The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-03

nOItHeIu opening ~ MOudne.
Foreign Items.
One of the French papers reports that the
| iourneymen butchers of Stettin have lately
been on strike. The strike was not caused
by any desire for an increase of salary or for
diminution of working hours, but they OBJ
jected to practice which prevailed among
the master butchers of addressing them as
''thou" and ''thee." It appears that this prac-
tice as from superior to inferior has existed
| from time immemorial in the corporation of
butchers. It is, however, objected to at
| Stettin, and o compromise has been effected.
! The master butchers urged that it was far
more lowering to the self-respect of the
| journeymen to receive the tips which it was
their habit to give them on New Years Day
| than to be addressed by the familiar epithets
which had given so much offense. They
therefore proposed to give up the system of
| making presents to their men and to address
them in future as 'you." This arrangement
gave satisfaction to all concerned, the jour
| neymen returned to their work, and the mas
ters are quite consoled for the privilege they
have lost by the pecuniary advantage they
have gained.
1t is stated by the Bishop of Montreal,
who is at present at Rome that when Catho-
Il ic missionary was preaching to an Indian
| tribe in the extreme north of America a
| packet of letters vas given to him, on opening
one of which he burst into tears. The chief
of the tribe asked him the reason of his
| grief. The missionary replied, 1T is because
/ learn from it that my father is dead, and
many other misfortunes." ''But, said the
chief, thou hast told us that in such circum-
| stances we should not weep, but submit with
resignation to the will of the Great Spirit so
| to give us an example smoke this pipe with
us and be comforted." The, missionary did
so at once, and went on opening his letters,
II, =
vocation for the Council ''You have
also good news" said the chief,
seeing the priests JOY in his face. 'Iet us
| hear that also" ''The good news" said the
missionary, sis that the Grand Master of
Prayer has called the other Masters of Prayer
to aid and counsel him." "What is his name?"
said the chief. Plus IX.7 ''Am worthy
| to name that name?" said the simple warrior
eyes, said the priest; ''rise, all of you, and
call upon the Great Spirit to bless him." The
savages all did so with the deepest testimonies
| of respect and reverence, and, in imitation of
| the missionary, one after the other kissed the
name of the Holy Father printed at the foot
| of the Bull. The missionary then explained
| to them what the council was, and how the
| crimes of the world had made it necessary:
and the chief, raising his hands to heaven,
exclaimed, ''May the Great Spirit aid Plus TX
in all his designs.
| One of the subjects which is to engage
the attention of the Gcumenical Council is
| the price of masses in France. At present an
ordinary mass (nleSSe 6dSSe) costs Is. 25c., that
is, just one shilling; a sum which the French
| clergy complain is too low by half. Several
| cures have memorialized their bishops on this
vexed question, and their reports afford some
revelations which are curious as showing that
our neighbors, however skeptic in speech, are
much less so in action than is usually sup
| posed. 1t seems that owing to the cheapness
| of the terms the number of people who apply
| to have masses said for them or for their de-
| parted relatives averages nearly 1000, 600
| yearly. Young men who are going to
| draw at the conscriphon, young girls
| who want their love affairs to prosper, old
women who have invested money and are
afraid Of ruin, all these classes are repre-
sented, and make up good third of the
| total. The result is that in large towns, and
especially in Paris, there are more masses
ordered than could be recited by twice the
| number of priests in the diocese, granting
| even that they officiated incessantly from
morning to night; so that it has become
practice of late years positively to sub-let or
| farm out the masses to country priests who
| have more time to spare. For instance, when
person orders at a Parish church one, ten,
or, as the case may be, several hundred,
masses, he pays his money and gives his
| name, but unless he be rich man and pays
] generously his masses are not said
| in Paris. The order is re-
mitted to some poor cure in the provinces,
who takes, as it were, wholesale commission,
and recites the masses for about forty CEN
times apiece. 1t thus often happens that a
tradesman who dies in the Rue st. Denis is
prayed for day after day in the wilds of
Languedoc, where nobody has ever seen or
heard of him. However, good number of
provincial cures are growing tired of saying
masses at secondhand prices; and, as the
urban priests maintain that it is impossible to
allow them more than one-third of the original
fee-the rest being required to defray the
great expenses incumbent upon town churches
lit is thought that the Council may take the
matter into consideration and suffer the fees
| to be increased.