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WILLIAM RANKIN, Publisher.
189 Bay Street.
SAVANNAH, SATURDAY, MARCH 25,1876.
iaS™'P ■!! LU!I - 1111,1 — -
AKentM for the Southern Cross.
Rev. C. C. Prendergast, Augusta, Ga.
M. Mahons, Atlanta, Ga.
P. Fitzgerald, Macon, Ga.
E. O'Connell, Macon, Ga.
R. It. Dorr, Rome, Ga.
Jab. A. Benson, Washington, Ga.
R. O’Neill, Dalton, Ga.
J. Stod Byers, Gainesville, Ga.
P. Crooan, Americus, Ga.
Thomas Deignan, Columbus, Ga.
C. B. Munday, Milledgeville, Ga.
M. O. Sullivan, Albany, Ga.
Mkwael O’Brien, Hawkinsville, Ga.
Edward Croak e, Sheron, Ga.
Mr. Sullivan, P. M., Sandersville, Ga.
F. McCarthy, Brunswick, Ga.
P. Tresson, Athens, Ga.
J. H. Hamill, Waynesboro, Ga.
; JTas. Dean, Darien, Ga.
Dr. L. B. Paoetti, St. Augustine, Fla.
Geo. Magee, Jacksonville, Fla.
P. Kelly, Femandina, Fla.
Jno. C. Masters, Lake City, Fla.
R. R. Reid, Palatka, Fla.
Paul Weedman, Toccoi, Fla.
Rev. Mark S. Gross, Wilmington, N. C.
J. A. Williams, Charlotte, N. C.
Edward Daly, 125 Meeting st., Charles
ton, S. 0.
Jno. A. Civil, Columbia, S. C.
Mrs. R. P. Monaghan, Sumpter, S. C.
Thos. H. Hamill, Waynesboro, Ga.
Mr. Chas. T. Martin is our general
traveling agent, and is authorzied to
receive subscriptions and advertise
ments.
" ■
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?
A Stranger in a Strange Land.
■jAMr. J. C. McMichael lives in Thomas
■fc-Ga. IJis existence was revealed
inqbi**, by means of
Herald, that glories in
having him for editor. Mr. Me Michael’s
' usital fields of labor are the farming,sheep
raining, manure nuking and other
kindred fields. Hi 1 he c mfined him
self entirely to these he would have
failed to get the good advice I am
about to give him. Bat, having presumed
to enter the field of theology on the 4th
of March of the present year, he has
come out with the following gathering:
“Does it not seem strange that such
a document (theßt. Rev. Bishop Gross’s
Lenten Pastoral) should issue from
such a man as Bishop Gross —directed
as it is to American freemen ? We
claim to be an enlightened and cultured
people, having the Holy Bible as our
'Magna Charta’ of religions rights. Yet
the people are told what they must do
for a series of days—even what they
may eat and drink and how often. Some
of these are contrary to the Catholic
creed, per sc, but allowed by special dis
pensation. Does it not strike the
American mind as superlatively dicta
torial and hugely ridiculous that men
and women should be put under culi
nary regulations for religious purposes;
and that greater indulgences should be
allowed, in this respect, on the Sabbath
than any other day of the week ? From
the history of eighteen centuries
wo are impressed with the healthy
teachings of the Book of books, in which
are compassed the enlightenment and civ
ilization of the nations where it has
been given to the people. But we con
fess that such a Pastoral, at this date,
in the heart of Georgia, appeal’s supreme
ly puerile and ridiculous; and we do not
think it is going out of the wa y of en
lightened journalism to say so.”
k In which there is but little less non
sense and ignorance than the average
school boy of twelve summers, of this
nineWnth century, manages to crowd
in theVime number of lines.
ThereNaeing no reason for me to sup
pose that Mr. J. 0. MoMiohael meant
any harm byßje above criticism of Rt.
Rev. Bishop Gibbs’s Pastoral, and that
he would not profit by a gentle correc
tion, I will point out to him some of his
errors for his and others’ guidance
when they venture "strangers into a
strange land.”
“Spme of these (doubtless regulations
contained in Rt Rev. Bishop Gross's
Pastoral) are contrary to the Catholic
creed, per se, but allowed by special
dispensation,” says he.
