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About The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870 | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1869)
throat, or the cold application that check* the angry fever of the throbbing tem ples, end who remembers the pale face [hat looked down upon him with so much of kindly sympathy, and the gen tle care that administered to his relief an d to his comfort, can ever Lear the words Sister of Charitiy without having the best feelings of his heart stirred up ? il iw wondrous the power that can lead a woman to surrender ali that the world can promise to a woman, the kindly af fection, perhaps, of some good man, the inexplicable delights of maternal love, all the little comforts of cosy domestic life, the pleasures of frequent social in tercourse with friends and acquaintances, the almost entire freedom of action, and from the restraints imposed by the dis cipline of a religious order, the theatres and concerts, the balls and parties, the fashionable dress and the promenade, the pic-nics and the summer excursions, and all the thousand and one little expedients by which man tries to gather sunshine around his pathway through life ! And what do they 7 receive from the world in return for all they surrender to it ? They are allowed to take charge of orphans, to bring them up, to train them and edu cate -hem religiously as well as intel lectually, to make and mend their dresses and keep them in constant repair, to wash them and keep them clean, and watch over them day and night, and to regulate and direct their habits of thinking, so that they may grow up good, well-be haved, virtuous, useful women through life. And few know how hard the task they have to perform, when some of those poor children, as no doubt sometimes happens, inherit the evil propensities or unruly tempers from their unhappy parents. Others are placed in charge of hospitals, where devotion to the sick be comes the main point of duty with them. The sick roam is not so pleasant to look at a* a lacty’s boudoir, nor half so fra grant, yet, there the good sister makes her home, and all that cleanliness and neatness can do to make it agreeable to her patient she does. There with un wearied patience she listens to the groans of the suffering;, the heavy sighs of those in pain, and has to bear with the way ward fretfulness of the sick at heart, or the wild raving’s of the delirious; having ever a look of sympathy for those in pain, a quiet good-natured reply, and a gentle smile and a soothing answer for the delirious. Deeply interested in all the patients, she cheerfully encourages her convalescent, hangs with anxious care over the doubtful, and with sad heart tries to whisper hope to the dying. This is the life she leads, and when death comes to her, the lessons of her daily life and the faith in which she has worked enable her to meet it calmly and hopeful ly, for. like the wise virgins, she keeps her lamps trimmed and full of oil for the hour when He cometh. There is no thing in all this world that can repay the Sister for what she has to sacrifice to it. He alone for whom the sacrifice was made can do it, and He will, for has He not said: "And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name’s sake, shall receive an hun dred fold, and shall possess life everlast ing” From what I have written thus far, you will, no doubt, come to the conclu sion that we are not altogether unac quainted with the Sister of Charity in .Mobile. Neither are we. Our city and people have learned to know them and appreciate them. They are indebted to their care and experience for the skilful management of several institutions es tablished by them or entrusted to their charge. I will endeavor to give you such information as will enable you to fonn some idea of how useful they have made themselves to the good people of our city. THE ST. MARY S ORPHAN ASYLUM. 1841, the daughters of Charity of ot. \ incent de Paul, took charge of the St. Mary’s Asylum, of Mobile. At first they had charge of both male and female orphans, but as the number constantly increased, and the children became older, the boys separated from the girls, were rtuea in charge to the good Brothers of the Order of mercy, who, since then have had charge of the Male Orphan Asylum, ocateu in a dffierent part of the city, those orphans have their support chiefly by the liberality of our good citizens of ail denominations, Jew and Gentile, and \ wll ] here venture to say that the peo ple of Mobile, in active charity, and gen erous liberality to the orphans, are not surpassed by those of any other city in the United States. The Sisters, howev er, do not limit themselves altogether to the care of the orphans. They have three schools in operation; a select school for girls and young ladies equal, in a litera ry point of