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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN'S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
7
CLERICAL LIFE—SOME OF ITS SERIOUS
AND HUMOROUS SIDES
By P. H. D.
A recent article published in The Bulletin under the above caption attracted much favorable at
tention. The Bulletin considers itself fortunate to be able to present to its readers a second article on
the same subject from the same gifted pen:
I have already spoken of my choir and the ex
cellent music rendered by it. I had the aid of a
good, old German from a neighboring city in train
ing them. As I look back today, I am simply amazed
at my temerity in attempting to train a choir, for
truth compels the admission that the only musical
instrument on which I could play was that commonly
known as the jew’s harp, and as for vocal music I never
could have made a living as a professional singer.
Nevertheless, I managed to teach them the Sunday
psalms for vespers. I remember well the first vespers
by reason of the fact that just as I sat down at the
commencement of the Dixit Dominus I noticed that
the altar boy was laughing. I was just about to re
prove him when looking toward the communion rail
I noticed a large coach dog with his forepaws resting
on the railing and gazing at me. In the front pew
sat Henry F., a devout old German Catholic, who
was joining with the choir in singing and was en
tirely oblivious of the offending canine. Mrs. F.,
who saw the dog, nudged her husband, and Henry
rose, prayer book in hand and walking out seized
the dog by the neck, never ceasing his singing, though
the poor dog kept up an accompaniment of yelps.
Mr. F. dropped the dog down the steps—we were in
the upper part of the building came back into the
Church, still singing, and resumed his seat as if noth
ing out of the ordinary had taken place.
The custom of sending around a town crier still
prevailed, and when one had lost or found anything
valuable, this man went all over the town bawling
out the news, first ringing a bell in order to attract
attention. A little boy had wandered away from
home and his anxious mother sent for the town crier
to give notice of the fact and so recover the child.
Some one else had employed the crier, and I was con
siderably startled to hear a loud ringing of a bell,
followed by an announcement in a stentorian voice:
Hear! Hear! A little boy missing; six years old,
with curly black hair, a check suit and no shoes and
a straw hat. He has warts on his left hand and a
red cow.”
We had a police force of three men who preserved
the peace. I never had occasion to use their ser
vices but once. One winter evening I was sitting
near the register, reading my office, when the
bell rang. Knowing that my housekeeper was busy,
I went to the door to meet a man carrying a large
basket. He wanted to know if I would buy some of
his goods. I brought him inside and to my delight
the first thing I saw was a pair of vases. I had
bought a similar pair in New York some months be
fore, but was told at the store I would scarcely be
able to duplicate them, as the kind were no longer
made. The man had in his basket the exact duplicate
of the ones I had bought in New York. I need hardly
say that I at once purchased them. Half an hour
after he left I took them over to the Church to place
on the Blessed Virgin’s Altar where the other pair
were. 1 took some flowers to place in them, having
first half filled them with water. I was rather sur
prised, on going to the altar, to find quite a bunch
of flowers lying on the cover of the altar. An ex
amination showed that the man had gone into the
Church, stolen the pair of vases and then gone to
my home and sold them to me. I went to police
headquarters and the man was arrested and the
Mayor made him return the money and sent him
to jail for ten days. He was most certainly an en
terprising business man, and I expect he has long ere
this accumulated a large fortune, if he escaped the
gallows.
One night about 8:00 a “trusty” from the county
jail came to my house with a message from one of
the wardens, who was a Catholic; there was a very
sick person there whom nobody could understand,
but whom he felt sure was a Catholic, and he wanted
me to come down to see him. I went at once and
found a French Canadian who was ignorant of Eng
lish. He was quite sick and I heard his confession,
and then told him I would bring him Holy Commu
nion the next morning. After my Mass the next day
I carried the Blessed Sacrament to him, and as I was
leaving the jail the warden asked me if I had ever
seen “Big Frank.” I told him I had not, and he
pointed to the cell where Frank was confined, and
said: Go and look in the door and you will see
him.” I declined, saying that the fellow wasn’t a
beast to be stared at, but I told the deputy to tell
Frank I was there, and if he wished to see me I
would be glad to call on him. The deputy went to
the cell and in a moment came back with the message
that Frank would be very glad to see me. I went
into the cell and there met for the first time the well-
known criminal. He was, I should judge, nearly six
feet high and weighed about 180 pounds. He had a
very high forehead, large blue eyes and a very at
tractive face. I believe if he were placed in a hall
with some of the most celebrated men of an average
city, lawyers, doctors and other professional men,
and one was asked to find in the crowd the criminal,
Frank would have been the last man to be suspected
of wrong-doing. I had better state how it was he
was an inmate of the prison.
In the neighboring city of W. there stood, and yet
stands, at the corner of Sixth and Market Streets, a
bank. In 1874 it was then an old-fashioned two-
story building, the cashier living in the same build
ing. The front room facing Market Street was the
bank, and immediately in the rear was the dining
room. Upstairs was the parlor and bed rooms. Every
day at 3 o clock the cashier locked and barred the
door, closed the windows, put the cash in the vault
and then went to dinner. One day, in the summer
of 1874, he went through this program, and just as
he sat down to dinner the door bell rung at the en
trance on Sixth Street. A servant went to the door,
where she found three men who wanted to see the
cashier. The girl told them he was just sitting down
to dinner. One of them said, "I will write him a
note which you will please carry to him and I will
wait here for his answer.” Saying this, he stepped
into the hall and took a piece of paper from his
pocket and placing it against the wall began writing.
One of the men spoke to the girl, who turned to reply,
and as she did she was seized by the man who was
writing, another placed a gag in her mouth, and
then they came inside, closed the door and tied the
girl s hands and feet, and putting on masks they
walked into the dining-room. At the table was the
cashier, his wife, daughter and a lady friend. One
of the men walked to the cashier and said: “Don’t
be alarmed and don’t make any noise. We don’t
propose to harm these ladies or you. But you will
please walk into the bank with me and open the
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