Fox Dur Lady Readers.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 37, 14 January 1898, Page 19

Fox Dur Lady Readers.

WORK AMONG THE CHILDREN. The advancing tides of irreligion, infidelity and moral depravity are making great havoc in our ranks. Our children, reared in an atmosphere of independence, are beginning to look upon authority as tyranny, and upon a submission to truth as slavery of the intellect. This evil is to be confronted, but how ? There may be different opinions among U9 as to the most feasible plan for combining religious and secular eduction in public or State schools, but among all intelligent Catholics there is room for but one opinion on the work to be done. Our children must be taught religion. They must be taught their religion for their own soul's sake. They must be taught it for the sake of the moral life of our country. They must be taught it for the religion itself. There may be time and place when and where it may be sufficient to be known as Catholics, and may not be able to give a better reason for their being so than that they were born of Catholic parents. But to-day, and in this country, this is not the case. The lay Catholic here must be able to give an account of his Faith that will satisfy honebt inquiry and defy the reproach of ignorance. Whose duty is it to supply this education .' V* ho, but the natural protectors of the child, the parents. The bishop in his diocese, the priest in his parish, may sound the alarm, may proclaim the necessity for religious education, but the parents of the children must do the work. How can they do it .' First, in their own families ; second, under the leadership of their pastor ; they mu&t build schools where a religious education can be given. BEAUTIFUL FLEMISH WOMEX. A recent traveller in Old Flanders rapturously praises the fair Flemish woman, who is tall and graceful, with blue eyes and hair like burnished gold. She is simple, but often elegant in her toilette, especially on Sunday, when she usually appears in a heavy silk dress, who^e soft frou-frou accompanies her swinging step. "" The Flemish woman," he says, " has preserved intact the admirable naivete of the woman of the middle ages. She is an ideal mother of a family ; she has no ambition, no love of art, for music or for poetry. Not a whisper of rebellion against the domination of her husband, who, in her eyes, represents power, and for whom she cherishes an admiration which cannot be shaken. Bruges is the only city in Flanders which in our days has preserved its originality, I and where at every step in its deserted streets one feels the soul of this marvellous Flanders of the middle ages. Bruges can be proud also of having the most beautiful women. When one takes a walk at twilight in tho&e narrow streets, darkened by heavy facades of the thirteenth century, which advance and seem to bend over, out from the doors of the houses walk timidly Junoesque women, draped in long mantles. Upon their heads they wear broadbrimmed hats, which permit one to see only the brusque line of the nose and the proud lip. The Flemish woman is profoundly religious. When one t-eea her kneeling in the shadows of old churches she gives an impression of a beatif ul statue, set there by the hands of a wonderful artist.