Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1878-02-02
PRESENTED TO A JURY.
St. Louis Times, December 81.

|
| thither as my companion, not complete
outcast, but woman Of stained reputa-
tion. My life might be the forfeit of my
tcmcrity in introducing among your
| wives, your daughters and your friends
| such person The anger would do you
honor, because prompted hy your detesta-
alton of vice, your horror of Il woman who
has lost her virtue. For while Il woman's
heart is the very home Of pity, yet even
in woman's heart there is no pity Tor
AN ERRrHG SISTERS SHAME.
Against the fallen. woman the world pro-
nounces q doom of outlawry so inexorable
that, in a measure it prefgures that aw
FIJI sentence which before the bar of God
| inevitably awaits her unless she repent.
If to relieve the poor be charity, who SO
poor as the fallen outcast' The poverty
of want, the penury of abject degrade
tion! Stunned by the world, and even
by her sex as a moral leper whose very
presence breathes contagion.
| To me the most touching incident in
the life of our Savior is the scene when
Magdalen, repentalt, threw herself at his
feet. For remember that, though clothed
with humanity, He was in reality God
purity itself. And there prostrate before
him was M:.glalcn, the woman of the
town, the embodiment of vice, but peni
tent, repentant coEtrite. Even his apos-
ties, like the world, would have repulsed
her, but He received her, .pardoned her.
1t is in this incident that the Goo1 Shep-
herd takes the inspiration OF its order
Educated, refined, pure, holy women de-
vote themselves to the service OF God, to
| rescue from sin the fallen women from
whom the whole world turns in scorn.
When 1 read yesterday the simple word
of their design expressed in their charter:
| "uavinG devoted our lives to the
PRE- sEHvATIoN FROM VICE
of children who are in danger of it; to
the reformation of prostitutes who We're
willing to abandon their shameful call
ing" opposing counsel paid to its beauti-
| fiji Thought the great tribute that the
words were my own, that ''was pre:ch-.
ing.' Yet 1 was reading only the words
OF the text: and. may add, Il text fully
|
Good shepherd, not for :, day, for month.
or even for years, devote themselves to
the work, hut consecrate their lives to
this great charity. Theyextcnd the hand
of kindness to these poor outcasts. wal
lowing in the very slum of degradation,
and, L may add, but too often the victims
basely betrayed by the lust of designing
! |, Inf
very confidence of their victims-a conf
dencc which, possessing no gaile, imrutes
it not to others. Perhaps the offer is re-
iccted, the answer to it one of despair.
"No use the world rejects us. Even if
we reform we bear its ineXorable curse u
But to this, in gentle accents, the Sisters
reply: .'COme to us, we will receive you,
care for you. protect you; home you shall
have among us; souls you have tc save"
And to give emphasis to their words,
pointing to the scene of Calvary, tell
them: "There is your God He died up
Oh the cross to save the prostitute as well
as the pure" Can there be nobler chari
,,y than this? And how few think VIII"
see and who admire the noble band of
Sisters of Charity and of other religious
devoted to works ofmercy, what training
is requisite to produce such beings. Has
it not been as when we view some beau
t,ful work of art we have thought only
of the work, but taken no heed of the
struggle, the care it has cost; as of a piece
of fine lace that for months and years
with training has occupied the artist
perhaps tho loss of sight it's elimination
know by bitter experience what it in
wolves.
MY ONLY DAUGHTER
is now Il religious of ono of the convent.
in France of this very order A child o
such tenderness and affection that neve
left home for office or returned after til,
p lays toll was over, but that, if she heart
my footstep. she ran to meet me, and he
arms entwined about my neck, she a
rapturously kissed me as if it had becl
for the absence of a voyage. Talented
, accomplished. dutitul, she is gone and w
, may never meet again. Think you tha
r she has no heart ? That I have none t.
: consent to such separation =: The trutl
told, NO hearts are wrung with anguish
= | Ana In u recent VlSlC TO ncf, lily iulb aIlS
& cousins, still Hugnenots still clinging tt
the "faith of their fathcrs,' visited her
and, to quote their language, cit was ter
q rible to sec .,ow happy she was" for, al
: they thought, "she was too young t.
know her own wilL' And they added
that she never mentioned my name bu