THE IRISH IN MONTANA.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XVII, Issue 47, 14 March 1890, Page 18

THE IRISH IN MONTANA.

(Special Correspondence of the Pilot.")

Helena, M.T., Jan. 7. I HAVE just crossed tbe Bocky Mountains while canopied in the snows of mid-winter. He only who has been whirled through ravines and canyons, and across huge precipices 5000 feet above the sea level, can relish the strarjge delight which such experience breeds. I have seen the storm-tossed ocean rage and foam, and stood upon the deck of tbe tempest-shattered ship, while around me brave men wept and women prayed for mercy. I have Been the foamy billows lit up by the lurid flames that heralded the falling thunderbolt, and gas d upon the rent and torn clouds that obscured or swept madly by the pale, full lamp of night. These things I have seen and felt, but neither mine nor the pen of any other of the sons of man hath yet been able to depiot them aB they are. No more can description be given of those wild, weird, I had almost said sublime, region! that rise midway from the earth and beautify the realms of everlastiDg snow. The rocks, the precipices, the glaciers, and snowdrifts, the mountain pine, the gurgling torrent below, and the aeure sky above, yon can indeed gaze on, but to paint them, never. Here is revealed the littleness of man and his greatness too, for his genius has bridged those mighty barriers and built thereon a highway connecting the East with the golden sunny land that elopes towards tbe waters of the vast Pacific. This Bocky Mountain chain divides Montana into two unequal parts. Western Montana ia drained by a tributary of the Columbia, while in Eastern Montana rise the Missouri and its manifold tributaries. Montana itself is an empire in extent, being larger than Italy by 20,000 square miles. It is a rolling mountain country, with an average elevation of more than 2,500 feet. Its elevation and its northern latitude render it unsuited to general agriculture, and though there are twelve or fifteen millions of good agricultural land, I should not like to direct liish immigrants seeking homesteads to the lands of Montana. In tbe valleys of the Yellowstone and Missouri the soil is, indeed, rich, but crops are as uncertain as ram, and terrific storms may blast the fairest blossoms. One year of plenty may be followed by seven of failure, and while prolific lands ia Washington and Oregon are open for the home-seeker Montana Government lands are not likely to boom. With s ockraUing it ia different ; for there are 100,000 square miles of good cattle-ranches in Montana. What Montana lacks in agriculture eho possesses, however, in mineral wealth. To-day she ia the foremost mining country in the world. In '87 her mines yielded 25,000,000 dols. in gold, silver, lead and copper ; in '88 the yield was 40,000,000 dols. and ia '89 more than 50,000,000 dols. This enormous wealth is enriching Montana folks at an ab lormally rapid rate, and it is a common thing to meet millionaires who but a few years ago were cattle-drivers, loggers or draymen. Most of these mining barocs are Irish or of Irish descent. The Irish not only dig the mines, but they were the prospectors and the discoverers of them, and the engineers that develop and operate them. Well might an Irishman feel more at home here at Helena, by the distant waters of the Missouri, than in tbe alien-ridden metropolis of h:s country. The Governor of the State is Irish, the Bepresentative in Cungress is Irish, and tbe bankers and capitalists are proud of their extraction from the same old race. Wherever mines and factories are being operated or great engineering projects being built there you will find tne strong arm and tbe brain of the Celt. The city of Helena is a wonder in itself. It is beaut'fully located on the northern slope of a spur of the tiocky Mouatains, and its buildings are giant-like in proportions. The streets are narrow and irregular, but tbe buildings would seem to suit Broadway or Dearborn Street more than a far Western town.

And thereon the slopes that overlook the green city of the Bocky Monntains are superb, mansions, which the plundered wealth of the Norman barons of tbe Middle Ages could not build or buy. In thosa mansions dwell the Daleys, the Powera and tbe Cruises, the lords of broad acres and of untold wealth. They or their sires wept bitter tears when forced by tyrant power to leave the lonely cabin close by the ivied ruins of sacred Ireland, and here they are to-day thd owners cf the richest State on the habitable globe. And this is no exaggeration. Both political parties bear testimony to the worth and power of the Irish element.

Lord Bipon, addressing a meeting at Bury on January 13, begged workingmen not to permit the Coercion law to take root in Ireland lest it should be applied to England. They must defend Liberal principles, or they would soon feel the heat of battle at the citadel. Among the pleasant things Max O'Rell said in his Boston lectnre on Sunday night was to tbe effect that there are no Jews in (Scotland ; that Jews would starve there, so canny and thrifty, and, withal so honest are the Scotch people. He said of all peoples tbe French live the longest and enjoy life most, their motto seeming to bo : " Live as long as you can ; you may never have another chance."

A gratifying addition his just been madi to tbe number of Irish tenants who own the soil they cultivate. The Earl of Egmont haa sold the whole of his estate in Kilkenny and Tipperary for £250,000. The farmers are fortunate enough to get the land at the rate of fifteen years' purchase. This is the largest single transaction under the Ashbourne Act.

I {Truth') am glad to see some sign of improvement in the Times. Ie now adds to thecontents with which it heads its leading articles the number of the page where each item will be found. I should fancy that this is due to Mr. Arthur Walter— a practical man of business —having replaced the late Mr. Macdonald. Had this change been made sooner, I greatly doubt whether the " Forgery Letters " would ever have appeared in the Times. That pernicious lolly has already, I understand, cost the Times above £200,000. Ita expenditure on witnesses during the Parnell Commission was as reok* lc£B and absurd as was the publication of the letters.