American Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 21, 20 February 1891, Page 3

American Notes.

The outbreak of the Indians in Dakota has once more proved tha heroism of the Catholic priesthood. A priest named Jule took upon him a mission from General Brooke to a camp of 2000 braves, strongly entrenched near Pine Ridge. He was accompanied by an Indian guide alone, and travelled for two or three days in extreme suffering from cold and hunger. The chiefs gave him a hearing, but declared that they h d been cheated of their food supplies and were determined to have one big feed and then devote themselves to death by fighting. Father Jule, however, succeeded in persuading them to send a deputation to discuss the situation with General Brooke. The Indians, indeed, declare no enmity against the military. They complain of the agents,' by whom they say, and most probably with justice, that they are robbed. They express a desire to be delivered from the management of the Indian department and placed under military control. Father Craft, meantime, the missionary, a convert, who had been elected a chief of the Sioux some years ago, with the title of Hovering Ea^le, and who had been in New York, his native city , when the troubles began, hastened back to his people in order to try and restrain them. He happened to be at Pine Ridge Agency when tha Indians, on the death of Sitting Bull, a noted chief, came in. They refused to give up theii arms, but instead opened a fire on the soldiers in which the missionary received a mortal wound. As to Sitting Bull, he was shot by the Indian police, and, as it is s*id he had been falsely accused of an intention of joining the hostile Indians and unjustly killed, a committe of Congress has been appointed to make inquiries. He was arrested in his camp and was being taken away when his son called for h's rescue. This led to a fight, in which tne chief, his ton, and many others were killed. The Indians corroborate the statements made by Father Craft in New York whea the news of the impending outbreak reached him there. The agents, they say, cut short their supplies, leaving them to starve, and the Messiah craze and the ghost dance are the results of their misery. The Boston Pilot has been bought back by Mr. Patrick Donahoe, its founder and original proprietor Mr. Donahoe beg m the publi-' cation of the Pilot in 1836— and, notwithstanding many difficulties and obstacles, carried it on for forty years as a brilliant snecoss — maintaining its place well among the first Catholic newspap.rsof the world. In 1876, as the consequence of »n almost unparalleled serie9 of misfortunes, he was obliged to sell the paper, which was purchased jointly by Archbishop Williams and the late Mr. Jolm Boyle O'Reilly. Under Mr. O'Reilly's editorship, we need Dot say, the Pilot lost nothing of its prexticje, and continued to occupy its high position. On the lamented occurrence of his death his interest waj purchased by the Archbishop who has now, making some generous reductions, sold tbe whole as we hive said, to Mr. Donahoe. The Pilot will bo conductel still on its accustomed lines, as a genuine Cithjlic pnptT, the advocate of Catholic education a id of everything in accjrdituv) with the precepts of the Church — £ a-} uufeigned hbeiaaty aR>, »nd inspire 1 by the patriotism ot the true Inah-Amcncfin. Mi. Donahoe, who holds the memory of John Boyle O'Reilly in afl" ctionite reverence, will do nothing to obliterate the linpiesa ot his genius left by him upon the columns of his paper. Mr." Do a l ioe 13 to be warmly congratulated on the spirit and talents which enabled him, when a man of sixty-three years of a^e, to b_>gin life anew, und which now. wnen he has attained the age of seventy-eight, have their fruits in his re-enterins: on the ownership of the paper founded, as we have said, and established by him, The fate of a young man named Frederick Boehrc, who committed suicide the other day at Brooklyn, gives another warning against the danger of Freethought, and Socialism. The unhappy victim left a letter addressed to the public, and in which he asserted his adherence to the doctnneß of Carl Marx, Lasalle, and Darwin, claiming! a right to deliver himself by self-murder from the unhappy position in which he found himself. One sucn practical example must go far, in the eyes of people capable of rellection, to discredit the nefarious doctrines referred to. A dispatch from Terre Haute, Indiana, says :— " A letter from Miss Hallie Voorhees, the only daughter of beaator Voorhees, just received by a young lady of this cty, confirms the printed report that she had embraced the Catholic faith, and that she had been baptized at the St. Matthew's Church at Washington, District of Columbia, by Rev. Doctor Chappelle. Mas Voorhees says, regarding the change in hsr religious views, that she is supremely happy. Toe report, when first published recently, caused a great deal of sunrise, as it was not known, even by her intimate associated, that she contemplated such a step, or that she leaned towards the Catholic faith at all. It is Btated now that the step has been the result of much thought on the pait of Miss Voorhees. She has been attending the Episcopalian service." Father Barnum, who was recently selected by the Superior of the Society of Jesus to labour among the natives of Alaska, on the Yukon River, is a well-known and extensive traveller. He is a native of Baltimore, Maryland, and a convert to the Catholic faith. He came of a wealthy family, and his ambition to be ome a Jesuit met with opposition from its members. Father Baruum in the long years he spent in travel has acquired a knowledge of all the lauguagca Qf Europe and learned from hia guides the speech of Egypt and.

Arabia. Borne years ago he became a convert to the Oatholic faith, and was baptised by Father Clarke at St. Ignatius' Church in his native city. He afterwards entered the Society of Jesus, where his varied knowledge and his almost universal use of modern languages made him invaluable. The Alaska missions are among the most arduous on the globe. The Fathers, besides being exposed to the terrible climate of the Arctic circle, are with out any source of income or revenue, at an enormous distance from any base of supplies, and separated from one another by hundreds of miles. Only once a year can they communicate with the outside world. One year ago another Baltimorean, Father Judge, daparted for Alaska. Of the four Fathers composing the mission, two are from Baltimore.

