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Show I!-. "Cburcb antesai ! i L ' w's Tribute. I Poet! I ci- . v, iouch thy lance vitP Not as a Tiirl ... who on the listed field Of tourney 'enhed his adversary''-shield adversary''-shield In token oi: U i ance, but in sign Of homage tc- the mastery, Avhieh is thine, "V In English ton; nor will I kep con ?) Y cealed, tf -J And voiceless as a rivulet frost-con - :jf gealer'i. I i My admiration for thy verse divine li i Is'ot of the howling dervishes of song' 1 - s Who craze the brain with their d'e- ii liious dance. Art thou, O sweet historia of the heart! ! Therefore to thee the laurel leaves belong, be-long, To thee our love and our allegiance For thy allegiance to the poet's art. H W. Longfellow. Hurry-Out Catholics. Writing in the Irish Monthly, of which he has for many years been the editor, of the "Hurry-out Catholic" who hastens from the church before all is over, the venerable Father Matthew Russell, S. J., asks the question: "How does he employ the time that he thus saves so carefully?" "What madness." he remarks, "to hurry over our religious duty in order to have more time for doing something immensely less important than the duty that we leave half done or much less well done than we could do it if we pave to it full time and our full atten-I atten-I tion. I A very active professional man broke down in health and came up to consult the Dublin physicians. He and his son attended mass in one of the Dublin churrhes. At the end of the Holy Sacrifice, while the altar was being be-ing prepared for Benediction, several persons went away without waiting for , that beautiful and solemn rite. The I dying man for such he really was I had to drive to his hotel in a cab, and J on the way he said to his son: "You I saw those people never do that! You i may want that blessing yet!' And so I the young man did. If he is alive. I ; i fear he needs prayer: and if he is dead, I hope he does. Some of those who ' l scandalized the good man by leaving the church before Benediction may have had a valid excuse for doing so; but, if they really could not spare the , i few additional minutes to choose a dif-'? dif-'? fr ferent hour or place for fulfilling their ? -jf chief Sunday duty if that were within i.heir power." ij To the Blessed Sacrament. I Before Thy altar, dearest Lord. Where Thou Thyself hast hidden, I kneel and pray that I may know, And do as Thou has bidden. I know and feel Thy presence here I Beneath this mystic veiling, And. bowing low my guilty head, I kneel my sins bewailing. My God! My Life! My Lord! My All! Oh! that to me were given The love of all the saints above j And every heart in heaven. That I from Thee might never stray, And leave Thee sad and lonely, But in Thy presence ever stay. And live for Thee Thee only. My heart's so cold it clings to earth. Thy love so oft forgetting. And when this world seems little worth. It wastes its time in fretting. Oh Jesus! eould'st Thou deem me meet To bear Thy cross like Simon, 'Twould be a privilege most sweet, To me a heavenly summon. E'en though the burden cause deep pain 'Twould prove to me a token To show that nearest to Thine own Is the heart that's nearest broken. Hear me. oh Lord of heaven, hear Thy poor child's supplication! And though I iruiy unworthy be Still grant me my petition. A. M. S. French Infidelity. A lieutenant of artillery gives in our Paris contemporary, the Eclair, a description de-scription of the expulsion of the Benedictines Bene-dictines from Solesmes in 1&S0. From this account of what took place we can see the strides infidelity has made in France during the past quarter of a century. Soldiers were called upon to perform the work of expulsion. They dated the task, but their commander "fr told them that though it was a detestable de-testable duty, they were bound to obey orders, and they obeyed them. Ac cordingly, they protected from the at-i at-i tentioris of a hostile crowd a locksmith '"y who was engaged for the occasion. ! There was, however, no need for his i services. As soon as he had reached I the door it was thrown open and the abbot, solemnly carrying the Sacred Host, came forth, being followed by all his religious brethren. As he passed th officer in authority cried. "Present firms Kneel!" and immediately all the soldiers prostrated themselves. The sub-prefect, who was present, protested, protest-ed, but the officer denied his right to j interfere, saying he had simply acted ;i fff.rincr tn fhf rr-p-n la t inn Pnr such action punishment would now be inflicted in-flicted on the officer by the government. They have so steadily pursued the policy pol-icy of banishing God from all official proceedings that certain jurors of Yonne, encouraged by the example afforded af-forded them, have petitioned the premier pre-mier to erase the name of God from the oath administered in the courts. Fate. You g;ive me my work to do, you brought and set it before me; I laughed with the laughter of one, seeing, who understands; I bent to the task elate, zeal like a mantle man-tle o'er me Why did you break my wrists and shatter the strength of ,my hands? You gave me the song to sing, and mine the jov of the bringing j, Strands of heaven and sea and earth A strung to the perfect note Finished, glorious, whole, I raised my i head for its singing I ' , Why did you seal my lips-and crush C 'Vl the song In my throat? k M The work I was fain to do-it rusts in " ( the drift of the sands: , The song I was fain to sing is waste for the winds to float. ... Why did von break my wrists and shatter shat-ter the strength of my hands Why did you seal my lip and crush the song in my throat? Theodosi.i Garrison in Appleton s. From Evil Comes Good. "The war waged op the church by the republic of France has not only tended to increase the attendance at the churches in the city of Paris, but it has l s(rved to draw the Catholics of that J community more closely together than thev have been for years," says Rev. William T. Russell, rector of St. l at-rick's at-rick's church, Washington, who has returned re-turned alter a month's visit abroad "While, of course. I was only in Pans and other European cities for a short ' time. I was there long ?ou ?n fT more reverence Is now being shown on J fore Tn f EurPe tnan ever be-UcVphiP be-UcVphiP me' esPccialy is this no-l no-l itv i n". i.Iy recent visit to the PaPal the f,the first in twent years. On two It, r occasion I was there for two i v ears while a student, and it was f ih- n ,the street Todav' as far as show Ted; 5t is dirent. The people snovi priests the utmost respect. 