view, to any in the city, in some important considerations thi nner,or; another for the Creole girls, and also a free school. By the first two they are enabled to contribute something to the support of the Asylum. Besides, a great deal ot needle-work is done by the largest girls among the orphans, under the instruction and direction of the Sis ters, which, in the course of the year adds something to their means of living. But, notwithstanding the generous liber ality of our citizens, the effort of the Sisters by teahing and needle-work, and their great experience and prudence in management, with a strict adherence to the most rigid economy, an economy lim ited almost to absolute necessity, they can hardly manage at present, to use an old saying, to make two ends meet at the the end ot the year. Since the war the times have become so altered, business is dull and money not so plentiful as it used to be in the oldeu time, and too many, who were liberal then, have not the means to be so now; while, unfortunate ly for the Sisters, the same war that di minished and almost dried up their re sources, increased the number of the or phans. At present there are one hun dred female orphans in St. Mary’s Asy lum. The number of Sisters is twelve, of' whom Sister Mary Samuel is the pre siding manager. The number of pupils in their schools, independent of the orphans, is over two hundred. THE CITY HOSPITAL. In 1852, the charge of the City Hos* pital having been offered by the city au thorities of Mobile to the Sisters of Charity, a number of them came from the Mother House at, Emmettsburg, for that purpose. In 1853 the yellow fever became an epidemic in our city, and its ravages were terrible. During the height of the sickness the number of in terments in the city, I think, reached about forty a day, nearly all of which were the result of fever. Hard was the work of the Sisters during that dreary time. Night and day they were on their feet, with scarce time to enjoy the sleep or snatch the food that nature required. Well do I remember a visit I paid the hospital during that period, and the deep sense of awe with which I gazed at the row ot cots that filled the wards on either side, while the good Sisters were moving with silent rapidity along the lines of cots, or backwards and forwards through them, seeing and administering to the various wants of the sick and the dying. In 1854, the Know Nothings took possession of the city, and the Sisters were deprived of their charge of the City Hospital. Time and experience, however, proved the impolicy as well as the illiberalitv „f their dismissal. The expenses of the hospital under the man agement that succeeded theirs were found to be much greater than they had been under the careful and economical management of the Sisters, while there were rumors of carelessness and a want of attention almost criminal' In 1800 the Sisters were again invited to take charge of the hospitals, and Sister Ga briella, who some six years before had been so ungraciously dismissed, resumed her old place with her attending Sisters to the great satisfaction of a large ma jority of our citizens, and particularly of those whom necessity compels to visit it at times. Since then they have not been disturbed in their charge, and I have reason to believe that the care and atten tion, skill and experience of the good Sisters, as well as their economical man agement, are fully appreciated by the city authorities, as they are by the peo ple in general. The number of Sisters in charge is ten, and the number of pa tients averages from 160 to 200, for since emancipation, the unfortunate negroes, having no longer masters to take care of them in sickness, go to the City Hospital in considerable numbers. The hospital, at present, is underging heavy repairs, which, as in the case of most public build ings, from being long neglected have be come a necessity. THE PROVIDENCE INFIRMARY. The Providence Infirmary is situated on Anthony street, between Jefierson and Broad and opposite to the City Hos pital. When the Sisters were driven from the latter by the storm of bigotry and intolerance that swept over the country in 1854 55, the Rev. Jas. McGara han, then a Priest in this city, a man who to administrative and financial abili ties seldom surpassed, united an energy and capacity for active labor that seemed utterly incompatible with the weak and sickly frame which be possessed, and who will long be remembered in the city of Mobile by the people who loved and respected him while he lived, deter mined that the Sisters should have a place of their own, where they could live without interruption, in the practice of that duty to which they had devoted their lives, attendance on the sick, and where they could always have a home. '' ith that view he had bought a fine lot &j W 4 lifla in the outer portion of