Whereas, Mr. McMichael, none of
these regulations have anything tb do with
the Catholic creed per se, or.. non per se.
They have to do merely with Cathie
dishipline. Should you fail to
stand this distinction with a difference,
consult your Webster. As for the
“superlatively dictatorial presumption of
putting men and (horror!) women too,
under culinary regulations for religious
purposes,” consult what you call the
“Book of books,” in common English,
the Holy Scriptures, and you will find
that Almighty God, our Master and
yours, Mr. McMichael, put his people
under more “culinary regulations”
than Rt. Rev. Bishop Gross does.
In the Leviticus, ch. xi., v. 1., read:
“And the Lord spoke to Moses and
Aaron, saying: Say to the Children of
Israel; these are the animals which you
are to eat.” [The discription follows.]
Likewise see those of which they are
forbidden to eat.—
If these are not culinary regulations,
what are they ?
Mr. McMichael may be prompted by
the deacon nearest to him that these
“culinary regulations” were intended for
the Jewish people, not for those under
the New Law.” This Will not answer;
for he accepts the Book of books—no
other authority for this “Magna Charta”
of religious right, and, I suppose, of
religious duties-, and nowhere in the
Book of books do we see that these
special culinary regulations have been
done away with. Christ, the author of
the New Law, said somewhere: “I have
not come to destroy the Law, but to ful
fill it.”
Again, in the Acts of the Apostles, we
read that St. Peter and the Twelve, who
exempted the newly converted Gentiles i
from some of the precepts of the Old
Law, kept them under some culinary
regulations. “For it hath seemed good
to Holy Ghost and to us to lay no
further burden upon you than these
necessary things: that you abstain from
things sacrificed to idols, and from blood
(which is interpreted by all divines,
Catholic and Protestant, blood-eating)
and from things strangled.”
Mr. McMichael' sfcd his puzzled re
ligious prompters may retort: “You,
Catholics, do not keep up theso regula
tions of St. Peter, no more than wo do.”
To this we have an answer, which they
have not.
We believe in the supreme authority
of the successors of St. Peter to change
the regulations which he may have
deemed good for his time, but which
may be found unlit for ours, according
to Christ’s commission: “Behold, I am
with you all days, even to the consum
mation of the world; he that huð
you hoaretli me—whatsoever you shall
bind on earth, shall be bound in heaveal
eic.”
That is, we believe in Church authority.
This is our “Magna Charta” of religious
rights and duties. But Mr. McMichael
and Protestant friends believe not in
anything of the kind; the “Book of
books” is their “Magna Charta.” How
they keep the culinary regulations com
manded tlirein, (for I must suppose
they do), and how they object to Rt.
Rev. Bishop Gross's own culinary regu
lations for religious purposes, these are
mysteries which I do not feel competent
to unravel.
And now a parting remark.
The regulations for Lent of Rt. Rev.'
Bishop Gross are somewhat similar
to those of fifteen hundred Catholic
Bishops throughout the world, religious
ly observed by two hundred and fifty
millions of Catholics, among whom are
found the deepest thinkers, most learned
scientists, and most sincere Christians of
this age.
What they believe to be supremely wise
and enlightened and Christian, may ap
pear ridiculous to the editor of the
Thomaston Herald in the heart of Geor
gia; it is quite natural.
And he may say so without going out
of the way of enlightened journalism, for
the good reason that he never entered
that way. That his course, and that of all
similar capacities, should in the future
be one of silent ignorance, is the best
wish for them of Uncle Ephrem.
Mass.
_____
Tttj me nothing is so consoling, so
piercing, so thrilling, fo overcoming,
as the Mass, said as it is among us. I
THE SOUTHERN CROSS.
could attend Masse# forever, and not be
tired. It is not a mere form of words—
it is a great action, the greatest action
that can be on earth. It is, not the in
vocation merely, blit, if I dsye use the
word, tb%-voc#tid(i of the Eternal. He
, becomes present a|tbe altar in flesh and
blood, before Whom. angels bow, and
devils tremble. This is that awful event
which is thfjtoope, and the interpretation,
of every part of the §dt#nnity. Words
are necessary,but as means, not as ends;
they are npt mere addresses to the throne
of grace,.they are instruments of what
is far higher, of ik>nsecration,cf sacrifice.
