money destined to that purpose is regarded as sacred, and must not be diverted to any object less worthy.
I was told in New York of a young Irish girl, who was only one month in the country, going to the office of the well-known Irish Emigration Society's Bank to send her first earnings to her mother, of course to the care of the parish priest. She brought with her five dollars, which in her simplicity she supposed to be equivalent to the 1l. she intended to transmit. At that time six dollars and fifty cents were required to make up the British pound, and the poor girl's disappointment was intense when she was made to understand that she was deficient a dollar and a half. The friend who accompanied her, and who had been some time longer in the country, lent her a dollar; the clerk advanced her the balance, and the undiminished pound was sent to her 'poor mother, who wanted it badly.' In a few days after, the money advanced by the clerk was paid by the young girl, whose face was soon known in the office, as she came at regular intervals to send remittances, which were gradually increasing in amount. In a very short time she understood the relative value of American greenbacks and British gold, and made no mistake as to the amount of the money-orders she desired to transmit.
It frequently occurred in that office, that small sums were advanced to make up the amount required by the person intending to send a remittance; and in no instance was there failure in payment. A debt of the kind is, of all others, the most sacred. The money which the loan thus helps to complete is a filial offering the gift of a child to a parent; and confidence so reposed is never forfeited. I have heard the same statement made by bankers and brokers in many parts of the United States.
So much is this sending of remittances to Ireland a matter of routine to those engaged in the business, that there must be something special in the circumstance of the
