sign and workmanship which adorn at the present day many of the larger churches. In this connection it may be noted that the actual crib in which Christ was born is said to have been brought from Bethlehem in the seventh century, and it is now preserved in the Liberian basilica at Rome, where it is publicly exposed to the veneration of the faithful at Christmas time. 寒 THE INTENTION FOR DECEMBER A fitting intention surely for the month of December is "Christian Disinterestedness." Self-interest is the very keynote of worldly action. On all sides we see people doing acts which are good and benevolent, but what is the motive back of it all? Is there not a selfish motive lurking somewhere in the background? If a man does me a favor to-day, is he not looking for some reward to-morrow? This self-interest is not sinful. part of the instinct of self-preservation. Without it as a moving power there would be no progress. God implants it in our heart for a good purpose, but, like others of his gifts, we turn it to ignoble uses. We allow it to grow and develop until it rules our lives, until we have no more room left for that disinterestedness of which Christ gave us an example. The constant seeking of our own ends, without regard to others, is disastrous to our spiritual advancement. We should broaden our vision so as to take in others. We should try to look at things from their standpoint. In doing good, we should try to do it for the honor and glory of God, rather than for what material good it will bring in return. We should be charitable and kind, not for our own sake, but for the sake of Christ, Who promises to reward even the giving of a cup of cold water in His name. 馋 The man who seeks to convince himself that there is no Hell, often exhibits more anxiety than logic. FEAST OF IMMACULATE CONCEPTION December 8th Who is not full of joy when a feast of Our Lady comes, those bright days that strew the year with stars? It is as if the Church called us to leave the noise and distraction of the world and walk by the shores of some calm, majestic lake, in whose unruffled and translucent depths are imaged the mountains of the Divine Perfections. We remember the various splendors of the angelic kingdom; and we remember how that in the one first moment of her Immaculate Conception the imperial Mother of God was adorned with greater graces and shone with greater merits than all the angels put together, were they to add their merits into one for a million years. an THE "NEW" MOTHER The dean of one of the largest of our colleges for women recently made impassioned appeal to young mothers not to waste their time in the personal care of their babies, but to give them over to trained nurses and kindergartners, while they devoted themselves to study and such outside. work as would fit them to be companions for their children when they were grown. Nothing could be more convincing than her reasoning, but the saving grace of the plan is it doesn't work. It is a most satisfying fact that few plans, however scientific and reasonable, which run counter to Nature ever do work. About twenty years ago, for instance, some philanthropic folks in England founded model homes for the female children of poor, depraved parents. The girls were reared, so to speak, in bulk. They dressed alike, they ate the same food at the same moment, they walked, slept, rose, studied, played, and prayed together at the tap of a bell. Especial care was taken, for fear of favoritism, that there should be no personal intercourse between them and their teachers out of school. The habits, knowledge, and religion taught to them warranted to be of the best. But when these girls, being grown, were sent into homes as nurses of children they invariably were sent back as incompetent and cruel. The human element in them was withered and dead for want of the family life. The experimenters openly acknowledged that the training in unselfishness and in affection was better under even a careless mother and father than under no father and mother at all. A few years ago Dr. Louis Starr, the eminent American specialist for children, discovered a new disease among them. The baby patients grew bloodless and weak and died with no apparent ailment. They were invariably the children of wealthy mothers who had refused to nurse them, but fed them on some food which science declared perfect. Science was again mistaken and Nature avenged the slight put upon her. If the college-graduate mothers follow the advice of their dean their children will lose something out of their lives which no nurse nor kindergartner can give. Will the boy of fifteen when the devil tempts him be most likely to go for help to the brilliant companion who understands politics and civic reform, or to the little fond woman who always sang him to sleep on her breast and knelt beside him while she taught him to speak to God? And if the college-graduate mother takes the dean's advice she will suffer more than does the child. The fact is that her first business in the world is to be a mother. She may incidentally be an artist, a politician, or a sea-captain, if she will, but Nature made her in mind and body to be a mother. Even as a wife she is a subordinate; she fills the second place. But when she gives a child to the world and trains it, her work is nearer akin to that of God than any other done by man. If she prefer WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS? In the course of a social experiment undertaken in 1906, I worked for a time in the auditing department of one of the Wanamaker stores-it does not matter which one. In the department were between fifty and seventyfive girls, the average age being about eighteen. All these girls were public school products, and most of them were graduates of the grammarschools. The work performed was laborious and infinitely monotonous, but