They hurry on, as if impatient to fulfill
their mission. Quickly they go, the whole
is quick, for they are .all parts of one in
tegral action. Quickly they go, for they
are awful words of sacrifice, they are a
work too great to delay upon, as when
it was said in “What thou
doost, do quickly.”—-Quickly they pass,
for the Lord Jesus goes with them, as
He passed, along the lake in the days of
His flesh, quickly calling first one and
then another; -quickly they pass, because
as the lightning wmcßshineth from one
part of heaven unto the other, so is the
coming of the Son of Man. Quickly
they pass, for they are as the words of
Moses, when the Lord came down in the
cloud, calling on the name of the Lord
as he passed by, “The Lord, the Lord
God, merciful and gracious, long suffer
ing, and abundant in mercy and truth.”
And as Moses on the mountain, so we
too “make haste and bow our heads to
the earth and adore.”—So we, all around,
each in his place, loot out for the great
advent, “waiting for the- moving of the
water,” each in his place, with his own
heart, with his own wants, with his own
thoughts, with his own intentions, with
his own prayers, separate but corcordant,
watching what is going on, watching
its progress, uniting inits consummation;
not painfully and hopelessly, following
a hard form.of prayer from beginning
to end, but like a concert of musical
instruments, each different, but concur
ring in sweet harmony, we take our
place with God’s priest supporting him,
yet guided by him. There are little
children there, and old men, and simple
laborers, and students in seminaries,
priests preparing for Mass,priests making
their thanksgiving, here are innocent
maidens, and there penitent sinners; but
out of these many minds rises one
eucharistic hymn, and the great action
is the measure and scope of it.— Newman.
General Blair Father De
A wrtter in the 01 a re
cent date gives a vSy interesting ac
count of tlie friendship existing between
these two great men; For many years
previous to his death Father De Smet
was a frequent visitor at the hospitable
fireside of General Blair, and the mutual
esteem and admiration of the soldier and
the Jesuit was deep, if not demonstrative.
Father De Smet, in describing the be
ginning of his acquaintance with Gene
ral Blair, says:
“In 1863, I think it was, our father
provincial, at my request, had granted
me permission to visit again, after a long
absence, my poor children of the forest,
the Flathead and Blackfeet Indians.
I had fully prepared for the journey
Bhen8 hen I discovered that the United States
overnment had, for military reasons,
drawn its lines along the entire Indian
frontier, and it was, therefore, impossible
to get through without a pass. I was
informed that I could not get a pass
without going to Washington. I accord
ingly journeyed to the capital; but on
my arrival I found that all of my friends
who had been memhMS| of Congress at
my last visit were eitneV dead or in the
rebellion. I had no alternative, there
fore, but to call on Gen. Blair, who was
then representing St. Louis in the Lower
House. Having never met him, I went to
his residence, and introduced myself and
the subject of my mission, and asked his
good offices. He requested me to call
on him the following morning at 10
o’clock, and in the meanwhile he would
see what could be done. I did so, en
tered his carriage, and was drivtn to the
White House. On the route he was
kind enough to say that he had heard of
my labors among the Indians, and final
ly asked me if I had any money with
which to reach my destination. I told
him that I could get sufficient to bring
me to the borders of civilization, and
after that laughingly remarked that, I
could walk the rest of the way. After
leaving the carriage, and when just about
to enter the Presidential Mansion, he
stopped me and said: “Father De Smet,
I am about to introduce you to President
Lincoln, and to ask from him a favor
for you. Please promise me that you
will express no surprise at what either
he or I may say, but that you will con
tent yourself with thanking him if he
grants my request.” I readily acceded.
We found the President in his room
leaning upon his hand, with a wearv ex
pression of countenance, as though he
were entertaining sad thoughts. His
face, however, lighted up at our coming,
and after being formally introduced we
took chairs and he opened the conver
sation with this remark to (general Blair:
‘Frank, is Father De Smet trying to
make a Catholic out of you, or are you
trying to make a Protestant out of him,
which ?’
“Neither, Mr. President, but I have
come here to ask a favor for him from
you.’
‘What is it ?’
