American Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 1, 3 October 1890, Page 3

American Notes.

Hyde of Beretania street — so branded with infamy for the rest of his life, *nd for so long after his death as ÜBsavouriness may preserve a memory, by the letter of Mr. Robert Louie Stevenson, has disgraced the columns of the Boston Congregationalist, by a reiteration —wholly unsupported by evidence, of bis abominable charges against the late Father Damien. Hyde baß not a word to say worthy of being considered by anyone not anxious 10 make a study of a despicpicable character. There is no question, of course, of his taking the action for libel, which Mr. Stevenson pledged himself as ready to meet. He merely attempts by impudence to Bneak out of the matter. A dirty fellow, however, is commonly a mean fellow as well, and that Hyde is mean, as well as dirty is, therefore, not surprising,

It Bhould always be remembered that Father Damien'a was no isolated case. Even as it actually is, Redemptorist Fathers are engaged in Central America in a work similar to his. At Tracadie, in Nova Scotia, and elsewhere, nuns are ministering to lepers, and in Japan a French priest has devoted himself, in complete isolation, to a like task. One extreme is, therefore, that adopted by Hyde of Beretania street, that of lying to discredit the martyr of charity. The other is that of unifying hia .devotion, aa if he alone, of all the members of the Catholic Church had shown it. Father Damien, notwithstanding his great merits, has been but one among many.

The town af Bouth Lawrence, Massachusetts, has been devastated by a cyclone. In about fifteen minutes a great portion of the town was destroyed — ruin falling upon everything within the line of the storm, with a suddenness that hardly permitted cf escape. Nine people were killed on the spot, and tome fifty were severely injured. As usual in such cases, several pathetic instances are narrated, not the least being that of a little child found calling out " I want mamma,', while the body of its dead mother lay close at hand. The Little Sisters of the Poor gave shelter in their home to many who had lost their all. The Grey Nuns also deserve recognition for the unsparing efforts made by them.

TVp publication of the correspondence between the British and American Governments, relative to the Bebring sea question, has made tbe claims of America in the matter undeniable. It has been plainly shown that the rights of Russia over the sea had been incontrovertible, and that by purchase America had acquired the Bame privileges. In any case, as ia stated elsewhere, the seals concerning whose capture all the dispute has arisen can be shown to be the property of the American Government. They are not seals properly sooalled but a kind of sea-bear, frequenting American territory for the greater part of the year, and only for a season betaking themselves to tbe water. The manner of killing them, moreover, is regulated by law, and everything proves that they are not common property. Mr.

Blaioe has written very plainly on the question of the American right over the sea, and has not left much room for doubt concerning it.

Tbe death of John Boyle O'Reilly has been a subject of great r. gret. Testimonies to hia worth were borne on every »ide, and by people of all parties and shades of opinion. It would be impossible to quote even a tithe of them. The following paragraph, therefore, from the New York Sun may be taken as a sample :— " Tbe death of J)hn Boyle O'Reilly in tbe prime of his powers is more than a great loss to literature and journalism ; it takes away one of the manliest and most engaging figures of the time, a man of rich physical and intellectual gifts acd of a singular personal charm. A true son and patriot of Ireland and America, a hater of all tyrannies, snobberies, and shams, a poet of robust imagination and virile style, an editor with a great constituency, an orator, a lecturer, and an athlete, his achievements covered many fields of activity, and his influence was widespread. He will be long remembered and long mourned in the country of his birth and of his adoption ; but only those who have bad the happiness toeojoy his friendship can fully understand of what a rare and generous spirit his death baa bereaved the world,' Testimony of a similar kind has been abundant.

A debate in the Uni'ed States Senate on the Indian Appropriation Bill has been distinguished by testimony borne as to the successful action of Catholic missions and Catholic schools among tbe tribes. " I say it as a Protestant," said, for example, Senator Vest, " that the Jesuits have succeeded better than any people living in ihe education of the Indians.', The great impediment, meantime, to tbe working of the missions is the existence of the Indian ageacies, who have their own ends to gain — ends that are not always in agreement with tbe welfare of the people whose affairs they administer. Until these agencies are done away with, the Indian tribes must eontinne to occupy a position in many respects unfavourable to their interests.

A charming feature in a civilised country is presented by the state of a certain county in the South- West. Perry county, Kentucky, is the particular locality alluded to. There tbe other day, for example, a judge, before opening his court, thought it advisable to make his will. The court was held in a tent, moreover, a gang of outlaws who were camped close by having burnt down tbe courthouse. " This county," said the judge," is over seventy years old. and only one man in all that time has been convicted for murder, and sentenced to a small term of years in tbe penitentiary, yet 600 men have been murdered in the county." Sncb details require no comment. They show ns clearly what charming nooks advanced civilisation is still capable of containing.

Another county that seems to deserve some special notice ia Jasper county, Mississippi, where what a local paper calls a " committee of the best-known citizens of the neighbourhood " have just been accountable for the murder of a man, because he was engaged in delivering political speeches which were not to their taste. They said he was arousing bad feeling between the whites and blacks, and ordered him to desist. On his continuing they had him shot. The natural conclusion is that the speaker was engaged in advocating the rights of the coloured population — a matter often displeasing to " best known citizens." In another county of this State the feeling in question has been recently manifested ia the shooting by a Senator of an editor who repeated in his paper a report that be, the Senator, had black blood in his veins. Facts, in short, are c mstantly occurring to prove how violent is the race hatred alluded to.

Fierce heat was experienced in New York and Brooklyn dmring the last days of July and first days of August. Several people died of it, among them the Bey. James Trainor, assistant priest of St. Joseph's Church, Brooklyn, who was on hia way to attend a Bick call when he was struck down in the street. He was only twenty-eight years of age.

A Bill now before Congress, and known as the McKinley Bill, for the further protection of American industries, is much discussed. Its proposals have, moreover, been received with great dissatisfaction in England, with who^e trade they threaten seriously to interfere. The Protectionists and their organs are loud in their approbation of the measure.