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March 25th, 1876.
Uncle Ephrem’s Bit of Conver
sation with Aristides Poly
technus.
(Reported for the Southkbx Cross.)
Professor.— This is the very thing to
which I object, in the name of human
dignity and liberty, viz., to any man
imposing upon himself a master. Each
man is born free, independent from any
other being; and, to remain true to
himself, must not alienate that noble
original prerogative of his.
Ephrem.— This is a seducing theory,
Professor, yet neither new nor true.
It is a mere rehearsal of that preached,
by Satan, years before philosophers
scientists and Protestants were heard of;
and for its truth, let us see.
Is man absolutely independent as you
would make him, Professor ? Indepen
dent from his fellow ffien, I will grant
you for the present; but is he indepen
dent from his Creator ?
Professor.— l would not answer in
the affirmative, for though a skeptic as
to many things in which you beleive,
I admit the existence of a first cause as
we scientifically term it, call it yourself
Creator, God or any otner name, it mat
ters little. There being a world, an
effect, there needs be a cause of it, and
an intelligent cause as that effect reveals
intelligence of aim, arrangement and
conservation.
Ephrem. —And that first cause, that
intelligent Being from whom all others
have proceeded, God, the Creator and
Conservator of the world as we, Chris
tians, call Him, is He to be denied the
right or ruling the work of his hands,
be it material or intelligent; of framing
for it the laws it should follow to reach
the end of its existence which has been
determined by Him alone.
Philosopher.— These are deep ques
tions.
Ephrem. —Aye, and the most import
ant, the first that demand the attention
of true scientific minds. What say your
philosop liy of this, Professor. Are we
creatures altogether independent from
the Creator, so that we can ignore him
and his designs over us,or, to speak your
new, yet no clearer language, can you
conceive an effect so separated from its
cause, as to be in no way influenced by
it.
Professor.— l cannot; every effect is
linked with its cause, so that it cannot
exist without its relation to it.
Ephrem.— And can the effect exist, and
be differently from what its cause makes
it.
Professor. —lt cannot, in any of its
modes of existence or acts, because the
very first notion of effect, its definition
in fact, is that it depends on its cause for
its being and the modes thereof.
Ephrem.— And this is precisely what
Catholic Christians claim for our God,
our first cause, that He is so linked to us
His creatures, the effects, scientifically
speaking, of His Omnipotence, that we
cannot exist Except by Him and in Him,
and differently from what He will,
without the risk of failing to be one day
what He intends us to be, partakers of
His eternal glory and happiness.
Professor.— As logic, through scienti
fic deduction has brought us to this
point, I will not shrink from it. Be it
therefore granted, because it is proved,
that men no more than other beings are
not independent from their first cause
which I am also willing to call God with
you, this being the name generally
used.
Ephrem. —Thanks for the concession,
Professor. And now what prevents that
you should “believe with us, be baptized,
and obey the Pope?”
Professor. —My most wonderful Roman
Catholic friend, if your conclusion have
all other merit, also they assuredly have
that of quickness and profusion, you dis
pense them as liberally as any young
disciple of Esculapius his advices.
Ephrem. —Another merit they have,
Professor that of truth, and apro
pos, as you shall soon confess. They
are rigorously contained in the premises
just granted by you, in the principle that
God has the right to impose on His crea
tures a certain end with the means to
reach it.
Professor.— Let me hear you deduce
from this the necessity of my allegiance
to the Pope.
Ephrem.— Suppose that our Maker,
who alone can determine our end and
the means to reach it, deigned one day
to Bend upon earth his Only Begotten
Son, to reveal them to us; and suppose
that this same Divine Son of His chose to '
spend only thirty-three years on earth,
and on leaving it, to return to his
Father’s house, empowered a body of
men which He called His Church to rep
resent Him,to teach all men in His stead,
to the end of time, appointing a head to
that teaching body, a head to which all
the members should yield full obedience
in all things pertaining to faith and
morals; with words like these: “Thou
art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my Church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.” And sup
pose that of this Church thus constituted
He would have said: “Behold lam with
you all days, even to the consummation
of the world; he that heareth you, hear
eth me, he that despiseth you despiseth
me,” again: “If he hear not the Church,
let him be for thee as the heathen and
the publican;” suppose all these were
facts, Professor, would they not prove
that you, as well as any other man, are
bound to obey that Church and her
divinely constituted head, the Pope?
