AN GAODHAL.
723
The
Gael.
A monthly Journal devoted to the Cultivation and
Preservation of the Irish Language and the au¬
tonomy of the Irish Nation.
Entered at the Brooklyn P. O. as second-class mail
matter.
Sixth Year of Publication.
Published at 814 Pacific st., Brooklyn. N. Y.,
M. J. LOGAN, - - - Editor and Proprietor.
Terms of Subscription — Sixty Cents a year, in
advance ; Five Cents a single copy.
Terms of Advertising — 10 cents a line, Agate.
VOL 6, No. 3. AUGUST, 1887.
Know-Nothingism Rampant in Red Hook
Lane — Every Catholic in Brooklyn Gross¬
ly Insulted by the Board of Educa¬
tion,
Mr. John C. Kelly, an Irish-American Catholic
a Democrat, and one of the most respectable mem¬
bers of the Board of Education, was Vice President
of the Board during the last term.
The Board consists of forty-five members, who
serve for three years. Fifteen of the members are
retired annually and as many appointed, so that a
reorganization of the Board takes place every year.
The mayor appoints the members, who serve with¬
out pay. President Bergen's term having expired
this year, and not being reappointed, everyone ex¬
pected that the Vice President, Mr. Kelley, would,
as it was the usual custom, be promoted to the
presidency, but everyone counted without his host.
Out of the forty-five votes of the Board, Mr, Kelley
got just ten. And this Board of Education is Dem¬
ocratic by a substantial working majority. One-
third of the citizens of Brooklyn are Catholics, and
five-sixths of the voters of the Democratic party
are Irish-American Catholics, and because John C.
Kelley is an Irish-American Catholic this Know-
Nothing Board of Education insulted him, and with
him, five-sixths of the members of the party who
put it in their power to insult him. These Know
Nothing bigots, after thus insulting Mr. Kelley,
and every other Catholic in the city, nominated
him for the vice presidency, which he scornfully
declined.
A burglar may enter your house and steal your
goods, and you call him a rascal; but he who
would steal your reputation in a double-dyed one.
In all probability some of these bigots will, in
the near future, solicit the votes of the Catholics of
Brooklyn. We will not invoke the Grand Army
Man's prayer for the Catholic who would vote for
them, but we will say that the Catholic who would
desrves all the insults which it is possible to heap
upon him. We shall watch with interest the com¬
ing Fall the excuse which the Democratic leaders
will make to the Democratic Catholic masses for
their silence in connection with this glaring out¬
rage on their manhood, and whether the epithets,
"IGNORANT IRISH,"
are really deserved by their followers.
It is highly painful to us, who abominably detest
to see religion interjected into business or political
relations, to have to record the above scand¬
alous transaction in our municipal affairs, but no
maudlin consideratoin will ever bar our course in
exposing bigotry and intolerance by whomsoever
practiced.
We regret to see the Democratic press silent on
this matter. Is it from a fear that the exposition
would injure the party in the coming campaign ? If
so the idea is foolish. It would have been far bet¬
ter to publicly castigate the evil doers than to per¬
mit the discussion of their intolerant actions to re¬
solve itself into an undercurrent which, in all
probability, will endanger the safety of the Dem¬
ocratic bark the coming Fall.
From the returns of the "off" elections which
have taken place in England recently it would seem
as if the English populace were veering around to
Mr. Gladstone's policy in regard to Ireland. The
land agitation in Ireland is simply a trades union,
and it would be inconsistent in the English mech¬
anic to antagonize it. If the English mechanics
look upon it in this, its true light, coercion will soon
vanish. The Tory government will do all in its
power to try to incite a hatred in the Englishman
against the Irish. Many and far reaching are the
means to which it will resort in trying to accomp¬
lish this end. We have not the slightest doubt
in the world but that the "dynamiter" Mooney is
an agent of the English government, and was
employed to fire the "Queen" so that the Salisbury
government could parade the act before the British
public as the work of Gladstone's Irish supporters.
The very manner of the outrage gives color to this
theory. If Mooney were a dynamiter he would
not throw his bottle where it would do no harm.
It was thrown for a purpose, and it does not
require a solon to divine that purpose.
The Cape Vincent Eagle says: "We know of
no more dishonest practice than for parties to
take a newspaper several years without paying
therefor and then refusing to take the paper from
the post office. A boodler is a king compared to
these sneaks.
[Let the Eagle get Gaelic subscribers and he
will have no reason to complain. — Ed.]
Sentiments of our Subscribers in next GAEL.
