"SISTER" SHEPHERD.

Observer, Volume XXIII, Issue 6, 25 October 1902, Page 2

"SISTER" SHEPHERD.

Another Alleged Ex-Nun in Search of Dollars.

ANOTHER member of the sisterhood of alleged ex-nuns is visiting this city witli the object of villifying the Church and other religious institutions with which she was associated in the earlier part of her life. Now, of all the vast army of humbugs who travel about the world, making dollars out of the credulity of mankind, the religious humbug is the most insufferable, and those members of the profession who claim to "expose" the "secrets" of conventual life are the most despicable of a queer lot. It is a show run for the money that is in it, but we shall be greatly astonished if the business is found to pay in Auckland, though there may be numbers of women curious enough to risk a shilling in order to get some spicy little morsels at those meetings which are closed to the male person and the young person of the softer sex who happens to be under eighteen years of age.

And here we would say that it will be counted to the credit of this " exnun " that she has the grace to exclude girls. We cannot pretend to be able to guess at the nature of the " revelations," but when an ex-nun wants to tickle the ears of the elderly female, her style will be too warm for youth. Now, what do we know of such people as this lecturer, who charges a shilling to hear exceedingly improper talk, and incidentally tries to sell books which, if they are anything, are prurient and nasty? Leaflets containing "testimonials" hare been freely distributed, the said testimonials being wholly from Yankee papers, which have obviously been playing fast and loose with the truth.

We are informed that the lady was formerly in a certain convent, hut why she went there and why she left are matters for speculation. Whatever the reasons may have been, there are hosts of noble women belonging to the various sisterhoods, and known to the world as self-denying and devoted to the work of charity, who ought not to be slandered by the implications of a woman who follows the business for the money she can make out of it. When the fast specimens of "converted" priest and nun were here, the good sense of the community dealt with the problem in the best of all possible ways. The humbugs were treated with contempt, and they did not manage to raise any crop of heartburning. It is not to be supposed that any self-respecting Protestant would attend a lecture which avowedly deals with coarse subjects, and professes to reveal the most nauseating particulars about a case which must of necessity remain purely hypothetical.

Experience in the Colonies has taught us all to hold each other's faith in respect, and apart from thi.s broadminded toleration, we have seen and heard more than enough of the palpably faked disclo-ures of alleged priests and nuns. These people pander to the lowest of all passions, and the community would be serving its interests best by ignoring- them. If we have not set the example, it is be-

cause a word pf warning is neeeßßeary in many quarters into which the insidious literature to which we have alluded above has crept. " Deadwood Dick" is bad enough, but there is worse poison than that, and it comes in the specious guise of moral revelations. " Sister Magdalene Adelaide " claims to be inspired by the highest of all motives. Her chief motive unquestionably is greed of gain.