Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 25, 25 June 1908, Page 9

Current Topics

Give Him His Due ' Give the devil his due \- says Billings'; • but be very kerful that there ain't much ,due to him. 'If you owe the devil ennything ', says the same phonetic philosopher, ' pay him off at onse, and then discharge him, and don't hire him over agin at enny prise \ Three • Posers ' Father Rickaby, S.J., has (says the Milwaukee ' Catholic Citizen ') 'a short examination paper ■ ready to serve on any one who will assert" that Catholic teaching clashes with physical science— these three questions :— ' " 1. With what particular branch of physical science does Catholic leaching clash ? ' " 2. What particular .knowledge have you of that particular branch ? '" 3. What knowledge have you of Catholic teaching ? " ' Usually ', adds the ( Citizen ', ' these questions will demonstrate that ' the critic of the- Catholic Church has a very vague knowledge of what he thinks he is talking about intelligently.' Dairying From time to time the Education Board reports contain reference to the manner in which children are said to be over-wrought and under-schooled in the dairying districts of New Zealand. Similar complaints come at intervals from the cow-districts of Victoria and New South Wales. 'It is a depressing fact ', reports one school official in the Mother State, ' that from twenty-eight to thirty-two pupils .out of every hundred enrolled are absent fronr school every day, and this while ample means of' education are available without cost, and compulsory 'education is nominally in force. The machinery in operation is apparently ineffective to cope with this serious obstacle to success.' To the Swiss, the cow is everything. The good Switzer grooms her, rugs her, and" makes her Majesty the Cow a sort of head of the family. To the Irish cottier the pig was long ' the gintlemaff . that paid the rint '—and he looked as if he knew it ; to the Swiss in the dizzy uplands the cow is the lady that keeps up the long projecting :roof. But- too much, can be made of a rent-payer and a roof-tree prop. 'In the dairying districts ', wrote a zealous priest to us some time ago, ' the cow too often stands hetween the children and education, and between the family and salvation '. A cow is a very • good thing in a field ', said Samuel Johnson, ' but we turn her out of a garden '. She is, no doubt, -a very good thing. for moneyraising ; but she ■ should not be permitted to interfere with the higher and the better things- of. life. Fearing Death • A medical writer in a North Island contemporary gives expression to a belief which, we think, grows upon observant priests that have had much experience at the bedsides of the &yirig,-'-.-.'.-la. serious illnesses', writes he, • the careful medical man notes the desire to live, the struggle against- dissolution, the fear of death. He takes heart from these symptoms, for .they 'are "the signs of -life. When death! draws near 'the "struggle ceases, even the desire of life ceases, * the' stimulus is gone, and the fear of "death vanishes, before his ' wings * appear '. Somewhere in one of his writings the late Cardinal ' Manning makes remarks in a .somewhat simir lar strain. ' Mr. Dooley ' has, by the way, lately bfeen philosophising on the, same theme, and has contrived to give a new point and new, expression 'to. the " famiiiar but ill-realised platitude, regarding . the certainty v of death, the uncertainty of its manner, < and the unexpec-

