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Show "THE DEVIL IN THE CHURCH." (Catholic Transcript, Hartford,' Conn.) A Catholic lady of Middletown who has been solicited to canvass for a new book entitled, "The Devil in the Church," sends us a raft of literature setting forth the merits of the volume in whose distribution she is invited to take part. The profits are promised to be quite extraordinary. The reading, read-ing, matter is warranted to prove salacious enough for the most' tried taste, tand altogether' the proposition seems to give earnest of excellent businessfor busi-nessfor those who like to engage in that sort of 'thing. The devil in question is lodged in the Catholic church, of course. The table of contents is a guarantee to the prospective purchaser that his satanlc majesty is by no means idle in the house which he has selected for himself. him-self. Indeed, so manifold are his manifestations and so multiple his labors, la-bors, that we may justly conclude that he has brought with him seven other devils worse than himself, for there are very few crimes known to the modern world which this marvelous book is not prepared to exhibit as perpetrated per-petrated under his generalship within the pale of the -Catholic church, and,, what is worse, priests and nuns and other pious folk are proved the guilty parties. The table of contents gives promise of a feast merry enough for the most devoted disciple of Bacchus. We may be permitted to give a few headings while assuring our readers that the most sensational are not reproduced for reasons which may be surmised. Under the general caption, "The Crimes of Priests," we find such promising topics as "Confession of a Priest at the Point of Death," "Numerous Dead Bodies of ' Infants Found Near a Nunnery," "Priests Baptize Infants-Mother Infants-Mother Abbess Murders Them," "One Hundred Thousand Families Ruined in One Year," "The Vatican a Residence for Women,". "Priests Murdering Their Own Parents,'' "Worshipping 'the Beast," "The Priest a Plague," and other delightful sensations by the score. "The Confession of' Nuns" is the heading placed before another section of the book. The topics treated are numerous, -and, in no way, suggest a lack of interesting material. Let the following suffice to give an idea of the whole: "Out of the Coffin Into Shame," "Convent Life a Hell Upon Earth," "Murder of a Beautiful Woman." "The Burial Place of Infants," "A Frightful Occurrence in a Convent," "The Mother Superior Tells Why Priests Cannot Sin," etc., etc., etc., at endless length and with variety warranted to satiate the most exacting. Under the section of "The Wicked Lives of the Popes," we find grouped together such notorious" criminals as Hildebrand. Pius IX 'and. Leo XIII. The horrors of the Inquisition are dashed up in novel form and the "Sham Miracles, 'Image Worship and Other Roman Catholic Fallacies," are treated with acute analytical skill. "The awful aw-ful deeds of the priests in the Philippine Philip-pine islands'" are exposed as a matter mat-ter of course, while the dreadful re sults of auricular confession are mercilessly merci-lessly laid bare. "Human Monsters in the Confession Box" may be taken as a fair summary of the matter treated in this division. After reading about the manifold iniquities of priests and nuns and pious people, the purchaser of this wonderful volume is amply prepared to peruse in a sympathetic spirit the long chapters chap-ters which go to show that the Roman church exercises an alarmingly evil influence over the country in which we live and where that iniquitous institu- tion seems to flourish with the vigor of renewed youth. The compiler of this remarkable work- is prepared to prove to the satisfaction of all wise men that, Rome is responsible for the assassination assassina-tion of Abraham. Lincoln, as well as for the civil war, -and that Lincoln, Garfield Gar-field and McKinley were murdered by assassins of the Roman Catholic faith, and presumably at the instigation of the priests.- f We have, not given a .tithe of the interesting things promised . in the prospectus, pros-pectus, but we have striven to be fair to the 'publishers; "and we trust that our readers may gain a just knowledge of the value of the book from the heads of topics cited. Some may doubtless wonder how such a volume can possibly prove a good venture ven-ture in these days of phenomenal enlightenment. en-lightenment. It is not our business to show cause why such an enterprise should be launched forth. One thing, however, may be set down as unde-nable unde-nable fact, if the book did not. sell for a profit it would not be so extensively ex-tensively advertised and kept on the market. Indeed, the publishers claim that their "work enjoys the endorsement endorse-ment of "American Protestant ministers minis-ters and church memblrs" which is non-commital enough. They likewise claim the special endorsement of the j "Daughters of the American Revolution, Revo-lution, the- Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, Grand -Army of the Republic, Re-public, the Elks," and, indeed," that of almost every other" fraternal and social so-cial organization in the United States, with the bare exception of the Knights of Columbus, the A. O. H., and a few kindred organizations.. The publishers claim that "the mails are burdened with petitions from priests to" some" of their "friends in Washington asking to ha've the sale of the book suppressed. ' They dare not undertake it as they would call down the wrath of the Protestant and patriotic patri-otic people of America upon their heads. Many commendations of the work are reproduced in the prospectus. We will give a single exhibit. It is paraded under the caption of "A School Teacher Interested," and is credited to Charles E. Perry of Connecticut. Con-necticut. Mr. Perry writes: "I ordered a copy of your marvelous book, 'The Devil in the Church,' solely for my own use, but when I received it and read it through I was so much interested in it that I have determined to place a copy in the hands of every fellow school teacher I possibly can. It is of vast interest to them. In fact, I am sure that ninety-nine out of every hundred teachers know nothing of the dangers threatening our public schools. This book is certainly a great revelation and I intend to canvass every teacher at our country institute this winter. Enclosed find order for fifteen -copies, which I sold to patrons of my school." We have consulted a list of teachers of the state of Connecticut for last year and nowhere find , the name of Charles E. Perry. If he exists and holds the position assigned him and takes this "marvelous book" as a guide to his knowledge of the Catholic church, we may judge of his value as a teacher of the young. If he is a testify in favor of the wretched volume vol-ume in question, it would be well to keep him in mind when considering the . reliability of the book which he extols." ..Incidentally, we may .reflect with profit on the mental and moral character yof those who purchase '.the work' and "we may likewise askijs' the distribution of such degrading -. -literature legitimate business for. the United States mail? ' '- - |