Edward Lee

America and Canada 17 which he published privately on his return from
the month long visit in May and June 1904, accompanied by his good
friend Robert Reid Thomson. It was dedicated to his friend, ‘With very
sincere regard to my fellow-traveller and friend, tried and true, R. Reid
Thomson, Esq’. This publication is reproduced in full in the Appendix.
Travelling from Queenstown in Cork on the train, he described the
landscape and his sadness for the people he saw through the carriage
window. He was also wistful about his own boyhood memories, ‘The
pasture lands of Kildare and the bogs of King’s County are replaced by
the Queen’s County hills to the left. Memories of my boyhood days crowd
in upon me, as a holiday of some few days I spent there in years gone by
still marks time on my memory. Perhaps no land can produce greater
diversity of creed and character than Ireland. Pathetic was the scene at
Portarlington, where the observant Irishman and others may have seen
the life-blood of the nation slowly bleeding the country white in the tide
of emigration, which has not been stemmed for even one decade, since its
first flow nearly fifty years ago’.
‘Ireland is a country endowed with so
much natural beauty, fertile resources
and above all, with such a talented
and splendid people.’
Although the two men were travelling in luxury to New York on the
White Star Liner RMS Oceanic, he was not immune to the plight of the
steerage passengers, noting sadly, ‘Alas, for human hopes! One of our
fellow-travellers in the steerage died this evening quite suddenly. The
touch of Nature which makes the whole world kin was immediately
felt, as evidenced by the expression of sympathy heard on all sides. The
poor fellow who was travelling all alone will be committed to the deep at
8.30 tomorrow evening over 1000 miles from his no doubt dearly loved
country, for he was an Irishman’. However his sense of equality was
shaken the next day when he was informed that at the funeral service,
‘State-room passengers were not allowed to be present’.
17 Memoranda of a Hurried Visit to America and Canada by Edward Lee
Model Employer and Man of Moral Courage
29