THE AMERICAN RIFLEMEN'S VISIT TO IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 128, 15 October 1875, Page 8

THE AMERICAN RIFLEMEN'S VISIT TO IRELAND.

The" Dublin ' Freeman ' discourses pleasantly on the American riflemen's visit to Ireland. It says :—": — " The general notion iv the American mind as to things Irish is that somehow the people are wretchedly po r and hopelessly discontented. We believe the studious visitor from oNew York or Washington will have new matter for thought when he observes Irishmen at home- ]STo doubt he will miss that araashur energy which has made the Celt a powrr in America. He will miss that enterprise, brilliant even if reckless, which has made an Irishman the richest man in the richest country in the world. But he will also observe that there is an entire absence of that xmhappy laxity, social, moral and political, which too often has made the Irish character ii^ America far from honorable to the land of his nativity. The contrast between the Irishmen of the Bowery and the docks of New York and the Irishmen of Dublin or Belfast will be all in favor of the latter. Tbe marvellous extension of what may be called public liberty in 2Jew York as compared with Dublin too often has the affect of making the emancipated exile giddy, and in his new position excesses of speech and temper are reached which at home would be simply impossible. In the same way wo venture to think that many excellently informed people in Ireland will be surprised at the demeanor of their visitors. The stage Irishman is just as true a picture as the Yankee of the modern anecdotist and the joker of the comic journals. In plain truth, the American gentlemen, such as will fight in this match and accompany the combatants, will be as high-minded, delicate, gentle, chivalrous as the flower of our aristocracy could produce. Iv the struggle of life, which in America, means the struggle for money, no doubt I here is sharpness— 'cuteness is the word; but in all the relations of social intercourse an American is a delightful companion, a generous friend, as thoroughly good a fellow ns lives between the four seas. JSuch men will be amongst us in a month. We believe the city will be alive in the best sense of metropolitan vitality."