town, but objec- j tions being made on sanitary grounds to the building' of an hospital there, he had to exchange it for the lot where the infir mary now stands, where no such objec tions could be made. He there built a good, substantial brick house, two stories high, whmh was well put up, as he super intended, I might almost say, the laying of every brick himself, for his heart was in the work. A space was left in front for shade trees and shrubbery, to make the rooms more secluded from the street, while to the rear the whole lot was laid out as a vegetable and fruit, garden, with flowers, rose bushes, ornamental shrub bery and shade trees nearer the house. The poultry yard and necessary out houses are on the west side of the square, concealed by the shrubbery, and out of the sight and the hearing of the patients. The play of the sunlight among the dark leaved trees above and the shrubbery be low would be pleasant to the eye in most cases of sickness, but to the convalescent, or those not seriously ill it must be par ticularly agreeable. There are five Sis ters in the Providence Infirmary, of whom Sister Leonora is the presiding manager of the institution. Since its first erection the industry and economy of the Sisters have enabled them to en large the building to twice the original size. They have now thirty rooms for the accommodation of persons suffering from sickness or casualties, slight or se rious, and two wards, three when neces sary, for those who cannot afford to oc cupy separate rooms, or for those who cannot pay at all. The rooms are in every sense of the word what I call nice rooms. They are nicely furnished, the beds are comfortable, mosquito bars good, the water fresh in the water pit cher, and cleanliness everywhere. The house is quiet and still, no where else is there any attendance like theirs, one lias scarcely time to form a wish belore it is anticipated, and on a warm day the little ice pitcher comes in before one can make up his mind to ask for it; and then the nice dishes and the little delicacies of the season with which they try to tempt the palate and revive the appetite of the weak, sick man. The charge for those rooms varies from three to five dollars a day; but this in cludes everything, doctor’s visits, medi cine; Ac., Ac. In fact there is no extra charge whatever. If a patient has a spe cial preference for any physician other than the one that regularly attends the Infirmary, and desires his attendance, of course he will be sent for, but then that will be a matter between the patient and his doctor, with which the institution has nothing to do except to makeup the prescriptions and follow the instructions. The Sisters, however, are well experi enced and in the treatment of diseases, and are seldom, and never long, mistaken in the skill of the doctor whom they se lect to attend their house. Now', in this city of Mobile, there is a great number of young men, and men who are* no longer young, too, em ployed iD stores, commission houses and all the various branches of business, who are single men, and live in rooms apart by themselves, or in company with others. They board at hotels, or at boarding houses public or private and, when sick, have to send for a doctor, get their medicines from a drug store, and what they eat and drink from their boarding house. What they get from the latter is brought at mealtimes; is a part of the food prepared for people in full health, and is seldom calculated to suit the appetite or the stomach of a sick man, while they are subject to the various street noises which render the business part of the city a nuisance to a sick man. If such men, as soon as they feel uiiwell, would go to the Infirmary for three or four, or, if necessary, eight or ten days, they would find in the quiet com fort of the house, and the attentive nursing of the Sisters, a more speedy recovery, a far more agreeable time, and at less cost in the end. It is an admira ble institution, and, if fully patronized, would save many an hour of pain; and prove a great blessing to those in our community who have neither mother, nor wife, nor sister, nor, properly speaking, no home in the city. THE SISTERS’ ACADEMY —CORNER OF CHARLESTON AND FRANKLIN STREETS*. The Southern part of our city has in creased very considerably during the last ten years in the number of houses and resident families. To meet the growing wants of education in that part of the city the Sisters, a few years since, estab lished a female academy there, which was much desired, and which has proved a complete success. That the families in that part of the city fully appreciate the advantages thus afforded them is evi dent from the fact that the Sisters’ Academy numbers one liunred and seventy pupils. Thus a great number of younc* «irls OJ o o and young ladies, whose distance from j the more central