The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1908. ' DIRTY FOES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 9, 5 March 1908, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, MARCH 5, 1908. ' DIRTY FOES

♦ m IME. and again we ha,ve been asked to enter the arena of controversy in provincial and other newspapers with lewd fellows' of the baser sort, whose ravings against the Catholic Church' find their way— some times over their names, but more often anonymously— into the columns 'of the secular press. This week' there --comes to us a similar invitation from a Southland friend. To' one and all we . reply : the, greater the coarseness and vileness of such vague and general attacks, the more they are calculated to defeat their purpose. Again : the invitation to us to controvert with such a class^ is, in effect, tantamount to a request : to a decent man with a clean • tongue, and wearing clean linen, to engage in discussijpn with a foul-mouthed hoodlumi-on a- street-corner. Circumstances may, and sometimes do, arise in which the 'insignificance or the'-woTthlessness of the accuser is. lost in the magnitude' of his accusation. Gr a criminal, or one of- disreputable life* or antecedents,- may seek, for personal profit, to arouse popular passion against the- Catholic Church i and body by atrocious - and~ sensational calumnies. In such- circumstances ' the- Catholic journalist will face the- enemy, as- the preux- chevaliers are said "to have faced, the foul, malodorous-dragons in the days of eld.

Even if the Catholic editor' had the eyes of • Argus and-: the hundred nan|ls ofßriareus, he could not' see and locally deal with every misstatement on- Church -matters that appears in the; many- newspapers of a country like this. And even, if he^did; the ;gains might not be worth

the pains. But in. every case, the-- self-respecting; journalist who, on principle, writes over-his^own«name, could-not, -without some such grave or- sufficient- causes as those- outlined, atoove, touch the- slum* or hoodlum, type^of controversial st in the latter-^ own-arena. Noblesse oblige. And in this case_ under consideration hene, • no*«pxineiple is at stake, no grave right endangered. It- is- merely a question of the ordinary vaporings- of- the ordinary or garden variety of- rough no-Popery- enthusiast-,, of- the mid- July type. He no longer shakes the. spheres.- IMie mows the world- to-day, it Is to- laughter— it.<hears-him, taps its forehead knowingly, srcdles a low, wise- smdle, and passes- on. Hudibras once, entered^ the- lists- with a coarse-grained opponent of this class, and- got,-. for- bis pains, a top-dressing of eggs that were (if we may- use the expression) clamorously old. And then the impetuous and unapproachable- rider .gaVe'f ex^ressio-tf' -to this belated ' wisdom ' :—

' That main is sure -to lose, That fouls his hands with' dirty fries"; For where no honor's to be gained, 'Tis thrown away in being maintained';.

Don Quixote had enough of the olden self-respect of knight-errantry to decline to draw against the- low brawler. He sent Sancho Panza— on his donkey— to deal with the varlet. The father of the great" American preacher, Henry Ward Beecher, was once attacked' 1 in a s.uage manner in a public print by an opponent- who knew not the amenit.ies of the ■' Polite Letter Writer ', nor the calm repose that stamps the caste of~V,ere- de Vere. ■ ' Will you reply to that man ? ' asked' one of Beeclner's friends. ' I will not ', replied Beecher. And then he told this story : ' I was once loitering , along , a country road, reading a> 'book. A little animal- ran 6ut of a brush pile. I threw the book at it. The 'animal escaped ; the book was unapproachable. I left it' there and hastened away, resolving that I would never- again throw a book at a skunk '. This puts- the- case more strongly than we should have cared to word it. '"But- it will serve, nevertheless, to illustrate our point.

legal and medical professions, literary callings, the clergy, the various universities and great colleges, etc. Mr. Gordon Gorman's list, however, rarely goes past the year 1840. A somewhat' similar service seems to have been done recently for the United States in a book compiled by Mr. D. J. Scannell-O'Neill and .published by Herder, of St. Louis. The roster of notable converts (says the Milwaukee ' Catholic Citizen ' of January 11) ' includes about 3,000 n a mes. Of Protestant clergymen, 372 have gone over to Rome in this country, four of whomi became prelates and 135 priests. Among army officers, 125 became Catholics ; also 12.6 lawyers, 115 doctors, and 86 occupying prominent official positions. Among authors, journalists, and artists, there were- 206 converts.'