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4 BEY. A. J. RYAN, Editor AUGUSTA, GA„ OCTOBER 10, 1868. A FEW WORDS FOR FAULT-FINDERS. A few of our subscribers have become quite indignant with us on account ot a short article, which lately appeared in the Banner, in defence of our Church ; and two of the indignant did us the distin guished honor of writing us letters, in which they took us to task for what we wrote, and undertook to lecture us about bigotry, intolerance, etc., closing their singularly impertinent epistles with the awful threat that, for having offended them, they would refuse to patronise our journal. In the opinion of these gentle men, it is bigotry to defend our Church. In the opinion of these gentlemen, it is not bigotry to attack it. In our opinion, their indignation proves their intoler ance, and their letters are the best sam ples of bigotry. We look with supreme indifference upon such indignation. We never pen a line or write a word for the mere purpose of pleasing anybody ; nor do we ever publish aught intending to displease. When we have a duty to do and the right to do it, we are not in the habit of consulting anybody’s pleasure or displeasure. We would not forego our convictions, if, by so doing, we could please anybody; nor would we hesitate to speak them, or to write them, even though we would be visited with the displeasure of everybody. If the honest utterance of an unpalatable truth would deprive us of every single subscriber we have, still would we utter it. We cannot bear policy—when policy means, as it frequently does, a renuncia tion of principle ; we never • could en dure human respect; we despise cowards; and cowards we would be, if alraid to de fend what we know to be truth, and what, as such, we love with the whole strength of our being. W<* ask no man’s permission to defend our country; it is our right and our duty; we crave no man’s indulgence when we defend our Religion; it is our right and our duty. No matter who likes it, or dislikes it; censured or flattered, wc care not; our thoughts are our own; our words are our own ; we hold them by the sufferance of no man, or sect, and in the use of them we accept no one's dictation. Morally, os well as pecuniarily, the Banner of the South must be taken, if taken at all, upon our terms. We allow none of our patrons to make terms for us, and for all of them together, we wyuld not modify our terms —the first of which is our promise to defend our Church and coumry against all who at tack either. This promise we have kept, and intend to keep, come pleasure or dis pleasure. So we say to those few sub scribers who waxed so wroth, just be cause wc wrote a few words in defence of our grand old Church ; and we say especially to those two letter writers who presumed to dictate to us, that we will be very happy to do without their pa tronage, and the sooner they tell us to cross their distinguished names from our list of subscribers, the better pleased shall we be. And, as wc are on the point, we have a few more words of a general character to say. It is fashionable to attack the Ca tholic Church—the more violently the better. It helps to keep Protestauism alive. We know whereof wc speak, when we assert that the act of Faith of many a Protestant, when analyzed, runs thus: “I believe in my own interpretation of the Bible, and I hate the Roman Catholic Church.” What is that but bigotry ? what flows from such a narrow bigotry, but intolerance ? “Let them who live in glass houses beware of throwing stones.” But when a Catholic attempts to vindi cate his Religion, and to defend the Church which is the guardian of his Re ligion, be is straightway stigmatized as a bigot—an intolerant, etc. Is this honest ? Is it fair play ? Is it really a supreme act of Religion to at tack Catholicity ? Is it such a fearful crime to defend it? And the very men who do attack us ; what know they of our Church ? Who taught them our principles ? In what books have they read our history ? Have they not derived all the knowledge they have of us from those who were and are our enemies ? Is not such knowledge, from such a source, suspicious ? Will the lips of an enemy speak truth ? And, when an enemy attacks, have we not the right to defend ? And more—have we not the right, if we wish to exercise it— to attack in return ; for a counter attack is the best mode of defence ? In the fu ture, therefore, as in the past, Religion and Country form our motto; and we shall stand, to the last, among their de fenders. Letters from our Travelling Correspondent. NO. I. A. & G. R R, Sept. 29, 1868. Dear Banner: According to promise, I will date my first letter from my first stopping place, and, if it is not a merry one, you must forgive me this time, and I hope nothing so mournful will fill my mind at my next resting place. I have just witnessed a most mournful sight. Let me tell you how it was : This morning, just as the rosy clouds that herald the rising sun. a Negro man came up to the house and asked the mistress to send some break fast to a man who was resting at one of the Negro houses. The breakfast was sent, and upon further enquiry, we learned that the man, (who called himself Wm. A. Graham, and said he was from Nor folk, Va.,) was a gentleman in language and appearance, but, that even while speaking pleasantly and intelligently, he would suddenly pause, and then com mence an unmeaning harangue. They told us he was a handsome man, but, alas! his beauty and intelligence were ever shadowed by a dark cloud. What great grief may have made him so, of course we can never know; but he was undoubt edly a maniac. We left the house to go to him, but, when we reached the group of Negro houses, he was gone. About half an hour afterwards, the passenger train came rushing by. Suddenly the shrill whistle of the engine burst on my ear. On brakes!