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Show I .' "THE FmilWb THE FCOFLC: m TSKKE f (Correspondence Intermountain Catholic.) ' ,i Butte. Feb. 20. The. Grand opera house never contained a larger, more ropr sentative and enthusiastic au- ' dienee than that gathered on Monday : evening to listen to the lecture deliver- i ed by Rev. I. C. Yorke of San Fran- j v ,. ' .-is:-, under the auspices of the Young t J en's Institute ; A large number of the Catholic clergy , occupied scats on the stare, besides : several prominent Catholics of the j city. ! On the appearance of the distinguish- ! ed lecuncr on the platform ho was. greeted with warm applause; by t he-vast he-vast audience. The shlj'-ct of the l.-.-tur was "The; ? r.p.. and the People." 11 was one uf ( I Father Yoik.-'s finest ar.d gn.nd.-s. ef- 5 forts and was handled by him in his : ) Usual eloquent and splendid sty!-. j J Father York.- is a ma'vn!i. s; . iker. ' having a cre-at command of language, . d nii-1 holds the attention of his auuicnte ; fr-mi 'he b-ai'.ining to the nel- ' : The larre and a.p.;.recialivo audience j listens! at'entively to his aide address I and liberally applauded the brilliant j , and telling points made by the ..rat or. I This was ..spee'.nllV nt ie.'abi.- when i a the sp. ;ik..v denounced in sea thine ; I . le,i:is the I.) utal c-nduct of the English . I poxei-nmeni i-v-mi'-? the gallant Beers'. I I who art- light iiig for their homes and lib. rties. The speaker is' a comparative! v young man. but is .gifted with a f.irce i and an i-loouewe that clothed his most : simple 'utterances with deep signifi- can. e. lb- emphasized the fact that; , Catholics at no time had made any ef- j i fort nor had any desire to unite state , :;j and church, and sincerely deplored the ! fa.-t that the organization known as; the American Protective Asociati..n j A had at any time antagonized them. He j pointed with satisfaction to the Span- j I ish-Ameriean war and said that the , 1 pa.riotism displayed by Catholics dur-j 1 in- that trouble had proven that they -were citizens of America in the fuil J e:l.e of the word. j I ' Cornelius F. Kell.-y. deputy county , '! nt'ornt-y. called the meeting to order 1 j and en behalf of the Young Men's In- ! stitute in a few well chosen words in- j tiv.au.od the speaker of the evening. " . Father Yorke cxpresr-d his thanks to j th chairman and the Young Men's In- i ftiuite for inviting him to lecture be-' f ' for. ji Butte audience. The name of Bono, he said, was known far outside j ..f ih- state ,.f Montana. The name of . th" people of Butte, he said, is a name ! that is synonymous of generosity and ' e;.eE-hearte.iness. and he felt proud j tii.it he had been invited t- address ' uch an a'.-dience. He said that if in ; j tho c-m-se of his l.y, ture he touched up.-n th" s;:b.i-.-ct of the senatorial eon- ; t t hn des-red to disclaim takins any; fride. I The speaker said that the past cen- ; ti.ry had been loud with the cry for : j ft.-, iom, and it was tisher.-d in durhie . - the French revolution. The history of ( th.-. world, he contended, had always , pfen the sad lesson of abuse of power, ! and during the !at e, ntnry it had ben : .!T- r.-al struggle to fre" the oppress d , I fp'n th" power of those who i ulrT'I ; I' r. . r tli-n-.. The oiieetion he had ben ; rail, d upon to discuss was the rr potion i Let w. eii church and state and th re- j ' a' ion between the Podv e-cb siast ical ' Iand thn bodv 'ditieal: the n-lations xhi---h must exist f"f men in t-ni- : ' poral w Ifa re and sni ritual we-: fare. He said it was r...t to 1 ex- 1.,.-t.-l that a cuesti-.n like this could' p treated or brought before, the pen- j.;.- without raismg voices in remon- ! . Ftranco. He had always found two ( classes -f men and women, one of i vhi. h exprred diWden.-e about this 1 riuestion ab-.ve a whisper. Tie was not . -wi'ding to do any Catholic in the state I of Montana the injustice of accusing I th.-m of bdng ashamed of being a . I Catholic. He dwelt at length upon the I loyalty of the Catholic people and re- : fe'rred to the A. P. A. as a miserable , I association that has gone the way all f such organizations go. In referring to ; the organization he sail that he felt Tike apologizing for not having a larg- er c:-se to mourn over. I J As the question of loyalty of Cath- ; or..- had been raised by this organiza- ; I 1j,,n he felt that he had the right to f fi'isv. er it and added that no man had I th.. right to impeach another's char- re i.