New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-10-20
NUIIIU IIUI TIdl IuIF'I
And yet would wrongly win"
FATHER HYACIhTHE IN AMERICA

The moment the Pereire touched her wharf
on Monday, Father Hyacinthe began TO taste
the bitterness of popularity. Until far into the
night reporters for the newspapers logged his
footsteps, tried TO talk with him in a tongue
he could not understand, took inventories of
his luggage, smclt Of his dinner, and camOred
at his chamber door. Nothing saved him from
the persecution of mob of interviewers but
his sturdy refusal to admit them. Even when
lovely woman bore the notebook and the
pencil, she was turned away with polite mes
sages of regret A gentleman representing
THE TRIBUNE was cordially received and
enjoyed full hours conversation with the
distinguished ecclesiastic ut the hotel; two
reporters for other papers were allowed an
interview of one or two minutes only; the
others were net admitted ut all. Bailied
Bohemians loungcd all night in the lobbics
stealing suueptitous peeps at the key-hole
They waylad the. walters. They lurked
in the shadow of the pillars, and
pounccd from dark passages upon the cham
bermaid. They got from the servants what
descriptions they could of the reverend gentle
mans looks, garb, and appetite. 1t is said that
the reporter of The World even bribed waiter
TO change clothes with him, and so got access
to the room under the flimsy pretcxt of
pitcher of ice-water but az he did not under
stand French, the result of his experiment was
not commensurate with its boldness All these
expedients of the great mob of the excluded
must have filled the reverend father with terror
and amazement. Great, too, must have been
his establishment the next morning, at the ex-
traOrdinary circumstance of correspondent OF
The World protesting TO write at sea on the
Pereire, and quoting, misprints and all, THE
TRIBUNE's translation of the Carmelte Cen
erals letter, published only the day before.
Terrible must have been his pcrplexity to find
that, though he had spoken with only two mem
bers 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 ut 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 n
great liberal party within the Catholic Church,
he will needlessly compromise himself ana OBJ
struct his course by premature eloquenco III
the lecture-room or the newspapers. III he pre-
fers to attach himself to some Protestant de-
nomination, his case will not be such singular
one 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 IN
terest Let US try not to spoil his work, what
ever 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 mere tempestuous
polemic. He is not the first foreign ecclesias-
tic who has1sought refuge in America from
possible persecution and annoyance. Achilli,
and Gayazzi, and o score of Others have
nreached to passionate audiences hatred of the
Man of Sin, and gratitude that Providence has
preserved athem 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 ia 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 Damo against the sins
OF modern Christianity, the sel6shness Of the
churches, and tho "abortive sanctityn of the
cloister, has been heard from one end OF Europe
to the other, and its echoes have resounded
across the Atlanticj yet we hardly know what
manner of voice it is, whether it is the voice
of tho apostle Of O new faith. or merely the