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About The banner of the South. (Augusta, Ga.) 1868-1870 | View Entire Issue (July 2, 1870)
and faith-loving Italy, and last and not 1-*ast, of the groat Western world, where the empire of Faith has flourished in the triuphh of civilization and liberty. ICELAND. The celebrity which his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop has gained by his late discourse in the Council, has given universal satisfaction amongst all Catho lics of Ireland. Amongst his people in his dealings with English Statesmen, like his Grace of Westminster, he has proved himself heart and soul ultramon tane. May his Eminence long be spared to prove himself so worthy of his Nation. The last dread sentence of the law has been carried out upon the Shiels. Lau renee and Margaret Shiels, brother and sister, were hanged at Tullamore on the morning of Friday, the 27th May, for the murder of Patrick Dunne. The Shiels family were opulent farmers in a country district, consisting of the father, an old infirm man, the two sons, Peter and Laurence, and one daughter, a dark, vindictive woman of thirty, feared and distrusted by her friends and neighbors. A trifling dispute arose between the Shiels and a neighboring family, between whose servant (Patrick Dunue,) and the r;der brother, Peter, a conflict eventually took place, which resulted in a prosecu tion on the part ot Patrick Dunne, by which Peter Shiels was convicted and sent to prison for six months. Subjected to the barbarity of a British prison, he only returned home to die. All the fierce and vindictive energies of Margar et Shiels were aroused and she openly swore to destroy the man, whom she held as the murderer of her brother. Her retainers in vain endeavored to induce her to take the counsel of the Priest, or to dissuade her from her dire resolve. She enticed her young brother Laurence into the plot, and together they prepared to carry it into execution. In their pre parations they displayed all the recklesss daring of their race. The knife was sharpened with the neighbors looking on, a pistol was sent to be mended to a neigh boring whitesmith, the powder and bit 11 epenly purchased in the neighboring vil lage. The unfortunate Dunne was com ing along the Logher road, and brother and sister went down to the mouth of the ane to meet him. He came on uncon scious of his doom, and as he approached lie bade his assassins good-night*. They replied with a bullet. They finished their fell work with the knife, and cast his body into a drain hard by. Still reck less, they cast their weapons, still cover ed with blood, upon the road. The brother, who during the whole affair seemed to be an unwilling accomplice, lied; but the sister quietly returned to the house. In the meantime, some pass ers-by rescued the half-dead man from the drain, and he lived long enough to make a dying declaration and declare the two Shiels to be his murderers. Patrick Dunne was the only support of his widowed mother, and enjoyed the friend ship and support of the greater portion of all that knew him. The Shiels were tried and sentenced to dea th. They clung to the hope that a respite would be eventually obtained. The Priests and gentlemen of the district went in a deputation to the Lord Lieutenant, but their petition was courteously but firmly refused. From the moment that her fate became certain the iron disposition of Margaret Shiels relaxed, and she entered heart and soul into the preparation for her awful end. 1 rom the first Laurence had sliown signs of contrition, and the Priests weio in constant attendance upon each. The gallows were in the prison yard, the drop being level with the ground, and a huge pit dug underneath. '1 hey met their fate amid the bright sun shine of the Summer morning, when everything but the black draped scaffold was glad and joyous around them. The execution was conducted according to tue act of ISbS ; with only the reporters and the officers of the jail and the Priests in attendance. The unfortunate con victs met their fate with every sign of true and heartfelt repentance. ITALY. The rebellion in Italy’ 1 is far from sup pressed, as the sympathizers of the rob ber-King would have us believe. Large lands still march through the country with ensigns bearing the device, “God and the people! ’ Brigandage lias broken out once more, and an Englishman has been carried off. The Milors Anglais are rather unfortunate in their wander ings. Before the grass is green on the graves ot flic five victims in Greece, an Engl ism an and his nephew, and all their servants, have been carried