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CHAPTER XXVII....concluded
From a serial, entitled `The Little Wanderer's Friend,' much information may be derived; valuable as indicating the spirit in which not a few of the so-called benevolent institutions are conducted, and the numerical extent of their operations. From the number for May 1865, an interesting paragraph or two may be quoted, in illustration of the liberal and tolerant spirit of those institutions of which that agreeable little publication is the accredited organ. A pleasant article, entitled 'The Heathen of New York,' affords the writer a happy theme for the display of his national feelings and religious convictions. 'The mass of the population,' the writer says, 'consists of the most ignorant, bigoted, degraded foreign Catholics, who know no higher law than the word of their priests. Their Christianity is mere baptized heathenism.' Considering the miserable condition in which the mass of the population are found by the writer, it is fortunate that spiritual succour is so near; for we have this consolatory assurance in the same article:--
'We are in the midst of it. Our mission is in front of one of their large churches--under the shadow of their cross. They listen to our songs, while we witness their idolatry. They curse while we gather in the children, teach them the truth, feed, clothe, and send them to kind Christian homes.'
The missionaries, of whom the writer is the faithful organ and eloquent mouthpiece, are not content with their limited sphere of action in front of one of the large churches of the 'baptized heathen' of New York: they must even meet them on the shore, or on the ship's deck; and thus, if they cannot arrest the in-flowing tide of emigration, at least, by extending the hand of brotherly love and the word of God to their poor misguided brethren who cross the ocean, convert it into a deluge of enriching blessedness. 'Last year 155,223 persons landed here from Europe, of whom 92,861 were from poor, ignorant, bigoted, Catholic-cursed Ireland.' In this manner these unhappy heathens are to be spiritually regenerated: 'Let us meet them ere they leave the ship, and extend to them the kind hand and the word of God. They are our misguided brothers.
Let us be kind and teach them the truth. Let us help the needy and teach them the truth. Let us gather the children in.' The children are always the objects of the pious solicitude of these apostolic missionaries; they first gather them in, and they then send them to 'kind Christian homes,' in which all memory of their former 'heathenism' is lost. The success of their operations is thus detailed in their own words:--
The Home for the Friendless
Led off in this work, and for about thirty years has opened its arms and embraced perishing infancy and neglected childhood. But how little has it done compared with the work yet remaining! Encouraged by its success, a few warm-hearted Methodist ladies organised the
Five Points Mission.
They entered the 'gates of hell' to save the perishing; and a glorious monument to Christianity has been erected. Steadily, earnestly, and successfully do they labour, but want, sin, and woe increase around them.
The Five Points House of Industry
Was originated in 1851 by Rev. Mr. Pease, and 'its fame has gone throughout the country.' After years of struggling he was compelled to seek quiet and rest. Mr. Barlow took his place, and, with an earnestness which sought to imitate Him, concerning whom it was said 'the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up,' he laboured until called to exchange--'sowing in tears' for 'reaping in joy'--to give up his abode in 'Cow Bay' for the 'place' which Jesus said 'I go to prepare for you.' Each year the work increases, and, although since 1851 over 11,000 have come under their care, many of whom have been saved, yet, to a stranger, it seems as if Christianity had done nothing.
The Children's Aid Society,
Under the direction of Mr. Brace, with its Industrial Schools--lodging rooms--boys' meetings--has gathered in and sent to homes more children than any other institution in the world during the last eight or nine years, yet a stranger could not perceive a ripple upon the surface of this sea of sin and want.
Our Own Work
Has been so constantly kept before the public that it seems useless to speak of it. Four years ago this Home for Little Wanderers was opened, and nearly 1,000 children gathered in the first year. The next year 1,224, and last year 1,543.