tedness with which it commonly overtakes oven those who have been awaiting its . coming. ' Th' most per'lous' iv- human occypations are usually th' lowest paid. An' why is this so ? Is it because we're not afraid iv death ? Faith, no, but because we don^t know ahnything .about it. We don't appreciate .If our simple minds cud grasp th' subjiclc' th. 1 "bravest man in th' wurruld wud be found undher th' bed' sobbing. It's there, 'but it isn't there. It happens to iv'rybody, but ye can't see it happens to ye'ersilf. Ye walk briskly up to it, or 1 maybe ye even run. Ye niver see it till it's too late, an' thin 'tis too -late to recognise it. 'Tis no good runnin' away fr'm it. Manny a mandodgin' a trolley car has been run over be an autymobill. Ye hidejr'm th' lightning an' a muckrake lands ye. Ye avoid railroad trains an' boats an' scratch ye'er thumb with- a carpet tack, an' 'tis all over. Ye expect it fr'm wan side iv th' sthreet an' it comes fr'm th' other. Ye think that must be it in th' block ahead, an' ye make up ye'cr iniud to walk slow whin it steps up behind ye, slaps ye on th' back, an' says : " Ye're wanted at headquarters. Ye'd-betther come along peacfeable ". To which, havin' no further inthrest, ye make no' reply. 'Tis thin f'r th' first time ye'd have an undherstandin' an' a fear iv death if ye were alive. But ye are dead.' And there's an end on't. Religious Education ' Religious education ', says Professor Ga.rvie (of New College, London) , ' must mean more than instruction, even the best instruction. It means, supremely, influence—the whole personality of the teacher filled with the presence and the power of Jesus Christ, brought into such contact with the child as to become a channel of grace. That means very much closer and more frequent contact between the teacher and the child than the ordinary Sunday School meeting allows. We cannot accomplish very much by an hour's contact between the teacher and the child. Do you suppose that an' hour of a better spiritual and moral environment on Sunday can counteract all the evil influences of the .environment of the child during the rest of tfie week ? ' - Catholics don't suppose it. Hence the schools with which they dot all. the land, in order to counteract the evil influences that, left unchecked, would play the devil's tatoo upon the child-mind ; hence the daily effort to fill the little ones' souls, as far as .may be, with an enduring sense ot the presence and the power of Christ. ♦ _____ Reaping the Whirlwind The atheistic ring of rulers that at present Tammanies France sowed the wind Avhen it banished religion from the schools, penalised the practice of it in civil and military employments under the State, and (as Minister Viviani put it) set themselves by' every means to drive God out of the heavens. The country is" rea-ping the whirlwind, and the harvest promises 'to be a bountiful one. The doings of the- ' apaches ' or • hooligans ' of "Paris have more than once been referred to in our; columns. Apart from these, there 'has of late years been a serious increase' of crime, and especially of juvenile crime, in the May number of the 'National Review', the ' distinguished writer, Canon Barry, tells of an official report addressed by the Public Prosecutor of Le Mans to the Prefect of the Department of La Sarthe, in which •he asks that a larger sum be assigned for magistrates so that the number may be increased with a view to the repression of crime. According to this official document, crime is increasing with alarming rapidity. In 1900 the examining magistrate at Le Mans had' to deal with 70 criminal cases ; in 1901, with" 96 ; 1902,' 107 ; 1903, 122; 1904, 139; 1905, an , astounding leap, 1 239 ; 1906*. 247 ; in ldo7, with 258. In Paris, the Board of Magistrates of the Department of the Seine, has doubled its

sth Section, that dealing with robberies and swindles. Positions are ' thus- created . for . four new examining, magistrates, two new deputies, and four new magistrates' clerks.'- - < _■ Religion and Insanity Cable messages from Melbourne record the case of the man Pincombe, who sent threatening letters to the local Protestant and Catholic clergy, and finally ' drew a bead' on the Rev. Mr. "Robiinson. The trouble arose out of the fact that the man's .wife has been for some time in a hospital for the insane, sufferings from religious mania, and the unhappy man (who is also apparently demented) has, in consequence, conceived a bitter hatred" of creeds and clergy of every kind. On receipt of the first cable message,- a secular contemporary jumped to' the rather hasty conclusion that religion is, in a" way, a predisposing -cause' of* insanity,. But piety, according to St. Paul, is useful' for all things ; and religion and its, principles are necessary for the completion and .rounding off- jof even the physical side of our nature. "The ' S.H: Review ', in its issue of April 25, quotes' from an article in a Protestant paper on religion, and insanity. The , ! article is by Dr. Starr Jordan, of Columbus, and- hequotes an interesting statement" made to him in the course of a private letter by Dr. A. B. Richardson, who (says the ' S.H. Review ') ' was for many years in charge of institutions of -the insane,, .the last being . the United States Hospital at Washingfton. Dr. Richardson replies to Dr. Jordan's inquiry about the amount of insanity attributable ,to religion : " You have asked me a very easy question. I have tested the , matter thoroughly. There are only two patients in the hospital whose insanity has any relation to religion, and I think, from their, predisposition to insanity, that they would probably have become insane on some other subject if they had not on religion. Now, ifyou had asked me hoAV many people in Ohio are kept by religion from insanity and out of these hospitals,^ you would have given me a question hard to answer, for they are a multitude. The good cheer, bright hopes, rich consolations, good tempers, regular habits, and g.lad songs of religion are such an antidote, for the causes of insanity, that thousands of people in Ohio are preserved from insanity by them.- But for the beneficent influence of religion, Ohio would have to double the capacity of her hospitals in order to accommodate her insane patients ".' - — " ' This would lead to a condition somewhat similar to that which was described by James C. Petig.ru when he was asked the way to the Charleston Insane Asylum. 'My dear sir ', he replied, ' take aiiy road. You ' can't go astray. The whole State is one vast insane asylum '. A Convent Romance Some weeks ago we commented on an American convent romance that was evidently concocted by some one who believes in the principle enunciated in Kipling's ' A Day's Work ' that ' there is no sense in telling too much truth '. The story has appeared s in several versions, all worked up in the true style of'the journalism that is ' yellow '. All the versions, concur in making the heroine a Good Shepherd nun, 'Sister Florence ' (!), and in endowing .her with X beauty that was perfectly intolerable,- and in giving her* 'a \lovier true.\ v At one time this was a workman employed— in the solvent laundry ! At another time, he is a lawyer from a" neighboring town, who contrived to see the resplendent creature surreptitiously— in the noviciate ! Of course an- • escape ' was arranged — the nun of rom-asnee never goes out in the usual prosaic way, by. the front door. Like the cow of the nursery tale, she has to jump over* the moon— or to imitate the. folly 'of the supposedly wisest of all insects, the ant, when, dragging a' dead weevil to- its nest, it encounters on its path a thistle