ofl' in Spain by brigands—others in Italy. If Eng land intends to hold Europe responsible for her wandering children, she will have to interrrupt some of the present sym pathizing relations which she maintains with the revolutionary' parvenu powers of Europe. SPAIN. Ihe Progressists have endeavored in vain to accelerate the selection of the Monarch. Serrano’s or Espartero’s end didatuje have completely failed. It is generally supposed that Prim wishes to let the storm pass by, and when the re action ensues, to introduce the young Prince Alfonso, son of the ex-Queen. The proposition has found favor with the people, and it is said that His Holiness and Napoleon are especially in favor of it. ENGLAND. His Lordship, the Bishop of South wark, has died at Home. Though in se rious ill-health at the call of the Holy Father, he hastened to the Council. At Pome, his health improved so far that he was able to transact his duties in the Council. Os late, however, he gradually failed, and expired on the morning of the Ist of Jnne. The Fenian raid on Canada caused considerable alarm in England but is now regarded as totally suppressed. The conduct of Grant’s Government lias given great satisfaction to the English in general. Disraeli, the leader of the Conserva tive party has lately betaken himself to novel writing, and, as usual has chosen to mimic the men and manners of the time. The hero, Lothair, a rich young Protestant nobleman, is made to person ate the illustrious convert, the Marquis of Bute. After a vast array of chapters dedicated to the work of exposing the elaborate designs of the Jesuits, the Marquis falls a victim to the snares of “Monsignor Catesby.” who leads him in triumph into the Mother Church. If any one for a moment doubted that this “Monsignor Cntesby” had any real pro totype, Disraeli himself has solved the question, by' inadvertently substituting the name Cappel, in one instance—a piece of stupidity which his printers mer cilessly reproduced in their edition. Mon signor Cappel is well known as an emi nent Divine, and one who was intimate ly connected with the conversion of the Marquis. Cardinal Cullen, Gladstone, and the Protestant Bishop of Winches ter, are all included, with many' other notables of the beau monde in London. On the whole a more senseless mimicry' could scarcely' have been produced. The Press in general, and even the Conserva tive Reviews, have described it in terms of the most derisive contempt. Veritas. NEW CHURCH IN SELMA DEDICATION— INTERESTING CEREMONIES. On every hand, in every Stale, we be hold evidences of the rapid progress of Catholicity. From the Selma, Alabama Times of June 21, wc take the following interesting account of the dedication of a new Church in Selma, Ala. One of the most, interesting and, to many of our citzons, novel events which has ever occurred in Selma, took place on Sunday last, on which occasion the new Catholic Church was solemnly de dicated to the service of God by Right Rev. John Quinlan Bishop of Mobile, un der the title of “St. Mary’s of the As sumption. ” Tiic Church, which is alike an orna ment to the city and a credit to its pro jectors and builders, occupies an eligible position on Washington street, near the corner of Dallas, is a magnificent struc ture, purely Gothic ’in all its dimen sions, and is one hundred and six feet long from the rear of the sacristy to the front, by forty-five wide. In the main side walls are five Trinity windows on each side, and on each of the clear story sides is a corresponding number of Unity windows. In front is a magificent window combining both mysteries, finish ed in the highest and richest style of Gothic architecture. The main and lean-to roofs, as well as the clear story side walls, are covered with the finest quality of English slate. On entering the Church one cannot help being struck with its massive demensions and its graceful and airy proportions. On either side are 'five columus supporting the clearstory side walls, beautifully orna mented in a style fully* in keeping with the balance of the building. The main audience room is neat, comfortable and well lighted., and the choir gallery, which is in front, is large and roomy. We take special pride in this beautiful building, from the fact that all, or nearly all the work, ornamental and otherwise, was done by Selma mechanics, and is at once a monument to their skill and in dustry and an indication ot what our Southern workmen can do when they have the opportunity. The stone and brick work, the material for which was donated by Mr. Robert W. Smith, a lib- MHHII ©I THS 'mm. eral hearted merchant