Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 44, 31 October 1901, Page 17

Notes

Why Did He Die ? The arrival of the American papers by the last mail from 'Frieco has revived the interest in the lamented death of the late President McKinley. The pulpit references to the dreadful crime, both by Protestant and Catholic preachers, were, in almost every instance that we have notictd, marked by a measured dignity and well-guarded restraint and moderation which, in similarly melancholy circumstances, no country could well have surpassed. Only two pulpit harlequinades of any consequence seemed to have been played, so to speak, around the dying bed of the murdered President. A thoughtless and theatrically-inclined Rev. Twing, after having denounced anarchism and anarchists with overwhelming energy, took the American flag from his pulpit, laid it across the altar ori^communion table, and shouted to the full extent of his available wind power: ' Curst d be the man who ehoots down the leader uf your men ! ' Bnt the climax was reached in the amazing declaration which, according to a Press dispatch, was made by one Rev. John Bunyan Lemon, of Manchester (N.H ), who seems to hob-nob with the Almighty on terms of easy confidence such as an archangel would scarcely aspire to. Aucording to the dispatch, this all-knowing preacher 'took the ground that in the attempted ass-aat-ination of President McKinl'y he saw the hand of God, because tbe President had an opportunity to suppress the liquor traffic in the Philippines, but failed to do his duty. Mr. Lemon said God had not only manifested hi« displeasure in this way, but was teaching an impressive lesson to the American people.' Both reverend gentlemen have probably coolid down to their normal temperature by this time, and their own hearts are, let us hope, their worst accusers.

His Favorite Hymns. A favorite hymn of the late President MoKinley waa Cardinal Newman's ' Lead, kindly light ' ; but the first place ia his estimation teemß to have been held by a hymn written by another great English Catholic convert, Father Faber. It has been widely quoted in the American papers : ' There's a wideness in God's mercy Like the wideness of the sea. There's a kindness in His justice Which ib more than liberty. For the love of God is broader Than the measures of man's mind, And the heart of the Eternal Is most wonderfully kind.'

Exaggerated Riots. Some of the cable agencies would soon file their schedules if they were paid for the amount of true and unadulterated information which they send on the wings of the lightning to the secular papers. Some time ago the noisy Masonic agitations against religious houses in Madrid were cabled to the ends of the earth as of enormous extent and significance, whereas it would appear that they were in reality no worse than half a dozen schoolboys singing 'Annie Rooney ' to the accompaniment of a kerosene-tin 'drum ' in comparison with the long-drawn Orange pandemonium in Belfast, of which the cable- man vouchsafed us no information whatever. ' A gang of bibulous students from an atheistic college making night hideous with exeorations of religion and the clergy would,' says the Aye Maria, 'hardly be regarded as a significant antiCatholic demonstration in the United States ; but Spain is pretty muoh out of the tourist's way, and is therefore fair game for the sensational news-manufacturer.' And an English lady, Mr. C. E. Jeffery, writea as follows to the London Catholic Times : — ' Here is a scrap of conversation I heard on board ship between two men, — one a resident of Spain, where he was engaged in commercial pursuits ; the other his friend, who had come to meet him at Gravesend. Said the friend : " Things are looking serious in Spain What terrible riots you have been having in Seville I "—"" — " Have we ? " said the other laughing. " You know more about them than I do, then."—" What ! Didn't you see anything of them ? "—"" — " No : all I saw was the account of them in the English papers. Fact is, these things are gross^ exaggerated. We in Spain hear very little about the matter." '

Burning Negroes Alive. Till a comparatively recent period in British history wives who murdered their husbands were deemed guilty of petty treason and were burned alive. And this, too. after the penalty had ceased to be enforced for any crime in Continental Europe. This fearful penalty was a recognised punishment for what were regarded the graver crimes in every country during the middle ages, although, heaven knows, it was mercy itself by comparison with the torture of the picket, etc., which prevailed in the British army in the latter half of the eighteenth century, aud the horrors of British and American prisons of that and a later period, and the nameless agoniee of the 'convict hells' of Sydney, Tasmania, and Norfolk Island a few decades ago. The middle ages are pelted with words as hot as drops of molten lead for permitting the penalty of burning alive— perhaps on Mark Twain's principle that ' to be good is noble, but to show others how to be good is nobler, and is no trouble.' Pulpit orators and pressmen have not to go back four or five centuries to find the penalty in full force. Burning negroes — and occasionally even white men — alive is a favorite recreation in the southern and some western States of America : so common, indeed, that secular newspapers have practically ceased to comment upon the matter. A few weeks ago a negro named Nolea was tied to a stake at Winchester, Tennessee, his clothes were saturated with kerosene, a torch was applied, and the unfortunate man's soul was slowly roasted out of hi« body in one long-drawn agony of screaming. He was suspected of having assaulted and murdered a white woman, and was dragged to his death without even the decent formality of a trial.

' In the middle ages,' says the S.II. Review, ' the victims of the faggot were tried fairly and fully according to the jurisprudence of the times. Burning at the stake waa a legal, recognised and accepted form of punishment for a crime which was looked upon as particularly heinous. At the present day, here in America, no trial is given to the unfortunate victim. He may be seized on suspicion. The mob tortures him to death in a way that would aeem horrible from the standpoint of the middle ages. Before we critioise other times and other peoples we ought to look around us. We would see enough, if we were thoughtful, to make us keep silent on the middle ages.'

Shallow-minded Critics. 'There are some shallow young men,' fays the Catholic Mirror 'who delight in appearing: M «< f,ee-thinkers." Some even of Catholio anoestry are among these, and while they wonld, perhaps, declare themselves to be Catholics, they show very plainly they are not possessed of the true Catholic spirit by the manner in which they declaim against Catholio oustoms and observance* and even against tenets whioh involve faifch in Christianity. They would be insulted if called heathens, but their denomination as infidels they would probably regard as a compliment to their mental ability based upon their advanced views in the matter of religion. They remind one of the story of a certain French priest who asked a member of his flock why he did not oome to Mass. " Oh," Father," was the reply,' " I am a free-thinker." ' " Have you ever read the Bible ? " asked the abbe. ' " No," was the response. ' " Chateaubriand's Genius of Christianity ? " ' " No." • " The writings of St. Augustine or of Bossuet ? " ' " No." ' " Well, do you know the contents of the little catechism ?" 1 " I think not." 1 " My dear man," said the priest, « you are not a free-thinker. You are only an ignoramus." ' 'So it is,' the Mirror conoludes, 'with numbers to-day who esteem themselves free-thinkers or rationalists, when, if the truth be known, their mental equipment incapacitates them from almost any exeroiae of thinking. There are men who occasionally go to church and are esteemed Christians of one denomination or another; sometimes they are reputed Catholics, and their professions are of just this order. Whatever the state of their conscience, whatever of faith and reverence they may inwardly possess, they .are ashamed to manifest in their conversation much respect for piety and religion while they evince indeed a certain sense of pride in their liberalism, their agnosticism and freethinking, which are indeed but their ignorance.'