'What, sir! take back from my father and mother what I gave them from my heart! I could not rest in my bed if I did anything so mean. Never say the like of that to me again, Father, and God bless you!' and the poor girl's voice quivered with emotion, as her eye softened in wistful appeal. 'Don't mind, Ellen,' said the priest, 'I was wrong; I should have known you better.' 'I really,' as he said to me, 'meant to try what answer she would give; for that same day I was cognisant of a very different mode of arranging matters. Sir, let people say what they please of them, the Irish are a grand race, after all, and the Irish women are an honour to their country and their faith.' This was said with an enthusiasm not usual to a man so self-contained as this somewhat Americanised Irish Priest.
Instances without number might be adduced in vindication of the eulogium thus pronounced. This year (1867) a young girl landed at Castle Garden, and was fortunate enough to obtain employment the same day. She had in her possession a pound in gold, and some shillings; and finding that she was safely provided for, she determined to send back the money to her mother, to whom it would be of great assistance. Her employer, seeing her so well disposed, advanced her a month's wages, which she was delighted to add to her own money; and a draft was procured and 'mailed' the very first day of her arrival in America!
An Irish girl in Buffalo, who had been but four years in the country, had within that time paid for the passages of two brothers and two sisters, besides sending 40l. ; and, when lately sending another remittance through the Irish Emigrant Society of New York, she said she 'would not rest until she brought out her dear father and mother,' which she hoped she would be able to do within the next six months.
In populous cities the women send home more money than the men; in small towns and rural districts the men