—alas, too late! the mangled body of the poor unfortunate lies helplessly beneath the iron wheels. The cars passed on ; and then the lit tle pole-car took up the bruised form of the poor fellow, and laid it tenderly upon their car. He was taken to the Railroad station and a Doctor telegraphed foi' ; a special train brought the physician to the sufferer’s side. Rut all m vain. The limb was amputated, and the man died. The physician returned to the city, and the unknown was left to the care, (tender or not, as it might happen,) of the sec tion overseer, and his hands. Let it be recorded for the honor of humanity, and let his name be known wherever this awful accident may be spoken of, never was corpse of dearly loved brother more tenderly cared for, than was the body of this poor man, by Mr. Summer, the overseer. The coffin was made, and, when, after ten o’clock at night, the body was consigned to its narrow house, Mr. Summer brought it to the place where I am now, for burial. The pole-car came slowly down the road, the bright torch, held by one of the Ne groes, lighting its way. The grave was dug beneath an oak tree, and the coffin lowered gently to its resting place. The mistress of the house stood at the grave, and I saw her lips move, as, with upturn ed eyes, she extended her right hand, and traced the sign of salvation over the lonely grave. Let us hope that the breathed prayer for the rest of the de parted soul, was caught up by the attend ant angels, and wafted to the throne of the Most High. Mr. Summer, one or two other white meu, and some dozen negroes, stood rev erently around the open grave, and I heard Mr. Summer say : “Throw the dirt in gently, boys until you get lid cov ered.” All honor to his tender, manly heart, with its warm well-spring of love and sympathy, ever gushing forth, even sprinkling the grave of the stranger with its holy drops. I could wish that no winter of sorrow might ever come to him, but that it might be Summer—all to him. The chilly moon, shining down upon the new made grave; the rising wind sighing mournfully among the tall pines; and the dying light of the pine torches made a most solemn a-nd impressive scene. Do not wonder, now, that I have told you this sorrowful tale, that I am sad. Yours truly, dear Banner, R. F. QjHVIr. Pendleton, in one of his re cent powerful, and convincing speeches, presented the following picture of Radi cal rule, and its consequences upon the people and their interests. He said: “ The Radicals have not only perverted our Government, but have bankrupted the country. During these three years of peace, we have collected fifteen hun dred and ninety-four millions of dollars. One hundred and twenty-four millions of this have been paid ou account of the debt. What has become of the rest? Fourteen hundred and x twenty millions vanished, who knows where, in three years ? It has gone, most of it, to the “Freedmans Bureau,” and to the costly military governments so needlessly kept up in ten States. It has gone to support the “ constitutional amendments” of Congress, the scheme of negro suffrage, and the insatiable carpet-baggers! Fif teen hundred and ninety-four millio/i dollars! That is more than one-tenth of all the property in the country—money, crops, houses, railroads, farms, tools, and everything else! Great Britain, during these same three years, spent one-thirtieth, and France, one-fortieth of her resources If you are assessed on all of it, it amounts to $34.45 a head, for every one of us. Our debt under Radical rule exceeds in its burthen that of any other country.” New Paper. —lt gives us great pleasure to place upon our exchange list the “Ban ner of the South,” published at Au gusta, Georgia, by L. T. Blome & Cos., and edited by Rev. A. J. Ryan, and de voted to the cause of the South and the Catholic Religion. All who have read the touching lines of Father Ryan’s “Con quered Banner,” will readily appreciate the literary ability of that distinguished gentleman, and will, upon examining his paper, agree with us, that the Banner is entitled to rank with the best literary journals of the day. Advocating the cause of the Catholic Church, it is free from bigotry or unjust criticism ; defend ing a Lost Cause, it is able and dignified, and free from prejudice ; cultivating and teaching a high standard of morals, and a refined and enlightened taste for litera ture, it is eminently qualified to fill the mission of a family newspaper of the highest and best order; and, as such, we cheerfully recommend it to the public, and offer our prayers to a just and all wise God in behalf of noble Father Ryan, in his new mission of usefulness. —Los Angeles {Cal.) News. Memoir of Jenny White del Bal.