The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-21
SPIRIT OF EHz PRESS.
,gat,o,,,I Opinions of the Leading Journals
"" Iinon Carrent Topics Compiled Every
nav for the Evening Telegraph.

FATHER HYAOINTHE IN AMERICA.
Pre,p the NJ Y Tribune.
The moment the Pereire touched her wharf
on Monday, Father Hyacnthc began to taste
tbe bitterness of popularity. Until far into
tbe night reporters for the newspapers logged
his footsteps, tried to talk with him in a
tongue he could not understand, took inven-
tories of his luggage, smelt of his dinner, and
clamored at his chamber door. Nothing
saved him from the persecution of mob of
interyiewers but his sturdy refusal to admit
Them. Even when lovely woman bore the
pote-book and the pencil, she was turned
away with polite messages of regret A gem
tleman representing the Tribune was cordially
received and enjoyed full hours
conversation with the distinguished &C.
clesiastic at the hotel two reporters
for other papers were allowed an inter
view of one or two minutes only: the
others were not admitted. Baffled Bohemians
lounoed all night in the lobbies, stealing sur
reptitious peeps at the key-hole. They way
laid the walters They lurked in the shadow
of the pillars, and pounced from dark pas
sapes upon the chambermaid They got from
the servants what descriptions they could of
the reverend gentlemans looks, garb, and
annette. 1t is said that the reporter of the
1poyId even bribed waiter TO change clothes
with him. and so got access to the room under
the fimsy pretext of a pitcher of ice-water
but as he did not understand French, the
result of his experiment was not com
mensurate with its boldness. All these expe-
dients of the great mob of the excluded
must have filed the reverend father with
terror and amazement. Great, too, must
have been his astonshment the next morn
ing, at the extraordinary circumstance of a
correspondent of the World protesting to
write at sea on the Pereire, and quoting
misprints and all, the T156Uae's translation
of the Carmelite Generals letter, published
only the day before. Terrible must have
been his perplexity to find that; though he
had spoken with only two members of the
press besides the representative of the
Tribune, eight or nine papers had full and
particular accounts of special interviews. all
different and contradictory.
Hunted and tortured in this awful manner,
Father Hyacinthe, while he may be charitable
enough to remember that his pursuers (if we
may slightly vary the words of distinguished
novelist) Though exasperating to the feelings
are actuated by professional dictates" will
need all his resolution and all his patience to
maintain the reserve that BELTS his present
situation. If he aspires to be the leader of
great liberal party within the Catholic Church,
he will needlessly compromise himself and OBJ
struct his course by premature eloquence in
the lecture-rOom or the newspapers. If he pre-
fers to attach himself to some Protestant de-
lar ona that the general public will make him
more than nine-days' wonder. 1t is precisely
because he does not reject the Catholic faith
while he denounces Catholic practices that
his career awakens such deep and respectful
Interest. Let us try not to spoil his work,
whatever that work may be, by an insane
haste to make him speak before he is ready.
If we do, we shall find that our incipient re-
former is changed into a mere tempestuous
polemic. He is not the first foreign eccle-
siastic who has sought refuge in America
from possible persecution and annoyance.
Achilh and Gavazzi, and score of others have
preached topassionate audiences hatred of the
Man of Sin, and gratitude that Providence has
preserved them from the thraldom of the
Scarlet Woman Whatever benefit may have
resulted from the eloquence of these ardent
converts, the excitement of their coming has
generally awakened more or less bad temper
and violence. But the arrival of the new re =
former is not in the whirlwind or the storm
Men are not quite certain that this is re-
former. The voice which has been lifted up
in the church of Notre Dame against the sins
of modern Christianity, the selfshness of the
churches, and the 'abortive sanctity" of the
cloister, has been heard from one end Of
Europe to the other, and its echoes have re
sounded across the Atlantic: yet we hardly
know what manner of voice it is, whether it il
the voice of the apostle of a new faith, OF
merely the cry OF suffering priest TO bC
hushed as SO many cries have been before
~when the heart that uttered them knew not
fully its own wants. and at last sought
refuge in the negation of all faith like
Lamennas, or found comfort in submis
sion like Lacordaire. We know not whether
to hail Father Hyacinthe as a good son of the
ancient faith, or a second Luther. who is tC
lead another great rebellion. He processes *
be still a firm believer in the Roman Catholic
creed; yet the Roman Catholic Church ha
cast him out, and it is not easy to understand
how, upon the principles of that creed, h
can question the infallibility of Il genera
council and yet ayow himself Catholic, o
how he can stay in the Church if the Churcl
will not keep him. But men are not always
logical in religious any more than in Other
matters, and the Protestant clergymen VIII,
have hastened to take the unfrocked Carme
lite by the hand may perhaps regret thei
rashness If it prove that he is very far from
making common carse with them
The true explanation of this uncertainty W.
believe to be that Father Hvacinthe has NJ
distinct purpose for the future and does no
himself know exactly how he stands T.
America he doubtless trusted that he coul
await further developments of the Roma
policy, and deliberate upon his course wit
less embarrassment than in France, and her
perhaps, if we only let him alone, he ma
lind the rest which his native land deni,
him. Yet he is man of more than commo
strength of intellect and fixity of purpose
our countrymen, in their wild pursuit
celebrities do not drive him into some M