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Show Wh2t to Do in Lent. Ticfiin the holy and penitential sea-iii sea-iii of ! nt by assisting at Mass and partaking of the blessed ashes on Ash Wednesday. Abstain from all orldly amusements from motives of ;iirty. Be punctilious about attending all the Lenten devotions. Assist at tV daily Mass if at all possible. One fs obliged to fast as soon as he finishes ?iis twenty-first year. Childien must Mistain from meat when they reach ihr ape of seven years. It is to be remembered that abstinence and fast-ins fast-ins are two different things, every Friday in the year being a day of abstinence, ab-stinence, but not a fast day, while every day in Lent except Sunday is a fast day. Devote the time of Lent to a building up of your spiritual life and make Lent a red-letter period fur the poor and suffering. The famous "Fisherman's Ring" of the Holy Father is a signet or steel used for the marking of the official documents issued from the papal court. A new one is made for every Pope, though all are based on a very anciei original, representing St. Peter in his boat drawing his net to the surface. The classic form of the boat and oar shows a direct derivation from an an-tiiiue an-tiiiue original. Sound AcJvice. We wish all Catholics in public life would take to heart the following admonition ad-monition of Archbishop O'Connell: "Politics is a high and noble aspiration. aspira-tion. There is always a place, a chance, a time and an opportunity for the true Catholic to show himself for what he is; and the one thing that a man needs to keep himself above the temptations of life is an ideal that the Chritian church sets out in its teachings. The horror of anarchy, the miserable deceits of socialism social-ism will pass, and thee day will come when the highest ideal the grace of Cod will h ever before us and will lift this country up to a true Catholic altitude." alti-tude." Twenty-Two Million Catholics. There are 22..rS7,079 Catholics under tiie Anu rican flag, according to advance sheets of the official Catholic Directory, just publisher in Milwaukee. The count includes Catholics of the United States proper. Alaska, the Philippines, Porto Kico and the Hawaiian Islands. The Catholic population under the British tlac. according to the same directory, is -.e,",3.41S. in the United States proper there are 14.347,027 Catholics, showing a pain of 111.576 over a year ago. In California Cali-fornia there are 3S1.500 Catholics. i Alfonso at Short Range. In spite of his continued need of Movement, his love of sport in all its forms, especially of motoring his expansive, ex-pansive, ratTier eccentric, but very attractive at-tractive youthfulness. Alfonso XIII. ac-cording ac-cording to M. Xavier Pali in an article 'ti McChire's never loses the occasion to improve his mind. He is very quick at seizing a point, possesses a remarkable power of assimilation, assimi-lation, and although he does not read Much, for he has no patience, he is remarkably re-markably -well informed regarding the smallest details in matters that interest him. ''ne day, for instance," writes M. I'aoli in McClure's, "he asked me, point blank. Do you know how many gen- amies there are in France?' "1 confess that I was greatly puzzled "hat to reply, for I have never cared nni. h about statistics. I ventured to say .ff!;ami: " "Ten thousand.' " Ten thousand! Come, M. Paoli. wbat are ; thinking of? That's the mmibcr w -e in Spain. It's more like I'O.OO "This i ( e til afterwards learned, was strlc . .. - - te. "As for : is'i.i of state. I also noticed no-ticed that !:" '.u,i devoted more time it than . tless life would lead one to belie -. Using winter and sum-M'-r at g , n0 stays indoors and " "iks regu.ar y during the early part the momlr.g sinri often again at night. In this connection one of his ministers s tii! to me: " 'He never shows a sign of either v' arinofss or boredom. The king' "frivolity" is a popular falacy. On the "ntrary, he is terribly painstaking. Just like the queen mother, he insists upon clear and detailed explanations be-f"V" be-f"V" he will sign the last document, and l e knows quite well how to make his "'ill feit. Resides, be is fond of work. nd he can work anywhere in a motor ' ar, in a boat, in a train, as well as in his study.' "'Every morning of his life Alfonso XI II has a good rump steak and potato pota-to i s for his first breakfast, often pre-eedd pre-eedd by eggs and sometimes followed hy salad and fruit. On the other hand, the king never drinks wine and generally general-ly confines himself to a tumbler of wator and zuchariilos. the national bev-'fage. bev-'fage. composed of white of egg beaten up with sugar." To M. Paoli was assigned the duty of guarding the young king during a visit !' Paris, and while there he had to examine ex-amine a great many anonymous letters containing threats against Alfonso's life. One of these, received as he was about to go to the gala performance at tne opera, given in the king's honor, struck him particularly, because, he iys, "it conveyed a warning devoid of any of the insults that usually accompany accom-pany this sort of communication. ' 'In spite of all the precautions that nave been taken,' it read, 'the king had better be careful when he leaves the opera tonight.' "This note, written in rough t, dis-guished dis-guished hand, was, of course, unsigned. I at once passed it on to the right quarter. quar-ter. The very strict supervision that Mas being exercised no doubt excluded the possibility of a successful plot. "Haunted by a baneful presentiment, I nevertheless decided on leaving the opera to remain near the king's car-. J'wge (as a mere passerby, of course) until he had stepped into it with M. j Loubet and driven off surrounded by his squardon of cavalry. The attempt on his life took place at the corner of the Hue de Rohan and the Hue de Riv-oli. Riv-oli. and both the king and M. Loubet had a miraculous escape from death. My presentimeent therefore had not been at fault. "I need not here recall the coolness the young monarch disolayed in these circumstances, for it is still present ir every memory, nor the magnificent indifference in-difference with which he looked upon the tragic incident. " 'I have received my baptism of fire,' he said to me a couple of days later, 'and upon my word it was much less exciting than I expected.' " Recollections of Phillips Brooks. (F m the Boston Republic.) The unveiling of the superb statue of Phillips Brooks, the work of the late famous sculptor, Saint-Gaudens, was a matter of some interest to Bostonians, irrespective of religion. Phillips Brooks was a fcieat man and a great citizen, and he always steadfastly set his face against the long prevalent anti-Catholic bigotry. Indeed, he had many friends among Catholics, for his splendid natural nat-ural virtues of honor and straightforward straightfor-ward dealing. It is told of him that once a poor Catholic weakling, hoping to better her sociai position by affiliating herself with Trinity church, came to Phillips Brooks with a confused tale of he? "doubts." etc. He appreciated the condition con-dition absolutely, and simply said: "My year woman, stay where you belong. What can we give you religiously that you do not already possess?" He was too great to pretend even to take up the "social betterment" problem. On another an-other occasion, he learned of a Catholic girl in a much humbler condition of life these were the days of "the dark 'SOs" who was sorely tempted to change her faith for the sake of a livelihood. live-lihood. Through a charitable woman, he came to the girl's assistance, and saw her set on her feet, without any sacrifice of the integrity of her conscience. con-science. All he asked of the mediator in this matter, whom he abundantly supplied with the means neecessary to get the poor girl out of debt and into work was that she should never know the name of her benefactor. Although he could not by any flight of fancy be called a "High Churchman," he held with the Catholfes as to the advantages, if not the necessity, neces-sity, of celibacy for him who desired to consecrate himself to God's exclusive service, and droll stories are told of his devices for dodging the much too flattering flat-tering evidences of personal interest in him on the part of some of the fair sex. He was a great friend of the late Mother Aloysia Hardey, of the Society of the Sacred Heart, and more than once crossed the Atlantic with her. on her journeys in the interest of her work. Often he would spend the greater great-er part of the day with or near this venerable friend, not only for his pleasure pleas-ure in her society, but to stave off the importunities of young ladies who had far too many social plans for the supposed sup-posed leisure of this always busy man. |