— The Home Journal , the leading fashion able paper of New York, pays the follow ing graceful tribute to the memory of the subject of this interesting memoir: “The memory of Jenny C. White del Bal receives a fitting tribute in a volume of ‘Memoirs and Letters,’ prepared by her mother, Rhoda E. White, and published by Patrick Donahoe, in Boston. The noble woman, who is the subject of the biography, will be remembered by many as a bright ornament of the higher circles of New York society. She was the daughter of Judge Edward AYhite, of the Superior Court of this city, and married a gentleman of high social rank and worth, Bernardino del Bal, of Santiago, South America. The letters, which make up a considerable portion of the present volume, exhibit, in a very in teresting light, the rare beauty and ex cellence of Madame del Bal’s character, and are, besides, of peculiar value and attractiveness, as pictures of South American life. Going among the people of that country as one of their number, naturalized, as it were, by the most sacred of ties, she judged them from her own standpoint, enjoying facilities for knowing them intimately, which a traveller could not have. During the prevalence of a fearful epidemic in Santiago, she fell a martyr to her heroic endeavors to alle viate the sufferings and misfortunes of others. Her conduct during the wars which afflicted her adopted country, had won for her the title of Florence Nightin gale of South America, and, at her death, the whole community was moved to the most intense grief. She died still young, but rarely is a life so nobly crowned with beauty and accomplish ment.” Sent free, by mail, to every part of the country, on the payment of $2.50. FATHER SECCHI. British Savans expected to make the acquaintance of the illustrious Roman Astronomer, Father Secehi, at the meet ing of the British Association at Nor wich, where, it appears, the Philosophers were treated scurvily. Father Secchi was unable to leave Rome, but a paper by him which elicited great interest, was read in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences section. It was “on some meleorological re sults obtained at Rome, and on the rela tion between meteorological and magneti cal phenomena.'’ It sets out with the principle that meteorology is a local as well as a general science, and, on a com parison of what is going on in different countries, we tied relations of opposition and similarity, Cases of opposition are very rare, but this year, while the sum mer was hot and dry in the higher lati tudes of Europe, it was unusually rainy and stormy in Rome. Father Secchi attributes these opposite results to the same origin, that it is to a different limit which has been reached by the mrial currents. He thought the question wor thy of investigation, whether certain storms, which are said to be periodical, at the same time of the year, are really so, and, as these storms are generally ac companied with a great variation of temperature, this was taken as a base of discussion. The temperature observa tions made at Rome, for forty years, were reduced, and tables extracted to give the partial results for each four years. We cannot enter into the learned Father’s theoiy of curves, which philosophers will appreciate. The barometer at Nairn, in Scotland, is the best indication of the fu ture state of the weather, in Rome, for two days after. This station is always kept as a most interesting land-mark for a storm nearing Rome. The time em ployed in the voyage is about two days, of which a great deal is spent in travers ing the Alps, thus diminishing the veloci ty of the storm, and often dividing a large into a number of partial storms. An indication of approaching storms was also ob tamed through magnetical in struments. After much labor, Father Secchi came to the conclusion that every great storm, more or less, affected the magnetical instruments, and that the mag netical disturbances anticipated in Rome the arrival of the storm commonly by one day. This conclusion was not ac cepted in England, because no similar correspondence was found to take place there. France, on the other hand, has ac cepted and verified Father Seeciii’s theory. His general conclusions are—l. That, at certain periods of the year, a great change of temperature is constantly taking place. These changes are strictly periodical and {sensible through a large part of Europe, and the date of some of them may be fixed within tolerable lim its. 2. There exists a connection be tween meteorological changes in the weather and those of the magnetical force of the earth, due to electrical cur rents, which are set in motion during the storms which effect magnetic needles. 3. Observation proves that storms are propagated direct from the British Islands to Italy, so that from the indica tions transmitted hence, the Italians can foresee a storm two days before it reaches them, by a combination of the barometer and telegraphic indications. This is found so useful to Italian sailors, that a regular service has been instituted be tween Rome and Givita Vecchia, for giv ing signals and notices to sailors. The paper excited very great interest, which would be enhanced if Father Secchi him self were the reader.