Professor.— They would, if they were
facts.
Ephrem. —And such they are, Profes
sor; recorded in a book, the authenticity
and integrity of which surpass those of
any book penned by men, sworn to by
twelve millions of martyrs, by all Chris
tianity during fifteen hundred years, and
even now, after Luther’s new departure,
by the two-thirds of those calling them
selves Christian.
Professor.— These are strong proofs;
I dare say, the best that history can sup
ply. But that prerogative of infallibil
ity, which you claim for your Church
and its head, the Pope, is too much for
the progressive theories of this nine
teenth century, aud my own principles
of philosophy.
Ephrem. —Possibly; but not too much
for God’s own unchangeable theories,
and the principles of true philosophy.
There is many a theory of the nineteenth
century which will keep up progressing
until it is changed into its very contra
dictory, in the twentieth century; and
with due respect to yourself, Professor,
there may be more than one of your
principles of philosophy that will under
go the same transformation, chiefly
your views of church fallibility. Aye, I
make bold to assert that if you do us the
honor to hear our own views on the sub
ject and the reasons thereof, the trans
formation I allude to will soon take
place.
Professor. —l am ready to discuss this
question with you, to the core. Reason
demands that both sides be heard and
fairly examined into, before conclusions
be drawn. Moreover, yours is altogether
a philosophical way of proceeding.
Ephrem. —l am gratified that you find
it such, Professor, and at the same
time I would beg to remind you that it
has always been the way of the Catholic
Church, ever since St. Peter wrote his—
“rationabile obsequium' vestrum.” Let
your submission be a rational one. Now
for our views of church infallibility and
the philosophical, aye scientific argu
ments on which it stands.
We are not afraid of reason, Professor;
on the contrary, we challenge reason to
object to any one of oui tenets, and in
the question at issue I will do more;
I will have you to admit with me that
reason absolutely requires that the
Church, which stands in the place of
Jesus Christ upon earth, be infallible,
and that the extent and location of that
infallibility must needs be what our
Church makes it.
(to b continued.)
The Round Towers of Ireland.
The Round Towers of Ireland hive
been a puzzle for our archaeologists.
When, by whom, and for what purpose
they were built, are questions which
have given rise almost to as many theories
as there are structures of this class re
maining, On the one hand very able
men have contended for their Christian
origin; and one, not the main, argument
in support pf this view is derived from
the fact that a great number of them
are found in connection with leading
ecclesiastical establishments. But this
might be reasonably enough accounted
for without destroying the theory which
assigns their erection to the Pagan
period, by keeping in mind the principle
which i* alleged to have guided St
Patrick, in/elation to them. We have
read somewhere that it was the custom
of the, Apostle of Ireland to plant a
Christian Church on the spot where
Pagan rites were celebrated and to in
dicate to change by inscribing a cross
THE SOUTH EK M GROSS.
on some of the upright stones existing
in connection with the worship of our
heathen ancestors. , He made a clean
sweep of the books, the faith, the cere
monial, and all connected with Pagan
ism in Ireland. The Towers, however,
were too many for him. He could not
burn them, as he burned the books or
writings; but he made the best use of
them. They were good enough as
keeps of the sacred vessels; and, though
not exactly suitable, they might have
accommodoted bells; while, as “times
and seasons” were of importance to the
early Irish Christians, they may have
contributed to astronomical observations
—one that we know in a lovely, lonely
isle has the cardinal points distinctly
defined. A Pagan origin and Christian
usage do not, therefore, militate so much
against those who hold the former
opinion. The theory that they are of
Danish origin is just as sound as that
the Danes were the builders of the great
raths in our country, such as Rath-Kel
tair,. at Downpatrick, which was the
stronghold of an Irish Pagan king, raised
by his own people, and is an abiding
place, and is an abiding evidence of their
energy, industry and perseverance. The
Danes had something more interesting
to them on hands than the building of
towers. They came to Ireland for plun
der, and the Four Masters have told
us how well they succeeded in their un
holy mission. They never made any
general settlement in Ireland; and in
those places wherein they did settle they
had quite enough to do to defend them
selves. As has been so pertinently
observed by the Very Rev. U. J. Canon
Bourke, President of St. Jarlath’s Col
lege, in his learned work on “The Aryan
Origin of the C.. elic Race and Lan
guage,” if the Danes were sojfond of build
ing towers, why did they not erect round
towers in England, whore they once had
regal power? Why did they not build
them in Normandy and Belgium? Why
not in their own land, in Jutland, or
Denmark, or Scandinavia? And why
not in the counties they made their own
in Ireland, in which are found a few of
those relics of the remote past? The
towers may be of Pagan or of Christian
origin; but nothing could be clearer than
that the Danes were not the builders.
