American Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 18, 19 February 1892, Page 2

American Notes.

THE spirit of the age has bad an illustration in an attack made some weeks ago on Mr Russell Sage, a financier and millionaire of New York. A man calltd at Sage's office in Broadway, and without any preface or pretence demanded an immense sum of money. If this request was not instantly complied with, he added, he would blow lip the place with dynamite, which, he Baid, he bad in a satchel be carried with him. Sipe, seeing the mm to be insane, a' tempted to gain time by pleading an er ga^emeiit. The madman, bewever. was as good as bi9 w;id, a r )d ilun^ down his satchel to the fl ior, on which there et sued a terrific explosion. The midman himself was literally torn iv pieces, his head alo'ie remaining unabat!ert;d ; a clerk was hulled through a wiudow iuto t.ie street and killed on the spot ; a cashier and an office boy weie seriously it jured, and a man visiting the office oq business was also severely hurt, his statement btiogtuat Sage caught hold of him and saved himself by tbiusting him in between tbe mauiac a d his oad person. iSaje was not badly injured. It is said that Lis lirst remAik after the catastrophe w >s a complaint that a suit of clothes, which bad cost him loiols., and which he bad worn for two years, was spoiled. Ibis sufficiently describes his character, but ucany ancedotes of his meanness and penury are common. The maniac provid to have been a broker from Boston, named Norcioss. He La»i bien educated at tin- high school of Bomerville Masc, and his tormei teacbi r las testified concerning him as follows ' — " He vsas one of ih>> bn_l tst jouu^ mm 1 bad in the bchool. Ilia teudencies wire all tow rd tte study of tbe classics. I have bad many locg talks with him on religion. He was a cynic in all matters. His wbole aim in life was to be rich ; ttat was the goal of bis ambition." Greed (or riches and lmligiou, bjth characterises of the age, had done tb>ir wo.k.

The outcry against Minister Egan is to be altributed to the devices of the London Tbne*, whose correspondent in Cnili, no doubt according to instructions, consistently misiepresents all tbe Ministers actions. The obj ct of the Times, however, is not merely to blacken Mr Kgan in the face of world, re urnkg to the old tactics wbio culmiuated in us lubhcation cf th 9 memorable articles on '• Parnelhsm and Crime." It is als > closely concerned to sir up ill feeling in Chili against the United StaUs, so as to pr vent mote friendly commercial relitions betwtea the countries in question, aud benefit Engusb trade, Presidiut liarriion, in bis recent missdge, lias shewn \ha\. he thoroughly undeihtands tbe situation. Ik wii esin reference to it as follows :— " It is a matter of iegr< t that so n.any of our own people btiou d have given ear to unoflicial charges and complaints that manifestly t.ad their origin in private inu-rests and in a »cish to pervert tlui relations of the United States tvith Chili,

After all bis nasty little flings at "Yankee " manners and customs (says the Boston Pilot), liudyard Kipling is goiDg to marry an American girl, a sister of the late Wolcott Balestier, Rudyard will

not know so much ten years hence as he thinks he doet now, bat he will be a heap wieer. A case bf kidnapping occurred recently in Kansas city, Bio., where the little son of a Mr David Beals was abducted for the par* pose of extorting a reward. The money was paid and the child restored. Bat this is a crime which all classes of the community are interested in stamping out. Jadge Lynch has often dealt severely wiih cages undertaken much Icbs excusably by him. The Boston Pilot draws the following snggestire comparison between the promoters of the late an ti- Christian horrors in Ohina and certain apostles to whom respectable Protestantism not nnfreqaently lends its ear. " A Tartar named Gheen Han is said to have been the fomenter of the recent crusade against foreigners in Ohina. He wrote a vile boi k full of obscene Blanders against the Christians, and, with toe aid of a Chinese Committee of 100 and a Pauline Propaganda filled the corner drug-stores of the Celestial kingdom with the incendiary stuff for general distribution among Iht ignorant and bigoted of his fellow-countrymen. The result haß been murd -r, arson, and incipient rebellion. Cbeen Han omitted one important factor in his crusade— he forgot to pose as an ' escaped ' Christian." At an ordination held at Baltimore on Sunday, December 19, b 7 his Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop, among the candidates admitted to priests' orders was the Rev Charles B. Uncles, a young man of colour. He is remarkable as the first negro priest ordained in the United States. He had, as an American Negro, two predecessors in tbe priesthood, but neither of them was ordained in this country. Dr J. H. Porter, of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington' and a party of brother scientists have recently made an examination of some remains of ancient walls discovered near Cleveland, Tennessee. Dr Porter believes them to be remains of the Toltecs, a civilised people who inhabited tbe country before the time of the Aztecs. He says the evidence of a prehistoric race in indisputable.

The President's Message contains a pretty plain hint that President Harrison has no intention of permitting any misunderstanding to obtain as to the determination of the United States to maintain the line of policy known as tbe Monroe Doctrine. " I should have been glad," the President says, "to announce some favourable disposition of the boundary dispute between Great Britain and Venezuela touching the Western frontier of British Guiana. But tbe friendly efforts of the United States in that direction have thus far been unavailing. This Government will continue to express its concern at aoy appearance of foreign encroachment on territories locg under tbe administrative control of American States." The hint thus pointedly t^iven has not been received with much favour by a certain portion of tbe British Press. Nevertheless, it will not be very astonishing if the British Government eho us tokens of perfectly appreciating it.