Some apprehension has been created in commercial circles by the signs of impending progress reported of as shown by China. It is predicted that she will eventually form an alliance with Russia, and obtain command of the European markets. So far has the alarm of the interested classes been amused that an objection has been made to supplyitg the country in question with the material needed by her for the construction and working of railroads and the development of mining and manufacturing industries. As the refusal, however, would simply turn the face of the Chinese towards other centres, it is not likely that it will be carried out.

Cardinal Gibbons is reported by the Jewish Exponent as expressing himself strongly against the persecution of the Jews now talcing place in Russia. His Eminence holds up the toleration of the United States as an example to the world.

The representatives of the well-known Drexel family have offered 40,000 dols. towards the establishment of an industrial school for coloured children, in connection with a college conducted by the Christian Brothers near Ellicott city, Maryland. Miss Kate Drexel, it will be remembered, has entered an Order especially founded by her for the benfit of the coloured population, and which she is about to endow, on making her profession, with the whole of her princely fortune— amounting to several million dollars, or more than a million pounds,

The Christian Brothers have purchased the property at Irvington, on the Hudson, that was known as the Astor Estate, for the purpose of erecting thereon an enlarged and improved Manhattan College. The price paid for Bixty-five acres of land fronting on the Hudson was 160,000 dole,, and the Brothers say that by the time the magnificent buildings are complete the college will have cost over 1,000,000 dols., and will furnish accommodation for over 1,000 students. It is proposed to consolidate in this new institution all the institutions now under the control and management of the Manhattan College.

Cardinal Gibbons, in giving his approval to the Pan-American Congress recently held in New York, thus expresses himself :—": — " A union of the American Statep," he says, '• will bring the people of this world together, first by commercial, and, as a consequence, by social ties, and thus widen and deepen that conception of the brotherhood of man which has been for ages the dream of great minds and the desire of great hearts."

By the munificence of a Mrs. Leland Stanford, a statue of Father Junipero Serra, the pioneer missionary of California, is about to be erected on the beach at Monterey, where the missionary first landed — some hundred and thirty or forty years ago. The statue will be of Crystal Lake granite, and will represent Father Serra ia his habit of a Franciscan monk, and stepping, cross in hand, from his boat.

Secretary Blame haß dismissed the Minister to Guatemal for the part played by him, a little time ago, in permitting of the arrest of a political refugee on board of an American vessel. The refugee io question was one General Barrundia, who, having vainly conspired against the Government, escaped to an American ship. The authorities immediately applied to the American Minister for permission to arrest him, and were authorised by the Minister to do so. Barrundia, however, resisted, and was shot down on board. Mr. Blame, having investigated the matter, has now dismissed the Minister. How would it be, by the way, supposing the arrest of a dynamiter on board, for example, of an American vessel at Cork, was authorised by the Minister in London ? It is to be concluded that the Government of the Stat«s has not one law for little countries and another for big ones — as seems to be the case elaewbere.

The Rev. J. Adams, a Brooklyn Protestant minister, has been saying a word or two in illustration of high life in America. The people who lead such a life, he says, " are as dead as pagans to all higher aims cf living." He further describes them as being " without a belief that there is any higher object in living than to go to dinners and eat them, to have parties which cost fortunes, and build up mushroom aristocracy on the basis of great grandfathers and great dinners." The great dinners we can understand, but what about the great grandfathers 1 Do these exalted people .project the gratification of their ambition into the future or enjoy by anticipation the pride of their posterity ? Great grandfathers are hardly to be Adopted.

The conveyance by an American man-of-war of the King of the Sandwich Islands to San Francisco has been taken as confirming a rumour to the effect that the King was in treaty with the American Government for the sale of hia territory. The transaction, moreover, seems to be regarded with some degree of favour. It has been felt that a too rigid adherenct to the Monroe doctrine has not been bern - ficiftl to the commercia,! intereet of the country, and some departure

from it, in the way of acquiring vantage points abroad, though by no means in that of permitting such acquisitions by foreign powers on the American continent, is advocated. It ia pointed out that the Sandwich Islands offer many advantages and would be conveniently situated for promoting trade and intercourse with the Australian colonies. It is further believed that, should America neglect the f^iportunity, Germany or England would probably become possjssed ot them, and this is regarded as especially undesirable for American i' tereßts. The carrying out of the transaction alluded to, therefore, s ems likely to be far from unpopular. A cowardly slander to the effect that, in escaping from Western Australia the late John Bo\le O'Keilly had broken his parole, has c.lled forth an indignant and c mplete contradiction from the Pilot. The elarder arose from a desire to prevent the erection in h ston cf a statue to Mr. O'Reilly. The Pilot in contradicting it quotes, among other things, the debate that took place in the House or Commons on the petition piesented by Mr. Hamngton for permiss.on that Mr. O'Reilly should revisit Ireland. In opposing the request not a word was said as to any breach of parole. Quite conclusive, however, is a letter also published by the Pilot from the Rev. Father McCabe, now a parish priest in Minnesota, and who waß the priest by whose assistance Mr. O'Reilly made his escape. "John finyle O'Reilly," he writes, "never broke his parole, never having one to break. Frcm the day that he landed from the convict ship Hougoumont in Frtmantle up to the day of his escape from Bunbury, he had been under strict surveillance, and was looked upon as a very dangerous man and treated as such. No man living knows tnis better than I do." — The Blander, then, which, however, no one knowing anything about Mr. O'Reilly could possibly believe, has been fully exposed. Its effect, no doubt, will be to promote the object which it was invented to thwart.