part of the city hitherto presented great difficulties in the way of opportunities for education, have now presented to them all the advantages of a first class education, with an excellent opportunity of cultivating that nice sense of propriety, delicacy and modesty, and that lady-like deportment of manner so becoming in a young woman, and which none are better qualified to incul cate than those good sisters. The num ber of Sisters in charge of the academy is six, of whom Sister Elizabeth is the presiding manager. In reference to the subject of hospi tals, it has often occurred to me, if the internal management of all the hospitals established by General Government and supported by its appropriations, whether connected with the army or navy, was placed under the immediate charge and direction of the Sisters of Charity, what a great, advantage it would be to the country at large. What a blessing it would be to many of our wild sea-rovers and rough drillers in tents in their hours of sickness to be subject 4o the gen tle ministration of those good Sisters! What a happy effect it would have in cul tivating kindliness of feeling, and soften ing down their rough manners, while the economy in the expenditure which would be certain to follow would be no small advantage to our tax-paying people. I wish our rulers had the wisdom to see the advantage, and to test it by a fair experi ment. J. T. W. . ROME. \\ hen a Catholic, who has enjoyed the advantage of a good education, and is accustomed to habits of reflection, ar rives for the first time in Rome, he is usually overwhelmed by the multitude of objects offered to his attention, and requires time to select, arrange, and an al \ze them. The light is too vivid, the colors are too varied, the perfume is too strong. Two thousand years, richly laden with historic events, crowd his memory; the united glories of the past and the present kindle his imagination; j the sublime mysteries of religion, mar- j veilouslv localized, exercise his faith y long galleries, thronged with the rarest productions of art, court his gaze; and a Presence, peculiar to the spot, which he leels b’&t cannot yet define, completes his pleasing bewilderment io heart and brain. By degrees the tumult of thought subsides,, and order begins to rise out of chaotic beauty. The traveller is resolved to render his sensations precise, and he asks himself emphatically, “ Whence springs the resistless charmi of Rome l Wherein, does the true glory 7 of Rome consist l W hat is this nameless Presence that mantles all things with divinity ? Where does the Shekinah reside ?” Then,, more and more clearly, the voice of Rome herself is heard in reply : “This is the home of the Vicar of Christ, the home of the Fisherman, the seat of that long line of Pontiffs who, like a chain of gold, bind our erring globe to Emmanuel’s footstool. This garden is fertilized by the blood of Peter and Paul, and of thirty Popes : hence all its amazing pro duce; hence its exquisite fragrance and perennial bloom. These are the head quarters of the Commander-in-Chief of tire Church militant ; and Christ himself is present here in the person of His vice roy, promulgating a law above all human laws, inflexible, uniform, merciful, and strict. He diffuses this grateful per fume ; He colors every object with rain bow tints ; He sheds this dazzling light which causes Rome to shine like a gem with a myriad fascets. The Lord loveth the gates of Rome more than of old He loved the gates of Zion ; he lives in the solemn utterances of His High Priest, and speaks of him as of old He spoke by the Urini aud Thumrim that sparkled on Aaron’s breast. Here He so multi plies sacraments, tint all you see becomes sacramental; and here you find, in the Father of the faithful, the most perfect representation of your lucarnate God, and the most certain pledge of His re surrection.” If the peculiar presence of Christ thus hallows Christian Rome, it cannot be matter of surprise that she also should be an enigma to the world, and have a two fold character ; that she should be one thing to the eye and another to the mind; one thing to Gibbon and Goethe, and another thing altogether to Chateaubriand and Sehlegel ; that she should have her seasons of gloom aud jubilee, of perse cution and triumph; should require in each to be interpreted by faith; and that every page of her history should share in this double aspect. Thus Rome re sembles Christ; and in this resemblance lies her glory and her strength. Other glories she has which do not directly | come from Him. She had them of old,! belore He came : the inroad of barbaric I hordes, age after age, could not trample j them out, and they endure abundantly ! to this day. These the world uuder- stands; these she extols with ceaseless praises, and sends her children from every clime in troops to do