The inquiry instituted by the Secretary of the Navy exhibits in the moßt sinister light the attack made on the sailors of the Baltimore in V lpiraiso. The men were brutally treated, the utmost savagery being shown towards them by the police in dragging them to piison. " The sailors during the attack (reports the Secretary) were without arms and therefore defenceless. Of the thirty-six men arrested and examined all were discharged, there being no proof of any violation cf the peace on their part. The judicial investigation into the conduct of the men failed to show that a single one was drunk or disorderly. Ii is clear that their only offence lay in weariDg the uniform of the country to which they belonged. Whether the attacks upon the seamen of the Baltimore were preconcerted or not, their real cause can only be found in the bitter hostility of the Chilians towards the United States, a feeling large 'y due to the false and malicious accusations which have been put forth at Iquique, and later at Valparaiso, in reference to the action of the navy of tha United States during the progress of the revolution." Further on, in his report, that presented by him to Congress, the Secretary betrayt his undeistinding of the commercial rivalry to which the Chilian imbroglio is principally due :— " The course of events during the past year," he writes, " has shown anew the necessity of continuing the development of the navy. The demands upon it have been constant, and they are constantly growing. The rapid extension of commercial relations has doubled the importance of our interests, especially in the Pacific. It was said a few years ago by a keen foreign observer — 'Some day or other there will be a great rivalry of three or, four nations in the Pacific for the commerce of those seas, and the country which has cultivated its strergth with a view to that contingency will carry off a chief part of the prize.' The rivalry has already begun, and the signs aie evident on every hand of sharp competition, "It is apparent that the mercantile competitors of this country ara to-day enlarging their fields of activity with a more aggressive energy than ever before. No one can fail to observe the indications of a systematic effoit to take advantage of the disturbed conditions now prevailing in many of th« smaller States. In this movement naval

ascendency plays a large part. The consequences are not far to seek. The establishment of complete commercial supremacy by a European power in any State of the Western Hemisphere means the exclusion of American influence and the virtual destruction, as far as that State is concerned, of independent existence. With the great maritime powers it is only a step from commercial control to territorial control."

A compromise in the matter of education, known as the Faribault Plan, and recently made between Archbishop Ireland and the State of Minnesota, which has occasioned a good deal of comment, and in some quarters has been denounced aa a departure from the Catholic principle, has been explained as follows, in an interview between the Archbishop and a representative of the New York Herald : — "The plan to which allusion here is made is most simple. It accords both with State laws and Church requirements, and on this account commends itself to all fair-minded, intelligent citizens. An existing Catholic school which observation shows to be in all particulars fit to be put on a line with existing public tchools is adopted by the public School Board, and conducted during school hours under all the laws and regulations of the Board as to teachers and pupils, The Board is supreme in all that regards the imparting of the instructions required by its own programme and during all the time marked in this programme. In return the Board pays the carrent expenses. No State money in this manner is paid out for sectarian instruction ; there is no division of the school fund ; there is not the slightest setting aside of State rights. There is, on the other hand, the serious advantage which all American citizens should appreciate — that Catholics have their children instructed under payments from the public fund to which they are contributors, together with their fellow citizens, and the Scate has the satisfaction of bringing peaceably, and witbont violation of personal rights, under its direction, for the imparting of secular instruction, multitudes of Catholic children who otherwise must keep aloof from it. The Catholic conscience is satisfied under the plan. For while secular instruction is impart id there is no danger from Protestant or agnostic bias of teachers' minds, and the legal school hours over, the buildings revert to Catholic control and religious instruction is given. Nothing more than this is marked in a formal letter from Borne, written in 1875, as needed in order that Catholic children may be authorised by bishops to attend State schools."

A banquet was given to Lord Aberdeen in New York on December 8, by the National Federation of America. In acknowledging the welcome given to him the guest of the evening spoke eloquently in support of the Irish movement, and pledged the Liberal party, so long as they lived, to stand by the flag of justice to the Irish people unfurled by Mr Gladstone — at the loss, said the speaker, of power, and of the rest he needed in his old age. The attendance was representative and enthusiastic.

A triduum was recently held in the mission church at Roxbury, Mass., in commemoration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the recovery of the ancient picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, venerated in the church of the Redemptorist Fathers at Rome, and a copy of which has been placed in the church at Roxbury. Several miraculous cureß are reported as having occurred on the occcasion — the most remarkable being that of a girl, twelve years of age, named Hannah Sullivan and residing in South Boston — who had been blind for several years.

The change of opinion relating to Catholicism which has of more recent years taken place in America, has had a striking illustration in an invitation given by a ministers' meeting in Ellsworth Maine, to the Catholic priest of the place to address them. In the same place some thirty -five years ago, a Jesuit Father had been tarred and feathered for daring to appear there. The subject for discussion on the occasion referred to was how to fill the churches, There were five thousand people in the town of whom one thousand only attended Divine worship. Father Butler, the priest alluded to, concluded his address to the ministers as follows :—": — " Your churches are being deserted, and for a part of the year are entirely closed. Your people would naturally be composed of the wealthiest and most cultured people of the town. It cannot then be a question of lack of means. What is the cause ? If you are the pastors it is your duty to find it out. If you care for my answer to the question, I can give it in. a few words, but I feel you will not believe me. Your religion does not hold the people. Therefore it does not satisfy them. My religion does hold my people and draws others. Therefore it has in it what the people need. It satisfies. Reflect, and draw your own conclusions." Are not the times, indeed, changed, since that Jesuit Father was tarred and feathered ?