America Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 39, 15 July 1892, Page 5

America Notes.

On Monday, May 16, for the first time in the history of the United States, Catholic funeral ceremonies were performed in the Senate Obamber of the Capitol at Washington. Tbe occasion was that of the burial of the late Senator John S. Barbour, of Virginia. The funeral sermon was preached by the Bight Rev Bishop Keane, Sector of the Catholic University, who explained that the deceased, although not a baptised Catholic, had been a catechumen, a candidate for Baptism and full membership in the communion of the Church. The ceremonies were at tedded by the members of the Cabinet and of the diplomatic corps, and the justices of the Supreme Court, besides many others. A new law prohibiting the immigration of Chinese has been sigoed by the President. Its restrictions are confined to labourers, and it makes provision to prevent tbe evasion of the law, which had hitherto prevailed. Any Chinese labourer accused of uach evasion must furnish positive proof that he has a legal right to remain in the conntry. The law will remain in force for ten years, Tbe action of the Government with regard to Behring Bea has become additionally stringent. All vessels fonod within the forbidden boundaries, and having on board a sealing outfit will be seized. The penalty for poaching is six months' imprisonment, and a fine of lOOOdols. The Inman line of Atlantic steamers has been placed under the American nag. Two of the vessels in question, namely, tbe City of New York and the City of Paris, were built under the directions of the British Admiralty with a view to their being used as auxiliary warcruisers in case of need. Their transfer to the American flag pots an end to this. It is contemplated to build vessels for the Atlantic trade in American shipyards, and to enter into active competition with the English companies. The building of the new men-of-war in American yards has proved the facility with which tbia may be done and given an impetus to the undertaking. Tbe number of negroes lynched in the Southern States during the year 1891 was 118. This is a state of things that requires no com * ment. Its bearing on the moral standing of the white population oE the States concerned is obvious. The social equality fostered by a democracy has had an illustration in the will of the late William Astor, who died tbe other day worth many millions of dollars. The testator, in allusion to a brother of bis who had married in a way that displeased his family, left it on record that, ratber than bequeath bis money to the offender, he would leave it for public purposes. The offence of tbe erring brother was that he had married a girl belonging to tbe class from which his own grand-father had risen. The exclusiveness of the old aristocracies one could understand. There was something consistent about their pride of birth, and, if the modern doctrine of heredity be true, it wa§ something more also than ideal. But when it comes to the building up of social barriers by the dollar alone tbe folly and presumption of the matter become glaring. The nobility derived to tbe son because the father bad been successful in money making— a capacity for which is often manifested by the basest and most contemptible of men, is evident. Equality, however, is impossible. Human nature has no faculties to act in accordauce with it. But the new democracies should be careful to fix, as the standard of superiority, oa something better than mere " hogwash." By a fire which recently took place in Boston, a number of ■ketches of prison life in Siberia, which had been made on the spot by an artist named Frost, who, in company with a friend named Kenna had lately travelled through the country in question were burned. A written description of what the travellers had witnessed is said to have been refused by the editor of the Century Magatine, as too horrible to publish. Mr Frost's sketches were of a like kind. A rumour has gone abroad to the effect that tbe fire was the work of Bussian spies, who had hit on this method of getting rid of evidence damaging to the Government in whose pay they were.