-r and then refuse the latter the ; i.t to reply. He Mi that he had the J I 3 -in to present the side of the Cath- i ! oli. s for no just peo;d would decide ; I vithout first hearing both sides of the I question and the Americans were a i J just peoj.le when they fully under- j I stood a question. The Catholics had j nothing t hide as they had a consis- j tent theory in regard to the duty of j 1 ' citrons, and the state's power atid did , I n, ! p-ave their children in doubt in re- ! L p.ud to their duty to the state. The j J speaker contended that one man was I na.tura.lly as good as another and there j was no n; s:: why ne man should j ' have dominion over another. The; Catholic theory he said was that all j power is in God and that no man has authority over another. The Catholic i theory means that the "divine right" of kings is gone but there is a heresy j ' today of the right of one race to rob ' another race. i Father Yolk delved deeply into the j rights and privileges of, man and avow- ! ed that C.od had not given the Anglo- j Saxon race the ri-Jil to shoot down the j I Filipinos nor had he given the English the right to tdixt dwn the Doers in South Africa, "if they can do it," he said. The Catholic theory of church 1 and state is that politics and religion ! are good in themselves, but the power j of government in the state, the speaker i said, came from God. The civil power docs not depend upon the exercise of ecclesiastical power and neither is the church dependent upon the civil power for existence. There is a certain union between the church and the state and that exists on the standard of morality. mor-ality. Father York did not believe in mixing mix-ing the church with public affairs in ( law-making. Py a mixture of religion j ;md politics the ?-esult would be a fear- ful brand of politics and the speaker ! !aid he would not stand sponsor for j the religion, declaring that both would j be spoiled by the mixture. The sneaker pointed out that no Catholic priests occupied public posi- j tions. while the whole country was j honeycombed with Protestant preach- j ers who had their hands in the public j purse. He spoke of the Baptist and Protestant churches being divided into j churches North and South, but no one j ever heard of the Catholic Church being be-ing divided. The Catholic Church believed be-lieved in keeping politics and religion separate, and as a national and universal uni-versal church it had one head to which the churches gave spiritual allegiance the Pope. I'pon this subject Father York dwelt at length and likened the system employed by the Church to that of the courts, saying that the Pope was the supreme council to which appeal ap-peal was made. He referred to the patriotism of the Catholics in the civil war and the Spanish-American war, saying that the latter had sounded the death knell to the American Protective association. It had been shown that the Catholics were as loyal and as noble hearted as the people of any other denomination. de-nomination. He said that no hands i had been more generous in the Boer war than those of the Catholics. It were better, ho said, to be outlanders in the "Free Transvaal" than officers in the Boer army to be crushed under England's heel. THE POLLUTION OF THE STAGE. The theatrical trust, which practically prac-tically determines what the American people shall and shall not see on the stage, is composed of men whose only purpose is to make money. They are l men without any appreciation of dra- j matic art except that which fills their coffers. They care no more about the educational influences of the stage than j they care about the transit of Venus. Their one ambition is to get rich, j Hence it has come to pass that "a class j of plays utterly indecent, obscene and i demoralizing have 'been forced upon j the public, and sad to relate the public j has accepted the worst as well as the J bad. Step by step these insidious pol- j luters of morality have gone on from j the "suggestive" drama to the brutally offensive and impure. They have given I us the "Conquerors." "Zaza," "Becky j Sharp." "The Detvnerates," "The Girl . fiem Maxim's." and now "Sapho" has ! been pushed to the front in all the nude and brazen indecency of which Daudet was capable. 'Ye mention these pieces not because we think it is proper to put their titles in print, but because the time has come for plain speaking. Fnless there is a revolt1 against the hideous stream of filth which the trust is giving us no one can foretell the climax of corruption. The New York Journal of Tuesday demanded police interference to prevent pre-vent further productions of "Sapho." We quote its call for suppression, as follows: "The Journal calls the attention atten-tion of the poiiee to the play given here last nieht at "Wa Hack's Theatre by Miss ilga Nethersole. It is with regret that the Journal does this, but there is a public duty to be performed it is the duty of the authorities to call a halt. ; A great many improper plays have j been given in New York recently. , "Sanho" is the limit it should not be ' performed again. If the police do not ' interfere no mart or woman who values i his or her good name should ever go to a performance." The other leading papers of New York denounced the j play, although not in such forcible language, and the managers of the j company chuckle with glee because they realize that they are getting valuable valu-able advertising. The sad part of all this business is j that dramas of the character of "Zaza" j and "Sapho" are practically the only really successful theatrical ventures on the stage at the present time. Women trampled upon each other here to see "Zaza." "Becky Sharp" and "The Girl from Maxim's." They were women of good social standing, too. A few years ago they would