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Show I It is announced that the greatest cataract in f the world has recently been discovered in South America in the falls of Iguazu fiver. JIow long I before some Yankee trust has it harnessed like .Niagara : I - 4- ; I , The series of articles running in the Freeman's I Journal of Xew York under the title '"Versions of I the Bible." will be put in a more permanent form. !The Catholic Truth society of San Francisco has them in press and will soon issue them in book I form. : So all ihe talk about Johnnie Bull and Uncle Sam joining hands and approaching Russia -with propositions for peace was done to boost Japanese bonds on tlie London market. The Russian minister min-ister intimated as much when he directed attention atten-tion to Russian bonds in Paris and compared their tanding with Japanese bonds elsewhere. Our mind i. divided between a popular priest in Butte and Father Hussie of Wilkesbarre, Pa., as we note the little address the latter made at a gathering of young men and women, delegates to a temperance convention '"You are doing good work for the cause of temperance,' he said, ''but I sec I no reason why more of you should not marry. "Now. as an incentive I will give $5 and a gold mednl to the first couple who comes before me to be married as the rp?ult of this gathering." ' 4- '. " The proposition to erect a bronze statue of the Into Father Scully in Cambridge, Mass.. is meeting with warm approval from all classes of citizens in that city, which for many years was the scene of the dead priest's labors for God. the Church, and go(d citizenship. A meeting was held in Cambridge Cam-bridge the other evening, which was presided, over by Mayor Daly and attended largely, Protestant minsters bring present as -well as Catholic priests. 'y- . Two the ministers, in fact, Rev. Dr. David X. Bench and Rev. Dr. Alexander Mc.Kcnzie, had traveled all the way from Iowa to be at the meeting. Colonel Henry Wntterson of Kentucky during his recent visit to Xew York told a story of an old darky down south who was informed that whisky was an infallible cure for snakebite. His informant inform-ant told him that if he was bitten by a snake and drank a quart -of whisky the snake would die aud he would go im seal bed. "Par's only one trouble 'bout dat cure" the old man said. 'T know whar dero's plenty snakes, but whar's I gwine ter git da i whisky " Kindergarten scientists of Chicago arc discussing discuss-ing the effect bad weather may have upon the in-j in-j crease of crime, and take the matter so seriously I 1'iat the police are actually laughing in their v sleeves. Correspondingly it is argued that good weather and clear skies produce the same effect on conscience and will. Religion has worked patiently pa-tiently for centuries trying to bring about the redemption re-demption of man. Xow it is found that a little more oxygen, a little less weight in the atmosphere and a firm control of the thermometer will trans- ! form man from a demon to an angel. The mil- i lennium promises to be here just as soon as man gets a good, strong grip on the weather. 4- . Winter has set in in Manchuria and Russians find Japs seem to have agreed upon a cessation of hostilities until spring. Winter, however, will not J greatly retard reinforcements of the Russian army passing over the Siberian railroad, nor will it pre-vent pre-vent lhe a3'n? of a double track along the whole -hl- Winter, therefore, becomes an ally of Russia j in 11)0 Preparation of a crushing defeat for her j enemy in the spring. There seems to be one place, j fi,ld oriy mQ l?re the Japanese army may hope I to Pt-m the tide of the coming Russian hordes. Tliat is i a great camp behind a powerfully forti- fied ine across the; Liaotung peninsula, with each flank protected by gunboats and w-ith a wet Jine of communications to a base in JapaVi. Behind such a line they may hope to hold their Wn. "Welcome signs arc beginning tl appear that Catholic Frenchmen feel the need orf uniting in defense of their faith. An important (meeting, under un-der the presidency of M." Piou, has bcn held, at which it was decided to convene a rraHhoring of distinguished Catholics in Paris about he middle of December, with the object of forming la national congress. The work of this congress will be to study and report on the best means of promoting Catholic interests, of improving Catholic social ideals, and of strengthening' Catholic electoral work. 4- Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M. P., addressed a meeting of the United Irish League at Aeerington, Eng., recently. Speaking of the attitude of the Irish party towards the probabjp Liberal government in the next parliament, he said that if that government govern-ment proved indifferent or hostile to Irish demands, de-mands, the Irish party would ally themselves with the labor section to make war upon it. As to the political future, the absence of the mention of Ireland Ire-land in the Liberal programmes could not be taken seriously, for no government could afford to ignore ig-nore the Irish question. Ireland could accept nothing noth-ing less than aji Irish parliament with an executive execu-tive responsible to it. ' - A pleasing incident occurred in a suburban city, Somerville, for many years known as a hotbed of A. P. A.'ism and other anti-Catholic organizations. organiza-tions. It was the appointment by the school board of that city of a young Catholic lady as teacher who only a few months ago had been refused appointment ap-pointment on the sole ground that she was the -graduate of a Catholic parish school, and, in the words of the reverend bigot who opposed her, 'could not be as well equipped for a public school teacher as a graduate of the public schools." Her appointment now is a rebuke to this gentleman, and a sign that in the darkest corners of Massachusetts Massa-chusetts the light of tolerance and fair dealing toward Catholics of worth is beginning to shine. -1 When the Russo-Japanese war broke out it was at first feared that during the progress of hostilities the Church in Japan would suffer, as the central authority would then be necessarily somewhat relaxed. re-laxed. Experience, however, has proved that the tolerance of the Japanese has not abated and it is not likely to abate. In the four dioceses into which l the country is divided there has of late been a t steady increase in the number of Catholics, which : is now about fifty-six thousand. It is true the ! Church is not nearly as strong in Japan at present as it was in day$ prior to the great persecutions, f when the number of Catholics amounted to over two millions, but the prospects of rapid progress after the war are bright. - One of the choru3 girls in the "Maid of Cyprus" was married the other day to the property man, at the Manitou hotel in this city. After the ceremony, cere-mony, lo and behold, the wedding ring was discovered discov-ered on the wrong finger of the bride. To add to confusion and provoke the hoodoo of superstition, tin? startling announcement was made that the ceremony took place on Friday. The witnesses decided, de-cided, because of this, that the ceremony should be repeated, and the accommodating clergyman yielded yield-ed compliance. Doing so was tantamount to declaring de-claring the first marriage no marriage, and elevating elevat-ing superstition above a sacrament. If the clergyman clergy-man were a colored brother with hazy notions about the hind foot of a rabbit, no notice would be taken of the circumstance. But he is an intellectual light in the Presbyterian ministry. '- Wc are talking and writing more about education educa-tion nowadays than it has ever been spoken or written of at any other time; and yet, would not j the comment of our forefathers on modern educational edu-cational systems bo this that they are good for turning out sinatterers? "We give our young folk a smattering of almost everything, and teach them scarcely anything solid. They get a smattering of French, which is rarely of any use to them; a smattering of Latin and Greek, which is completely com-pletely lost in a year or two after they have left school; a smattering of mathematics, which they hardly ever turn to advantage; and so on with various other subjects. Would it not be far better that subjects more or less ornamental and useless should be omitted from the curriculum, and that children should learn well and thoroughly subjects which closely concern their future happiness and welfare? " X ' ' 1 |