his pillow the money which kind James The mother entered, we became had deposited there the night before. known to one another, and then we deIt was a God-sent gift to us; because parted, with many kind assurances on mother, with her two sick children, my uncle's part that Joe, if possible, was unable to earn any thing by dress- would be freed. I own I never spent a making, and the little we had saved more profitable hour in my life. went speedily in purchasing the few delicacies that Joe and I needed.” "Then I did wrong my nephew," said my uncle Dan. "Your nephew!" exclaimed the only a release from earthly sorrows to surprised girl. "Aye, my dear girl, James Harvey is my nephew," replied my uncle. "And did you speak ill of him?" she asked. "I did," said my uncle, "for I knew not his goodness of heart. You have taught me, my girl, to love and respect him as I never loved or respected him before." "There, Barry," said my uncle, after we had departed, "is the perfect type of earthly resignation. Suffering has so purified her gentle spirit, that she needs become an angel of God. I own I am proud of James, and his friend Joe shall not suffer, God helping my enterprise. Let's about his release at once. Though his sins were red as scarlet, his love for his sister would make them whiter than snow." From efforts made that afternoon, we are sanguine of Joe's release. I told Henry my experience the "Oh, thank God," she cried, "that same evening, and he handed me it has been given me to do a kind heart these verses to accompany this trifling a little good!" sketch : Direct, O Lord, the heartsick and the weary, The foot-sore wanderers lead within thy fold; Dark is the garment error weaves around them 1; From the broad highways unto darkness leading, And cleanse their sin. Give them the strength to win by grand achievings Thy purpose hold. Bind, loving Lord, the hearts that fate has riven, So shall our life on earth, like that in heaven, Be one sweet prayer! Our Catholic papers should be a little clergy and laity. The sectarian journals, chary of devoting their space to the pro- partial to quack preachers as to quack ductions of Mark Twain. He is a humorist bitters, hailed him as the champion of truth who, it seems to us, has a more serious and righteousness. But before Mr. Keatpurpose than to merely enliven and amuse inge left our shores, his admirers had people. good reason to repent their enthusiasm. His "Innocents abroad" is chiefly remark- He had that usual weakness of "brands able for its light treatment of subjects plucked from the burning," in getting into generally held sacred, and approaches, if it difficulties with the ladies and forgetting to is not actually, foolish blasphemy. We respectfully suggest to one of our teemed contemporaries that Twain's sketch "On Duelling," with "a moral at the end of it thrown in to curry favor with the religious community," is hardly a good selection for a Catholic paper to make. The author may have a fund of original humor at his disposal, but when he uses it to ridicule religion, however covertly, we had better let him waste his absurdities on those who can appreciate them. pay his bills. This, with some discreditable es- adventures in Canada, led to his exposure, and though he defended himself with the same eloquence that characterized his attacks upon Rome, he found it advisable to return to England from whence he came. There he played his part of the "brand" with considerable success, until after a long series of deceptions, and after numbering among his victims bishops, tailors, and publicans, justice seized him at last, and upon a charge of forgery he was condemned to penal servitude for five years. The story of "Dr. Keatinge" (only one of many aliases) has a moral, but unfortunately those who need it most will heed it least. The superstition that seizes upon a canting scoundrel and makes him the oracle of people who believe themselves religious, is one darker than any the "Dark Ages" ever produced, and which all the light of the nineteenth century seems unable to dispel." If there is any class of people deserving our compassion and calling for all our missionary zeal to dispel their sad state of ignorance, it is that large body of highly respectable persons who consider it a solemn duty to pass all their lives swallowing doses of humbug and sham. Like the insane, who believe they alone of mankind are wise, these deluded unfortunates waste valuable time and treasure in attempting to rescue the heathen from a darkness in which they The comments of the press upon the death themselves are most lamentably enveloped. of the ex-Emperor Napoleon have exhibited a Another idol of this tribe of credulous wide diversity of opinion. The Catholic evangelicals has come to grief, and truly his papers, generally, have treated his character fall must cause great groanings of the spirit with more justice and impartiality than in the camps of the godly haters of Popery. could be found in the gushings of the secular The Rev. Mr. Keatinge" will be re-journals or in the bitter denunciations of membered as a promising English convert Protestant organs. They have recognized from " 'Romanism," who some three years the genius that made Cæsarism as successful ago travelled through this country denounc- as it can ever be at this stage of the history ing the error of his former ways. He was, of the world, while they deplored and cenof course, eagerly welcomed everywhere. sured the cynical materialism which led The Episcopal Bishop of New York gave Napoleon to look upon every thing, religion him a license to preach; his tirades were included, merely as instruments to serve the generally well attended, and he enjoyed the purposes of his ambition. Amidst