As to their Christian origin, the Jate
Dr. Petrie is the great authority, and his
views are adopted by eminent ecclesiastics
Protestant and Roman Catholic;but Can
on Bourke contends that Dr. Petrie’s
proofs in support of .the thesis “that
the round towers w\> vl * -ncted at various
'periods between me and the thir
teenth centuries,” have. 10 convincing
force, “because, in reality, it was simply
an impossibility that . tell works of arch
itectural art could have been built by the
Christian population of Ireland, from the
years a. and. 432 to 1172, when Henry the
Second landed on the coast of Wexford.”
Dr. Petrie himself admits that towers of
such architectural excellence could not
have been erected from the days of St.
Patrick to the time of St. Engus of
Cutdee;they could not have been erected
while the Danes were cruising along the
Irish coast, making descents on
churches, hero and there, or set
tling themselves on certain parts
of the island. The only con
clusion, therefore, at whichthemselves
Canon Bourke could arrive is that the
towers are of Pagan origin, which is the
opinon of Vallancey, Lanigan, O’Connor,
O’Brien and others, including Geraldus,
who found them in Ireland when
he came with King John The
opinon of Dr. Lanigan is, “that
it can scarcely be doubted that the
original models, according to which the
towers were constructed, belong to the
times of Paganism, and that the sin
gular style of architecture which we
observe in them was brought from the
East.” In other words, that they were
built by the immigrants of the Aryan
race who settled in Ireland, and who
erected in their new home pillar-towers
similar to those found in India, of
whose origin the present inhabitance do
not seem to know anything positively.
If it were possible to connect the build
ing of these “old majestic temples of our
own dear isle” with the Christian period
no one would be more willing to do so
than Canon Bourke, who is a distinguish
ed archaeologist, and evidently anxious
to bring all he’can into the service of
his own Church, at the same time that
he writes in a liberal spirit which has
given us much pleasure; but he cannot
make them Christian in their origin.
His study of the science of comparative
philology has enabled him to identify
thejearly Irish with the Arvan race,
which he proves was possessed of suffi
cient skill and power to erect these
towers. In this respect his argument is
very interesting. It is, briefly, that
“sameness of achitectural features points
to identify of origin,” and this sameness
in the slanting doorway, the style pf
arch, the material used, the'cement, the
shape and size of the stones and the
manner in which they are laid, is no
where to be found except in the Cyclo
pean buildings of the East, in PersPpo
lis, Ecbatana, in Babylon as far as can
be known, in Thebes, and in the Pyra
mids along the Nile. The Palaces of
Macha,at Emania, of Madbh at Crua
chan, and of Aileach in Derry, as well as
the architectural piles at Tara, were ad
mittedly of Pagan origin; and Canm
Bourke’s contention is that the men who
built the palaces and the House of Tara
were sufficiently skilled to build the
Towers. They may have been con
structed from the motive which actuated
the builders of Babel, or they have been
used as keeps for hostages, or as places
of refuge, which last-named is Sir
William Wide’s idea; but these consid
erations do not affect the question at
issue, as to the period when, and the
people by whom, they were built. Canon
Bourke has given the' subject much at
tention, and he says—“lt is certain* *
* * that the Round Towers had been
the work of men skilled in the art of
building; and we have seen that man
kind possessed greater knowledge some
two thousand years before the Christian
era than they possessed at a later period.
