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JfBJlH.f E®M
HEV. A. J. RYAN, Editor
AUGUSTA,Ga.,NOVEMBER 14, 1868
MASKS AND FACES.
Are you treated with kindness, with
courtesy, with attention ? It is the
Mask that treats you so. Are you over
whelmed with praises and flattery? It is
the Mask that praises and flatters you so.
Arc you gladdened with expressions of
friendship and proffers of kindly assist
ance ? It is the Mask which so expresses
and profiers. It is the Mask which
looks so comely, and makes the world—
the human world—so beautiful and so
seemingly good! Hut strip off the
Mask, expose the Face, and what do you
behold ? Hypocrisy, Deceit, False
hood !
A “dear, dear friend,” meets you, after
long weeks, months, or years, of separa
tion, and, with the fondest protestations
of friendship, invites you to partake of
the hospitalities of his home. His wife
and his children will be so gladdened
to meet you. And, with an earnest pres
sure of the hand, he is compelled to leave
you. That is the Mask which has address
ed you. Now, strip off the Mask. Go to
the hospitable mansion ; look into the
private apartments, and see the interview
of the wife and your “dear, dear, friend. 7 ’
There are hard words spoken of you.
“Your visit is so inopportune. They never
can be private. The invitation was merely
through politeness, and given in the
hope that it would be refused.” But you
cannot see the Faces. You only see the
Masks: and so tho Masks aro again put
on, and the dinner is so capital, and the
“dear, dear friends” so delighted to see
you, that you feel at peace with all the
world, and happy to know that tiue
friendship exists, at least, in one little spot
of the green Earth! Some day, the Mask
of Friendship will be torn away, and
the Face of Hypocrisy will be exposed to
view.
The poor mar# meets his wealthy friend.
Anything that the latter can do for him
will be cheerfully done. Command him
at any time. These are the words of the
Mask. The day of trial comes; the poor
mail is in need; he asks a trifling loan of
money, or his name upon some trivial
bond. The Mask still speaks its silvery,
soothing tones of friendship; but, just at
that particular moment, its funds are low’
and it cannot oblige the suffering friend.
Oli, wicked Mask! oh, cruel Deceit!
some day you will plead in vain for
Friendship and Assistance, when Friend
ship and Assistance will be your direst
need.
The Capitalist, with his countless thou
sands, wears, in his ill-gotten gains, the
Mask of Honesty and Charity. Behind
it, glares the Face of Fraud and Avarice.
The Mask and the Face will some day be
judged together.
The Churchman, with his sleek counte
nance, his drawling sentences, and his
long prayers, is only hiding his corruption
behind the Mask of Religion. Wo unto
him! lie may deceive the world with
his Mask, impenetrable to human eyes;
but, to the eye of Heaven, it can hide
nothing.
The gay Woman of Fashion, with her
silks and satins, her paints, and golden
tinsel, her gew*gaws and false attractions,
wears the Mask of Human Loveliness;
but, that torn away, and her hideous de
formity makes the world scorn or pity,
as it had loved and admired. Oh ! that
the pity of another world may make the
Face more beautiful thin the Mask w r as
here !
And, Lover and Loved wear Masks,
and “plight their troths” in soft and
honeyed words; and, when holy vows
bind them together in links of Love, then
the Masks fall away, and Faces, robbed
of Truth and Beauty, bring Misery and
Unhappiness, where all should been
Love and Joy.
Employer and Employed wear Masks
of Kindness and Mutual Interest; but,
sometimes, the Masks come oft*, and
Meanness and Dishonesty, are revealed.
The Doliticiau, with his honeyed phrases
of affection for “the dear people.” and his
“devotion to the best interests of his be
loved Country,” sometimes drops his
Mask, and exposes his venality and cor
ruption to his astonished constituency;
the People themselves wear the Mask of
Devotion to Principle, and Love for Con
stitutional Liberty, but the Face of De
ceit, of Fraud, of Unprincipled Action,
cannot always be hidden behind it, and
the day may come when the Giant of
Retribution and the Giant of Despair
may come and tear this Mask away, and
reveal to them their crime and their
punishment; and even the little, innocent
Children have their Masks of Goodness,
which cover Faces of little Falsehoods,
little Thefts, and little Deceptions.
And thus we find, in every class and
every phase of Society, the Mask always
prominent. The golden Mask, the brazen
Mask, the Mask of Friendship, the Mask
of Love, the Mask of Truth, the Mask of
Patriotism, the Mask of Charity, the Mask
of Innocence, They are so comely ; they
are so cheap; they set off Human Nature
so handsomely, and are so attractive.