many hospitality and confidence of the Protestant conflicting criticisms upon his life, we may their representatives, so long shall purchasable men disgrace the highest offices and a wide-spread system of corruption flourish, of which such scandals as the Credit Mobilier is but a single instance among thousands. perhaps safely conclude that, in his 'govern- tures God ever created) to choose for them ment of France, he exhibited as much conscience as any of the sovereigns of Europe, while he proved himself possessed of more brains than all of them put together. As Catholics his memory cannot inspire us with any profound respect, but at least we may remember that the grand old Pope whom he! deserted in the hour of need, lives to pray for the repose of his soul, a duty we owe to the dead Napoleon even as to the lowliest of our brethren. It is not easy to understand the astonishment of the people at the revelations of the Credit Mobilier investigation in Congress. That there has been exposed a degree of corruption in our highest legislative body deep and damning enough to make us almost ashamed of our country, there can be no doubt; but why there should be any wonder over what is simply one of the logical results of our present political system, is not so clear to the impartial observer. Many of our congressmen and even our senators have won their places in much the same way as the New York bummer arose in the palmy days of "rings" to the dignity of an alderman. Of course our Washington Solons, scorning the base degrees by which they did ascend, have preserved an outward show of virtue highly amusing to those who know by what trickery and dishonesty of party scheming they have obtained their dignities. As long as the people continue to be blinded with the narrow differences of mere partisanship, and allow a set of wirepulling politicians (the most miserable crea "How can we help such things?" cries the animated voting-machine. "You can't expect congressmen to be perfect more than any other men. When we are voting for them, what can we do but choose the best one presented, even if he is not above suspicion?" This choosing the lesser of two evils is simply turning moral cowardice into a principle. It is the argument of men whose lack of integrity needs some such plea, or of those who have not the courage to defend what they feel and know to be right. When men prate about the necessary evils they must perforce tolerate, they most generally want an excuse for mean selfishness or slothful indifference. Until people free themselves from the unmanly notion that they must be on one of two sides, though both be wrong, and become bold enough to form even forlorn hopes in the cause of honest government, there will be little prospect of any real lasting reform. When citizens no longer distrust their own power the occupation of party whippers-in shall be gone, and our judges and lawgivers be selected from a class who will not find it necessary to make up for "campaign expenses" by prostituting their places to the basest purposes. OUR BOOK TABLE. The LA SALLE, a literary Magazine, Published by GEO. A. SCHUTTE & Co. ST. LOUIS, MO. 1873. COLLEGE JOURNAL. Georgetown College. 1873. sweet-tempered contemporaries have in the fulness of their hospitality waxed sagacious in pointing out "the way they should go." And, by the by, we here beg leave to take exception to the patronizing tone We are not the first to greet these new which underlies some of the critiques we have strollers on literary ways. They have al- seen. The consummate suavity with which ready been warmly welcomed, and many some journals notice the new-comers, does not entirely compensate for the air of con- man could here advance the interests of descension they assume. They very forcibly truth. Deep down in the Yankee's nature call to our mind the charitable superiority prejudices lurked which only a deft hand we have seen blustering and self-important could pluck out, but at the same time there juniors affect in the presence of freshmen often lay beneath his cold, worldly, lucreassumptively impressed and studiously ob- loving life of every day a wholesome appreservant. Here their serene patronage is alto- ciation of truth when he saw it, and a rooted gether uncalled for. On their own merits antipathy to humbug. both these periodicals can demand favorable criticism; and if our contemporaries have a policy in being thus indulgently lukewarm, we confess our inability to see its force. The La Salle we understand is conducted by the students and graduates of the Christian Brothers' College in St. Louis. It contains forty pages of truly choice reading matter, among which we note biographical and philosophical papers of a high order of merit and some charming snatches of poetry. The initial numbers are well worth perusal, and we can safely say that so early a success is full of promise. The College Journal is another very attractive sheet. Indeed we have seldom seen any more So. Its articles, scholarly in style and orthodox in tone, are rivalled by the beauty of its typography and its general neatness of appearance. A varied and interesting table of contents marked the first issues; and a peculiar merit we noticed, was the condensation of much sound opinion and mature thought into a few compact and telling articles. Both of these Journals, we doubt not, will soon achieve an honorable standing among our Catholic periodicals. We here wish them the success they merit. SKETCHES OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE The Catholic priest who trudged almost untraversable leagues and bade wind and weather defiance, grew in his eyes from a fanatic or designing knave to a whole-souled, heroic benefactor of men. This step