Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-10-28


! Are We 0oing % Catcha Taftar
II We people Of Muscatine are dscidediy
/ | charitable community. Our name has gon'
abroad, far and wide : and that We shoult
have been, in the inscrutable ways Of Provi
denes, selected amonga thousand to relieve
father Chiniquy's fainting mothers and chill
dren, is no small indication Of our benevolent
{ propensitiss. Our reputation will soon spread
over the broad oprairiss Of Illinois, and ths
tprsss, with its thousand voices, catching up
the strain, will proclaim to the astonished
world that, far out West, on the Mississippi
shores, is . small place called Auscatins'
whose inhabitants are 80 generous that Z
single letter of . convert from Rome Was snf.
acient to stir up. the public feeling, cause
delicate females 70 gather grain, clothes and
money, and sit up whole nights to sew for the
unknown farmers Of an unknown settlement.
Every coin has two sides, and each song two
parts, and we should not be surprised to hear
ame's thousand voices calling the public
hilarity to laugh over father Chiniquy's
smartness and the gullibility Of the people Of
Muscatins. Everybody has his own gifts, as
different almost as there are individuals in the
world; this is . truth not to be denied, and
which was acknowledged even BY our, Indian
predecessors. Some have the gift to tell q
story much better than others; they can
make it so plausible, they depict things 50
exquisitely, they surround you 50 nicely, that
one feels obliged to them for the deception.
Among father Chiniquy's gifts, we must
place first and foremost his ability in this line;
he is no novice in the art; he can tell story
and play the beggar a we'll as any man that
was, is, or shall be. In June, 1855, he was
writing to the President of the Council Of the
Propagation Of the Faith Of Paris-a Roman
Catholic institution, somewhat similar to the
Bible Society. His letter is published in the
Annals of that Society, March number, 1857.
He speaks in the most glowing language Of
his settlements around crosses phieh he had
planted Is miles apart on the scild prairie;
Of his destit.tiox, when, a gun on hn
shoulder, he had to run after the soild deer to
sustain his life; efhis 100 mile rides through
svamps, deep rivers, and other thousand
obstacles, seiish would stop any one but a
missionary. This stuff he addresses to the
enthusiastic imagination of the French people
But hear him speak of the blessings surround
ing his crosses Is miles apart; of the $50
children attending the Christian brothers
school; Of the French, Belgian and Canadian
families speaking the same Language and
worshipping at the same altar. ~ thoascnd
times day." says he, "heresy, soith all its
seductions, tries to s'ssnare them in its nets.
The roaring lion always goeth about them,
seeking s0hom he may deoour; already init
mate trieads, 6eloued parents, haue become
his prey." That much goes to the address OF
the good, pious French Roman Catholic, who
no doubt shudders with holy horror at the
danger Of the poor souls, and at the devoted.
ness of the good father. But here is the
conclusion: "7hsss people s0hom God has
giuen mo are all Catholics; they are your
brothers; you necer refused aims for the
Indian mission; now you shall not refuse
them, sohen asked for your ceuntryaen,
condemned to eat the bitter bread Of rzile. +"
And, to be surer of the material aid so much
needed, the worthy father pleads before the
Protestant public; plays the part of q reformer
at the same time that he is deceiving the
Catholics of France. That is shrewdness,
indeed = that is buttering ones bread on both
sides. Three years have elapsed, during
which the fathers fortune, like that of Ulys-
ses, has carried him through many adventures
has brought him to many places-until, at
last, we hear him entone, from Kankakee, the
reformer's trumpet in the direction of Musca-
the. He shall not adopt the stern and awful
style of Poundtcxt or Kettledrummle, those
worthless of puritanic antiquity; no, but the
good, sweet little father commences his
harangue with honeyed words: My dear
sisters in Jesus" What heart would not melt
at such an exordium? The letter to the dear
sisters, like that to the President Of the French
Society, contains two parts: first, and most
important, he wants money, shoes, blankets,
grain, or anything that can be converted into
money; second, he explains the rights he has
to our charity; he is convert from Rome,
and "thers is not a single day that ne~ con-
verts from Rome arc not coming to him."
His Sunday school is attended by from 400 to
500 scholars-he don't know exactly which.
But the ''dear sisters in jesus are not so
very particular, and he knows that the "con-
verts from Rome" will carry his point. To
mollify his dear sisters hearts, he tells them
an awful story: mother of six children,
sure to possess Jesus Christ in her heart, but
not less sure she had eaten nothing for three
days. comes to see him, and 10! she faints in
the good fathers arms. Do not be alarmed,
dear sisters in Jesus; it is only swoon, and
it is nothing new. For, At time when more
than nine-tenths of his farmers bad received
enough from their harvests to make bread for
more than one week, it is said that mothers
of six or less children already tainted in the
tender fathers arms. His conversion from
Rome is rather a stiff metaphor; here is q
truer version of that wonderful event: For
some scrape, whether fainting or other, but
doubtless for some good reason, the worthy
father was suspended from his functions, and
became-not convert from, but--a turned
out-of Rome. Since that time, he gave him
self to several Christian denominations, so as
to draw money from them ALL Here is an
extract from the New York Ffeeman's Jour-