5imioVaS m,Rome two days. One was d?v a i o?Vhe other a church holi-riat" holi-riat" r SL Peter's church on the holiday holi-day fully 15,000 persons were at mass, xnis was a remarkable gathering, and it reminded me of Holy Thursday in th s country. On Sundays in the larger European cities the attendance is always al-ways large." Father Ducey's Mission Ended. Mourned by parishioners and friends and recognized throughout the country coun-try as a clergyman of marked personality personal-ity ana ability, the Rev. Thomas J. JJucey. pastor of St. Leo's Catholic church in East Twenty-eighth street, 5Wt ' died ln his country home in -t. James, L. I., early last Sunday morning. For several months "Father lorn, as he was affectionately known to rich and poor, has been suffering irrom a complication of diseases. Not until three weeks ago, however, would he need the advice of friends and physicians phy-sicians and give up the work of caring for the duties of the parish. At that time Father Ducey was forced' to consent to an operation being per-lormed per-lormed upon him for dropsy. Since then he has taken a partial rest, but his enforced leisure did not prevent him from facing the heaw Tuesday to come to the city and meet several members of his congregation who desired to see him in New York. A violent relapse was the result, and Father Ducey was confined to his town parsonage until Friday last, when he went to St. James. On Saturday afternoon he became convinced he was dying, and asked that the Rev. John Ganters, rector of the Church of Innocents in Setauket, L. I., be sent for. Drs. Kelly and Janewav of New York City were present when Father Ganters arrived. He at once administered the last rites of the Catholic Cath-olic church to Father Ducey. At 1:12 o'clock Sunday morning "Fa'ther Tom" died. In the afternoon the body was brought to New York in charge of his private secretary. Ail evening it lay in the reception room of the parsonage in East Twenty-eighth street, and all night up to 12 o'clock a steady stream of grief stricken parishioners passed silently by the casket. There probably was no clergyman in the United States who earned and held the good will of his congregation so thoroughly as did Father Ducey. His remarkable magnetic individuality beamed with sincerity .and all with whom he came in contact he won over as friends. In few parishes has there ever been such a mixture, of wealthy and poor church members. Yet strife never reared its head in St. Leo's church in the whole of "Father Tom's" charge. - Men -who were a power in the financial finan-cial and political worlds of the city knew and respected his pulpit utterances. utter-ances. They feared them, too. and a sermon from him at one time could do more good than a hundred speeches or mass meetings in ridding the community com-munity of political depravity or moneyed money-ed crime. The Tweed ring and its scandals, Tammany Hall and the trusts all came in for liberal anl helpful condemnation con-demnation from Father Ducey at periods per-iods whon most of his colleagues were, adverse to mingling at all in political or temporal affairs. Thomas J. Ducey was born in Lins-more, Lins-more, Ireland, on February 4, 1S43, and come to this country when 5 years old, under the care of his widowed mother Judge Thomas T. Brady chanced to meet the boy and was attracted immediately imme-diately to him by the personality that afterward became so widely admired. The jurist adopted the little Irish lac and brought him up as his own son might have been reared. In luxury and refinement. The death of his foster father caused Ducey to inherit a large fortune, which he used first to aid him in acquiring an ecclesiastical education. educa-tion. The Irish boy had left St. Francis Xavier's College before his graduation to stud' law in Judge Brady's offices. But the priesthood soon won him to it, and in ISG.i he was ordained in St, Joseph's Seminary, Troy. His first assignment as-signment was to the old Nativity Church Jn Second avenue, but his stay there was brief, and he was transferred to St. Michael's in West Thirty-Second street. May 1. 1SS1. St. Leo's Church, founded by Father Ducey, was dedicated by Cardinal McCloskey. "Father Tom" took much pride in his new parish. He is credited with having said at the celebration of his silver jubilee in 1S9G: "I would not leave the memories of this altar for a Bishop's mitre or a Cardinal's hat." The most prominent Catholic families in New York City were Father Ducey's parishioners. His little church edifice seemed to .have been built for the most fastidious of society worshippers. Yet no poor person ever knocked at Father Ducey's door in vain, and no ragged worshipper ever was barred from St. Leo's. The Funeral on Wednesday was attended at-tended by a great throng of people of all classes and creeds eager to honor the memory of the beloved priest. Archbishop Farley, many of the right reverend monsignor and a large number of priests participated in the solemn requiem services at St. Leo's. Catholic Light, Aug. 26 |