towards tolerance boded no good to meeting-houses, and preachers uttered unloving things of these workers in other vineyards, but the Yankee was strong on sham-hating, and ere many years had passed, deacons who looked upon converts from their respective flocks as children of Belial, began to grieve much at that false God's having such a numerous following. In this history is given a graphic account of the foundation, and a general outline of the subsequent advancement of the Catholic churches of New England. For truth of statement and authenticity of statistics the author himself is sufficient guarantee, and we must, in justice, say that his work is a truly valuable addition to the ecclesiastical history of the United States. THE MUSE: New York. 1873. This handsome little sheet is a society journal, and a far more respectable one than we are accustomed to see. It wisely discards the gorgeous, enigmatical headings in which publications of its class rejoice; it does not fall into the vanity of gingerbread type, and is guilty of none of the sins of questionable taste and unquestionable nonsense for which society journals have too often a weakness. Indeed it seems to have taken the initiative in seeking a higher place and wider recognition for the species of literature to which it belongs, and is consequently entitled to every encouragement. The history of the introduction and progress of Catholicity among a people so intensely puritanical as those of New England, must be possessed of a rare interest for all classes of readers. Manifold, indeed, were the difficulties the itinerant Catholic priest encountered in the course of his missions In the choice and arrangement of its among a widely separated flock, and singular matter much good judgment is shown, and were the ways in which Providence mani- the nature of its contents manifests a very fested itself in behalf of the militant church commendable regard for the wants of its in the New World. No common order of readers. CATHOLIC ITEMS. driven the opportunities for learning away; but Michael, Courcey, and Peregrine O'Cleary, and Ferfassa O'Mulconry, with indomitable perseverance and immense research, succeeded in compiling a series of annals which form the basis of Irish history. But it is only now, when the Four Masters have slept for nearly two hundred years in nameless and unknown graves, that an appreciative and grateful antiquarian, Sir William Wilde, proposes the erection of a memorial monolithic cross on the site of their labors. It is gratifying to note that there is already a long list of well-known names to support him with subscriptions.— Foreign Paper. The London Times lately said that no and hundreds of years of persecution had Englishman could be a true Catholic. The London Tablet says:-"Since no true Englishman can be a true Catholic, it follows that, in the judgment of the Times, Alfred the Great was not an Englishman, but probably a Dane in disguise. The Plantagenets, of whom some lifted the banner of England in the face of the Scots, while others bore it in triumph through the ranks of the French, were not true Englishmen. How could they be, since they were 'true Roman Catholics?' Our fathers, who fought at Cressy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, were probably Greeks or Dutchmen. The barons who stood with the prelates of England at Runnymede, and forced their worthless king, who was as false to the pope as to his country, to sign Magna Charta, came from nobody knows The London Church Herald says that Sir where. Richard Cœur de Lion, whom the John Duke Coleridge, the eminent English Saracens foolishly supposed to be an English-lawyer, refused a peerage and the judgeship man, and a very remarkable one, was un- of the Divorce Court, because his conscience worthy of the name, for he fought at the would not permit him to work in such invitation of the Pope, and for such a chi- iniquitous business. He is a brother of the mera as the Sepulchre of our Redeemer. eminent Jesuit of that name, one of the "True Englishmen,' such as the Times ap-leaders in English Catholic literature. plauds, abandon it to the Turk, which is evi dently more Christian and chivalrous, as The Alsatians are loud in their protestawell as much more economical. And if our tions against the intolerant system, introkings, warriors, and nobles, who dwelt induced into their territory by their conquerors, England from the seventh to the sixteenth century, and earned a name in their day, were all foreigners-which they must have been, since they were all Catholics, and all acknowledged the Pope as the Vicar of Christ-much more is it true of the rest the population." the Prussians. Among other causes of discontent, is that of forcing Catholic children to attend Protestant schools! The villages of Echalbach, Sarrebourg, Butten, Mackwiller, and Fellerdingen, have actually had their of Catholic schools closed, and the inhabitants are fined if they refuse to send their little ones to Protestant teachers. During his pontificate of a quarter of a century, Pius IX has witnessed the deaths of nearly a hundred Cardinals, and has almost twice renewed the Sacred College. THE IRISH HISTORIAN MONKS.-In the year 1632, in a humble dwelling within the enclosure of the Monastery of Donegal, of which there is nothing now left but the ruins, four Franciscan Brothers sat themselves down to weave out the thread of Irish history from the mass of tangled fact and When Strasburg was French, a large fiction, tradition, legend, and song, pre- crucifix hung over the presidential chair in sented. The work of Ireland's early schol- the Court of Assizes. Now a bust of the ars had been lost by subsequent disorders, | Kaiser William is placed there inste |