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Show correspondent writes asking "when the big wind occurred in Ireland." The night of the big wi:u" was Feb. 1o, LSoO. : Japan's military achievements in Manehu i:i gtill si-ands notwithstanding the recent glowing c-eounts c-eounts of. Kurnpat kin's victories. When the cold .weather ceases, the Japanese ad-. vance to Mukden will necessitate another draft en the czar's military reserve forces, .lust now they ' , are available. ' - j. : I Willi Con-a conquered. Manchuria nearly o, I Japan as expressed by an English statesman, is an I apparition for good or evil ami is sure to txvrt a great influence on other upon the fluctuating fortunes for-tunes of other nations as far as the eastern question is concerned. 4 Kx-Prcrnier Combes is now relegated to private life. His last official act was the signing of papers which meant the closing, of the schools of the I Christian Brothers, and many institutions of the good Sifters, who have, in the past, devoted their 1 lives to education. I : 1 I Premier Iiouvicr at his first cabinet meeting fa- I rored the separation of church and state, suggested 1 the working-men's pension, and wants a reduction j of the terms of military service. The systematic h I ferret reports of the lives of army officers, which I h-d to the discomforture of his predecessor's cab- I inet, li vehemently condemned. "Experience 1 teaches many things' j ' ' ; ; - I Senator Smoot, s case in still undecided. The ap I parent apathy causes restless anxiety; The conjee- I iurs as to the final outcome must bo weighed from 11 lhu standpoint of the source from which eminatc. I The debate on the admission of Arizona afforded an I opportunity to refer remotely to the action of the committee. When the political contest is settled ve shall breathe more free. It is all politics. I Golden truths from Bishop Lenihan's installa- tion pennon for priests. "They must combat every - i where,. the. saerili.gious substitution of man for God. which is tlie crying evil of the day. They must I solve one niorco iht old problems socialism, capi- ! tal and labor, property rights, the sacrodness of the j marriage contract and ihe true destiny of man. J 1 f America docs not enforce more stringent laws Against anarchy, socialism, the drink habit and the divorce evil, it will have to deal with a mob that now trying to overthrow the Russian govern-j govern-j inrnt. Those old questions have been solved by the church, time and time again, hut they are still disputed dis-puted by wicked, half educated sophists in every generation, and will be. disputed till tho end of time, . "Our young people " .-ay the Catholic Citizen, 'should be taught 1.. -nun tho average cheap theatre t.s something lmrdly above the 'dive' in vul- , garity. To observe ti e galleries full of half-grown beys, having their imaginations corrupted by the spectacle of brazen immodesty before! tho foot-light, foot-light, is to note a deplorable instance of American decadence.- The variety theatre is the high school of immorality among us." I Dr. II. K. Carroll, in The Christian Advocate 1 (X. Y.) gives the religious statistics of fifteen dif- Ifereut denominations for 1904. According to rank lie places the Cathoiics first with 10,23:,S:0 communicants. com-municants. 2. Methodists. G,"2"(1,73S. 3. Baptists. Bap-tists. -5,150.815. 4. Lutheran, 1,79,m(S. 5. Presbyterians. Pres-byterians. 1,67C.7J). C. Episcopalians. $07,924. 7. Reformed. 401,001. $. Latter-day Saints 343,250. i: United Brethren. 273,2K:.':, 10. Evangelical j Bodies 164,709. 11. Jews, 113,000. 12. .Friends, 117,065. 13. Drunkards, 114,109. 14. !Advcntists: 02.41S. 15. ' Memiomtes, 60,953. Counting on these statistics The American Friend, published in Philadelphia, writes: "These figures can give at the best but a feeble idea of the state of religion in our country. They will impress every one with the fact that Roman Catholicism is a very mighty force, rapidly expanding. expand-ing. A church of 10,000,000 believers is impressive. But it is also somewhat a sublime fact that there are 1SS.247 Protestant churches in the towns and villages of our country, with more than 137.000 ministers, min-isters, laboring to spread the truth and to increase righteousness, and that the year's work has added more than 340.000 persons to these Protestant churches. Thereltave been no startling revivals, no great religious upheavals during these twelve months. It has been a year of slow growth., and the gain is probably a solid one. On the whole we may well thank God and take courage." The only comparison that could be made with the "340.000 persons added to these Protestant churches" in 1904 would be by reference to the baptismal bap-tismal records of the various dioceses. The Catholic directory has not yet appeared. We take the report, re-port, for 1103, as given in the directory for 1W4. In the archdiocese, of Baltimore the Catholic population pop-ulation is given at 250,0W, and the number of baptisms bap-tisms of infants 9.35. This would mean for a population of 10,000 an increase each year of 34,-400 34,-400 -not counting converts. Only four of the dioceses dio-ceses report, the number of baptisms, but all those that are reported give approximately for their population popu-lation the same, average as that of the archdiocese of Baltimore. In figuring baptisms every Catholic parent first sees to the baptism of the new born babe. When baptised a record of same is immediately immedi-ately made. and. it would require less time to count the pages of the record for a year, and the number of names in a page, than it would to record one baptism. bap-tism. The system is simple and always exact. |