— Dublin Freeman. THE DROWNED. SOME SUGGESTIONS THAT MAY BE USEFUL. A correspondent of the Alta Cali fornia, alluding to paragraphs which appear from time to time, of accidental drowning, states : It is proven by anatomical experi ments that the weiglit of the human body is about equal to the same bulk of salt, or sea water, or, in other words the amount of water displaced by the human body when submerged is very nearly equal in weight to the body so displac ing it. A further proof of this, is the fact that after a certain length of time, in cases of drowning, the body rises to the surface, and this, often when encumbered with boots, clothing, or other matter heavier than water. In cases of persons who cannot swim, falling overboard en cumbered with clothing, if they will not attempt to struggle to keep more than mouth out of water, at the same time kicking downward with their feet, and paddling with their hands under water, they can sustain themselves for a considerable length of time. Most persons who fali overboard lose all presence of mind, and either draw their hands up, or dash them wildly through the air and water. The moment the weight of the arms is added to the weight of the head above the water, the inevi. table consequence is to submerge the body. A few struggles of this character closes the scene. The same struggle with the arms and feet under the water will certainly sustain the mouth above the water, and could the senses control the impulse to throw the arms up, and keep them down, there would be less re cording of “accidental drowning.” Our correspondent cites the case of a man who could not swim, falling overhead from a sailing ship at sea, whose life was saved by a surgeon on board, crying out to the struggling man in authoritative tones, to keep his hands uuder water. Accustomed to obeying orders, his hands went under water; but, as the ship re ceded, the impulse to throw up his hands overcame him, and down he went. Seizing the speaking trumpet, the sur geon ordered him as he rose to the surface in his struggle, to down with his hands. In the meantime, the sails were “hove back,” a boat lowered, and the man reached in time to save him. Obeying orders was his safety. Our correspond ent is correct in theory, and the practice would almost invariably result as in the case cited, if the shock on falling into the water did not throw the straggler in mortal terror, and involuntarily cause the arms to be raised above the water. The suggestion is worth stowing away in one corner of the memory. A Noble Deed.—The Sisters of Mercy to the Rescue —Voluntary Nurses. —One of the noblest deeds which it has been the duty and pleasure of a Journalist to record, has just come to our knowledge, A day or two ago, the Superioress of the Order of Sisters of Mercy, having charge of St. Mary’s Hospital, sent to Dr. R. Beverly 7 Cole, Chairman of the Hospital Committee, in the Board of Supervisors, a letter, every word of which breathes a charity as noble as is anywhere recorded in history; a Christianity as self-sacrificing, as it is pure and enduring. The substance of the letter was, that the Sisters of Mer cy deemed it their duty to aid suffering humanity wherever found, and no matter with what disease afflicted. That not only was it a duty, but a Heavenly mis sion, which they had to perform. They knew that, with all the resources of this great city applied to the object, the poor sufferers in the Smallpox Hospitals could not receive that attention from hired uurses which could be bestowed by the hand of Charity. They, therefore, aske! that some of their Sisterhood might be substituted for the nurses at present em ployed in the Smallpox Hospitals. It was added that none knew better than Dr. Cole, that the requirements and wants of the Sisters of Mercy were simple and few, as -he, the Dr., had been some years a visiting Physician of St. Mary > Hospital, where their chief labor has been done. One small room would suf fice the Sisters, and in all else they would supply themselves. Dr. Cole did a : hesitate a moment, but sent a reply ac cepting the services of the Sisters. Already' these faithful followers <1 the “ man of many sorrows and acquaint cd with grief” have gone out to the Smallpox Hospital “A,” near the ocean beach, and taking charge, their noble Superioress is at their head, per sonly aiding to heal the sick, and sooth the afflicted. With them, they toot a wagon load of linen bandages, and elotn, to dress the poor sufferers as they need. One of the hired nurses ha-' already been discharged, and as soon g the Sisters have become fully acquainted with the formula of the pest house, th. balance of the nurses under employing will follow, save such as are nccessai. for that work and nursing which woim cannot do. The offer extends to bote Hospitals, and, ere long, the Sisters Mercy will bring their soothing influence in to all the Smallpox Hospitals ot to city. San Francisco, for this noble dei-> owes the fraternity which these Si" represent a debt of gratitude which i “ never be paid. In the face ot sum actions it may seem improper to upon the pecuniary saving which v! - accrue to the city treasury, but at e * it is not improper to state that now, need be no fear of a repetition ol a:.<v ‘ outrages at the pest houses: no lot will the stimulants furnished to p* tieljl be swallowed by the unfeeling nurse no longer will the sick and dying 511 yg and expire, alone and unattended, - u • dark hours of night. God blofo g- Sisters of Mercy!— San Francisco J/ patch. Dangerous. —“Look a heah, T_ e! g said a knowing darkey, “don t Yan g - on de rail-road.” “Why, Joe ! ‘ - it de cars see dat rnouf ot yourn dey will tink it am de depot, and run i into it.”