They give grace to the appearance, and
ease to the movements, of the wearer;
and thus they are met with here, there,
and every where. You cannot avoid them,
if you would; and so you must be content
to watch them, and to laugh at the decep
tion which they attempt to pass upon
you, who know them. If you do not
know them, be cautious. Trust them
not. They are Hypocrisy and Deceit,
and happy is he who is not their victim.
But, some day, the Masks will melt and
fall away in the warmth of Heavenly
Justice; and, as they fade away, they
will be silent witnesses against the Hypoc
risy and Deceit of the Faces which they
covered here.
Strive, then, dear Reader, to cast off
your Mask in this day, so that your
Face will be radiant with joy, at the
reward which your Truth and Virtue will
receive in that day.
CAN THE SOUTH DO WITHOUT THE
NORTH?
“Let Congress repeal its Reconstruc
tion Acts, and put the South once more
in the condition it was at the time of Lee’s
surrender ! This, it can do, as Recon
struction, thus far, has been wholly a
legislative proceeding. Then it will
have the ground fallow for its proper
planting. And, if our husbandry has not
been enriched by experience, we miss our
calculation. 4Vhat will be needed will be
to begin anew, with confiscation of lands,
and the total disability of every Rebel—
no representation in Congress—Military
Government, and the strong band, for
twenty years, upon the South. 44'e can
do without the South. Let us see if she
can get aloDg without the North !”—Pos
ton Commonwealth , {Radical.)
You can do without the South, can
you ? Well, why don’t you? 44 r e, cer
tainly, did our best to get rid of you, but
you wouldn’t let us. You held on to us
with the grip of death. You sent your
butchers, your robbers, and your incen
diaries down here, to force us to stay
with you, to preserve a Union which was
hateful to us, and to compel us to stay
with a people we abhorred. You murder
ed our people ; you robbed our citizens ;
you destroyed our peace and prosperity ;
and now you have the impudence to say
that you can do without the South. Yes,
you vile hy-pocrite, you pretended that
the only object of your cruel and vindic
tive war was the preservation of the
Union. And when you had, by over
whelming numbers, and the practice ol
the worst sort of barbarianism, triumph
ed, you then declared that the South was
out of the Union, aud must get down on
her knees to ask admittance to that Union
again. 44 r e never should have done so.
44 r e should have stayed out, 4Ye should
MUSS® ©F Ell soirai.
have treated you with that scorn and con
tempt which you deserve; and, to-day,
you would have been on your knees,
begging us to go bock into your Union.
But there were weak-kneed men in the
South ; there were traitors in the South ;
and there were spoilsmen in the South ;
and the weak-kneed patriots, and the
traitors, and the spoilsmen combined to
gether ; and, with ignorant Negroes,
plunged this unhappy section into the
gulf of ruin and despair. What shall
we say of base deserters like these ? The
veil of Charity may hide them from the
gaze of men; but their consciences—if
consciences they have—must make them
feel the enormity of their crime, and the
weight of the evil they have done.
YYs, repeal your Reconstruction laws.
Put the strong hand of tyranny upon us.
Confiscate our lands. Disfranchise our
people. Do your worst, you evil spirits of
of the North. We have stood this, and we
can staud more. But, we tell you, to-day,
beware ! The day of Retribution will
come, at last. “I will remove far from
you the Northern Army,” is the promise
that will be kept; and, in that day, wo
unto you, men of the North, who dare
to stand up, to-day, and advocate injus
tice and tyranny !
Yes; v:e can do without the North.
Give us the chance, and you will see how
well we can get along without you, you
Nation of hypocrites and tyrants !
THE PAPAUNVITATION.
Ilis Holiness, Pius IX, in view of the
approaching Oecumenical Council, has
kindly invited the return to the True
Faith of all the erring brethren who have
been led away to Sectarianism by the
allurements which it holds out to i:s
votaries. IBs Apostolic Letter to all
those calling themselves Christians, yet,
who are outside the Church, we published
last week. It is written in the kindly
and paternal spirit which characterizes all
the official communications of His Holi
ness, and will, we hope, be received in a
like kiudly and filial spirit by those to
whom it is addressed.
4Vhy not seek the Truth, and be all of
one spirit and one mind? With search
ing and prayer, and an anxious desire for
the truth of Religion, on the part of all
who wish everlasting life, unity of Faith
must he attained. Shall we hope for it?
Shall we pray for it ? With such seek
ing prayer and desire, the good that will
result from this timely Letter will be
incalculable, and will mark an era in
Christianity that will even overshadow the
results of the labors of the grand Council
itself.