‘Mr. Stanton tells me,’ said the Gene
ral, that the 4th Cavalry, I think it is
the 4th Cavalry, is stationed out on the
Northwestern frontier, and that they
have no Chaplain. I want you to make
Father De Smet the Chaplain of the
regiment and give him twelve months
furlough, at which time he expects to
return from his mission, when he can
resign, unless he wants to go into the
War.’
‘The President immediately took up
his pen, wrote a few lines, and handed
the paper to General Blair, saying, ‘Take
that to Stanton.’
“Before I had time to say a word, Mr.
Lincoln took me by the hand, and in
bidding me adieu, remarked: ‘You will
do more good out there tha i .... my
soldiers and commissioners.’ There was
pay attached to the position (for I be
lieve I ranked as major), but never drew
it”
Both Jesuit and General are now
at rest under six feet of Missouri’s hos
pitable turf, but tha names and the
memory of the deeds will descend, as a
precious legacy to the remotest genera
tions.— Western Watchman.
The History of Bells.
The superstitions, romance and poetry
associated with the history of bells ren
der them a study of much interest. As
far back as their use may be traced, we
find that fancy and imagination have
been constantly employed to express
the many emotions awakened by their
tones. A remarkable antiquity is ascribed
to the use of bells. In Egypt the feast
of Osiris, it is said, was proclaimed by
the ringing of bells, and in Cairo, at the
present time, girls are accustomed to
wear strings of bells about their ankles,
practices similar to which have, no
doubt, existed in that country for a long
time. Among the Hebrews bells were
used iB the time of Aaron, whose vest
ment was ornamented with small gold
bells, intermixed with pomegranates. An
old writer solemnly avers that even Noah
employed such an instrument to call his
carpenters to their work on the ark. An
old painting also represents King David
as playing with a hammer upon a
number of bells before him. The
authors of these works, however, must
hav,B,drawn heavily upan their. imagina
tions. Bells hung on the necks of horses
are also mentioned in the Bible by the
prophet Zachariah. The ancient kings
of Persia wore bells attached to their
royal vestments. Bells were used by
the ancient Greeks in their religious
rites, and especially by the priests of
Cybele. In time of war, officers at cer
tain times during the night went from
sentinel to sentinel, ringing his bell, to
which every sentry was obliged to re
spond. According to the statement of
.Eschylus, bells were concealed within
the shields of Grecian heroes. The
“bellman" also marched before funeral
processions; bells were sounded in trium
phal processions, and were also attached
to the necks of criminals to warn the
people to avoid the spectacle of a man
going to his execution. At Rome they
were in constant use in domestic
life, to announce the hours of bathing,
business, etc. Ancient shepherds hung
bells upon the necks of their flocks, the
sound of which, it was supposed, helped
them to become fat
The practice of attaching a bell to the
leader of a flock is a very old one indeed.
Bells have also been discovered among
the remains of many extinct tribes, such as
the Peruvians. It is thought that the
bells that are described in ancient re
cords were probably nothing more than
little tinkling pieces of metal with no uni
formity of shape. The introduction of
bells into Christendom is generally
ascribed to Paulinus Bishop of Nola, in
Campania; although it is stated by one
writer that his pait in the matter was
simply the suspension of a large brass
kettle, by which he announced the time
of prayers. During the sixth and seventh
centuries the use of bells spread through
out Christendom, and about 600, Pope
Sabinian ordained that the bells should
be used to announce the hours of devo
tion. During this period, also, hand
bells were used extensively. The hand
bell said to have belonged to St. Patrick
was made previous to the sixth century,
and is a four-sided bell made of thin
plates of iron, fastened with rivets, and
brazed. It is still preserved in Belfast.
Church bells were introduced slowly,
and those which were first made of very
small size. By the fifteenth century the
art of founding had reached such ex
cellence that Dells of large dimensions
were cast, as a bell cast in Paris in 1472
weighed 25,000 pounds. The introduc
tion of church towers was probably
coeval With that of church bells, the
word belfry, indeed, being a compound
of two Saxon words, bel and frede.
The ancient bell-founders of England
were an itinerant class of people, and
frequently of doubtful character. There
wefe certain ones, however, who ranked
March 2fith, ißj6.
among the respectables, and even the
wealthy classes of society.
