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Show whbmb iniant ewe CHICAGO LETTER. Dfktruelite ElrmentsI ilylatiom. Science aud Prophecy. .ri3TB, rotitlcsanil Kellgton. SpecUI ccrreipoadence Vtt eixT 'Szws, Chicago people are asking each other the ominous question. "Is the end of the world at hand?" It 1 little wonder that such a question obtrudes itself when one takes up a morning paper and reads such head hnrsasthefollowiDg- TIHItTY-TnnEE KILLED. Dreadful Havoc Wrought by Cyclones In Northern Illinois. Uxteen Tenons Killed by a Cloudburst Cloud-burst Near Harlvtlle, La balle County. Six Children aad Their Teaeber Meet Willi a Mddenand Awfa Death. The TbrnaJo Completely Destroys the To-vn of Paw Paw. Causing a I rightful Low of Life. Hundreds of People Injaml by a f-'iorm Which -Struck tho Village of HuWe'te. Much Property Destroyed and a Largo dumber of Persons Uurt in Livings.on Coanty. Disastrous Floods Ituin Crops and Cause a Partial huspen-ioc of Itailwar TnuSc This is only a sample of what Is occurring in Illinois. Disasters of this kind are bceomlu,; so fr-quent tliat the energies of seeral large communities iru completely prostrated. pros-trated. From Nebraska comes news of "Destructive Cyclones," "The Villages of Pleasatiton and bwitt-waterSemolislied bwitt-waterSemolislied by fetorm.," and so on for column after column Where are our men of science, those sages who can foretell thu flood and the storm, who can baffle the elements ele-ments and bottle the electric spark? Now is the time for them to show what is iu them, and iu their potent arts They laugh at the man of simile mind who pros to the Con trulerand Director uf thee elements His homel) orifonlhe.) call sUperstl Hon. ilutin the face of such calamities calam-ities as w e now witnes the highest science is tomfoolery. Some few years ago w hlleTisitins; tho Hot Springs in Arkansas. 1 heard a man reiatlug the wrds ol (ngersoll, vho made hore" play of Job polishing his ulcers ith a plert of bumtd clay. The verbose infidel held that Unas thu medical srJenti. of prophitic times, nnd then trl umphantly iiolnted to our medical colleges and learoeti professors. But wliat struck me as 1 racticall ludicrous was the posillon of this scicutihe infidel lie was suffering from inflammatory rheumatism. All the stores of science he haj ex nau'tcd He whs no a bathing iu a pool termed lonall "The Mud Hold,'' and rubbing from time to tlnio hanJfuls of sand aud mud from the bottom uf the ool to hl-swollen hl-swollen knee". I asked him how muih better oil he was than Job as far as science was concerned Was lie not scraping his sores with muj as Job was with apiece of crockery? I rcmemtier that the scene so impressed im-pressed a friend of mine, that he produced somerhymes which struck me more fur their simple truth than for their artistic poetry. I don't know that a betti r sermon could lie preached 011 Nature aud Nature's God that these few simple lines Ltt Kicace bout it rtal rover. And druscisti trate about their pa!; Let InS. lels vmh faces tocr. Trice life to watpt aad hippoonrUli, Let minds romantic or profana-l foactuical theoriet ttro&uitc. Tm mine, while Natsrc s balm 2ts round To trcaiurs what the ITeU xrolc Come huLesa, sco vUnciitic, tcil, W as I. caprice, or ebaxec. or whim That earned jr on bouinz, babbilnzwcll Tu Leal the p dsied, clcerocl Lmb' Coma Trndall, Darwin, Hoxlcjaaj, Ii aotjonr science caatlnc rant UetMc the hcalth-reaterux spraj Which bounteous llearea here aoth trant. These wooded glades tot sooCers see And taste of Nature 1 mjjlic bow!. And Icars what is Lhnaity And what a Cod created boat! 11 ere halt, and blind, and U&v, and core. And sinner, saint and wHd oomanne E'en Lros son, UcarvTcd and hoar-All hoar-All ad al.tc the toeznt for bocn. Uchold with what Impartial hand Kind heaven hero!e9iars ftir bestows, Eien on the unreseneratc band W hose earn-! tastes have wraaght their Uasbow weaathinru man' II is sran lest s Jcnce mimic plaj , Compared wuh Natare'a balm, wateh can Work mir-cks cren today. And mlriclti, were certainly