RETRACTION oFwRONG IS NOT
COWARDICE.
There are some very silly people who
imagine that it is cowardice to retract
anything wrong said or done by them.
Now, the truth is, that the person who
refuses to acknowledge an error, when
convinced of it, is the veriest coward in
the world. A brave man will not refuse
to acknowledge that he has committed an
error, when so convinced, and to make all
the reparation in his power.
44 r e are led to these remarks by the
fact that, some seventeen years ago, Hon.
S. S. Cox, now of New York, wrote a
work on Rome, in which lie very grossly
misrepresented the Catholic Church and
her Priesthood. In after years, he dis
covered his errors, and, in a manly and
honorable way, publicly retracted them.
These statements of his earlier years
having been reproduced in the late can
vass, Mr. Cox thus boldly and creditably
meets the charge. 44 r e honor him for it;
and all honorable minded and brave men
will respect him for his boldness and
candor:
[From the New York World, Oct. 29.]
CARD FROM MR. COX.
To the Editor of the World :
Sir —The Tribune will do me the
justice to correct the report of a speech
attributed to me at the Chicago Conven
tion, in 1864, referred to in an editorial
of October 28.
Another correction I desire made.
Before I ever voted or engaged in poli
tics, I wrote a volume of travels—a juve
nile performance of seventeen years ago.
In if, oti the information of one in
authority, I made grossly erroneous state
ments as to the ritual and personnel of
the Catholic Ecclesiastics at Rome. I
desire, without and before any compul
sion, to say that I corrected these unrelia
ble statements: Ist, by my paper at
Columbus, in 1854, when I fought the
Democratic fight against intolerance; 2d,
by anew edition of the volume, purchas
ing the stereotype plates to do it; and,
often since, refuting any implication of
intolerance, by my vote. I rever gave,
in or out of Congress, a bigoted vote—
standing always on the Constitution, for
perfect religious liberty. When erro
neous statements are made, he is a
coward who refuses to correct them. I
never lost a vote by reason of my prompt
refutation of even my own errors. I
exult in the performance of so pleasing
a duty. These statements referred to,
were altogether baseless, if not base. But
they were given as truth, to a young
stranger, on a transient travel in a strange
land. They were rectified, when I had
the knowledge of their true character.
S. S. Cox.
THE POLICY OF THE SOUTH.
Radicalism is triumphant ; Grant is
elected ; but what the fate of the South
will be, we know not. There is wisdom
and sober tounsel in the following words
from our esteemed cotemporary of the
Baltimore Catholic Mirror , however,
and we cheerfully give them a place in
our columns :
A SOUTHERN HERO.
It is too true that politicians have
turned the unfortunate condition of
Southern affairs to their own selfish ad
vantage, aud painfully and causelessly
aggravated the misery of the South. We
hope with all our hearts that the poli
tical agitators may soon find that their
“ occupation is gone,” and we firmly be
lieve that the best cure for Southern ills,
is for every Southern man to put his
shoulder bravely to the wheel, and, trust
ing to the natural advantages of the soil
and climate, throw dull care behind, and
build up, each man, his individual for
tunes. We are satisfied, as a general
thing, this can be surely accomplished,
unless the dominant party, in the face of
their new lease of political power, are
determined to convert the South into
another Poland, and crush out the last
vestige of Southern liberties.
If the Federal Union is to be perpetu
ated, sound policy, to say nothing of the
instincts of humanity, dictates a spirit of
conciliation, and the removal of all dis
turbing causes.
We learned a few days ago, from a
gentleman who had recently been in
New York, that the great millionaire
and advocate of General Grant’s election,
Mr. A. T. Stewart, denies that Grant
will be governed by Radical counsellors,
that he is no party man, and that his ad
ministration will prove it. Wo earnest
ly hope that the sequel may confirm this
encouraging news. But whatever may
be the course of politicians there are re
sources open to the South, which are
totally independent of the smiles or
frowns of politicians and office-holders.
Those resources are to be found in the
strong arms, willing hearts, and magni
ficent soil of the whole Southern coun
try. Let our young men from here to
the Rio Grande read the following beau
tiful incident in the career of a Louisiana
Boy, and learn the great secret of their
power from the lesson which it contains.
Dawson Beauchamp has a bright des
tiny before him, for he is one of those
rarely endowed mortals who understands
and acts upon the philosophy contained
in the couplet of an American poet,
“ From the majesty of Nature
Teach the majesty of Man.”
The poor South needs just such young
men at this trying day. They assuredly
will prove the best reconstructionists.
