People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 19 January 1911, Page 119

People We Hear About

Lisbon, which has been in the public eye so much of late, contains the grave of Jeremiah J. Galiamin, the Irish poet, author of the never-to-be-forgotten Gainjane Barra, who went from Ireland to Portugal in the capacity of a private tutor in 1827, and dying two years later was buried in Lisbon.

- Michael Cudahy, one of the best known and most eminent Catholics of the United States, died in Chicago on November 27. Death occurred in Mercy Hospital, following an operation for appendicitis. Mr. Cudahy passed away fortified by the sacraments of the Church, of which he was during his whole life a devout and practical communicant. Mr. Cudahy was born in Caban, County Kilkenny, on December 17, 1841. He went to the United States with his parents in 1849, the family settling in Milwaukee. In 1855, while a boy of fifteen, Mr. Cudahy became an employee in a Milwaukee packing house. Prom a butcher Mr. Cudahy moved up rapidly to foreman, packing house manager and meat inspector. At this time he attracted the attention of the late P. D. Armour, and at the latter’s solicitation came to Chicago. In 1873 Mr. Cudahy was made a partner in the firm of Armour and Co. In 1890 he was instrumental in organising the Cudahy Packing Company, of which he was made president. Persons associated with the deceased in the packing industry and other enterprises placed his wealth at about 20,000,000 dollars.

Writing from Vienna, Austria, William E. Curtis pays this tribute to Emperor Francis Joseph, who on December 2 celebrated the sixty-second anniversary of his coronation : 1 During the last ten or twelve years the manifestations of veneration and affection have been much more marked than they were previous to that period, and the birthday celebrations in August last were more general and fervent than ever before. It was noticed also that religious services of thanksgiving to God were held in the cathedrals and churches in every part of the empire. And although he commanded that no special ceremonies should be prepared, there was scarcely a village or town in which the entire population did not do something in his honor or rejoice that he is still spared in full health and strength to reign over them. At no time in his career have such evidences of popularity been shown, and it is remarkable that in his decline of life the aged emperor should inspire so much affection and respect among the many and rival races subject to his rule.’ Those who have had an opportunity to study and analyse this phenomenon declare that this is a tribute to his character as well as his dignity as a monarch, and that his personality has had a gerater influence than statesmanship in maintaining the unity of an empire composed of sixteen or seventeen different and discordant races. This is emphasised by the opinion that prevails among some that a dissolution of the empire will follow immediately after his death. On August 18 Francis Joseph celebrated his 80th birthday, having been born m 1830. His reign, I believe, is the longest of any sovereign in history, except that of Louis XIV. of France, who reigned ten years longer— from 1643 to 1715. Louis XV. of France reigned fifty-nine years, from 1715 to 1774, and Queen Victoria a little more than sixty years.

Sir Francis Cowley Burnand, who celebrated his seventyfourth birthday in the first week in December, is an example of one of many Englishmen of French Huguenot descent who have found their-way back to the Catholic Church of their fathers (writes the Rev. Dom Oswald Hunter-Blair, 0.5.8., in the Glasgow Observer). The conversion of Sir Francis took place fifty-three years ago, when he was studying for the Anglican ministry at the College of Cuddesdon, then recently founded by Bishop Samuel Wilberforce, and since that time the nursery of innumerable converts. For a time young Burnand turned his thoughts towards the priesthood ; and he was actually a postulant with the Oblates at Bayswater, where traditions are still preserved of his inveterate love of joking. Called afterwards to the Bar, he soon found his real vocation in the path of light literature and play-writing. His .unceasing flow of humor found vent in the pages of Punch of which he became editor in 1880. During his quarter of a century’s tenure of the editorial chair, the whole tone of the comic journal, which had been for years notorious for its violent and spiteful attacks on Catholicism, was (as might have been expected) entirely changed; and with Mr. Arthur A’Beckett and other distinguished Catholics on its staff, ranch may be said to have contributed materially towards breaking down the wall of misunderstanding which divided Catholics from their Protestant fellow-countrymen. No real saint, it has been said, was ever without a certain sense of humor; and Sir Francis Burnand, as one of the leading humorists of the Victorian ageand a humorist be it added, whose arrows never inflicted a serious wound—as well as a staunch and prominent Catholic, has perhaps been more of a missionary and an apostle to his generation than he in his humility could ever conceive, or would ever acknowledge.