not venture to see such a performance. Their reputations would be blasted if they were seen going int.) or c( ming out of a theatre where such shows were exhibited. Young girlo were penvitted to go to the matinees mati-nees with other girls; they were permitted per-mitted to go to the evening performances perform-ances with male escorts. And the atmosphere at-mosphere reeked with moral filth. What are the mothers and fathers of these girP. thinking of? Do they imagine that their daughters can grow up pure and clean if they are allowed to drink in deep draughts of such rank impurity as is given forth by these, miasmatic representations? rep-resentations? Do they believe that they can touch pitch without defilement'.' In this city the protest of the press against the indecent and impure drama dra-ma was very feeble. The syndicate has its grip upon the newspapers. It advertises adver-tises liberally. One paper alluded to the "Girl From Maxim's" as a very broad and startling drama, and then announced that the sale of seats was enormous. Speaking of the acting and the actions, of the person who impersonated imper-sonated hf-r. the critic said: "The one thing that cannot be charged against cither the farce or Miss TIall is sug-gestivenvss. sug-gestivenvss. When any thing that may make timid folk blush is to be said, it is said right eut plump. It is sometimes I startling, but at least it makes no pre-i pre-i tctve to be what it is not." I The Herald's ' t iiatterer," w hose baneful influence on the, morals of young women we have had occasion to note more than once, went into ecsta-cies ecsta-cies over the play. "Don't say a word," she gurgles, "don't read a word about : IBl ; :! : U ." f X Rev. Father Peter C. Yorke, of Sara Francisco, lectured in the Grand Opera House at Butte last Monday evening on "The Pope and the People." f Father Yorke is one of the most accomplished orators on the Coast and . the universal opinion of those who heard him at Butte is that he ac- f quitted himself admirably. her, but just go and see her and laugh j your head off at her mad pranks." She admits that "mad pranks" is a mild j term for what the girl does. "We can't go to Sunday school all the time," she says, with devilis-h and pandering sug- gestiveness; "our livers- require shak- ing up occasionally, and when it is at-- I complished we can blush if need be." What sort of constitution does this woman wo-man think young girls have that they require so drastic a remedy as a I grossly immoral play to tone them up? . "The young person can be taken to see Josephine Hall with absolute safety," she says. "It is the old ftager who ! should be kept awav." And she went ! I herself and sat through the play, and j laughed her head off, and ton?d up her : j liver by gloating over 'the mast risque I scenes." and advises mothers to send their young girls to this brutally shock- 5ng performance. It is hard to determine deter-mine which are the most to blame, the members of the theatrical trust or the . : newspapers that permit "old r-tagers" j like the "Chatterer" to lure the inno- : cent and the virtuous into the lairs of j vice that are set on the modern stage, j Mothers should lock their innocent : daughters in dark closets rather than permit them to breathe the immoral j atmosphere; exhaled by the class of ; plays that the syndicate gives to the , public. j THE AGNUS DET There is in every rational creature ; an intuition of the supernatural. Dif- j ferent individuals or peoples manifest it in different ways, but all manifest it in some way. The polished Greek em- . bodied it in an exquisite sculpture; the , Egyptian, in a labyrinth temple; the Druid discovered it in the forest; the Central African places it in a stick or a stone; and the American Indian who ' wants to shoot the rapids of the St. ' Lawrene? in his frail bark canoe, pro- ! : pitiates the manitou of the waters with ' ; a few leaves of the tobacco sn dear to 1 ; him. No man ran entirely emancipate , t himself from the influence of this uni-j uni-j versal belief. The infidel and the scof- ! I fer at both pagan and Christian beliefs i are not without their superstitious . cmens. Deny it as they may, they can- ; ! not even conceal the fact. The Chris- tian is the only logical person among j them: for he believes in a personal God j creating, preserving, and ruling the universe in its entirety and in all its ; minute details with a fatherly providence provi-dence for the benefit of His rational creatures alive to the wants of the least among them, and ever ready to turn a willing ear to their every peti-1 peti-1 tion. ! i Christians, too. have their amulets I the crucifix, the scapular, blessed med- I alis. the Angus Dei, etc. and these are ; I with greater propriety called amulets, ; i for thev fulfill the meaning of the term, ; which, being derived from the Latin 1 word amolior, means "I remove." Ac- ! cording to this etymology, "an amulet is something worn to remove or ward off danger: and when the thing so worn j has not of its own. nature power to i produce this effect, to use it. confiding ; in it alone, would be the sin of super- ; stition. Thus, when