The Round Towers must, therefore,
have been built at that time when men
were best skilled in science and in the
art of building. The records in stone in
Egypt, in Syria, and Persia tell us that
this was the earliest period after the
deluge, when men were Cyclopean, if
not in stature, at least in power of mind.
Comparative philology proves this truth;
and it is quite in accord with all that
civil and sacred history testifies. Such
is Mr. Bourke’s conclusion, and he has
argued it out learnedly and logically.
We refer to the matter in the hope of
exciting a taste for the study of Irish
antiquities. Of course in a worldly
point of view there is nothing to be made
of it; but life is poorly spent if worldly
gain be its only object. The more
Irishmen know of the real history of
Ireland the less they will be disposed to
think of the baubles too often produced
under the name, with the view of exciting
animosity to England or any other
country. Canon Bourko, a Roman
Catholic priest, says we are all children
of the great Aryan family, be our modern
name what it may; and this fact of com
mon brotherhood between the people of
the United Kingdom ought to make it
the more easy to reconcile these people
and induce them to work harmoniously
for the promotion of our common good.
-—Belfast News Letter.
The Black Hills.
Jerry Lewis, who has resided here
for a decade and a half, for short inter
vals of time, is a late arrival from the
Black Hills, having left Custer city
Saturday, the 19th ult., at noon, readied
Cheyenne Wednesday evening, and
Denver night before last. The trip,
there fore, was made on quick time, and
without a hitch or accident.
A News reporter interviewed Mr.
Lewis yesterday, and found him very
communicative, and brim full of enthusi
asm over the newly-opened diggings.
He gives more information of a kind
sought after just now that has been ob
tained so far from any returned pros
pector, and it is reliable. Mr. Lewis spent
about a month roaming about the Hills,
visiting most of the camps. Custer
City and Hill City are the only towns
in the country. The former is situated
in a small, picturesque park,hemmed in
by mountains. Harney’s Peak risin gon
one side, and near by.
The town site covers 640 acres, and
this area embraces the whole of the
park, so that the size of the town must
be practically limited. The entire site
has been laid off into lots 50 by 150 feet
in size, which command prices ranging
from $25 to SSOO each, according to de
sirability of location and the eagerness
of buyers. The principal street is named
after General Crook. It is 200 feet
wide. The other streets have a width of
150 feet, and the alleys are thirty feet
wide, and all run at about the same an
gle as the streets of Denver. Four hun
dred buildings have been erected, and
every lot on the town site has the foun
dation of some sort of structure laid on,
it. There are four regular saloons,
where a bad quality of whiskey is retail
ed, and six stores, where you can buy
groceries, clothing, canned fruits, gum
boots, or whiskey. A dance house is to
be established soon, in Swareager’s hall,
a log and frame building 25x80 feet, and
a bevy of eight waiter and dance girls
are now en-route from Cheyenne, their ar
rival being eagerly and impatiently
awaited. So far, nobody has had the
enterprise or temerity to open a gam
bling house, and, as there are only two
or three decks of cards in the diggings,
poker playing is a limited amusement.
The five women in Custer city Indeed,
in the whole country, are all respectable.
But the advent of women of bad charac
ter is expected daily. A few drunken
rows, amounting to a little more than
boisterous hilarity, have occurred in
Custer city, but nobody has been killed,
nor even hurt.
The prominent discoveries are on
French, Spring, Castle, Rabbit, Iron,
Whitewooff and Deadwood creeks.
The two last named are seventy-five
miles northwest of Custer City. There
had been a stampede in that direction
for some days prior to Mr. Lewis’s de
parture for Denver. During one week
eight hundred miners passed through
Hill Cn.y for the above named creeks.
Very rich discoveries were reported to
have been made there, but on those
streams the bed rock lies near the sur
face, the depth ranging from three to
seven feet. These and the other creeks
on the western slope are very small, but
the fall is great, and the advantages for
sluicing correspondingly good. On
Spring creek the bed rock lies deep—-
from twenty-five to forty feet; on French
creek, at Custer City, a little nearer the
surface, from fifteen to twenty feet
There is comparatively but little water
in French creek, and the fall is so slight,
being less than a foot to the mile, that
nobody knows yet, to a dead certainty,
which way the creek runs.
