The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-09-12
Ralston.


q catastrophe may well be apprehended. 1t
is true that career Of Aaunting vice does
not always end In suicide or even prema'
ture taking OF. The wicked man some
times lives to o great age and enjoys tenn
poral prosperity 70 the end Of it. As gen
81 al thing, however, bsbits Of speculation
and gambling result in financial ruin, while
vice freely INDUCED in bankruPts the con-
stitution both moral and physical.
In the meantime what o career OF suceess
may dazzle tho thoughtless spectatoss'
The man whoss sudden fall has just startled
this Continent mounted from the clerks
desk of one of our Mississippi steamers TO
the fnancial throne Of the Pacific coast. He
controlled all those interests which are
represented by stocks-raiiroads, mines,
manufactures, steamship lines, banks and
companies of ell kinds. His seeptre swayed
even politics, and ut his bidding Califor-
mia elected Republican Governors and sent
Republican Senators 20 Washington. His
creatures sat in Congress, controlling mail
contracts, railroad monopolies and other
grand swindles in the interest Of the various
rings in which Ralston was always promi-
nent figure.
| 1t iss well-kpown historical fact that all
eonspirscies against society, no matter how
vast, how potent, how apparently ire
sistible, eventually break to pieces and
disappear. The whole Warrington cabal
Of roguery and robbery which, for several
years past, has assumed the leadership Of o
national party, was nothing but grand
conspiracy against society. 1t was composed
of confederates of Ralston, just such gam
blers and rogues as himself. He 10 gone,
and some of them are there yet, but society
has commenced to triumph over them and
will soon scatter their crumbling conspira-
ey to the winds.
The tragic end Of this man ought to give
. lesson in logic to those who measure
eodIiness by greatness. This is the only
Argument of Professionalism. 1t says: Be-
!. hold the greatness of England, the proves
Of Germany. Sec tho prosperity Of America
.. Observe how wealth multiplies, how the
. arts flourish, how society develops in al
: Protestant countries.
L To which We answer See the msgnih
cence, the enterprise, the development, th'
:. wealth, the power of RalstOn the Great. HI
= was the embodiment Of your law Of godli
r ness under the test Of success. Then se
= the depth, the fearfulness of his fall. Yol
Q have not yet seen the end Of your Protest
. ant nations; your Protestant civilization
y has not yet stood the test Of age. It is jus
y now that its natural harvest 10 commencing
to ripen. 1t is giving place to Heathenisr
4 every where. II is absurd to call German.
70 O Protestant country. One third Of 1t
70 Catholic, the balance Infidel. The YER
D. ministers of the Protestant sects are treate
ID as menials and uDderlings, while the tenet
Of Christianity are openly scofed at i
the universities and in the cafes, on th
" street and in the Senate. As to England
we are told that the vast body of the labor
ing population 10 London and in th
II. country are utterly ignorant of the fri
ir principles Of Christianity and, in many il
y. stances, of the very existence of Christ.
n. thr United States, see its forty millions I
ns inhabitants and it's six millions of ProteI
CT tants see the daily increasing contempt f
:. preachers and indifference to things relil
ious. See in all the countries just name
~ the swelling tide of commercial dishono
an of political prostitution, of defaultin
10 sWindIipg, zree-love, spiritualism, infant
.al eide; see that horrible faint of practic
no irreligion which lie pervading those comm
ar, mites, spreading the contagion Of dead
vice, and preparing for the fatal catastrop
II. of civil war, anarchy and desPotism.
Ab- When that day shall have come whe
The will be all the grandeur Of Protestant pI
&C. greSs and civilization All the energy
mt greed and ambition, all the fercer passio
Ine which have pushed on the progress of
80 Protestant civilization, will have been Il
III. in the eHeminate reaction of success. v
.itb aud self-indulgence steal away all ms
i'm. hood. Babylon, Athens, ROme-all tes
roh the energy and power Of human passic
$50 they all teach equally plainly the ut
3 at degradation and destruction wrought
lion human vice. The fall may come sudden