within ten years thereafter nine tenths of his work had apparently disappeared.

There were a few societies in Ireland and in America organized by him in 1849, which kept up their existence, and which served to form a link between the old and new era in Roman Catholic total abstinence work; but in 1860 only about twelve of these societies were in existence. However, it is in that year that the beginning of the present movement on a religious basis is to be dated.

James W. O'Brien, the Corresponding Secretary of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, says:—

"In 1860 a young priest, lately ordained, became an assistant to one of the pastors in Jersey City. He asked permission of his superior to attempt the establishment of a religious total abstinence society, which was given, and the Parochial Total Abstinence Society was founded. It succeeded; and the young priest, removing to other parishes, founded in each one of them a similar organization.

"This system spread from the Diocese of Newark to the Diocese of New York, and as others in the region. began to see the benefit of religious total abstinence, the movement was soon taken under the tutelage of the Church. Its progress was steady, and the societies multiplied, producing great fruits.

"Many years later this same priest, the Rev. Patrick Byrne, of Trenton, now President of the Catholic Total Abstinence Union of America, thus speaks of his experience in those days: 'I felt from the first the frightful nature of this vice, and I determined to combat it to the

last limit allowed me by the Church; but I soon found that an occasional sermon, however powerful and scathing, or the administration of the pledge now and then, either within or without the tribunal of penance, was of little avail against a vice which had interlaced itself with all the social customs of our people. I therefore began to establish society against society, but when I reached this point I found myself opposed by many of my brethren far above me in learning, zeal, and piety. They thought that the ordinary means were sufficient to meet this, as all other vices. They looked upon the new scheme as unsafe. But as for me, I never could see the propriety of this view; as the "mission" (special religious service) awakens a habitual sinner, who, dead to grace and devotion, never hears the voice of his pastor, so, also, the total abstinence society becomes the means of recalling many an unfortunate to the path of sobriety and rectitude.'"

During the next ten years the new system of societies, under the sanction of the priests, gained very general approval.

In the years 1867-69, the orders of Passionists, Jesuits, and Paulists began to found total abstinence societies in parishes where they held "missions," or, as the Protestants call them, "revivals." In 1870 these societies had become so numerous that they began to combine in aggregate bodies, called " Unions," in cities, dioceses, and States. These unions were formed in New York city; in the States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, and in the District of Columbia. The Bishop of Newark, the Most Reverend J. R. Bayley, gave the sanction of his great name to the movement,

and made a "temperance speech" after witnessing at torch-light procession in which were a thousand brawny honest fellows of his parish who were pledged to total abstinence. This speech, which was reported in the "New York Herald," was published in all the Catholic papers, and printed as a Catholic temperance tract, and a hundred thousand copies of it were scattered all over the country.

"This," says Secretary O'Brien, "was the first speech. we were able to get from a bishop of the Church." The result was glorious! From end to end of the land priests and people took up the work, and within the six succeeding months more societies were founded than had been in all the years since Father Mathew's death.

A scheme was now devised for a National Union of the Catholic Total Abstinence Society, which was formed at a convention held in Baltimore, February 22, 1872.

The Rev. Father M'Devitt was elected as head of the National Union movement, and James W. O'Brien as Secretary.

The Dominican preacher, Rev. Father Tom Burke, whose lectures on Irish history as against Mr. Froude produced so considerable an agitation in the Protestant world, and whose sermons were indescribably powerful among his own people, gave hearty assistance to this temperance work, speaking for its meetings again and again. These addresses of Father Burke were published and sent abroad as tracts, and under the impetus thus given new societies were formed and thousands of pledges taken.

In another year the Roman Catholic bishops throughout the country began to give the movement their confidence, and in an annual national convention, held in Chicago, October 6, 1874, letters of warmest approval were read from thirty of the most distinguished Roman Catholic prelates in this country. And, in addition to this, a very cheering letter was received from Cardinal Cullen, of Dublin, Ireland, congratulating the President of the National Union, and encouraging the American Catholics in their fight against intoxicating drinks.

The last report, given at the national convention in Buffalo, shows five hundred and seventy-three local societies, with over one hundred and fifty thousand members. Of the other Catholic total abstinence societies there are, perhaps, three hundred more, and Secretary O'Brien estimates the entire number of Roman Catholics in this country pledged to total abstinence at two hundred thousand persons.

Since 1870 over a million of Catholic temperance tracts have been circulated. A temperance journal, called after the name of the society-"The Catholic Total Abstinence Union," has been established in New York, being the first paper of the kind ever seen among the Roman Catholics of America.

CHAPTER X.

FATHER MATHEW, THE IRISH PRIEST OF TEMPERANCE.*

A

LTHOUGH this volume treats only of the history

of temperance in America, it would be incomplete without an ample record of the life and labors of that Irish Roman Catholic priest, Theobald Mathew, whose name is sacred to thousands of his countrymen on this side the ocean; whose pledges were held to be almost sacramental, and whose temperance medals were actually worn as charms and amulets, like the holy relics which good Catholics delight to have upon their persons to keep all bad spirits away.

Father Mathew was a native of the county of Tipperary, Ireland, where he was born on the tenth of October, 1790. In childhood he showed the qualities of leadership and benevolence. He was tender-hearted and gentle, hating all such sports as hunting, coursing, and gunning, because of the pain they inflicted upon the game. No improper words were ever heard from his lips, and his behavior in all other respects was as orderly as his speech. His mother was a pious Catholic, and, like most good mothers of her creed in Ireland, wished to have a priest in her own family. One day, while her large household surrounded the ample dinner-table, she exclaimed:

*From the admirable "Life of Father Mathew," by John Francis Maguire, M.P., of Cork, this sketch is prepared by the kind permission of the publishers, Messrs. Sadlier & Co.. New York.