Sitting Bull’s band of redskins has
been raiding the northern camps and
altogether some seventy or eighty head
of horses have been run off. A good
many of the prospectors are, in conse
quence, trudging about the country on
foot, packing their tools and provisions
on their backs. One miner, J. S. Mc-
Call, from Montana, was killed and
scalped last week by this same band. He
was riding alone to Hill City for provis
ions. Charley Mace, a Denver boy, be
longing to a party encamped on Old
Woman’s Fork, shot and killed an Indian
who, with ten or a dozen others, was
stampeding their stock. This occurred
about ten days ago.
Mr Lewis says that during a part of
the winter the weather was very cold
and the snow deep, but when he left
Custer City the air had the mildness of
spring about it, and men were building,
mining, and going about generally in
their shirt sleeves. There were no idlers
or loafers in the country. Every man had
an important objeetto accomplish, and
. that was to make his fortune, and as
quickly as possible. There are, it is es
timated, 4,000 people in the Hills, and
the number isgapidly auhmenting. Mr.
Lewis thinks the country is one of in
calculable riches. He doesn’t hesitate
to predict that the bars on French creek
will equal the famous Alder gulch in
Montana, which yielded its millions. He
will return shortly.
As Mr. Lewis and his traveling com
panions came out to Cheyenne, they
found the road lined with soldiers, pros
pectors, and vehicles. They were scarce
ly ever out of sight of parties. On Mon
day last, at Running Creek, halfway be
tween Fort Laramie and Custer City,
they met D. Tom Smith of Denver and
150 otlnrs, well armed and comfortably
equipped, and a day later they met Har
ry Mills, Charles Wilcox, Doc Bard, and
Dick Darlington, also bf Denver with a
party of thirty or forty, traveling at iv
lively gait. —Denver Neivs.
A Remarkable Case of Embez*
zlement.
Now a young banker absoonds with
all his customers’ money. This case is
little peculiar. The young man squan
dered it all upon a woman; but who do
you suppose that woman was ? Wlyr,
his own mother! She is a very hand
some widow, forty, who has a passion
for fashionable life. The young man,
her son, is a weak, good fellow, who loves
his mother—as very few sons do—and
can refuse her nothing. When he went
into business for himself, she emerged
from the humble boarding-house where
they had lived, and took an elegant
house up town, and commenced living
in the style of wealthy people.
She set up a carriage—she had the
house full of servants—she gave elegant
entertainments—she bought diamonds,
and camel’s hair shawls, and, in short,
she lived at a rate that made all her old
friends turn green with envy. The son,
at this time, was furnishing her with
’the means for all this extravagance,
knowing that the end was ruin; but his
mother liked it, and he was too weak tp
say no. She probably knew that she
was living beyond his means, but the
madness was on her, and she could not
stop.
The end came last week. The young
man and his mother sailed for Rotterdam,
taking with them every dollar that was
in the concern, and all that could be
borrowed, begged or stolen. It is sup
posed that the absconding, like all the
rest of it, was the inspiration of the
mother, for all who knew the young man
believed him to be honest, if left to him
self. The loss to the depositors will foot
up $600,000, and there is as much more
owing on notes on the street. This vast
sum of money has been spent within
five years, and tiiat it was spent there
can be no doubt, for as near as can be
ascertained they had mighty little to
take away with them.
The fine house was dismantled, though
they had sold quietly all that they could
without exciting suspicion. Curious
case! Men have been ruined by women
times enough, but who ever heard be
fore of that woman’s being one’s owrt
mother? —New York Cor. Auburn {N. Y.)
Advertiser.
No wonder President Grant wanted to
“hunt” the Catholics. Everybody was
having such a good time in Washington,
that it could have been soothing to see
the hounds on a wrong scent. Nero did
the same, after dancing over burning
Rome. When public indignation grew
hot against him he began to “struggle,
against Superstition and Ambition.
5