worked in the way of healing bj tho-e waters Mm who-e irlcers and sons were main times more hideous thau Job's win completely cured. To come back again to the elements, ele-ments, we are Lot alone threatened with destruction by thce, but news of cholera and yellow fever now Teaches us. We are ndvl-d to iit our house in order, for these grim visitants are on the waj. Inuddi Hoc to nil this, turmoil nnd lii-smlr are creeping into politics and religion. re-ligion. The school question U ure to le madean issue. That will drag i religion, and then what next? Gml alone cau tell. The Itepubllran party in the Northeastern btates seems to be engaged en-gaged iu a tr'angular fight just at present, with three icr po verful interests. Tlltae Interest) arc the Problbitbulsts. the Per-onal Rights men, and lx-,U), the free Ivluca Uouaiibts. The t'ruhlbiUoni-ts have long si ne characterizes the Renub- Ilican letrtj as tho child of Ildul, tlie beer drinking Personal Rlghters look upon Has hyitocritloJ ani in sincere. Rut the grand old parti if inspired by the genius of disaster herself has actually courted calamity b its interference with the Germa'i Catholics and Lutherans as regards their educational matters. No attemit was made to show that compulsory education laws. a ith theofleusive clauses so often mentioned of late, were required Iu either Illinois or Wlsconsiu. It i. irue that the German language m these states, holds second place to the English, and In comniercinl matters it dominates tho Eugli-h storekeepers In employing salesmen sales-men and travellers mu-t of necessity ne-cessity hire persons who speak Germs, Ger-ms, n. A German merchant would as soon think of buying from a man who could not converse, in his iearly loved guttural t be would ot commiltingsu cldc iaf ; he would do the latter more che-etfully uiou Tho German has manv reasons to dislike the English language. First beliimselfspeaksitwlth adecided-ly adecided-ly foreign flavor, and in a dialect which brings on him tbe redicuie of the comedian anJ p-ess huniorM. Naturally enough this creates "a certain measure o' ludicroum m for him, even In the minds of his own chiiiren. Secondly tho German regards the average Americau newspaper news-paper aud book a unfit re-idlng in a family household. Even the German heerhalls and wine-cellars look upon the Amirlcan news-paper news-paper as below their standard stan-dard ot morality and esthetics. The only explanation that can be given for the Illinois and Wisconsin education laws is thit they are attributable at-tributable totheauti Catholic move-mint move-mint started In Massachusetts a taw J ears ago. The battle against parochial par-ochial schools there tuaJe political capital for the Republican party. But there only French and Irish Catholics could be contended with. And on tho question of public schools the IrWi Catholics are not n unit in opposing them. The fact Is two thirds of tho lower grades of teachers are of Irish parentage and j certainly an Irish parent could not' object to having his children wlucat- i edbyhls own countryman's ton or daughter. With the French mat'ers I are a little diflereuL The French 1 are clannish and narrow guageU in their ideas, especially the 7 'atbolics. As a factor in thu Americau republic repub-lic they are nothing, tltu,, colonies of them are to be met with in towns and cities, but tcarcely ffgur-l In; In trade ot Industry. Thev are mostly cooks, waiters, fictory hauds, cheap carpenters. Indifferent tradesmen and so on. There are no colonies of thi m settled on lands, and that is why as a race they will fade away and becomo absorbed. As to the Irish Catholic hebasgotsomuch in the habit of hclogabused that like Pat Ford of tho lru. World he looks around for somebody else to abuse iu turn aud thus give hlmtrlf a status. He, too, like the Frenchman, French-man, wllldisappearasa race because be hugged the city and the pin mill. Instead of spreading 0:1 the land. Wath such elemeaUto coutcxtd with tn me ianerii mates it is iitue wonder that the Republican party gained n partial