of the Scotch or Canadian variety. Insects with more common-sense and less v reputation for intelligence would just walk around it and proceed serenely on their nestward way. Not so the wisest insect. It climbs the thorny stem— backwards— lugging - its ibtarden with ludicrous toilsomencss up the prickly ascent, to the top of its topmost flower ; and then, with, many a fall' and many a prick, it descends the further side. This is the way in which the nun of anti-convent romance 'escapes'. The front door is open to her ; but her exit must, of , course, be made ' after the I fashion of the • ant's * hauling home ', with incredible and ludicrously unnecessary toil and adventure. ' Sister Florence' 'escaped' in two or three different ways. Heir ' jovier ' .aaid ,.she exchanged garbs— inside the. con- \ t. vent, by. day ; , they.., likewise did : not, exchange^ garj>s,/i :\ but.., he remained, outside, while -she scrambled-.-- a t-'i '-the,* witching 1 : hour down- by -windows raind- walls as nimbly:- , as; any' monkey; and flew, puiteued for- miles' by>^ r th6' ' whole ~ community.,, across ~ the' snbw. : covered fields. .Tlijs". course qf, .true lovcy.in this as in,., m^nyoiner.. cases, • . did not';.- run smoothly. The 1 : fugitive -wasudiscovered by the -* searchers in- a hotel in" a "neighboring ll /town, and bjrougjitr bac.k. -/ Then her laborer-lawyer. * sued far a, writ .of "habeas ..corpus, the court awarded .him. Florence', an obliging : -magistrate -Wde:them one,, after many t , stirring incidents : by flood and iield. - And the story , ought to have ended *a& all fairy tales should end-^-' ' They .lived happily V.ever. afterwards.'. ",It " [ The- ending, however; 1 was less romantic." One'versioh of thef romance (published in New Zealand)- placed ij , the scene in an unnamed .Good Shepherd convent in the . State of Nebraska. The - others were "less discreet — they gave the name of the Good Shepherd Convent in Omaha, Nebraska. And then the indiscreet bubbde Was pricked. We quote the exposure of the insanely preposterous story from the Milwaukee • Catholic Citizen ' of May 2, 1908 : 'In a letter to "the editor af " The Cleveland Universe ",• Monsignor Colaneri, Vicar--General of the Omaha diocese, thus- shows ' up its fal- - sity : "I have not seen the scandalous story you refer to, but I can give~ you the details of the case, that •. I presume furnished the basis for it. Last Thursday, an A. P. A.- attorney.- of* this city, at . the -instance of , an' , discharged 7 employee of the Good Shepherd convent, se- ; cured a writ" of -Habeas corpus for the release of an ; inmate 'of ...the. reformatory— a non-Catholic girl. - The j- case was --not. contested, of course, and the Mother^ ,j Superior made no- objection to., the girl's leaving.. That, is all there is in : the' story r . The attorney — inspired by . what .motives"! "am 4P. a^ e .^\ say— gave out to the reporters a .supposedly.;..' romantic ' story, .about" the case. Ido not know, how far he, was responsible^ -for the scandalous story: sent to the Eastern papers.' . ' So ', adds the ' Catholic Citizen ', 'it will appear Florence was noj» a nun. and not a Catholic— merely a penitent. The : " escaped nun~"was not a nun at all, and there was no escape. It appeared that the Mo-: ther Superior was not served with a writ of '.- habeas corpus ", as she was q»ite willing to let the rionCatholic, Florence Tinsley, depart without objection.'/

Although King Edward's.. .cook receives a 'salary;..., pi". ; £2000 per /annum., he -is not- called upon to- prepare an elaborate meal- every- time his. Majesty dines at" Wind-. •'. sor Castle or -Buckingham Palace. Unless he is, entertainingy .the King much. .prefers a simple menu, and^tlio same remark aPPti°s to the. tastes of Queen Alexandra. 'We'll cut ihe Panama Canal !' Said Uncle - Sam. 'Yoj'll see we sha.ll! » . We shaU^no sham ; As sure's I am . • The boss tobacco-chewer, - ... ~ Burt during winter tome, I guess, For coughjs.. an <i colds we can't do less Than-ease tbe workman's wheeziness With Woods' Great Peppermint Cure.'