The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1906. THE BROAD-ARROW BRIGADE

New Zealand Tablet, 9 August 1906, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, AUGUST 9, 1906.

THE BROAD-ARROW BRIGADE

Two especial and typical pets of the fraternity are Chiniquy and Margaret Shepherd. Chiniquy was expelled for fraud by the Chicago Protestant Synod in 1862. The~ man's character is, perhaps, best summed up in the following extract from an editorial article written by a representative Protestant, Mr. F. H.- Baker, in his paper, the Halifax ' Mayflower ', in 187G :— ' The man's mind seems to be one mass of corruption and grovelling lust. He would impute sinister and impure motives to the very Mother of his Saviour—nothing is too holy or sacred for his slime to cover, or his impious hand to clutch. His personal appearance, as we saw him at the Halifax Hotel, was not particularly prepossessing ; and now that we have read his book we can quite understand ihe very deformity of soul that is stamped upon those repulsive features. We ask any man who has the slightest deference or respect for women who loves his wile and little ones, who almost worship the name of mother, to read Chiniquy's liook and then ask himself if it be possible if such a viper as this can be received with open arms into the bosom of any Church. . . We defy any man, we care not how devilish his ingenuity or low cunning, to devise to \\iite or hint at anything haa so disgusting, so sickening, so horrible in all its details, as this clergyman's work. . . We would not have it on our soul— it would slain it like blood— to publish even in this worldly paper an extract of this vile work in English— we could not look into the eyes of our wife and children and do it But educated and matured men may ponder over a fewtidbits from this reverend clergyman's table of delicacies, if they can mustei up courage enough to wade through the book. We would not read it again for its weight in gold. There is something indescribably horrible about it. We are no saint, nor are we a Roman Catholic ; we have road the works of Geo Sand Eugene Sue, and Paul de Kock ; we are not at all thinslciuned, and know what life in large cities is ; but we have to* thank Pere C Inniquy for one particularly poisonous, sickening sensation that stifles us like a blast from the lowest depths of hell ; and all we have to say in conclusion of these painful lines is, that God knows we pity from the bottom of our heart the man or woman in possession of their iational faculties who can take -this human monster by the hand, who can sit under his teachings, and listen to his impious voice ascend in very mockery to the throne of God, and call it " Prayer ".' Well— such be thy gods, 0 Israel of the Yellow Sash ! * The other great auieoled ' witness ' is Margaret Shepherd, of the many aliases. When this gaol-bird and lewd woman, this oiner agent of moral corruption, loured these colonies in 1902 to ' expose ' the ' errors of Home ' at so much per ' expose ', the brethren flocked to her like crows to carrion. So, likewise, did they when she ' lectured ' in Canada, under Orange auspices, in 1893. While she was still there, the story of her doings was told with singular frankness by the Rev. J. A. Macdonald, a Presbyterian clergyman, in the ' Canada Presbyterian' of December 20, 1893. He told how, 'when it was whispered that her record was shady,' lewd characters gathered to her ' like vultures to the carcass ' ; that nevertheless, the ' brazen hypocrite ' ' opens her meetings with prayer ' ; that the moral results of her mission are ' simply appalling ' ; that the details thereof are ' horribly disgusting '—so much so that he ' dare not publish them ' ; that the great temperance worker, Miss Lillian M. Philps, wrote ' imploring me, in the name of wronged womanhood, to address a wider than my own congregation, " and if possible save our women and girls from the awfulness of this woman's touch." ' And more to the same effect. * The latest addition to the Broad-arrow Brigade (May Gould, alias Maud Harris) has been discovered and exploited by the Rev. Dill-Macky, the friend, counsellor, and confidant of Coningham. He introduced her with a flourish of trumpets at the Sydney celebration of ' the glorious twelfth '. He spun around his new-found ' witness ' an airy aureole of martyrdom — she had been employed at the Bathurst Catholic Presbytery (N.S.W.), had expressed a desire to go to Sydney, got a letter from the clergy recommending her to the Magdalen Retreat at Tempe, was detained there against her -will for-

eighteen months, and finally, of course, ' escaped '. Oui leaders are already aware of the sensational completeness with which this lying tale ha.s been exposed by the ecclesiastical authorities at Bathurst and by the Sydney ' Freeman's Journal.' The Rev. Dill-Macky's new ' witness ' nevei was employed in any capacity either in the*liathurst or any o1h«r Presbytery. She went straight to Sydney from Bathurst Prison, where she had served a lengthy term for having robbed one William McKenna of £110 at Broken Hill, in company with a -woman named Margaret Matthews, whom the judge described as ' a disreputable character.' The Rev. Dill-Macky's latest ' heroine ' is, in fact, merely the vulgar type of criminal and gaol-bird that suddenly develop a halo (as even Margaret Shepherd did) the moment they serve the ' yellow ' brethren to point a moral or adorn a tale of " Rome's ' abominations. For the moment, the brethren are busy dancing and singing around their newest golden calves— May Gould, ex-gaol-bird, and Jeremiah Ciowley, ex-priest. It is rough on poor Crowley to be biacketed in Orange honors with the female thief fiom Broken Hill.

Some time ago the 'Church of Ireland Gazette' (Piotestant) had an editorial auicle on ' The Belfast Problem.' It was in part :—: — 1 A considerable number of the inhabitants have drifted into paganism. There are whole streets where the people go to mo place of worship — their religion is purely political. They seem to think it sufficient to be a Protestant ; while meaning; and committing all kinds of sin, it will get them into heaven at last. This portion of the population will soon become a great danger to the Government.' It has been for years ' a great danger,' especially in the July dog-days. Why do not the Rev. DillMacky and his clerical and lay confreres of the lodge expend a little of their surplus energy in bringing the elements of Chi is tianity and civilisation to their brethren in Belfast ''