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THE BULLETIN OF THE CATHOLIC LAYMEN’S ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA
7
Cardinal O’Connell’s Impressions
On Conditions In England
Its Smooth Roads and Comfortable Inns Impress Him—
He Finds Aristocracy Gone to Seed, Poverty Wide
spread, Discontent Evident and Drunkness Rare.
“The first thing that impressed
me,” said His Eminence, “was the
roads, the most perfect roads that 1
have ever seen in the world. From
one end of England to the other,
they are so even that you are never
concious of the slightest jar. And
they arc kept in absolutely perfect
condition not only the great high
ways which one might expect to be
kept in perfect condition, but even
the second and third class roads
, through the country.
“The roads are very well posted.
All turns, corners and directions are
admirably marked out. What was
noticeable to me, too, was the size
of the automobiles in England. We
could not help remarking how much
smaller the automobiles are in Eng
land than they are here, but they
arc very comfortable and seem very
practicable.
“Then there is a great use being
made of the motorcycle with side
car. The number of people who use
them is astonishing. There is also
a great use of the charabanc, so-call
ed, a large sight-seeing wagon, which
provides communication from town
to town for long distances, so that
riding through the country in Eng
land is made very comfortable and
very easy.
Comfortable Inns
• “The little inns are very comfort
able, though I regret to say some of
them have been extremely modern
ized, and in a way that does not con
tribute anything either to their com
fort or their beauty, as, for instance,
in a very old inn at Worcester, it
was rather painful to see the painted,
pressed tin ceilings, evidently an im
portation from America, but of a
style that even here at home has
been cast out. As there is no way
of heating them during the damp
season, they were very trying. The
only place that had a lire was the
lounge which had an incredibly
small fireplace with a few coals
burning.
“Of course, the great old home
steads of England are still there,
though some of them look sadly in
need of repair. As Blenheim Castle,
the home of the Marlborouglis, was
on the way from Oxford to Strat
ford, 1 stopped on the route and
went in. This enormous structure
really stupidly enormous because no
one could possibly be expected to
live in it, was practically deserted
except for a few caretakers and a
few old men and old women, who
all joined in the common lament
that the lord of the manor lived
there no more because he was too
poor to keep the place up.
“That was evident on all sides.
The park is beautiful, with its love
ly old trees and sloping lawns, over
which a few cattle were grazing. But
the house itself was fast becoming
a respectable ruin. The fact is that
many of the nobility have become
practically impoverished, and it is
r utterly out of the question for them
to keep their houses up. Many of
those who do live in them occupy
a few rooms and close off the rest
of the enormous structure. For in
stance, I saw in the Times while I
was in London that in the same
week a duke was on trial for em
bezzlement and a noble carl had
died in a hack lodging in a sordid
street.
“Of course, many .of these enorm
ous places were abbeys or priory
lands, and there is a very well-
known hit of poetic folklore which
speaks of the curse which has fol-
' lowed the spoliation of the abbey
‘ lands, by which the whole purpose
of the foundation, which was the
moral and material welfare of the
people of the village, was complete
ly destroyed when the lands and the
money and the houses that went
with them were turned over to the
king’s favorites.
Workmen Badly Housed
“What struck one very forcibly
was the situation of the little ham
lets or villages around the great
house. The walls of the manor
house, eight or ten feet high, of
solid masonry, extended for miles
around the demense, and the only
place allotted to the villagers and
their little cabins was a meagre plot
between the walls of the manor park
and the roadside. I don’t wonder
that there is an outcry, a very strong
outcry, for the proper housing of
the people. It is hard for us to
understand why these thousands and
t thousand of acres, which are prac
tically put to no use whatever ex
cept the pleasure of looking at them,
should be allowed to exist along
side of an obvious and most cry
ing need for decent habitations for
the workmen.
“It may be very pretty for the
artist, and it may be a matter of
silly pride for the feudal lord, but
it is certainly a matter of extreme
inconvenience for tbe workman and
his family, for how it is possible to
bring up a family in some of those
places is beyond my mind to con
ceive. I think it is due, however, to
many of the heirs of these great
estates to say that they realize their
day is past and that a new order of
things has arrived. No one who
even looks at the life of the English
people superficially can help seeing
that the old feudal ideas are com
pletely broken down. It is not the
people alone who rejoice at that, but
many of the nobility rejoice in the
fact themselves. They see the ano
maly of the situation of trying to
keep up these utterly impossible
places while the taxes are so high
and their income is so reduced that
many of them have to live abroad.
