SEPTEMBER, 1908 NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN September 8th When September's sun was shining, Shone in green and purple pride: From the crest of sunlit mountains What this mystery can be. For the world such welcome glory, Gabriel there beside her kneeleth, To the Babe o'er whom they bend; While with them in songs of morning Earth and heaven their praises blend. Not as Jesus came, came Mary, In the wintry days of snow; Clad in russet brown and green, -Selected. STATE SUPPORT FOR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS It is worthy of note that the Hon. Bird Coler, president of the borough of Manhattan, Greater New York, and member of a Protestant church, has publicly declared himself to be heartily in favor of that solution of the public school problem which has for years been proposed by Catholics-namely, the payment by the states to Catholic schools of a fair sum for the secular education which they impart. "I do not think," he said, "that such a proposition involves the slightest violation of the spirit of non-sectarian government. All that the state need do would be to insist that each child receive a secular education, and pay for that and that alone, leaving the selection of those who are to form the character as well as to instruct the mind to parents and legal guardians. A Lutheran child might attend a Lutheran school, an Episcopal child an Episcopal school, a Jewish child a Jewish school, a Catholic child a Catholic school, the state making to each school an allowance for each child which that school shall so educate as to enable it to pass a standard examination held by state officers. The state may also insist upon determining the question of the competence of the teachers by compelling them to qualify for that work through examinations. Thus would the state fulfil its obligations to provide for each child an education, while those whose duty it is to minister to its moral welfare would be left free to do so." The adoption of this just and equitable plan would remove the intolerable grievance from which American Catholics have long suffered through their being obliged to pay taxes for the building and maintenance of schools to which they cannot conscientiously send their children. Mr. Bird Coler's words may be taken as a proof that the unreasonable opposition of the members of some of the non-Catholic religious organizations to such a fair settlement of the question is beginning to break down. As soon as they are convinced that, after all, it is only a matter of according justice to their Catholic fellowcitizens, the opposition will disappear. Public Schools Were Once Religious by ARE WOMEN PERMITTED ΤΟ In answer to the above question, St. Paul is responsible for interdicting women with uncovered heads from taking part in the liturgical services of the Church. "But every woman praying or prophesying with her head not covered disgraceth her head." (I. Cor. xi., 5). Our non-Catholic fellow-citizens seem to forget that the public schools were originally religious schools. The movement to transform them into secular institutions was begun in Massachusetts, in 1825 by Horace Mann, a Unitarian who hated the Catholic Church. He devoted his life to the dereligionization of the public schools, but without immediate success. After his death the movement went into a moribund condition. But when, sixty years ago, large numbers of Irish Catholics began to arrive in this country, driven from their native land by English oppression and by the terrible famine, it was resuscitated bigots. In 1855 a constitutional amendment was passed in Massachusetts, making it unlawful to appropriate public moneys "to any religious sect for the maintenance exclusively of its own schools." The passage of that amendment was the beginning of the secularization of the public schools all over the country. Behind the movement were anti-Catholic bigotry, prejudice and hate. Those who were engaged in it seemed to think that upon its success depended the very existence of the republic; and those who are the champions of secular education. to-day affect to share that idiotic belief. They forget that it is just as easy for any state to pass a constitutional amendment giving effect to the suggestion of President Bird Coler of Manhattan as it was to pass that secularizing amendment in Massachusetts in 1855. And, owing to the rapid increase in its Catholic population and to the spread of enlightened ideas-of It has always been the custom among Christians that a woman should not come into the gatherings of the faithful with uncovered head. But it is not forbidden to enter a church or to pray in private without a veil or covering of some kind. Hence if a woman without hat, veil or bonnet were to pay a visit to the church when no public service is going on, she would not be forbidden to enter and pray. It was considered a mark of boldness in females to be without a veil or headgear. The modesty that should decorate a Christian woman was seemingly cast aside by appearing in public in an unveiled condition, and this boldness was most glaring when