of Mobile, was done under the immediate personal su pervision of Rev. Father O’Leary", as sisted, during his absence last summer, by Rev. Father McDonough, of Tuskaloosa and is well and substantially done. The carpenter work was done by Mr. David White a skillful and industrious workman of this city, who devoted his time and ener gy to the work. The sanctuary railing, after a beautiful design by Prof. Von Fischerz, was also made by* Mr. White. The plastering, which is very neatly and substantially done, is the work of Mr. Boothe, and the slating was done by Mr. Boulier. Ground was first broken for the foundation of the building on the 17th of March, 1569, and the cornerstone was laid on the 11th of April follow ing, aud the building was finished and ready for dedication on the 19th of June, 1870, only a little over one y T ear which, when we take into consideration the magnitude of the work, the fact that much of the material had to be brought from distant points, and the limited amount of means at the command of its projectors, is an evidence of energy and industry" on the part of those having the work in charge which is truly commend able. The dedication ceremonies were an nounced for 10 o’clock and befere that hour the Church was literally packed with people, composed principally of our best and most substantial citizens, nearly every seat on the main aisles being oc cupied by ladies. The services attend ing the dedication, which were both grand and interesting, were conducted by' Right Rev. Bishop Quinlan, cele brant, assisted by Bev. John W. O’Leary, pastor, deacon; Rev. D. Gibbons, of Mobile, sub-deacon; and Rev. W. F. McDonou.di, of Tuskaloosa, master ot ceremonies. The ceremony was very impressive and was witnessed by' the vast congregation present with the most lively interest and with the utmost res pect. The music on the occasion, which was rich and beautiful beyond anything of the kind ever before heard in the city, was furnished by a portion of the choir from the Church at Tuskaloosa, as sisted by Mr. S. F. Hobbs, of the Pres byterian choir, and Mr. E. C. Hagood, of the Episcopal choir, of thi« city, who kindly volunteered for the occasion, and to whom the Fathers are much indebted for the success of this part of the cere monies. 'fhe organ, an excellent in strument, the gift, as we have before stated, of our fellow citizen, Mr. Leroy Weaver, was presided over by Profes sor Walter, an experienced and accom plished musician from Tuskaloosa. The music both during the dedication cere monies and the subsequent celebration, of Uigdi Mass was excellent, and was the theme of general commendation. After the celebration of the Mass, a ceremony at once solemn and impressive, the Right. Rev. Bishop Quinlan deliver ed a discourse, the main portion of which was devoted to explaining to the au dience the object and symbolic meaning of the dedication services which they had just' witnessed. The Bishop is a pleasing and forcible speaker, and his discourse was listened to with the deepest attention by the large congregation pres ent. Ilis sermon was an eloquent aud instructive one, and wc regret that we cannot notice it more at length and in a manner which the merits of the distin guished speaker deserve. We have heard it, and the fact that the large con gregation, numbers of whom were stand ing, listened to it with such profound at tention and respect is a deserved tribute to the Rev. Father, and evidence of the impression which his remarks pro duced. The Vesper services in the evening were also largely attended, and again the choir gave forth more sweet and excellent music, and the Rev. Mr. McDonough, of Tuskaloosa, in consequence of the fatigue ot the Rev. Bishop, officiated and de livered a short lecture to the congrega tion. ° We cannot close this imperfect notice ol this interesting occasion, without con gratulating our citizens on the comple tion of this beautiful edifice much of which is due to their liberality and kindnes. It will prove of much value in the building up among us of a religious denomination which will attract to the city a lar<*e number of thrifty and industrious fol lowers. We are nevermore happy than when thus called upon to record the growth of the religious interests of our community, for every building of this kind is a better mark of prosperity than long rows of business houses without the moral and religious influences of those who assemble at these places of worship. The Rev. J. W. O'Leary, the pastor, bears an enviable reputation for activi ty and ability in his high calling, and under his ministrations we expect to see the