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Show Our Eiterary tahh .Records of the American I'aU,,,:. n . . cie-ty of Philadelphia. The number , , . - quarterly, dated Jun. is before u-. T!-- """! tents treat of two subjects parti.-u:i;r--.- ;.v,..., ' .'. '"" One is the "Letters- Concerning- So)r,. :.! ;i. t f Mississippi Valley" ISIS-ISI'T . Th- is o..t.'7, "By-Paths of History: Th Chun r, -. . :-ir. '.' the Dark Ages," by James J. Wabi.. Ph , t , ' M. D. " U'' The letters concerning missions ):! c,. jJ;: valley were written by Kt. Kev. l.nn Wi:: :-,m -entine Du Bourg. Sulpitian. Bishop ...-v '-,.;. (from 1813 to 1S2) to a friend in K-i :-;-.. , In these letters arc gathered th-- rv, .rj. sionary priests in his charge j spreadi. g ; 'Z and bringing savage Indian trihf-s to ih, trt,0 f ";' One in particular attracts us. aftr a !,.,Stv through the pages devoted to missions. It is n' tract from a letter of Bishop Flag'-t. h" fijJfKi'. seat was at Bardstown, Ky.-a spot yrawj k'Z annals of church history of this country. H.. uVir-s from Baltimore to the vicar general at rdsioivn. In those days there was no traveling rr,nvaynria except by stage, and ihe person wa!kd who hai ;o money. "Make special note of the fact that f,,r eight people we have one house. I intend that Fatr I David shall have that, as he is the r,Wf..t tt.a,k',' I As for myself and the others, wc will rhrfnih- t.i on foot if there is th least difficulty about ri"'ur;:;c other means of transport. The pilsrrimaz- voUi.j" greatly to my taste, and I do not think that my d j-nity j-nity will suffer by it. I leave everythins to' judgment. I would be very happy if I hm p!, money to join you in Louisville. The ret of th journey jour-ney will be at your expense. May God's be do--. I would a thousand times rather walk than give rise to the least murmur, and you did quite right to smp the subscription which had been started for me. it would only have had the effect of alienating peopi? from me. At the same time it is but ju.-t and rwn-able rwn-able to expect that the people who are anxious in have a bishop should furnish him with the means nf reaching them. I would shrink from nothing to attain at-tain the sanctification of my flock. My time, my efforts, ef-forts, my life, are consecrated to them, and ever, tlfti I can only say. I am but a poor servant, having don? only that which I was obliged to do:-- Heading the above, one is reminded of tii" journeys jour-neys horseback made by Bishop Scantan .v?r this diocese, the largest in area of this country. Before us is a scathing arraignment of a honk recently re-cently issued by the Appleton company, entitled the "Sins of a Paint." The author is J. K. Aitken. At ;h request of the International Truth society, the benk was carefully examined by Mr. Lurian Jnhr.son of Baltimore, and he submitted the result to the sofie'y. It consumes much necessary space in detail, ami ran be summarized here only in the introduction off?! by Mr. Johnson: "The book deals with the character of St. r-ur.ftdn. Archbishop of Canterbury. According to our aunrr he is worse than a criminal. He is a liar, a sly diplo- mat who would not scruple to employ any mean?, however base, which would further his ends: a tyrant when in power: revengeful, "satanie." demoniacal in disposition: capable even of counseling young mwk to break his vow of chastity in order to farther M- own political purposes: a disturber of the realm, treacherous to his king, prosecutor and murderer "f an innocent maiden in a word, an incarnatim off"' litieal ambition unchecked by any consideration of honor, virtue, or even humanity. S'o mu.-h far Pur.-stan. Pur.-stan. I "The Papacy is also the target for the m"?t savage sav-age abuse, of the tone to which we a re aceujromri in the reading of such books as the alleged Cor.fr"-sions Cor.fr"-sions of Maria Monk" et al. The monks are paint1 in colors which would make even Friar Turk ashamed They are drunken, revengeful, cruel, rnurderou?. etc.. and so on. Every person and every thin? d?ar to Catholic memory is held up to seorn and abus'i in language which at times is so foul, so intemperate j as to excite our pity for the writer. "Now what, justification in history is f'"r such awful charges against Eglish Catholicism th? tenth century? None. "Before the time of Lingard. Dunstan's rh-irar??' had, it is true, been a favorite theme for the at- tacks of anti-Catholic writers like HaKam. Hum . Turner, Fouthey, Henry, Rapin and Carte. Th chare? of these men were fearlessly and suecessfuiHy m-,t Lingard, chiefly in chapter xiii of his History Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Church." .Since thit time the tide has almost completely turned in favnr of Dunstan. Anyhow, the old virulence of style n'" entirely given place to moderate criti'-ism. even 'n quarters most anti-Catholic." Over a year ago the Appletons published art pn'' clopediu so offensive to Catholics in the tr-atm'tit Catholic subjects that a demand was made for rectlon and revision. The publishers apoS'20'1 ar; . r' complied with this appeal in order b placate fatlu,'1(1 sentiment and patronage. Strange that so soon should forget the encyclopedia blunder and the '"' dignation it aroused. "The Sheriff of the, Beech Fork." a story of K' tucky. In it the author, Henry S. Spalding. s- describes life in the Blue Grass state in a manner interest youth, boys especially. To a certain exte" the Kentucky dialect is preserved in dialogue and t' narrative is devoid of sensation. One closes 9 book with the refreshing thought that Catholic authors au-thors of fiction are awake to the need of presentm, something moral to youthful readers, at the ?a" time winning their interest through fascinating j scriptlon. The book is from the press of BenZ'?sj ! Bros., New York, Cincinnati and Chicago. Pr6- I cents.. j |