'Yellow' Oratory's Inspiration

New Zealand Tablet, Volume 19, Issue 42, 19 October 1905, Page 2

'Yellow' Oratory's Inspiration

Once a year— or oftener, if they are so ' dispoged ' — the Brethren of tflic Yellow Agony beseech their Patron Saijvt, William of Orange, to ' look down ' upon them and cram their souls with the sort of ' spiritual ' graces that arc to their liking. And it seemeth that St. William heareth them and giveth abundantly of the things that lie nearest to Itieir hearts. For does not Sir Jonah Barnngtion— (himself an Orangeman— bear testimony in his ' Personal Sketches ' that the little Boer monarch ' has been the cause of more broken heads and drunken men since his departure than all his predecessors ' ? Ajnd so, too, saith the voice of history since 1795. An ancient Ulster custom requires that participants in the festivities of the Glorious Twelfth shall tujio tihteir feedings up rto cc'ncert pitch — somewhat after the maauner of the musical glasses— by ppiuringfm liquid libations in 'honor of their Patron. Thirteen inches per man is, perhaps, a fair a\erage -allowance, while some, like Artermis Ward's organ-grinder, seem capable of holding ' a chfurnful of bejr.' The custom has spotted the lodge-ridden districts of Ulster with blood and flame. A case brought by the police a few weeks agio against one John Patterson, before the Belfast Summons Court, goes to show that stroing drink is still as much a part of an Ulster Orange celebration as are rowdyism, torreaitial declamation against ' Rome,' amd the familiar cry, 'To holl with the Pope.' One" or two lodges, on pleasure bent, had, according to the evidence adduced and m no way denied, laid in a stock of ale, whisky, mineral waters, and 22 5 2 full bottles of stout — not coumtwug I^he ' dead marines ' (<or empties) that the police dropped acros-s in the course* of their search on the erve of lhe patronal festival of the brethren

We haTe often wondered whether, and to what extent, tine same liquid source of energy is responsible for the majnner, in which sundry epileptic clerical orators— like the 'ornet-playcr in ' Mrs. Brown at the Play '— ' bust theirs el v»es to bits ' on the July platform in Australia, amd, to a lessor extent in New Zealand 7 Take, for instance, the silly oaf that poured out such a flood of No-Popery Munchaiusen tales to Ihe gofoemxyucheb in Southland some time ago ; or the frenzied enthusiast who recently screeched in Victoria against the ' blasting, cursing, blighting influence of Rome ' ; or the reverend ruffian who on the same occasion whooped against coinvents as ' slave-traps,' ' helMioles, 1 and other pretty titles that the printers declined to reproduce , or the white-clnokered firefarand who, in South Australia in July, 3904 (as reported in the Melbourne ' Age '), shrieked for ' bloodshed.' and exhorted his hearers to ' boycott Roman Catholic schools, nunneries, teaching places,' Roman Catholic tradesmen, awl ' Roman Catholic candidates for public positions.' These are by no moans exceptional cases. Tlrey are strictly typical. And to them ap/ply the following words of the Protestant authlor of ' Irelamd and the Empire ' :— 1 They preach a gospel of hate and of hatred that would disgrace a race of savages, a giospel of which the

Christian religion knows not/brag. This is the spirit Which disfigures the great northern capital (Belfast) and discredits the entire province. Its grosser exhibitions are almost entirely confiined to Belfast, Pcrtadown, amid one or two similar centres ; but the spirit of the thing is everywhere throughout the province. It takes- innumerable shapes, twit hatred of •' Popery," and even of " Papists " is everywhere. I remember, in one of my election, campaigns, being called upon to discuss the Catholic University question with a more than ordinarily intelligent (Protestant) farmer. V\u argued the question in and out, and after I toad driven him from ©very stronghold of prejudice, he exclaimed : '«' You know, sir, what them Papists are. They must be kept down., or we cannot live in the country." This is the whole sum and substance of the matter. The spirit of ascendancy is at the bottom of it all. Equality of rights and o£ citizenship cannot be endured.' That is just what's the matter.