Catholic Church increase largely" in numbers aud efficiency. A WONDERFUL REGION- A correspondent of the Boston Adver m tiser gives the following description of the Geyser Springs in Sonora County, California: No man’s words can convey more than a bare idea of what we saw in that morning walk. The scenery is wild and startling to the last degree—infernal is the only fit adjective for its description. The little canyon is hardly a half a mile long and nowhere more than three hundred feet wide, yet within its rugged sides is a marval great as any on this continent. Here are springs of soda, alum, iron, epsom salts, ammonia, magnesia, nitre, tartaric acid, and a dozen other acids and alkalis. On every' foot of ground are crvstalined formations—here handfuls of sulphur; there thick incrustations of iron; yonder little spars of alum; near by a rock covered with magnesia deposits. Here is a spring of soda and sulphur! there one of alum and iron; one contains ammonia and iron and epsom salts; another is black as any' ink with iroD and sulphur; at one point is a boiling spring of alum and sulphur, and twenty feet distant is a cold one of soda and iron; one spring has a temperature of about 75 degrees, an other about 175 degrees while hard by, under na oak tree, is a spring of clear and cold mountain water free from any foreign taste. A little stream runs down the canyon at its source it is sweet and pure—at its mouth a mile away, it is foul and dis colored with a score of salts and acids. Scientific examination shows one spring of alumn and iron, with a temperature of 90 degrees; one of iron and sulphur, 127 degrees: one of epsom salts and magnesia, at 146 degrees, and of iron and soda and sulphur and magnesia, at 140 degrees, and one of iron and soda and sulphur and magnesia, at 192 de grees. The “steamboat” puffs and roars with a fury of steam and boiling" water like a great engine; the “witches’s cal dron” is a tempestuous hole of black boiling and foamihg water eight or ten feet across; the “devil’s inkstand” is a villainous little hole wherefrom was dipp ed the black decoction of iron and sul phur with which I am writing this page; the “tea-keetle” is an orifice from which steam shoots out with hissing sound and fearful force the “sweat bath” is a steam escape pipe over which a man could be parboiled to death in five min utes; while the “devil’s kitchen” is a spot of twenty feet square where ther e is a combination of every conceivable iufer ual sound and agency. There are a hundred or more of these boiling springs—some that you could cover with your hand, others as large as your hat, and a few that are twenty in ches or two feet across. From thousands of crevices in the rocks and Lolas in the ground, steam issues with more or less force; the jutting point of sulphur and salts so crumbles under your feet that you can hardly scramble up it; another u so porous that you can anywhere run a stick into it three or four feet; one slope of a hundred feet square is so full of sham holes that you can scarcely walk across it without stepping into one of them; in many places the earth and rocks feel very warm under your hand. \ ou do not lind the springs any way im pressive: when I had seen a half a dozen l questioned with myself whether the whole thing were not a humbug; when I was half way up the canyon I began to speculate whether we should live to ride up the mountain again; by the time we got to the “devil’s tea-kittle,’ 7 I fell to wondering how long this crust of earth and rock might hold out against these internal and infernal fires; When things break up there’ll be a very lively time in that region. No one feature is in itself and alone of surpassing interest; but when you put the whole into an hour and a half—springs; and salts, and escape-pipes, and steaming slopes, and porous hillsides, and black waters, and sulphurous deposits, and the inter nal rumblings and grumblings that you can hear by laying your ear to on ‘the earth, and the unpicturablc desolation ot the whole canon, —add to what v©u sec and heat* and feel what you must perforce imagine below your sight and hearing, consider what there is above ground and what there must be under ground, and you get a good many thougts and sensations that don’t of ten come to human minds and human nerves. Donn Piatt says of the Senate, that “whenever a Solon rises to his feet and '•0.3 - solemnly, in the name of (tou —ameu, you may bet your inner greenback that he has hid under Lis coat-tail some infernal swindled' [From the N. V. News.] THEY GAN T ENFORCE IT- A bill to perpetuate the power of the Republican party