homage at their ancient shrines. The worldling, enamored of these, exclaims : “ 0, Rome ! my country ! city of the soul ! The orphans of the heart must turn to thee, lone mother of dead empires. ’ But the orphan who turns to her as Byron did, remains an orphan. Rome is no mother to him, and he finds r.o father in the Patriarch who rules there. To the devout Catholic, she is the mother of arts and sciences as truly as the Pope is the father of the Christian family. She is, and has been for eighteen hundred years, the centre of true civilization, be cause she is the central depository of the Faith. From her, as from a fountain, the streams of salvation have flowed through all lands, and, having the pro mise both of this life and that which is to come, they have indirectly produced a large amount of material well-being, and an infinity of artistic and scientific results. Rome civilizes as Christ civil ized, by sowing the seeds of civilization. She does not aim directly at material well-being; she does not any more than He teach astronomy or dynamics ; she propounds no system of induction; she invents neither printing press, steam en gines, nor telegraphs ; but she so raises man above the brute, curbs his passions, improves his understanding, instils into him principles of duty, and a sense of re sponsibility, so hallows his ambition and kindles his desire for the good of his kind and the progress of humanity, that, under her influence, he acquires insensi bly an aptitude even for the successful pursuit of physical science, such as no other teacher could impart He looks abroad into the spacious field of nature, and finds in every star and in every drop of dew an unfathomable depth of creative design. His heart quickens the energies of his brain, and he says, smiling, “ My Father made them all; He made them that I may, to the best oi my feeble powers, investigate and classify them, and that He may be glorified in science | as in religion.” He rises to higher studies than those of physical science; he looks within, and analyzes his complex nature. He sees that human minds in the aggregate are capable of indefinite development as time goes on, and he concludes that, as the works of nature can be investigated to the glory of the Creator, so may the mind of ' man he developed to the glory of its Re deemer—be trained in philosophy, and exercised also in the application of sci ence to the want3 and usages of social life. Thus, to his apprehension, the links are clear which connect Rome—the centre of civilization- —with matters which l appear at first sight absolutely distinct from religion, with sewing machines and electric cables, with Huyghens’ undula tory theory of light, and Guthrie’s re searches into the relative sizes of drops ■and of bubbles. | Finally, if you would find the inex haustible mine of that salt which keeps the whole world from corruption, you must seek it in the hill where Paul was buried, and Peter expired on his inverted cross. The Coi federacy a Dc Facto Govern ment. Judge Theard, of the Fourth District Court, Louisiana, has recently rendered a decision in which he still adheres to the opinions enunciated by him in 1865, that the Confederacy was a de facto govern ment. The particulars may tie briefly stated : In January, 1863, in the parish of De Soto, Louisiana, the administrators of the succession of* Hamilton Sloan sold to J. J. Green forty-three bales of cotton on private sale. This cotton was subsequent ly purchased by John A. Stevenson, for account of the Louisiana State Bank, and in July, 1865, the sale was approved by Major General Herron, U. S. army, who ordered the delivery of the cotton to Stevenson. The administrators in this suit allege that Stevenson has no legal right to said cotton, because the sale to Green was without any judicial authority, and because the price wa» paid in Confed erate money, and they pray that the cot ton, or value thereof, be returned to them. The judge decides that this suit is unten able, for the following reasons : 1. Administrators cannot ad vantage of their own wrongs. They can not allege their own turpitude. A sub sequent administrator might complain of the wrongful acts of his predecessor, but not the guilty party himself. 2. The sale is otherwise valid, because it was made under a de facto government. 3. The Confederate notes given in pay ment were the only currency at the time, recognized by the de facto government and by the people. The plaintiffs, besides, in failing to return the identical notes, show that they have been benefited to that ex tent. 4. The delivery of the cotton took place by virtue of an order from Major General Herron, the military commander, acting in the name of the government. That or der is a full and complete ratification of the sale. And for these reasons plaiatifi: s claim is rejected, with costs. 5