not at all difficult. but not at all difficult. The sales slips or stubs came through the bookkeeping department to the auditing clerks every morning. Each girl was given a bundle of stubs and a big ledger sheet ruled off in divisions corresponding to the various shop departments. A record of each sale was entered in its proper division. Then the clerks added up the columns, and added across the sheet, checked up her stubs for accuracy, and entered the grand total in red ink in the lower right-hand corner of the sheet. The total had already been achieved in the bookkeeping department, and naturally the figures had to agree on the auditor's ledger. In time they did, but it took time. The entering process was long and tedious-partly because the stubs were so wretchedly written and so vilely spelled-but that once done, the balancing of the sheet should have taken about six minutes. It usually took half an hour, because none of the girls could add accurately and rapidly. They had added in school for eight years, and some of them had been adding in Wanamaker's for several years, but they couldn't add yet. There were two women in the depart ment whose entire time was spent in going over incorrect ledger sheets. All this is rather startling, is it not? Then all the more startling should be the reflection that the children of whom we have been hearing such accounts are the very flower of the elementary school system. Those who complete the eighth-grade work, those who enter secondary schools or technical training classes, are the bright and ambitious minority. The Miss Alida Williams, a New York principal of more than local reputation as an educator, in order to discover why so many of her graduates were found wanting as workers, made personal inquiries of a number of firms in different lines of business. testimony, she admits, in an article published in the Journal of Pedagogy, was interestingly and convincingly unanimous. It was to the effect that the writing of the children was illegible if rapid, and slow if legible; that they could not use the fundamental rules of arithmetic either accurately or quickly (as one employer expressed it, "They need a day off to add a column and then bring back the wrong answer"). They have no initiative, requiring constant direction; they cannot take down correctly simple dictation; they appear unfamiliar with letter-writing forms, their spelling of common words is unauthorized by the dictionary, and, saddest of all, they are very ill-mannered. A member of one of the largest publishing houses in the world said: "Our boys have to be taught that good manners have a financial value before they will acquire them." Miss Williams adds: "The experienced teacher will recognize immediately that all these shortcomings are the direct results of overcrowded and too ambitious courses of study. There is no time for the amenities of life or for its graces. "Step lively" is the motto of the modern school, as it is of the modern railway guard, and deportment, in Mr. Turveydrop's meaning, is not in the curriculum, although about everything else is. There is no opportunity for thorough drill in simple English, for the classics must be appreciatively read to the extent of so many thousand lines. Algebra and geometry push out the ready reckoning that is in daily use by business men. The standing of the teacher depends upon the work of the class, and therefore the child is not allowed to make those blunders by which he learns. He is guided and directed and propped up at every turn, and when the supervision of the teacher is removed he is helpless. That is the true cause of the lack of initiative, of self-reliance, criticised by employers. That weakness also is caused, in the second remove, by the overweighted courses of study, for more is attempted than even the bright children can perform, and as for the slow ones, they leave school, discouraged, as soon as the law will allow." One teacher was overheard complaining to another of the hopelessness of her task. "If only the Board of Education would put brain stuff on the supply list, and the principal would order a full outfit of it for my class, I might get the grade taught." "I want time put on the list," replied her colleague, "and then if my requisition for about a century were honored, I could catch up with the course of study." If the teacher is to hold her position the course of study as laid down by her superiors must be completed. The children, or the majority of them, must advance to the higher grades. Nobody in the room except the teacher is capable of doing the work, so she does it for the children. And thus the machine machine grinds on.-RHETA CHILDE DORR, in the Delineator. -The measure of self-denial that one is ready to suffer is the measure of the love that is in one's heart. Love that will not sacrifice is only a sentiment. THE CHRISTMAS MASSES By Eleanor C. Donnelly The bells thro' the darkness are ringing! O Babe! in His bosom Thou liest, Peace unto men of good will! Behold! on the altar's fair table, The second Mass shows us, with joy, The Mother, in Bethlehem's stable, Adoring her Kingly Boy! The tapers that shine from the chancel, (Where the smoke of the incense hath curl'd), Are types of mankind's shining Ransom, Glory to God in the highest! Peace unto men of good will! Draw nearer; the Sacrifice holy Is offered the Father again; And now, the Child Jesus, all-lowly, Is born in the hearts of men! Around the Communion-rail, cluster! "Venite!" sweet voices entone. -In this House of Bread,* full of lustre, Each heart hath a Crib of its own! O Babe! in our bosoms Thou liest! Thy Blood, thro' our being doth thrill! Glory to God in the highest! Peace unto men of good will! *Bethlehem means House of Bread. CHARITY OF SPEECH Charity of speech is as divine a thing as charity of action. To judge no one harshly, to