to be conscious of this rivalry—each seems to
feel that the other is in his way. Each affects
a profound contempt for the other; and as both
are gifted with a facile use of the tongue, and a
perfect arsenal of epithets, a hostile dialogue
between the white and the black is one of the
most unique and amusing imaginable. Sometimes,
in the more northerly of the States where
slavery formerly existed, Irish and negroes are
found huddled together in the same quarter or
suburb; then there is constant quarrelling and
strife.

It is odd that, much as the Irish like to
huddle together and live in crowds, such a
thing is scarcely ever heard of as an Irish
colony in the vast plains of the West. Natural
farmers as they are, you never hear of their
associating together, taking a westward course,
and settling on the rich domains which the
American government offers free to all who
will "squat" and till. In Michigan there is a
famous Dutch colony, where nothing but Dutch
is spoken, nothing but Dutch dishes are eaten,
nothing but Dutch pipes are smoked, and none
but Dutchmen hold office; a colony imported
from Amsterdam. Further South—in those
states which formerly composed part of the
French colony of Louisiane—French colonies
maybe found, where you would starve before you
found a man who could understand your order
for dinner in English. In Missouri, Nebraska,
and Kansas, German settlements may be found
quite as characteristic and exclusively foreign.
There is so large a leaven of the Teutonic
element in Missouri, that a German refugee has
just now been elected United States senator to
represent that great and growing state. But
the Irish have not, as a mass, a capacity of
self-reliance. They must cling as dependents
upon another civilisation; so they remain
in the East, and leave the emigrants of other
nations to patiently build up communities
stamped with their own national traits in the
boundless West.

What becomes of the Irish girls who
constitute a large majority of the emigrants?
The great mass of them become cooks, maids-
of-all-work, chambermaids, household servants
of some sort. Probably the chambermaids and
scullerymaids of every hotel in New York,
Philadelphia, Chicago—all the cities—are
buxom Irish girls. At least nine-tenths of
the servants in the private houses in the North
and East are of the same nation. The healthy
Irish girl who leaves her own country to seek
her fortune beyond the ocean, has in her
excellent stuff for the fulfilling of household
duties. She is strong, she is quick to learn, she
is willing to work, and wherever she is wanting
in taste, tutelage by the mistress goes far to
mend it. Many family matrons prefer to take
a raw emigrant rather than a girl who has been
long in America. She is more honest, she is
not troubled with too many beaux and acquaintances,
she blunders yet is willing to learn, she
does her best, and she has not yet acqxured
those grand notions of dress and independence
which the Irish girl long resident is apt to
have picked up. She is capable of making a
really good plain cook, and if she be taken
straight from shipboard, may be educated to
her mistress's peculiar style of cookery—every
mistress, be it said, having a style and dishes
of her own. The main trouble with the Irish
servant is, that she is prone to be too social
in character, readily makes acquaintances, and
holds high carnival in the kitchen with the
family provisions. Still, with all her shortcomings,
she is nothing less than invaluable to
American households. It is only in the far
West, and back in the rural districts of New
England, that native American girls are found
in service. The negro "Mammies," now free,
are probably destined to become rivals of the
Irish "Biddies;" still, the former usually prefer
their native South to the bleak and unfruitful
North.

During the war of the Rebellion, the Irish
naturalised citizens of the United States did
sterling service for the Federal cause. Throughout
the land, volunteer regiments were formed
composed exclusively of Irishmen; and more
than one illustrious name among the Union
generals betrays the Celtic origin of its bearer.
Sheridan, now second in command of the American
army, was the son of Irish parents; the
gallant Colonel Corcoran, of the New York Irish
Regiment, was one of the most brilliant soldiers
and best beloved commanders of the epoch. The
revival of Fenianism since the war, is often
attributed to the martial spirit engendered among
the Irish soldiers during that great struggle;
and this is no doubt partially true. But the
spirit of hostility to England among the
emigrant Irish of America was universally prevalent
long before the war; and while that event
gave greater force to the movement in favour
of Irish independence, it by no means developed
any greater rancour than that previously felt
towards the mother country. Fenianism owes
much encouragement to native American
demagogues who have hounded it on for their
own political purposes; but it chiefly owes its
popularity among the American Irish to the
energy, boldness, and eloquence of a few Irish
leaders, most of whom were Federal officers in
the war. If anything were wanting to prove
the incapacity of the Irish character for self-
government, the course of Fenianism in America
proves it. They are too bellicose among
themselves; they never have been cordially united;
they are credulous, and allow swindlers to rob
them; they are quarrelsome, and dissipate their
energy and resources in internal dissension.
The poor Irish servant, ardently attached to
"darling Erin," and excited by the harangues
against England, saved her little weekly
pittance, and cheerfully gave it up to Fenian
"circles" to be devoured by the leaders of the
cause, and to be embezzled by the swindlers to
whom they confided it.

The Irish in America, although, as has
been said, they are clannish, do yet gradually
merge themselves into the general community,
and become part and parcel of the American
population. The second generation of the