People We Hear About

New Zealand Tablet, 27 November 1913, Page 41

People We Hear About

"At the age of 29 (says an exchange) the late Canon Sheehan began his literary career with some short stories. In the early nineties he wrote his first book,' Geoffrey Austin, Student. This work made no deep impression at the time, although it showed a marked individuality and suggested latent power. In 1898 appeared The Triumph of Failure, a sequel to the first work. It showed a large advance in depth of thought, character drawing, dramatic fervor, and power of expression. Some fifteen years ago My New Curate began as an anonymous serial story in the American Ecclesiastical Review. The work differed so greatly in scope and treatment from the first two named books that for some time no one suspected the identity of the author. Month by month its interest grew more absorbing; it was more and more widely quoted and praised in the press, and the certainty of its success in book form predicted; When My New Curate appeared in book form it became immediately a pronounced success. It had twenty editions in the United States. Dealers who never before had handled Catholic works .were compelled to lay in a large stock in order to meet the demand. The secular press reviewed it in laudatory terms and .Father Sheehan’s fame was established in America. A welcome not less hearty met the book in Ireland and England, and f on the continent of Europe it was also widely circulated. In a little more*than two years nearly 30,000 copies were gold. In 1900 Canon Sheehan’s poems were published under the title of Cithara Mea. Luke Delmege followed in book form shortly after. Within three months 10,000 copies were sold.

Chief Justice White, of the United States, like the Chief Justice of Canada, is a Catholic. In Washington Mrs. White is noted for the interest she takes in Church work and charities. With regard to the home life of the Chief Justice and Mrs. White, the Catholic Record, of London, Ontario, says:An evening in their home reveals such dignity and humility, such elegance and simplicity, and withal such kindly hospitality, such gracious courtesy as is only to be found among the old aristocratic families of the South. Their attitude to their servantsall Irish Catholic girls—may be summed up in one word, kindness, while the deferential manner in which Jacob, the negro coachman, is addressed is a matter of favorable comment. The Judge possesses a keen sense of humor and is an accomplished storyteller. To listen to him, as he sits in reminiscent mood before the cheerful grate with his Irish terrier crouched at his feet, and recalls interesting personages and events met with in his eventful career, is a pleasure not soon to be forgotten. The Judge is above all a devout Catholic. His expression of reliance upon Divine Providence to not unworthily perform the duties of his new office as set forth in his letter of acceptance to the President, was not prompted by conventionality, but by a deep-seated conviction that he is the representative in the temporal order of the Supreme Judge whose grace and light he needs to labor perseveringly, to judge rightly. On Sunday morning the entire family walk to the parish church, a mile distant from their home. The carriage is never called into requisition on that day. We remember one exception, however. During Mass there came up a severe thunderstorm, and the conveyance arrived to take the family home. The Judge insisted upon an elderly lady, who lived in their neighborhood, taking his place in the carriage, and giving his umbrella to a young girl who he said was worrying because her new hat would be destroyed, remained himself at the church until Jacob’s return. These little incidents serve to throw a side-light upon the personality of a man, who, with his co-religionists, the late Lord Russell of Killowen and Sir Charles Fitzpatrick, has added lustre to the Judiciary of the chief Englishspeaking countries.

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