Discontent Evident.
“First of all, of course, we all
know that the question of unem
ployment is a very tragic one. As
we went along the road we were
constantly meeting, either singly or
in groups, men whose condition was
really pathetic. They were evident
ly not willingly tramps, but yet
there they were going from village
to village, trying to live. I honestly
think that the English Government
has done remarkably well, all in all,
to provide for this situation. The
taxes are enormous. It is hard to
see, .in fact, how they could be in
creased. There is no demand for
manufactures on account of Euro
pean conditions. It is nobody’s fault
especially, it is a fact of the circum
stances of the time.
“I was very glad to note that there
was practically no drunkenness, as
far as 1 could see. That is remark
able. Not even in Liverpool. The
people were very orderly and quiet
and very well behaved everywhere.
In fact it impressed itself on one
very deeply that, though evidently
there was great poverty in certain
quarters nevertheless there was also
great self-restraint.”—The Pilot, Bos
ton.
Catholics and Temperance
Forty years ago, in presenting a
group of clergymen to James G.
Blaine, then nominee of the Repub
lican party to the presidency, Rev.
S. D. Burchard, a Presbyterian min
ister of New York, brought to a cli
max his oratorical effort by allud
ing to the statesman as the person
ification of the opposition to “Rum,
Romanism and Rebellion."
The alliterative sentiment is claim
ed to have been sufficient to turn
the Empire State and thus defeat its
object by the election of Grover
Cleveland, Mr. Blaine’s opponent.
Some thought it merely one of the
instances of the “luck” of the “man
of destiny,” others that it was the
Judas kiss that betrayed the man
from Maine, but the general and
probably correct impression was
that it was merely a case of fatu
ous imbecility on the part of a
preacher with neither wit nor judg
ment.
The episode has been recalled by
fanaticism on the part of The North
Carolina Christian Advocate in an
allusion to the repeal of the New
York law for the enforcement of the
eighteenth amendment, that paper
combining the same elements as the
victor in the case, alleging that the
Roman Catholic Church has never
been active in temperance work.
This is probably an incalculated
injustice. The Roman Catholic
Church, in common with every
Christian creed, has always taken the
side of temperance. No . greater
moral force is in existence than the
Father Mathew Total Abstinence so
ciety, a pure Catholic organization,
and the doctrines of the Church are
against the drink evil, while at the
same time affirming personal free
dom. The priesthood is militant in
its efforts to suppress intemperance
and temperance is a cardinal virtue
imposed on the membership.—Dear
born Independent.
An Anti-Catholic Editor
and Catholic Schools
The late junior Senator from
Georgia, whose anti-Catholic activi
ties are too well known to need am
plifying, is being quoted in the
Georgia press as an advocate of
Catholic and other religious and
private schools. The story in which
he is quoted, and which has been
published in dozens of papers, advo
cates the teaching of the Constitu
tion in the public schools. It says
iu part:
One prominent man of affairs,
who for personal reasons asked
that his name be withheld made
this statement today:
“Obeying civil laws and at
same time being privileged to
do as one chooses in matters
personal or religious, as long as
civil laws are obeyed, is the
fundamental basis of our gov
ernment, and was so recognized
and practiced by the late U. S.
Senator Thomas E. Watson, of
Georgia. Separation of church
and state and free schools had
no stronger champion than lie,
yet in the education of members
of his famliy he did as he
• pleased.
“His daughters at one time at
tended the Catholic school at
Washington, Ga., in preference
to free schools at Thomson.
Later they were sent to Agnes
Scott College in preference to
the state colleges. His grand
children were^sent to an Episco
pal college at Washington, D. C.,
in preference to state-supported
colleges in Georgia. So, one
might well point out, that the
study of the Constitution of
the state and the nation in
Georgia schools will have a
broadening effect on the rising
generation, regardless of re
ligious affiliations.”
Miscellany
Another convention of American
Catholic editors and publishers has
passed into newspaper history. An
other link binding the Catholic
newspaper workers of this country
more closely in aims and ideals has
been forged. Such conferences of
members of the Catholic Press As
sociation have wrought a remark
able change in the public attitude
of one paper towards another. A
dozen years ago it was .not uncom
mon to find papers belittling one
another, wasting their ammunition
on one another, weakening the line.
