Faith and Courage

New Zealand Tablet, 23 August 1906, Page 10

Faith and Courage

Courage, like cowardice, is said to be contagious. Yet (says Prentice) there are some people who are not liable to catch it. Seldom in our day was it more needed than by the homeless multitudes who witn-essed the swift destruction that earthquake and lire wrougfht amidst the city of San Francisco. An example of noble and highly contagious courage was then shown under difficult circumstances by the whitehaired Catholic Archbishop, of San Francisco. ' Collier's Weekly ' (which we recently quoted in another connection) says of him : ' lhe unconquerable quality which makes empires ; that quality which a people must ask themselves if they still possess whenever they take account of stock, was found siui alive in our country. Archbishop Riordan has best expressed

San Francisco's attitude by a historical parallel. His Church suffered the heaviest loss of any single corporation. As a young priest -he hTad been through tlie Chicago fire and ther terrible winter that followed. It was an impressive moment when this white-haired prelate appeared before the committee of strong men who had brought order out of chaos. He told the story of how when the Carthaginians were besieging one gate the Romans sent through another gate an army to the pacification of a rebellious province ; and the Archbishop looked like a Roman himself, as he dedicated his declining years to the work of reconstruction whicli the citizens had projected while their homes, offices and factories were still in flames.' In' afflicted Valparaiso and Santiago, as in San Francisco, the evil hour of ruin has also, we trust, brought the man who is able to enlarge hope in the midst of despair, and exalt courage in the midst of a sauve-q.ui-peut. ' Brave hearts,- says Victor Hugo, ' may be ruined in fortune, but not in spirit '.