she stood up in meeting and prayed aloud or delivered a homily, drawing all eyes upon her. In St. Paul's mind a veil upon her head, which must have concealed her face somewhat, would have the effect of bridling her tongue, for she could not then flash her beauty of face or the vanity of the make-up of her hair before the whole assembly. St. Paul thus meets all objectors to his order: "If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the Church of God" (verse 16). He means that we have no such custom that permits women to pray in the church with unveiled head. ་ THE INNER CLOISTER And yet from earthly din and woe apart, THE BUSINESS SIDE OF RELIGION "The business side of religion is a subject, which has been shirked altogether too long," writes a Wisconsin priest. "When we get a business conscience formed in the laity, the money sermons and the scolding and coaxing, that wear out the life of a priest will be eliminated. Business principles carried out will not make the Church more worldly, but will allow the pastor to attend better to the spiritual." "Business conscience" is a good term. It means simply that a strict sense of duty should prompt our people to give the Church debt the place of honor amongst the financial obligations. Judged from every standpoint, it ought to be the most sacred of all debts. Too frequently it happens that it is the last debt to receive attention. The "Business conscience" of some of our people certainly needs an awakening. "I am a 'poor pay,' "writes an anonymous correspondent, "and the shoe pinches. I sit in a rear pew, because many of the respectable people, who sit up in front, will not pay what they owe me. I have remained away from church, I am sorry to say, rather be seen and not pay. Preach a few sermons on the paying of just debts, to the people who have the name of being generous donors, but at the expense of grocers and butchers and bakers and business men, who are often at their wits ends to obtain the means wherewith to meet their bills." I believe that my anonymous friend is mistaken, when he assumes that "respectable people," who do not pay their bills are generous donors. As I asserted, once before, poor pays in the business world are generally poor givers. They are generous only when it is question of their own comfort or pleasure. No priest wants the money, which ought to go to the payment of just debts. He has been taught to repudiate the generosity, which comes before justice. Time and again it has happened that gifts and bequests have been refused, because the acceptance of the same would seem to be in violation of the principles of justice and charity. These people of whom he writes may sit in front pews, but I believe that a little investigation will show that their pew rent like the rest of their bills, is long since overdue. When business men cannot collect, it is a foregone conclusion, that the priest has failed. "I believe," writes another, "that priests, as a class, are lacking in sympathy for the men and women, who supply the funds. They do not and cannot understand the character of the problems, with which the contributor is frequently face to face." I believe that nothing can be farther from the truth than such an assertion. Priests, as a class, know well the value of a dollar. Few of them are the sons of wealthy parents. Before entering the sacred ministry, many of these have worked hard for a living. They understand well the frequency of the calls which are made upon the wages of the laboring man. The only tainted money in their eyes is that of the poor, who can ill afford to give. It is a case in which every true priest would rather give than receive. The real truth of the matter is that their excessive sympathy leaves them easily imposed upon. Those who have shown a disposition to meet them half way have never found them wanting in that spirit of sympathy and selfsacrifice, which have been characteristic of the priesthood in every age.-Rev. J. T. Roche. FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT Protestants and not a few members of our own communion cannot understand why Bishops and priests are opposed to the introduction of Cardinal Newman's hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light," into the services of the Catholic Church. Here is the explanation very neatly put by Mother Mary Loyola in her excellent volume, "Home for Good": "A party of non-Catholics on pilgrimage to Fountains Abbey had been walking in procession among the ruins, singing 'Lead, Kindly Light.' One of them, coming upon a Catholic girl, asked: 'Why do you leave Newman's beautiful hymn to us? You never use it in your churches.' "We leave it,' she answered, pleasantly, 'to those who need it, and unite our prayers with theirs that the "Kindly Light" for which they ask so often and so fervently may lead them where it led Newman.' reminded of the great duty of assisting the poor. Such was the lesson that was taught by money. The inscriptions are all in Latin. One coin bears upon it a sentence of which this is a translation: "That it may nourish those in hunger." "There is no one wickeder