The Poles of Chicago met last night at the hall at Bradley and Noble streets to commemorate two of the leading events in the history of their country. It is just one-hundred years since the treaty of partition was signed by which Russia and Prussia divided Poland between them, which resulted in the unsuccessful insurrection of Kosciuszko against foreign rule; and it is thirty years ago that the ill-fated kingdom ceased to exist. These two dates are landmarks that every Pole looks back to with commingled sorrow and national pride - sorrow at the fate of his country, and pride at the stubborn resistance offered the invaders. The attention paid the speakers attested the interest felt in these tragic struggles.

The program opened with a song by fifty of the children of the parish school of St. Stanislaus Kosta Church. The piece selected was one of the popular Polish airs and was received with rounds of applause. Then Prof. B. Klarkowski delivered an address on the history of the Poles, setting forth the heroic efforts of the patriots to maintain independence. The people, he said, were obliged to sanction the plundering of their country by the action of a national assembly held in 1778. To a certain degree the Poles then enjoyed tranquility for a period of ten years, when another diet was held. At this assembly many 2important changes were made, such as the amelioration of the condition of the burghers and peasants. The former, by the conditions of their agreement, were to send deputies to the diet on the same footing as the nobles. The peasants were not yet emancipated, and the selfishness of the Polish nobles upset all the arrangements to that end. In 1792 the enemies of their country formed the confederation of Targovica, and soon afterward at their instigation Russian troops invaded Poland and Lithuania.

The second treaty of partition was signed in 1793, by which Prussia acquired the remainder of Great Poland and a portion of Little Poland, and the Russian boundary was advanced to the center of Lithuania and Valhynia. Then came the insurrection which broke out under the leadership of Kosciuszko, which at first made headway against the Prussians and Russians. Kosciuszko was defeated, and the Kingdom of Poland was at an end.

In the insurrection of 1864, the Poles displayed great heroism. Bands of rebels began to appear in the Polish forests in January of that year, and, though they fought no pitched battles against the Russian troops, they did much execution in guerilla warfare. A reign of terror was inaugurated by the Russian General Kouravieff, and the devoted Poles were finally suppressed by May, 1864. Then died all Polish hopes.

This address was followed by a Turner exhibition by young men, consisting of 3club-swinging, horizontal pole practice, and other athletic exercises. E. Z. Brodowski made a short speech, detailing the various causes that led up to the revolution.

The Rev. Father Barzynski closed the exercises with a picture of life in Poland one-hundred years ago, contrasting the proud nobility of the country, who were constantly engaged in warlike feuds, and the miserable state of serfdom of the common people who were absolutely without political rights and entirely at the mercy of their feudal lords. There was no national spirit, no sympathy between classes. It was the Jewswho chiefly busied themselves with commerce and prevented the two classes of the country from coming into contact with each other.