the old pagans 1 hung around their necks certain stones, i metals, or bits of parchment,-with mys- j terious signs and figures inscribed on them, and trus-ted in them for protection protec-tion against disease and witchcraft, they only proved the stupid folly into which human nature left to itself is sure to run. But the Christian does not. like the Pagan, put his trust in them on account of any inherent virtue vir-tue which he imagines them to have, nor does he look to the enemy of his soul for assistance. His hope is in the Living God. Who, listening to the prayers of His Beloved Spouse, the i Catholic Church, blesses these material things, and bids His children keep them a memorials of Him as tokens 'that Hi divine providence will ever I shelter them beneath its protecting I wing." The Agr.us Del is. then, no superstitious super-stitious object, as some would fain have us believe, but one of those sac-ramentals sac-ramentals by which the blessing of God is invoked upon those who wear it I with proper dispositions, and one of those objects which the church has j successfully employed to abolish a real superstition. It Is a remarkable fact that those claiming the name of Christians, Chris-tians, who discard the pirns articles, blessed by the Catholic. Chiifrch, not infrequently in-frequently themselves fall into real, culpable and foolish superstitions. A striking instance of this Is furnished by Queen Elizabeth of England. In the thirteenth year of her reign it was enacted by parliament that "if any person shall -bring into' the realm of England any token or tokens, thing or things called or named by the name of Agnus Dei (which said Agnus Dei Is used to be specially hallowed hal-lowed and consecrated, as it is termed, by the bishop of Rome in his own person), per-son), and shall deliver the same to any subject, he shall incur the penalty of Praemunire." After this it was hardly to be expected that the,, very-sovereign very-sovereign who enacted such severe laws against, "vain and superstitious things" should herself become guilty of gross superstition. But Parson says: "One of her privy councilor." presented her with a piece of gold of the bigness of an angel, dimly marked with some small characters, which he said an old woman in Wales bequeathed to her on her death bed, telling her that the said old woman, by virtue of the same, lived to the age of 100 and odd years, and could not die as long as she wore it upon her body, but being withered, and wanting- nature to nourish her body, it was taken off. and she died. The queen, upon the confidence she had thereof, took the said gold and wore it on her ruff." What, it may be as-ked. Is the Agnus Dei, and why called by that name? It is scarcely necessary to say that Agnus Dei are Eatin words signifying "Lamb of God." The Agnus Dei has a twofold two-fold signification, the first being that it represents the Lamb of God. All the ceremonies of the blessing of it point to this primary signification, as will appear ap-pear later on. The reader of both the Old and the New Ttestament need not be told that the lamb was. in ceremonial ceremo-nial law and in the writings of the prophets, the symbol of Christ. Nor need he be referred to the numerous passages in which the long expected Messias is compared in his meekness to the lamb. In the New Testament he is frequently referred to in the same manner, and is called by John the Baptist "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world." But why are these blessed objects named the lamb, and not rather the lion, for Christ is called the "Lion of the tribe of Juda?" And since they are to be a defense against our spiritual spirit-ual enemies, it is not strength, as typified typi-fied by the lion, rather than gentleness, gentle-ness, as symbolized by the lamb, that we should be endowed with? The reason rea-son for this name is found in the second sec-ond signification of the Agnus Dei its reference to the newly baptized. These, in the words of St. Paul, put on Jesus Christ, are incorporated into his mystical mys-tical body, and become new lambs of his flock, and as such are bound to imitate his virtues. Now, it is a remarkable re-markable fact that, though our Savior Sav-ior illustrated every virtue in an infi-j infi-j nitely perfect degree during his so-I so-I journ upon earth, there are but two ; which he bids us learn especially for ; him. "Learn from me that I am meek and humble of heart" the charaeteris-: charaeteris-: tics of the lamb, and not of the lion. ; In his triumph over the powers of ' darkness he is indeed the Lion of the : tribe of Juda, but among his children, as their model, he is the meek lamb! ; and, as Iambs, they are to walk even as I he walked. Hence the name Agnus Dei. The purity of their lives is typified typi-fied by the immaculate whiteness of ; the wax; the meekness of their conduct i by the figure of the lamb impressed . upon it. Mystical writers deduce many other symbolical meanings from . the i part which the lamb played in the religions re-ligions of the Old Law: but they shall j be passed over as not being Intimately connected with our subject. |