than the miser" is the pronouncement made by a gold "scudo" (or crown) of Pope Innocent XI. Another coin of the same Pontiff says: "The miser will not be filled," and still another bears the phrase, "The things preserved perish." For centuries the Popes expressed in Biblical phrases or moral sentences lessons of charity and kindness in the legends stamped upon their coins. The instrument of charity may be regarded as preaching a sermon charity. To look at a coin was to be on Pope Clement XI. (1170-1721) issued a silver coin on which it said, "Silver kills many," and on a golden scudo he offers his counsel, "Ubey not the empire of Gold." "Do not desire money" is another counsel of his, and the suggestive phrase, "It is not for avarice," is seen upon another of his coins. "Care follows increasing wealth," cries out a coin of Pope Alexander VII. And how little use money will be when the curtain falls on life is brought home to the minds of most men by the warning that speaks from coins of Innocent XI.: "They will not profit thee in the day of judgment." Clement XII. on a golden coin says: "Let it abound to the glory of God." When rightly employed, money may do much good, and this is declared by Clement X. on the coin which bears this pronouncement: "It diminishes evil and increases good." And on another coin a generous giver is described: "He hath opened his hand to the needy." "Do not forget the poor" is the recommendation on the coins of two Pontiffs. A coin of small value bears these words: "A little to the just," and on a much smaller coin is the truism, "It hurts less." "He who gives to the Dor will not. wait," is a consoling re ction, as it suggests that the reward of the just will be bestowed soon on the charitable man. "Use moderately, like a man," is a grand saying that awakens a universal response. "That it may be given" tells the purpose for which the coin was struck-that is to say, to be passed on to the relief of those in want. "He lends to the Lord who has mercy on the poor," is the inscription on a silver piece of about eight pence nominal value. And so the series goes on in various phrases, all more or less directed to the objects already noted. These are the uses of wealth to which the Popes called the attention of the possessors of money, and this throws a marvelous light on the character of the Papacy. * A HAPPY DISCOVERY City Librarian David N. Carvalho of Baltimore, in turning over the books in his custody in the work of cataloguing them, found in an out-ofthe-way place a handsomely bound copy of the Declaration of Independence, engrossed on vellum and attested by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Md. The copy was presented to the Common Council of Baltimore on July 4, 1828, and was intended to be used in refreshing the memories of the members of that body respecting the Declaration on every Fourth of July. pray that the civil and religious liberties they have secured to my country may be perpetuated to the remotest posterity and extended to the whole family of man. The attestation of Mr. Carroll was as follows: "Grateful to Almighty God for the blessings which through Jesus Christ our Lord He has conferred on my beloved country, in her emancipation, and upon myself, in permitting me, under circumstances of great mercy, to live to the age of 89 years, and to survive the fiftieth year of American independence, and certifying by my present signature my approbation of the Declaration of Independence, adopted by Congress on the Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and Seventy-six, to which I originally subscribed, on the Second day of August, of the same year, and of which I am now the last surviving signer, I do hereby recommend to the present and future generations the principles of that important document as the best earthly inheritance their ancestors could bequeath to them, and -Charles Carroll of Carrollton. * "MY LADY TONGUE" A busy doctor who had engaged a young assistant was asked if he really intended to entrust him with his cases. "Oh, no," he replied. "He will listen to the patients, look sympathetic and report to me in the fewest possible words. A sick woman has to talk just so much, and I haven't time to listen." The minister, the lawyer and the teacher might follow the doctor's example and employ a listening “double" to their great relief. In fact, it may usually be found that the most helpful person in the town is the one who can listen best to the complaints and perplexities of the women folk. Self-expression is as necessary for the welfare of most women as food and drink. The very talkative woman has a silent husband-not simply because she does not give him time to speak, but because she was attracted to him in the first place by his genius for listening.. However, there may be something more than mere self-indulgence in the habit of "talking things out" with some appreciative listener. The wisest. of women know that they get light on their own perplexities by the act of putting them into words. A mother is often her own best adviser as to the training of her child, when she has |