The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-12-06
MORNING STAR AND CATHOLIC MESSENGER.
NEW oRLEANs. SUNDAY. DECEMBER 8. 1868

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NEW ORLEANS SUNDAY. DECEMBER 8. 1sds.
A SAD WREcK.-In one OF the he COZ ',..s
Courts Yesterday, boy, scarcely twenty, was
arrairped for larceny. His strange history re-
We. Is an instance of natural depravlty scarGeiy
credible. He is the son OF man o. Wea Ia
His every wish is gratified, and money Is ias-
ished on him without stint. NotWithstanalng
this he appears to have an irresistible Penchan1
for theft. More than dozen times ne mas De .si
detected in these offences. Heretofore, !ahuy
considerations have enabled him to avoid the
penalties due his transgressionsi but II Is ue-
termned now to let the law take its course.
What will ! the upshot of the matter, OF course
no one cantell. Ii, as it is commended by many,
that it is a mania with him, he ought not 10 De
punished. There are many such IN the world
he NAV be one of them. On the contrary,
wealth alone should not enable him to evade
Justly merited penalties.-Iicdyune
Thciproper training of the youth of nation
is of Vital importance. In Greece and Rome
the State assumed the functions of parents
arguing that it's existence depended upon the
iuculcation of certain maNms upon the ductiie
mind of those who, in the future, would be its
rulers Gross abuse followed this unnatural
interference with parental rights Something
of this kind has been attempted by modern ma
tons with unsatisfactory results. Parents. and
parents alone can properly fulfill the functions
which nature devolves upon them, as the APP
pointed guardians of their offspring. But in
the vicissitudes of life, these protectors are
withdrawn in many instances, and then COM
mences a struggle, in which the orphan Is lett
to combat with an adversary too potent for his
moral powers
An argument frequently advanced by oppo-
nents of Catholiclty, and foreigners is, that
vast preponderance of those found i'll penal in
md hence
sweeping conclusions are drawn, which even
&c the premises We're true, would not warrant
the deductions We will instance case in
point We heard a person recently assert that
nine-tenths of the children in the House of Re
fuge are Catholics, and therefore that the de-
pravity among Catholics was greater than that
found among other denominations. The
platitude that figures cannot lie is triumph
antly referred to as iFFefTagible proof of the
charge. In the first place, there Is no special
power in figures to alter facts one way or an
other. In the second place, figures are falla-
cious in the case under consideration.
What are the facts! Immigrants are gem
orally moor, dependent and friendless. They
arrive in a country whose climate is fatal to
their constitutions. Thus poverty and death
east large number of children on their own
resources. This does not apply to the rich,
who have friends to protect and shield them
from temptation and crime. Does this prove
that Catholic children are more immoral than
otherss 1t only proves that they are n""~ s>''.'
Northumberland as this class is more nume-
rous among inning grants, it is not to be Won
dered at that they abound in places of deten-
ton In numerous cases besides, those chill
S~en are placed there, not for crime, but be-
cause poor mothers, who have to seek daily
outdoor employment, have no other method of
having them cared for. In epidemic years,
hundreds of children are left on mothers re-
sources of daily labor for n maintenance. The
children necessarily are left too much to them
selves, and commit petty depredations. and are
sent to the Refuge, without solitary person
to interfere for n release or mitig alton of the
sentence. Compare this with the boy, whose
case is narrated in the paragraph at the head
of this article. "More than dozen times he
has been detected in these offences In nc
case are we informed that for these dozen of
fences and more was lie once sent to the Ref
ugc. Is this the method adopted with poor
Catholic boys. If it was, would the present
preponderance prevails Is not this an lin
stance III which figures are fallacious-nay, g
very perrersion of the truth?
FATHER IGNATIUs.-This eccentric rit