The Association of American Draughtsmen have entered a protest against tne employment of foreigners who refuse to become naturalised citizens, as draughtsmen in Government departments. They point to the example of foreign Governments— particularly that of England, which will not admit Americans into their shops. The draughtsmen to whom they object are, they declare, open to a fluspicion of acting in the interests of their several governments. The caaa of one Purdy, an Englishman, is cited in proof. The authentic account of the murder of Archbishop Seghers has recently been published. It has been received by Cardinal Gibbons, to be filed in the archives of the Cardinalate, from Judge Keatley, of Alaska. The Archbishop bad gone, in the spring of 1887, accompanied by two Jesuit Fathers, and a lervant man named Puller— to establish a mission in the Yukon Valley, Alaska— where, so far, the opposition of the BuBSo-Gieek Church, and of the officers of the Hudson Bay Company, had prevented anything of the kind from being done. The Jesuit Fathers saw reason to suspect the sanity of Fuller, and wanted the Archbishop to send him back. His Grace, disregarded the advice, and set out alone, attended by the man in question and an Indian, on a further journey. In a few days, however, the fears of the Fathers were made good. Fuller, going to the Archbishop's sleeping-place one morning, as if to awaken him for the road, fired at him from his gun and wounded him mortally. It transpired on inquiry that the unfortunate man bad been under a delusion that the Archbishop was determined to kill him, and had acted, v he believed, in self-defence. The Nm York Wwld has published what purports to be a true account of the murder of Lord Leitrlm in 1878. The occasion of the publication is the desth of a man known as Boyle, but whose right name was Hugh Stephens, who bad taken a principal part in the tragedy. Stephens had previously served for five years as a soldier. He had had a personal encounter with Lord Leicrim, owing to a peretnptory order given him by the Earl, and enforced with a horsewhip —one day when be met him on a public road to drive his cart into the ditch, so that his lordship's carriage might pass. This treatment he had resented, the Earl getting the worst of it. But this led to his eviction. A sister of his was afterwards ill-treated by a retainer of the landlord, and the matter being taken up by some of the neighbouring gentry, and the ruffian punished, Lord Leitrim swore further vengeance. Subsequently a meeting of the tenantry took place in the mountains ever Lough Foyle, at which it was resolved to get rid of the tyrant as the only means of preserving their lives and the honour of their wives and daughters. Stephens with five companions was told off for the service, and a chief accomplice was a servant woman in the Earl's house, whose sister had been brutally used by him. He was shot on the road opposite the ruins of a cabin whence he had shortly before evicted an aged widow— the signal of his approach having been a white cloth displayed from a neighbouring roof. Three of the murderers had been soldiers, and their aim was sure. Two of the six afterwards died in Australia, and two others were killed in the Boer war. Stephens escaped to America, where he led a blameless life— his record as a soldier having been also most praiseworthy. Eight years before his death he gave this narrative, to exonerate another man—stipulating that it should not be published during his life-time. bS&The Phoenix Club of Baltimore, a Jewish association, recently invited the Bey Dr Stafford, a Catholic priest of the city, to deliver a lecture to them. The rev lecturer took the opportunity of referring to the liberty of spirit thus shown. "It is not often," he said, " that a Catholic priest is invited by a non-Catholic or non-Christian organisation to lecture. In the past it was unknown. Id our day it is rare, but, thank God, a better spirit is beginning to prevail. Men are beginning to understand that they can adhere to their respective religions and profess them without despising those who differ from them. We abhor the narrow-mindedness of those who think that to profess one religion means to despise all who do not profess it. This new spirit is abroad in the land, and I am sure you will agree with me when I attribute this happy condition largely to the enlightened policy and broad-minded chuichmanship of the distinguished prelate who presides over this ancient See, and who influences the Church throughout the country." A statue of Father Marquette, the Jesuit who discovered the Mississippi, is to be placed by the State of Wisconsin in the Statuary Hall at the Capitol. Father Marquette, who was born in France, in the year 1637, laboured as a missionary among the Indians accomplishing great works in the comparatively short lifetime of thirtyeight years. His burial-place, which had been lost sight of for many years, waß re-discovered in 1877. It is situated on the bank of a stretm that flowß into Lake Micbighan. A relic of Saint Anne, which has lately been exposed for veneration at the Church of Saint-Jean Baptiste in New York, is said to have been the means of working several miraculous cures. Among the moat

remarkable were that of an old lady, a Mrs Boeina White, of 1061 Park Avenue, who had been stone deaf for many years, that of a boy of sevtn, namsd Martin Brennan, of 1606 Arenas A. who, as a consequence of measles, had a discharge from the left ear, and that of a little girl abont two years old, namtd Irene Prendergast, of 221 Weat 20th street, who had granulated eyelids. In each case the care was complete. The relic belongs to the famous church of St Anne at Beaupre, in Canada. A savant named Silbersteio, a German Jewish immigrant, residing inJNew York, has thought out a new cosmic theory, which discards Newton's law of gravitation, and declares that Kepler's laws of the motions of the planets must be otherwise explained. Several scholars of note, have examined the theory in question, and pronounced it worthy of attention— not, however, committing themselves to its acceptance.