misconceive no man's motives, to believe things as they seem to be until they are proved otherwise, to temper judgment with mercy-surely this is quite as good as to build up churches, establish asylums, and found colleges. Unkind words do as much harm as unkind deeds. Many a heart has been wounded beyond cure, many a reputation has been stabbed to death by a few little words. There is charity which consists in withholding words, in keeping back harsh judgment, in abstaining from speech if to speak is to condemn. Such charity hears the tale of slander, but does not repeat it; listens in silence, but forbears comment; then locks the unpleasant secret up in the very depths of the heart. Silence can still rumor; speech keeps a story alive and lends it vigor. "MIRACLES" "In this age age of Rationalism,” says the author of the above volume, Dr. Gideon W. B. Marsh, "we are told that Christianity would be in the main acceptable if it were purged of its miraculous element, and that certain authors have accordingly attempted to write a life of Christ from which all miracles are excluded. As well might they compile a life of Cæsar and omit all reference to his wars. The tendency in certain quarters to minimize the miraculous, to explain it away, or to reduce it to fable or allegory, arises from this spirit. To a large extent this is due to a misunderstanding as to the nature of the miraculous, and its relations to the Great First Cause [Almighty God] and to natural laws and forces." On this account it was eminently fortunate for the reading public that Doctor Marsh's excellent lecture on "Miracles" should be published in book form at a very reasonable price. Having given St. Thomas' definition of a miracle, "a sensible effect produced by God which transcends all the forces of nature," the author goes on to show that miracles are both possible and probable. Then after discussing the divisions, nature and criteria of miracles, he examines individual miraculous events and shows that they comply with the requirements of what has been laid down for a miracle. He brings his admirable essay to a close by demonstrating that the continuation of miracles down to our own day has been proved by indisputable examples. Doctor Marsh's treatment of this difficult subject is both popular and scholarly. We take great pleasure in recommending this instructive volume to our readers. Published by B. B. Herder, St. Louis, Mo. Price in paper cover, fifteen cents; in cloth, thirty cents. * WEDDING VAGARIES Who gives this woman in marriage? This question is asked while the nuptial parties are standing before the altar to be united in marriage. Whatever be its origin it is foolish, unmeaning, and savors of paganism and barbarism. I remember when visiting old Cairo, in Egypt, a full grown Mahomedan girl, dressed in Moslem fashion, who approached our party to solicit "baksheesh"-alms. Before we could respond to her petitions, a strong, rough-looking Turk rushed upon her and in rapid succession rained blows on the poor creature with a heavy stick. It was the use of the "Big Stick" with a vengeance. A crowd witnessed the revolting scene and no one seemed surprised at such public treatment of a female. Before Christianity, woman was a slave, and still is where Christianity does not prevail. Even in the most refined, educated and philosophic paganism her life and wealth were in the hands and at the disposal of her lord and master, her husband or father. Christian civilization freed her from such dependence and bondage, made her her own mistress and possessor of her own soul, her own free will, her own body, so that any "giving away" of herself is to be done by herself absolutely and independently. Outside the Catholic Church the sacramental character of matrimony is destroyed, its unity, indissolubility and sanctity unceremoniously wiped out. It is degraded to the level of an ordinary civil contract, and the mutual giving away of the parties, instead of being "until death do them. part," means only as long as suits their sweet wills, whims or fancies, or until they get up some quarrel, real or fictitious, as a pretext to have recourse to the divorce court, where their marriage bond is disrupted with a facility that puts to shame the amendment of a contract made between drivers on the canal concerning a pair of worn-out, exhausted beasts of draught. Such is the depth and degredation to which unbridled passion, infidelity, heresies and schisms have lowered this Divine institution, the first of the sacraments, the foundation of the home and family, the cornerstone of society and the State. Another silly and foolish looking custom connected with the marriage obtains in many places. It is the custom of the groom betaking himself to the sacristy, or church parlor, there to await the arrival of the bride and her attendant, and, like a Boloman in ambush, prepared to make an attack. It is a sort of mock surprise, a hideand-seek, at which children play. It would seem that the groom and best man should do the bride the honor of calling for her, on the occasion, at her parents' home and form an honored part of the joyous cortege. It is to be hoped that none of these unmeaning customs will prevail among our Catholic people.-Rt. Rev. Bishop Ludden. 缨 GOOD MANNERS Some years ago, when the present Queen of England was Princess of Wales, and her children were very small, they were staying at a quiet watering-place. Once, on returning from a short sail, one of the little princesses was walking up the plank. An old sailor instinctively asked, "Take care, little lady!" The child drew herself up haughtily, and said: "I'm not a lady, I'm a princess!" The Princess of Wales, who overheard the kindly injunction and the rather ill-bred reply, said, quickly: "Tell the good sailor you are not a little lady yet, but you hope to be some day." |