ST. ANDREW'S LITERARY INSTITUTE

Otago Witness, Issue 2309, 2 June 1898, Page 30

ST. ANDREW'S LITERARY INSTITUTE

There was » large attendance at the meeting of the St. Andrew's Literary Institute on Monday I evening, when the Rev. Br Waddell gave his | second lecture on ' : Janft Barlow, Story-teller j and Poetess." The reverend lecturer dealt i with his Shame in » sofeolarJy^nd moßt interest- I | ing manner, an<2 enohained tbe attention of j j his audioDce for about an hour and a-haH in j J considering thab .portion of the giffced writer's \ j work which dsalt with the Irish peasantry, their lives and characteristic traits. H« stated ; thut Jane Barlow** works dealt more -or 'less wJtfa the poverty of the Irish peasantry and of the evolution of their character under tbe strain which this poverty put upon them. There were two means of meeting this poverty. One was to stay at home and grapple with it, and the lecturer gave apathetic and graphic description of Jiow this was accomplished. Another way — to perpetrate a modest Irish bull — was to . run away from it. Three roads lead away from j it — the workhouse, the army, and emigration. | After epsaking of the character of the tomes of i the Irish peasantry, Dr Waddell -went en to 'refer to the fact thai; it was from homes saeh as these- that men earns who have carried the flag of Britain away to the frontiers of the Empire, and wbohave shed their blood for the .covrafary that has indeed been a soiflßwh&t stern stapmobher to tUetn. The lectnwsr .referred to a beautiful ■poem of Jane Barlow* entitled At The Curlew's -Call," and *he history told In that pae-m, he said, was the story of thousands. There were the men 'who took their shilling a day fco bo shot at, and we 'build up our Empire on their dead bodies. But ib was surely pathetic to think fh&t it was 'from tihe miserable .homed t uch as wsre the lot of -thff Irish tpeasatitß to dwell in thai; came the foldiers who stormed the passes -of an Afghan mountain and led forlorn hopes across ths burning sands of Sahara. The ancient Romans used to appeal in tbe patriotic feelings of their j couutrymea by ths call "Pro arts tt focis," •and we imitate them sotnelimts, and yet many '< of those who die fightiog >f or iis 'have iio homes ' worthy of thft n*mp, and dauot possess a* much Bxitifh -soil in their own right as would give them a gr*~vp. If -we are to have ftn-empire that •will enduce, Dr Waddefl said, we must have : citizens and soldiers svho can be -moved Tjy the ' sacred word "'bom?." Not the word which, connotes only the wretched, rain-sodden caibin that clings to the Isnely bogs or 'the Highland 'hills, but homes where hnman beings can lu\eathe a free pure air and take root in the j genial soil. These Itt'.er sentiments of the reverend ieeinrer 'vere received with emphatic demonstrations of approval, and at frequent intervals in his lecture hearty aiad ■spoutsmeoas »pplause regouDded through *the buifdio^. _ ,