Page:Irish In America.djvu/115

Rh Quebec; and that in all kinds of bank and other stock, they own something like 250,000l. or $1,225,000. Thus in the Union Bank, of 400 stockholders in Quebec, 200 are Irish. And this is but one of three local banks in that city. Besides possessing extensive house property, and having accumulated money, they are generally engaged in business, of which they enjoy a fair share. Whatever the Irish possess, they have made by their own unaided industry; for, as a respectable Irishman, who had himself worked his way to independence, said to me: 'You could scarcely trace one that brought a sovereign with him.' He added that he had brought out four himself, but that he might as well not have done so, for he lent them to a person who never took the trouble of paying them back. 'And perhaps, after all, it was so much the better for me that I lost the money, for I had to work the harder.' Among those who came out 'poor,' as working mechanics, is an Irishman who is now in the enjoyment of an income of 10,000l. a-year, made by successful contracts, natural ability, and good conduct. This case may be regarded as a somewhat remarkable one in Canada, if the magnitude of the result be regarded ; but there are many instances in which sums of 20,000l., 30,000l., and 50,000l. have been realised by the industry and perseverance of Irishmen who came to the British Provinces 'without a shilling.' The secret of the success or failure of Irishmen may be summed up in a sentence, spoken by a countryman of theirs in Quebec; words which I have heard expressed hundreds of times in all parts of America, and which could not be too often repeated: Where the Irish are steady and sober, they are 'sure to get on'; where they are drunken, reckless, or improvident, 'why of course they fail.'

In Quebec, as in too many places in America, there are instances of drunken, reckless, and improvident Irishmen; but, happily, these cases are exceptional, for, as a rule, the Irish of that city are sober, prudent, and- thrifty. And