All five of these Irishmen began at the lowest rung of the ladder. They made themselves the leaders in a country of strong and daring men, by being the strongest and most daring of all. And today their children have linked their fathers’ names by marriage with some of the proudest families in the older states—the Oelrichses, Vanderbilts, Duers and Girards, as well as to the princely Colonnas of Italy.
Whether it is the versatile genius of the Emmets of New York; or the fighting pluck of “Bucky” O’Neil, who was killed with the Rough Riders at Santiago; or the sagacity of John Mitchell, who is the leader of 150,000 miners—whether it is the sheer brain force and inventiveness of a Fulton, a Morse or a McCormick, or the quaint and witty wisdom of “Mr. Dooley,” there have always been qualities of the Irish head and the Irish heart that brought honor to the little home-land of the Celt.
“There is nothing negative about the Irish,” said Patrick Ford—which is exactly what anyone who knows the rugged old journalist would have expected him to say. They may be on the wrong side of the quarrel, but one thing is always certain—they are never on the fence. They care little or nothing for obstacles and adverse circumstances. They are the best of friends and the best of enemies—the quickest with either the open hand or the fist—the most loyal to a cause and the most rebellious against a tyranny. They live closest to hope and farthest from despair.
“Why,” said Maurice Healy, an Alaskan fur trader, “I’m only 700 miles from a bank!”
You can bend and twist an Irishman, but you can seldom break him—the records of insanity and suicide prove this. He “works hard in time of peace and fights hard in time of war,” as President Roosevelt has said. Impulsive, daring, constructive, indomitable, the Irishman has done indispensable work in this land of his choice.
“May his shadow never grow less!”—so say we all.
REVIEW OF THE YEAR.
Leading Events in the Career of the Society, for 1906, or of Special Interest to the Members.
Jan. 4. Death of P. J. Kenedy, New York, senior member of the firm of P. J. Kenedy & Sons, publishers. Mr. Kenedy was a member of the Society. Jan. 6. The U. S. gunboat Hist arrived at the Charlestown (Mass.) navy yard today from Newport, R. I. Chief Boatswain Hugh Sweeney, who was in command, immediately turned the vessel over to Boatswain Patrick Shanahan and returned to Newport. Jan. 10. Thirtieth meeting of the council of the Society is held this evening at Providence, R. I. Hon. Thomas Z. Lee of Providence presides. Jan. 10. Following the council meeting just mentioned the members and friends partook of dinner at the Narragansett Hotel, Providence. Jan. 18. Annual meeting and dinner of the Society. The event took place at the Hotel Manhattan, 42d Street and Madison Avenue, New York. Jan. 18. A dinner to James McMahon was given at the Waldorf-Astoria, New York, tonight, by the officers of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank, that city. Mr. McMahon retires from the presidency of the bank after fourteen years’ service. He is a member of the Society. Jan. 29. Death of Ambrose F. Travers, New York, a member of the Society. Feb. 1. Governor Swanson of Virginia is inaugurated. He has appointed Hon. Joseph T. Lawless, of Norfolk, a member of the Society, to be a colonel on his staff. Feb. 4. Capt. James Connolly of Coronado, Cal., a member of the Society, writes to Secretary Murray that he has contracted with a Boston publisher to bring out a volume of verse entitled “The Jewels of King Art,” in commemoration of a famous Irish monarch. Feb. 18. John A. McCall, a life member of the Society, dies at Lakewood, N. J.
The Remains of