has passed both Houses of Congress. The National Legislature, through its Radical majority, has made a deed of gift of political supremacy to Radicalism, which now only awaits the President’s signature to become law—so far as such an outrage upon right, liber ty, and the Constitution can be so-called. This legislative infamy has been passed under the title of a “Bill to Enforce the Provisions of the Fifteenth Amendment;” but its title could not cloak to the com prehension of an intelligent school boy the true significance and intention of the enactment. It places the polls and regis try offices virtually under the surveillance and control of the Federal military, so that American voters assume hen«eibr ward the ridiculous position of the French people, with the privilege cf going through the mockery of an election at the bayonet’s point and cannon’s mouth. It gives into the hands of the Federal Government, and therefore into the hands of the party ruling in Congress, the con trol of the entire machinery of elections throughout the States and Territories of the Republic. In cases of real or ima ginary offence against the elective fran chise, it gives to Federal Marshals the power to arrest; to Federal Courts the power to adjudicate; to the Federal Ex ecutive the power to enforce judicial process by the employment of the Federal land and naval forces. The clause of the Constitution which gives to every State the exclusive regu lation of the forms of election within its limits, is, by" this act, ignored, trampled upon and legislated into utter insignifi cance. It is true that a feeble attempt is made to imply, by the language of the bill, that the Federal authority shall be confined to the control of elections for members of Congress and to cases where the rights of the freed men are involved, but that is a mere subterfuge to conceal the desperate purpose of betraying the whole elective system to Radical control. This is the first step toward military supremacy in the interest of the Repub lican party. If to-day they claim that Federal bayonets shall be invoked at the election of members of Congress, to morrow, they claim that, as State Legis latures elect Federal Senators, so the Federal power can rightfully interfere at elections for members of the State Leg islature. And so, from the beginning now accomplished, we can contemplate the purposed end. In aid of the infamous scheme, the power of naturalization has been wrested from the States and given to the Federal Government. In the light of the bill to enforce, the Fifteenth Amendment itself assumes the shape of a mere blind, and becomes the keystone of a vast fabric of fraud and partisan usurpation. The Republican party needs some such desperate venture to prolong its doomed existence; —it is dying, and without the galvanism of that arbitrary measure it would lie a corpse at the threshholdof the next Presidential election. The memora ble Tuesday that so recently uttered the Democratic voice of the Empire State, told to Radical ears the story that ren ders this bill essential to the very life of the party. It is more especially aimed at the destruction ot the Democratic supremacy in New York. It will not hit the mark. New York is too strong aud bold in her Democracy to quail at the polls in the presence of Federal bayo nets. The bill cannot be enforced in any State where a Democratic majority exists. In this State, and in this City especially, its enforcement would be resisted as squarely and decisively as foreign legions would be, invading* our homes and as sailing our birthright, Governor Hoffman is not the man to yield one particle of the constitutional right of the State of New York; and if it becomes necessary, in defence of the sanctity of the elective franchise here, to cross Federal bayonets with State bayonets, he will find steel enough and hands enough for the emer gency. Death of an Irish-Ajierican Lady. —Rome, May 20.—A telegram from Marseilles yesterday morning brought the sad news of the death of the wife af W. Oliver, Esq., of San Fraecisco. The deceased was sister of the Rev. Dr. Me- Glynn, ot New York. Her death is very much regretted by those who had the pleasure of making her acquaintance in Rome during the Winter and Spring; and those regrets arc increased by the fact that she leaves beh.nd her a young fami ly, that must now dispense with mother's care. She had hoped before returning to America to be able to pay a visit to the place of her birth, in the county of Donegal; but her dreams of friendly de votion to the old land have passed away forever. —Special Cor. Lister Observer. 5
