and
here only, it is that Nature asserts herself. It is
so, also, on every other pinch, the countryman is
appealed to, not the foreigner
In this connection, we have no business interests
to subserve, but, as an Irishmen, we bemoan that
condition of our country people which gives it
birth.
The Gaelic movement is now tolerably well es¬
tablished throughout this country, and if every
business man supports it a change will be wrought
in a very short time which will astonish him. Let
every business man, then, agitate the cultivation of
the language in his neighborhood. Let him go
himself and set an example. If he cannot spare
time on week days he can on odd sundays, it is not
the amount of matter that is studied — it is the
spirit which it engenders that will be effect¬
ive.
We have shown the article in last Gael to many
business men and asked them whether we overstat¬
ed the matter therein, but not one single person
took an exception to it, but all with a unanimity
rarely met, endorsed every syllable of it — a large
number declaring, that we understated the mat¬
ter.
Now, we have shown our country people that
there is some good in the Irish language movement
even apart from its patriotism, and what are they
going to do about it? Suppose that each of those
business men distributed twenty or thirty copies of
the last Gael, or some such publication, in their
respective neighborhoods, would it not have a sal¬
utary effect? Some of their patriotic neighbors
would not fail to bring it under the notice of that
class of Irishmen which forms our subject. And
if through it they respectively gained one or two
cnstomers would it not well repay them. We
merely make these suggestions to show that there
is some good in the language movement, though
the movement for the cultivation and preservation
of the language has been founded on nobler prin¬
ciples. To sum up then, all Irishmen are interested
in the language movement, and each should urge on
his neighbor to support it. In fact it should be a
universal league among Irishmen because the in¬
terest is mutual, and we would urge on the readers
of the Gael to bring the matter under the notice of
their neighbors for action.
THE GAELIC JOURNAL.
We see by the TUAM News that at a recent meet¬
ing of the Council of the Gaelic Union the matter
for the 24th number of the Gaelic Journal was
considered. This number of the Gaelic Journal is
over four months in arrears owing to the want of
funds to pay the printer — a fact which shows
clearly the amount of real patriotism with which
the Irish people at home and abroad may be cre¬