We copy the story from the New Orleans
Picayune , of the 24th ult :
What a Louisiana Boy Can Do. —
For the benefit of those who are com
plaining of hard times, and of all who
are waiting for times to get better, we
copy from the Clinton (East Feliciana)
Patriot the following :
Dawson Beauchamp is the son of Mr.
S. E. Beauchamp, of this Parish. He is
only fourteen years of age, and quite
small for his age. At the beginning of
this year, his father offered to send him
to school, but he declined, for the rea
son that his father was in debt, and
could not afford the expense.
lie proposed to his father to let him
have a piece of land, which he would cul
tivate on his own account, aud with what
he would make he would school himself
next year.
The following is the result :
100 bushels corn, sold $l5O 00
4 bales cotton, sold 3s; qo
100 bushels potatoes 100 00
Peas and broom corn ........ ‘>s 00
Total 8056 00
All made with his own labor an I with,
out help, and quite enough to board,
school and clothe him for two years !
All honor to the boy.
[From Philadelphia Catholic Universe.]
NEW VICARS GENERAL—WHAT VI
CARS ARE,
The Rt. Rev. Bishop Wood has jti.st
issued the following. We cheerfully
give it the benefit of our great circula
tion:
Episcopal Resit exce, Logan Sqttarf |
October 26, 1868. ’ 1
Having been deprived of the invalua
ble co-operation of' our former Vicar
General by his elevation to the See of
Scranton, we have this day appointed the
Rev. P. A. Nugent, Pastor of St. Patrick’s
Church, and the Rev. M. A Walsh,
Pastor of St. Michael’s, our Vicars
General, and have clothed them with all
the necessary powers. We recommend
them to the esteem and conijdence of the
Reverend Clergy.
James Frederic,
Bishop of Philadeipl lia.
This dissipates the conjecture that
Fathers Dunn and McAnany would be
the joint successors of Bishop O’Hara.
How Tar does the power of each of the
new Vicars run ? How much territory
has each of them ? Or, are they always
to act together ? A Priest, given to the
study of the Canons, who has just dropped
in, supplies the following notes on Vicars
General:
I. Vicars General are Priests empow
ered to generally exercise the ordinary
Episcopal jurisdiction in place of the
Bishops, and their acts, under this power,
are as valid as the acts of the Bishops
themselves.
11. The first idea of Vicars General
was given at the Fourth Lateran Council,
when Pope Innocent 111. instructed the
assembled Bishops to take Assistants
when they could not of themselves dis
charge the whole responsibility of the
Episcopate. This Council was held in
the thirteenth century. But it was not
until the time of Boniface VIII. that the
muniments of Vicars General were dis
tinctly laid down. This was in the be
ginning of the fourteenth century.
111. By common right , no Bishop is
obliged to have a Vicar General. But,
in case of non-residence, or inability, the
Pope can compel the appointment.
IV. There is no law as to the number
of Vicars General a Bishop may have,
and the custom on this matter is as vari
ous as Dioceses themselves are various.
In many cases, Bishops have made seve
ral Vicars General just to show that they
were not restricted to one.
V. When two or more Vicars Gene
ral are appointed, the Bishop prescribes
the jurisdiction of each of them.
4 1. The authority of Vicars General
is only ministerial; i. e., it is exercised,
not in the name of the Vicars themselves,
but entirely in the name of the Bishop
who appoints them—lor Bishops govern
Dioceses in their own names.
4 11. In one respect, the office of Vicars
General is ordinary , not delegated ; for
the power of Bishops who appoint them
Is ordinary. But Vicars-Generul exor
cise a general jurisdiction, and for this
it is necessary to commit to them a yew -
rality of places and matters; but a gene
rality morally taken.
VIII. Vicars General are not mere
delegates; for their acts are the same
as those of the Bishops, and no appeal is
made from them to Bishops. If they were
mere delegates, the case would be the
opposite.
IX. 4 icars General can act neither
in matters which are of order; i. <*., they
cannot confirm, or ordain; nor can they
interfere in things which belong to
Bishops as representatives of the Holy
See; nor can they mix themselves in
things which are, by special right, the
domain of Bishops; nor can they visit
Dioceses, or examine criminal cases,
without distinct authority from their
superiors.
X. In general, nothing prevent-
Bishops irom restricting the power < i
4 icars-General as much as ever they
like.
XL The jurisdiction of 4’icars General
ceases by revocation, renunciation, and
by the death and translation ul the
Bishops. The office, therefore, is wot
perpetual.
XII. Finally, it is almost always the
case that 4 icars General get Mitres be
fore they die.
4Ve are sure that all the Priests and
people in this Diocese are glad of the ap
pointments now made. Be the best har
mony always around them !