With such success attending their efforts, the reader will learn without astonishment that these modern Apostles to the Gentiles are not discouraged; they only want more faithful praying Sunday School teachers, and four more earnest Christian men as Missionaries. 'Our hands are tied,' cries the figurative yet eminently practical organ of the Mission. 'Four hundred and fifty cords bind us. Reader, will you cut one of them? We mean, will you be one of the 450 who will give or collect from your Sunday School or friends, and send us $1 per week until May 1866, and thus leave us free from all pecuniary anxiety, and with nothing to do but to gather the children in?'
It has been computed that, at a low calculation, 30,000 children of Catholic parents, mostly Irish, have been sent to 'kind Christian homes,' through 'Sectarian Reformatories,' and institutions of a kindred spirit. I have heard 50,000 given as a possible average; and considering that one institution lately boasted of having sent 10,000 Catholic children to the West, the number, though great, is not altogether improbable. Children are at a premium in the West, especially if healthy and robust; and dealing in this description of 'live stock' is not by any means a losing speculation. I was confidently informed that thirty children--one a plump infant of a year and-a-half--had been sold, in Michigan, to the highest bidder, not two years previous to the time at which the circumstance was mentioned to me. The children must be disposed of in one way or other; and if a profit can be made for the institution, or for the individual, through the keen rivalry of Western farmers, who look approvingly at the sturdy thews and sinews and strong limbs of a brawny young 'heathen' of Irish birth or blood, who can be unconscionable enough to object to an operation so legitimate, or so strictly in accordance with the entire system of--kidnapping maybe too rude a term to apply to such institutions and such men,--so we shall say, of gathering little children in?
Whatever this system may be to those engaged in it--a system, we may remark, totally repugnant to the spirit of modern legislation in this country, where there are industrial and reformatory institutions purposely denominational in character, with the view of protecting the faith of the most helpless class of the community--its longer tolerance by the Catholics of America, and in a special manner by those of Irish birth or descent, would be in the last degree shameful and discreditable. Allowance must be made for the difficulties of their position hitherto, owing to the many claims upon their means, and the various works which it was the duty of the Catholic Church to undertake; but they are now too numerous, too powerful, and too influential, to submit to the continuance of that which is degrading to them as Catholics, and deeply dishonouring to them as Irishmen. There can be no mincing terms as to what is their manifest duty. The past, with all its bitterness and shame, is irrevocable; but there is the present as well as the future, and if they cannot restore the faith to those who have lost it--not through the worthiest or most honourable means--they should at least take care themselves to gather in, under the shelter of the Church, the miserable victims of poverty, neglect, and vice, and restore them to society as good Christians and useful citizens. The wide influence of Catholic Schools will do much to counteract the evil; but the general imitation of the good work so auspiciously commenced in New York, and Boston, and Baltimore, will prove the readiest and most direct means of redeeming the honour of the Catholics of America; at the same time affording benevolent people of other communions an undisturbed opportunity of attending to their own criminal or destitute children.
The Pastoral Letter of the Plenary Council of 1866, thus refers to this subject:--
We rejoice that in some of our dioceses--would that we could say in all!--a beginning has been made in this good work, and we cannot too earnestly exhort our Venerable Brethren of the Clergy to bring this matter before their respective flocks, to endeavour to impress on Christian parents the duty of guarding their children from the evils above referred to, and to invite them to make persevering and effectual efforts for the establishment of institutions wherein, under the influence of religious teachers, the waywardness of youth may be corrected and good seed planted in the soil in which, while men slept, the enemy had sowed tares.
These solemn and hopeful words, addressed to a Catholic audience at New York, in 1864, by the late Dr. Ives--one of the most illustrious converts to the Church in America, and the master-spirit of the reformatory movement--may be listened to as to a voice from the tomb: 'But, whatever the State may do, the duty of Catholics is plain, and will be done. The probability of failure in this great undertaking cannot be admitted. Dark as the day is, and heavy as are its burdens, Catholics will be found equal to them. The work in our hands will succeed; it is God's work--dictated by His spirit, demanded by His providence, undertaken in His name, carried on in His strength and for His glory. I feel that it is no presumption to affirm that it will not fail.'
END OF CHAPTER XXVII.
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