Life — December 16, 1920 — page 20: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DECEMBER 16, 1920 London Offices, Rolls House, Breams Bigs HRIST- MAS is BZ imminent = this week, and people's minds ought to be en- grossed with such matters as_ turkey toys, Christmas trees, Yule-logs and even wassail. And so, happily, they will be to a considerable extent. The children will require it. The great Christmas asset is children. To them Christmas is always new. They have little to forget and much to acquire. The usual effort will be made to impress upon their minds that Christmas is a good thing, a piece of joy in life, bright, profitable and merry. Children in these days are not only the future, but they are the past. The younger they are the better. They know nothing of the war, nor of the peace, nor of the troubles of the current world. They are a kind of poultice for the heart, and there are many hearts that need soothing. So Christmas will, get its dues just as usual, but the world will only stop an in- stant to pay attention to it. Then will go on again the current sturm und drang. Nothing stays long out of the stream of that. Even our Thanksgiving, which is not universal like Christmas, but a local festi- val, got mixed up with it in New York when members of the congregation of the Cathedral of St. Patrick, fresh from at- tendance on a mass for the repose of Mayor MacSwiney, went up to the Union Club, a block away, and threw missiles through the windows. The cause of their dis- satisfaction with the Union Club was that in memory of the landing of the Pilgrims it had hung out the British flag, along with others, including the flag of the United States. The members in the Union Club seemed to have been filled with astonishment, but clubs nowadays “While there is Life there’s Hope” Published by LIFE PUBLISHING COMPA 17 West Thirty-first Street, New York are very decorous places, and it is not recorded that any one of them so far for- got himself as to throw even a_ bottle through a window of the Cathedral. Be- ing ordered by the mob to take down the British flag, the custodian of the club did take it down for a time, but put it up again in deference to sentiment inside of the club, There was a big and angry crowd which the police presently suc- ceeded in driving away. All of this, of course, was pure transfer of energy from the Green Isle, where Sinn Feiners are murdering the British soldiers and police- men, and the soldiers and policemen are retaliating by killing the Sinn Feiners. There is not yet an orderly or organized civil war in Ireland, but a conflict of mur- ders and reprisals, out of which it would seem nothing can come but more murders and more reprisals. OME of the members of the Cathedral congregation were very much disturbed by the misadventure of the Union Club, and sent to the papers an opea letter to Archbishop Hayes, protesting against “ the infusion of politics in our beloved church.” It was signed by over sixty names, some of them very well known. It failed to have a soothing effect on the Archhishop, who saw in it “lack of good breeding” and “a serious breach of Catholic discipline.” There was evidence in his reply that heat may accumulate even under a Roman collar. He denied that the Roman Catholic Church, or himself or anyone connected with the Cathedral, was in any way responsible “ for the law- less conduct that took place before the VOL. 76. No. 1989 ndon, E. C, Union Club on Thanksgiving. Day.” So the signers got very little comfort, and nothing is likely to be said officially to soothe the Union Club. cannot expect much discrimina- tion from a mob, or any discrimina- tion at all from a large percentage of the people of Irish descent in this world at this time. They are all mad, and the episode of the hunger strike of MacSwiney has been industriously used to make them as much madder as possible. They might, however, in calm moments, when they have any again, realize to advantage that the British flag covers more than one group of politicians and more than one sentiment about Ireland. There is a group of Englishmen that are, if anything, more friendly to Ireland than the Irish, and almost as much “het up” over the present Irish policy of the English gov- ernment as the Irish are. The English Liberals, led by Mr. Asquith, do not ap- prove of the present British policy in Ire- land. They think it hopelessly wrong. They think the Irish bill that has lately been up in the House of Commons, will fail utterly to solve the Irish prob- lem even if it can be passed. The senti- ments of the more radical branch of the British Liberal Party are expressed by A. G. Gardiner in the Daily News of November 27th, when he says: The story of English rule in Ireland is the darkest tragedy on earth, with the single exception of the tragedy in Armenia, We have assassinated the Irish nation for six hundred years, we have burned its towns and put its people comicbooks.com