| OCR Text |
Show A DISTINGUISHED WRITER. ! The Toronto Standard, July 2nd, tells what Catholic (if the Diocese of Salt Lake may expect from the pen of ihe distinguished and learned I author, who is to write its history from the ar- ! I . rival of the first Catholic missionaries in 1 TT up I to laie. That history, not only ancient, but mod- I I eni. ihal is. from the planting of the mustard seed I of Catholic doctrine in 17:5, by the present bishop J of the Diocese, down to the. present, will be a rev- I elation unsurpassed in the annals of Catholic missions. mis-sions. To the sacrifices made the historian will . refer. The Standard says: I "It very often -.happens that the records of im- s portant historic events, political and ecclesiastical, I - lie buried and apparently forgotten until the time I when ihe hour brings forlh the man who will give I them a suitable setting in the world's great liter- I ary pantheon of history. Such appears to have f been the case with Fathers Escalante and Domin- I , fjuez. the first missionaries of the Catholic church, i who visited so early as 177b" the district of Utah. I Wr learn from the Intermountain Catholic that the Very Reverend Dean Harris, o well known to I all the readers of the Standard, is now engaged in I writing the early history of that important mission. It is safe to affirm that there is no more capable or brilliant literateur on this continent than Dr. Har- ris. and we are justified in saying that, while the ' devoted missionaries may have waited long, the j hour has brought forth the man, and the man, I : above all others, even in the well replenished ranks I f Roman Catholic scholarship, best able to do jus- I , ti'-e to those pioneer servants of the cross. It is i not everyone that possesses the patience and tact s requisite for the historic investigation of early j records, and fewer still are in possession of the I even rarer gift of presenting such facts in a way I to jittract modern readers who have little time and less inclination to read or study that most attraet- ive of all forms of literature the historic. Tn j both respects Dean Harris is facile princeps. and ! tr.o Diocese and Bishop of his church, having their j seat in Salt Lake City, are to be congratulated on I ' having n the clerical staff so distinguished a I .vhf:'r and divine." |