That was because the men behind
the -guns did not know the teams
on the other batteries. It is not so
easy to say unkind things of a man
when you are likely to meet him in
friendly discussion and social in
tercourse from year to year.
Some of the editors still stay
away from these conventions. Some
becaT.se the task of getting out a
paper every week with half a staff
leaves them no time to travel half
way across the country. Others be
cause they don’t think the meeting
worth while. Whether or not the
discussions are worth while depends
upon the attitude of the individual
participants. And this is true of all
conventions and conferences. If a
man attends a discussion with the
sole motive of inflicting his view
point upon others, it is possible that
he might gain nothing, and the oth
ers little. But if he goes with a
willingness to learn from the ex
perience of others, the trip might
prove profitable. A man told me
that, hy acting on a tip he gained
at last year’s convention, he saved
his paper $10,000 in one year.
An interesting point was made by
one editor, and was confirmed by the
experiences of others. It was that
many young clergy are prevented
from writing for the Catholic news
papers because their brother priests
“kid” them about it. One young
priest, with a talent for writing, con
tributed several articles to a well
known paper, and then stopped sud
denly. When persuaded by the edi
tor to continue he said that he was
being ridiculed by clerical friends
who wanted to know if he had
bought the paper. This is a bad
state of affairs. America wants all
the intellectual leadership she can
get at 'the present stage of her de
velopment.
A speaker at- the convention,
warned to be brief, put his watch
on the president’s table “as an evi
dence of good faith,” and proceeded
to talk at length. This may have
been due to the watch. You will
recall the story of the Irish priest
Great American Catholics
JEAN-LOUIS LEFEBVRE CHEVERUS
First Bishop of Boston
Arriving in Boston October 3,
1796, Father dc Cheverus wrote to
Bishop Carroll as follows: “Send
me where you think I am most
needed, without making yourself
anxious about the means of my sup
port. 1 am willing to work with my
hands if need be.”
Born at Mayennc, France, in 1786
and ordained by special dispensation
before he was twenty-three years old
the young priest had barely escaped
from France with his life when he
refused to take the oath imposed
by the Revolutionists. In London
a letter from a former professor,
the Rev. Francis A. Matignon, then
pastor at Boston, told him of the
needs of the Church there and urg
ed his peculiar fitness to help in
that field.
His work in New England covered
a period of twenty seven years and
took in every form of missionary
activity. Trudging on foot over long
distances he attended the scattered
Catholic flock, nursing the sick and
burying the dead in two epidemics
of yellow fever. He mastered the
Indian dialects and worked among
them in addition to being the con
stant adviser and helper of his flock
in Boston.
Rigid Puritan prejudice softened
under the influence of Father Chev
erus’ personality and chaYm and
when the Old Cathedral of Boston
was huilt, many wealthy Protestants
donated generously to the fund for
its erection. John Adams, second
President of the United States head
ed the list of Protestant contribu
tors.
On April 8, 1808, Father Cheverus
was named first Bishop of Boston
but was not consecrated because the
Papal Bulls did not arrive until
November 1, 1810. When it was
rumored that he was to be trans
ferred, the non-Catholics of Boston
made a formal protest saying: “We
hold him to be a blessing and a
treasure in our social community,
which we cannot part with, and
which, without injustice to any man,
we may- affirm, if withdrawn from
us, can never he replaced.”
Ill health finally made his trans
fer to a warmer climate imperative
and he was named Bishop of Mon-
tauban in France. In 1826 he was
elevated to the Archbishopric of
Bordeaux and in 1835 became a mem
ber of the Sacred College of Car
dinals. Charles X. made him a Peer
of France. He died at Bordeaux,
July 19 1836.
In Massachusetts the life of Cardi
nal Cheverus became a shining ex
ample of Catholicity. Concerning
him, Dr. Channing, the famous Uni
tarian divine, asked. “Who among
our religious teachers would solicit
a comparison between himself and
the devoted Cheverus? How can we
shut our hearts against this proof
of the Catholic religion to form
good and great men? It is time that
greater justice were done to this
ancient and widespread community.’
