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Show : PUEBLO. I To the Editor Intermountain Catholic: I The announcement that "The Gad- fly" has reached its nineteenth edition in this country makes it AA'orth while to look, for a moment, at the production I Avhich is enjoying such Avidespread j popularity. Current opinion is that the book is up-to-date." What more is I needed? We skim over it, with our borrowed opinion already formed, and we pronounce it "line." Thus the A-er-dict is passed from one to another. But if we read it thoughtfully and judge it with our own capacity, what do we really find in it? At the opening of the tale the hero is brought before us, a young man Avhose life and motiA'es are equally puic. lie LUII1IU11.& an ciiui . ment by espousing a cause which, for his own sake, he had better haA-e lea to older heads. The author affirms that his connection Avith the secret service is made known to the authorities author-ities through a priest, Avho, after asking ask-ing the boy to come to him for confession, con-fession, divulges the secret of that confession con-fession to the ruling secular powers. We Avere long ago taught that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Surely Sure-ly this i3 exemplified here. The author au-thor evidently knows that the concession conces-sion is one of the sacraments of the Roman Catholic church. So far, so good. But when Ave, Avho are outside that church, attempt to speak or write of it, we should know our subject fuliy. No Roman Catholic priest has ever yet been known to disclose the secrets to Avhich as confessor he has listenec.-. We should know Avhereof Ave affirm, and not descend to falsehood for the sake of sensationalism or effect. Fiction Fic-tion is not supposed to be fact; yet. when Ave enter sacred precincts Ave should not trifle. Truth should be our foundation. To return to "The Gadfly." The hero is kept only a short time in confinementyet confine-mentyet his release brings not joy, dul tnat deepest sorrow mc shame of a mother. Deserted by friends, struck in the open street by the hand of the girl he loves, he flees, a miserable Avanderer, from his native land. Reaching South America, he endures en-dures brutality in almost every form Avhile trying to earn his bread. His body is mutilated and his sensitive spirit changed. After seven years he is again at the scene of his first secret service, busy as ever and, for a time, marve'lously escaping the penalty of the laAV. When the most hazardous part of the Avoni has at length to be done, he allows no one else to assume the risk; but goes himsalf, fully aware that he is going to his heath. He is captured and sentence sen-tence pronounced upon him. The only one'Avho can saA'e him is the man whom the author is pleased to say is his father. Yet no order for his pardon par-don in given. Thei soldiers love him, but even their love is turned into a curse. Each man is resolved that his shall not be the hand to speed the fatal bullet. They fire in turn, and the victim's death agonies are prolonged until even the reading of such a horror makes us tremble, and the thought of it hangs like a black pall in our memory. mem-ory. Is it honoring our blessed Lord and Master to assume that He Avould allow such shame and agony to fall upon one cf His children, whoss' only crime Avhen this blight came upon him, was that he seemed to have mistaken his duty? Such is the story of "The Gadfly, and this is what has attracted the thousands during the past year or more. 13 it probable that theire has really been much thought bestowed upon the book? We do not say that the world is not growing Aviser. We only A-ish that, in ihe choice of literature, its people Avould not follow one another like sheep. It may pay us to do a little thinking for ournslves occasionally. If Ave do, it is unlikely that a misleading book siuch as "The Gadfly" can have such phenomenal phen-omenal success in future. A PROTESTANT. |