victory. In Illinois qnd Wisconsin the dominant foreign race is German. Unlike the others, the German, though largely repres-nted In citiea and towns, is still mora -o in agriculture. Tbe fact is the German C'-athotlcs were, until fort-d into It, remarkably uou-aggrcsslve. One might mix a whole year with a community of tbemand not know thej were Catho ics. The writer is personally cognizant of ca-es. where Irish Catholics were discharged from shops purely on sectarian grounds, and Germans hired iu their place, on thu belief that tho-: Germans were Protestant, when the fact was and Is they are better Catholics from Church and doctrinal doctrin-al views than the Iiisli. The worst race iu the world Io support the Catholic (ress is the Irish in Amcri ca, the Germans the best. It Is a rare thing to find a 11 rely church newspaper iu an IrMi Catholic home; it is as rare to find a German Catholic home w ithout one. And it is tho rase which supiiorts its press and Its literature that final!,) makes Its religion and its people effective and In the end dominant- For by this means and by this inctjuragement the best brains of tbe nee are brought to the service of the ehunh ami people. It Is true the Irish Catlrulle will fight in defen-u of the Pope, or if an insult is offered to the prie-t, the Irishman takes it uji.sud entirely ou sentimental grounds. It will invariably in-variably be found that this militant Irishman Is not a practical Catholic, lie may not have entered a church ior 20 j ears, he is sure to be as ignorant igno-rant of his catrcliis 11 as he i of Chi uesc, and yet he fights for the Pope ind the priest. Why? Simply because be-cause nationality, race and religion are so mixed up in Lie histor of bis own country thst a sneer at one in eludes nil. lne Ireland Home Rulutud tbe Pope's power in Ire land would hi considerably dim inishvd. Rut I am saravine awa V from the Germans. To ignore this race as a factor In re'lgious development would be 3 great mistake. With the history of Martin Luther the world is familiar, in the early -ays of tbe present contur German Protestants w ere divided Into two ss-cts Lutherans, aud Reformed Lutherans in other words Lvnu-gelicalamICdVMuItic Lvnu-gelicalamICdVMuItic Of cour-c the Lutherans predominated, but tlie Hohenzollcrra) of Prussia and other ruling families were Calvan istlc In 1SIT, Frederic V.illiaai III., It was, I ba!lee, who issued a royal mandate to the tw o sects to unite iu his dominions. Saxony, Ltadcn and Hesse aiopted the Prusii-m King's plan, but the Lutherans Lu-therans would not obey royal orders. Though obedient to thiir kings in all secular affairs, the sturd Lutherans Lu-therans drew the line at conscience rortwiut yean these Lutherans experienced insult and obloquy from mobs of Calvinist and freethinkers, and persecution from royal minious, until iu 1S35 the Lutheran synod at Hreslau declared itself an incteind ent and sejarate communion. Then came irecu'inii iu earnest Everything Every-thing short of ueath wis hurled at theni. In IS old credciic died, and the now kil.g let the Lutherans alane He found tltat a victory over stieh stuniy suljeets would be actually a defeat for himself ind his house. Daring their day of trouble large lumbers of Lu'hertns tame to the United States. Missouri and initio's ini-tio's received mot of them bt. Ixuis holds their greatest theological theolo-gical seminary Concordia College. At present Illinois has a large numberofthe?csameLuthi rans and their children When the Reub Hcan party struck these Lutherans, asntg was struck. Theee brave reutons who luidly defied the monarchical absolutism of Eu rope, were not to te trampled tramp-led by oppressive eiuctments. It was Luther onel the door of religious liberty in Europe, his fol lowers may help to keep It oen in merica. I n Rome Luther !ia had st bad all, ami one that inspires distrust. dis-trust. Iuaiolltical sense Mormon-bra Mormon-bra is the natural all) of Iutherau-tsm Iutherau-tsm Roth are for conscience fret, unfettered and absolute Jdmis CillCAiaj, JjueSt, I6W. |
