"I deliberately assert," says Mr. Maguire, in his
recent work on 'The Irish in America,' "that it is not within the
power of language to describe adequately, much less to exaggerate,
the evils consequent on the unhappy tendency of the Irish to
congregate in the large towns of America." It is this intense
socialism of the Irish that keeps them in a comparatively hand-to-
mouth condition in all the States of the Union.
(17) 'The Statesman,' p. 35.
(18) Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his 'First Impressions of France and
Italy,' says his opinion of the uncleanly character of the modern
Romans is so unfavourable that he hardly knows how to express it
"But the fact is that through the Forum, and everywhere out of the
commonest foot-track and roadway, you must look well to your
steps.... Perhaps there is something in the minds of the people
of these countries that enables them to dissever small ugliness
from great sublimity and beauty. They spit upon the glorious
pavement of St. Peter's, and wherever else they like; they place
paltry-looking wooden confessionals beneath its sublime arches,
and ornament them with cheap little coloured prints of the
Crucifixion; they hang tin hearts, and other tinsel and trumpery,
at the gorgeous shrines of the saints, in chapels that are
encrusted with gems, or marbles almost as precious; they put
pasteboard statues of saints beneath the dome of the Pantheon;--
in short, they let the sublime and the ridiculous come close
together, and are not in the least troubled by the proximity.
Pages:
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349