There is in St. Michael’s Church,
Gloucester, a brass to the memory of
William Henshawe, a bell-founder; and
his two wives, on which is the following
curious inscription:
“Pray for the Soull of Willm Henshawe
Belfounder and late maire of this Towne
and alys & agnes his wyfes which Willm
deceased the—day of in the yer of
our Lord God a thousand and ccccc—and
the said Alys deceased the seconde day
of ffebruary the year of our Lord
MxVcXIX for whose soules of yor charite
say a pater noster and a ave.”
In a similar manner was the memory
held of thbse who donated bells to par
ishes, the mention of the deed being
sometimes inscribed upon the tomb of
the donor. Such a mortuary inscription
is the following:
“Here lyeth buried the body of Jerem
Ewstes eldest sonne of Robert Ewstes
late of this town of Watlynton who gave
the trebble bell that hangs in this step
pill. He deceased the fyrst day of May.”
Respecting the age of English bells,
Mr. W. C. Lukis, in his little work “Con
cerning Church Bells,” has given some
interesting facts. Of 698 bells in Wilt
shire, 63 date prior to 1600, 23 belong
to the sixteenth century, 273 to the
seventeenth, 239 to the eighteenth, and
46 to the nineteenth. It is certain, how
ever, that a much greater number of
bells dating prior to 1500 would now be
found in England had it not been
for the frequent revolutionists that have
agitated England, involving the spolia
tion of churches and the confiscation and
destruction of the ancient bells. The
commencement of bell-founding as a
staple of Birmingham industry seems to
have dated from the middle of the last
century. Chimes were cast there about
1780, and from this time the manufac
ture declined until very recently.— From
the Iron Age.
How to Save.
The way to save is to begin with lit
tle matters, and to begin at once. No
one ever made his way from poverty to
riches who scorned economy in small
things, and could not comprehend the
value of a singl ■ cent. The poor man
who would get ahead pecuniarily must
learn that to save cent after cent—-one
at a time, if he can do no more—till he
gets a hundred of them, and so has a
dollar, is a wise and noble thing for
him to do. Having thus actually saved
his first will have acquired
with it a power of self-denial and a
tenacity of purpose which will enable
him to save one dollar after another un
til he gets a hundred; and then he can
save on indefinitely, and become inde
pendent in fortune. “But,” says some
one who has lived all his life without
saving, how am Ito save ? My habits
are fixed. How can I learn to lay by
something for old age ? You must do
as to money matters what a certain an
cient school of philosophers did as to
morals. These old sages used, every
night, to review their actions for the
day, and see what they ought not to
have done that they had done, and what
they might have done better of the
things which it had been necessary for
them to do. So, too, must you every
night review the actions of the day
and see what you have spent that you
ought not to have spent, and ho* you
might have got more economically what
it was necessary for you to obtain. Any
one who faithfully makes such a review
of his expenditures will be apt to dis
cover many opportunities for retrench
ment and reform; and then, if he will, he
can a once begin to save, and may ac
quire economical habits which will se
cure his future prosperity.
A Pleasing Incident.
An incident of the most pleasing
nature recently took place in Kerry,
showing on what terms the Irish people
dwell together, and which should prove
a lesson to the bigots of this free and
enligtened country, who are in the
habit of casting slurs at Ireland and
her people.
An esteemed member of the Irish
Protestant Church, Capt. Robert Leslie,
D. L., of Tarbert house, has presented
the Most Rev. Dr. Moriarty, the Catholic
Bishop of Kerry, with a site for a
parochial house, adjoining the chapel
at Tarbert, together with six acres of
land, at a nominal rent, and has also
given a lease of the same for 2,000 years
to the Rev. Daniel Foley P. P. in trust
for himself and the future priests of the
parish, with the approval and recognition
of the Bishop of the diocese for the time
being. The parochial house is contract
ed for at a cost of about $7,500. "We are
always pleased to acknowledge such in
stances of liberality, as they serve to give
one a better ddea of human nature and
prove that among our portestant fellow
countrymen these are those who do not
think that Catholics should be ostracised.
Belknap has never been an officer of
the regular army, and he is not a West
Pointer. He's a sort of dis-pointer.