Charles Bullard Fairbanks writing
under the name of “Aguechcek” in
1859 says of Cardinal Cheverus:
“The memory of the firsh Bishop of
Boston, Dr. Cheverus, is (for most
Bostonians of my age) the most
precious association connected with
the Cathedral. He was endeared to
the people of this city by ten years
of unselfish exertion in the duties
of a missionary priest, before he
was elevated to the dignity of the
episcopate. His unwillingness to
receive the proffered mitre was as
'characteristic of his modest and
humble spirit, as the meekness with
which he bore his faculties when the
burden of that responsibility was
placed upon him. His ‘episcopal
palace’ as he used facetiously to term
his small and scantily furnished
dwelling, Which was contiguous to
the rear of the church, was the re
sort of all classes of the community.
His simplicity of manner and in
genuous affability won all hearts.
The needy and opulent, the learned
and illiterate, the prosperous mer
chant and the Indians in the un
known wilds of Maine, found in him
a father and a friend.’
“Boston valued him highly,” the
same writer continues, “but few of
her citizens thought as they saw
him bound on some errand of mercy
through her streets, that France en
vied them the possession of such a
prelate, that the peerage of the old
monarchy was thought to need his
virtuous presence, and that the'scar
let dignity of a Prince of the Church
was in reserve for that meek and
self sacrificing servant of the poor.
Had he been gifted with prophetic
vision, his humility would have had
much to suffer and his life would
have been made unhappy by the
thought of coming power and honor.”
When the Bishop finally was
transferred from Boston, we are
told, “Doctrinal differences were
forgotten. Three hundred carriages
and other vehicles escorted him
several miles on the road to New
York, where he was to embark.”
Thomas Aquinas, Saint-Scholar
Ignatius Smith in the Catholic World
The sixth century of the memora
ble day, July 18, 1323, on which John
XXII. enrolled Thomas Aquinas in
the catalogue of the Church’s saints
is celebrated this year. Already, un
der the leadership of His Holiness,
Pope Pius XI., the Church is prepar
ing to make fitting demonstrations
of grateful recognition to the mem
ory, the sanctity, and the scholarship
of the Angelic Doctor.
The centenary and its celebration
will serve one very splendid purpose
and round out a phase of Thomistic
study that has been neglected by
many even of the Saint’s most ard
ent admirers. The outstanding lead
ership of Aquinas in philosophy and
theology goes unchallenged and each
day brings to his writings an in
creasing popularity. But in the ad
miration extended to his scholastic
worl?, the personality of^j most won
derful man has been seriously over
looked. The details of a most fas
cinating and heroically sanctified life
have been passed by in the study of
his writings. The sixth centenary
of his canonization, therefore, pro
vides a very profitable opportunity
for a deeper research into the char
acter and personality of the “pillar
of truth,” who at the age of forty-
nine years passed out of this life on
March 7th, 1274, in the Benedictine
Abbey, at Fossa Nova.
Over three hundred miracles are
recorded through the veneration of
the Saint in the fifty years between.-,
his death and his canonization; and
ninety-six of them were authenticat
ed and accepted in the process of
canonization. 1 From the time that
the body lay in the abbey choir
awaiting burial, when the sub-prior,
John of Ferentino, had his sight
restored by pressing his eyes to
those of the Saint, up to the time
of canonization, and ever since, the
variety and the continuity of the
miracles is a most arresting fact.
These miraculous manifestations, not
unusual in the lives of the saints,
command a special position in the
life of St- Thomas, not because they
are extraordinarily distinctive, but
because ordinarily they are not con
nected with his work. His preem
inence as a scholar has blinded many
to an appreciation of the miraculous
features of his career, and it is more
than fitting on the sixth centenary of
his canonization to revive the sup
ernatural manifestations that made
him Saint as well as authoritative
scholar.
who was late for an appointment
with his bishop. When reprimand
ed he took out his timepiece and
said, “Bishop, I have always had
great faith in this watch.” The
Bishop replied that faith was of no
avail without good works.
In one of the most interesting
papers of the convention, Simon A.
Baldus, managing editor of “Exten
sion Magazine,” spoke of the re
sponsibility of Catholic periodicals
in encouraging young Catholic writ
ers. He argued that many promis
ing writers have turned with dis
gust from Catholic papers which ex
pected them to work for nothing,
and have been completely lost to
Catholic journalism. Whereas those
who were early encouraged by
Catholic editors, and who were re
munerated on a scale which, though
inadequate, was as much as the
paper could afford, still assist tbe
Catholic press with their pens,
though their work commands big
prices elsewhere. Mr. Baldus claim
ed that “Extension Magazine” se
cures the work of nationally known
writers and artists because, having
recognized their talent, it had done
its best to be fair to them when
they were struggling for recogni
tion.