Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1879-03-06

thousand dollars Of nominal value, q part Of
which only will be paid. As for the claims
against him, they mad come 10 In the form of
pass-books and memoranda held by deposi-
tors N the most confused, entanglsd, and
almost hopeless manner imaginable A
statement made 10y the archbishop, says:
a great deal Of the large sum that Is SAID
TO be lost has been loaned to parish churches
believe But / had no charge Of the mat
ter whatever, for knew my own lncompe-
tence ia the matter Of money otfairs. But
my priests and my people congratulated me
upon having so competent d man to take
charge Of that business for me as my broth
er, and left it all to him entirely. y
Father Callahan, the archbishops private
secretary. states: Father Purcell has ap-
piled the funds in his hands to bear the ex-
penses Of many important works, and much
of the money deposited with him has com
pounded its interest. That is the way in
which large part of this debt has been
formed. But of course he has used a great
deal. The archbishop built the orphan asylum
in the twenty-fft ward, bought the ground
for it, and two farms Of ninety four acres,
some distance away, bat cGe Z in con-
nechon with it. All tiat now at
least one hundred thou and s. He
built the church Of the Imma--. Mount
Adams, at a cost of nineteen tl-uaand dol
lars, paying all the expenses himself. He
built tn church of the Holy Al IN great
part, or at least gave much u relieve
it from debt. One payment u It thou
sand FIVE hundred dollars l REMEMBER, not a
dollar of which has been paid back. He
bought the ground on which st. Patrick 5
church stands, in 1849, for six thousand dol
lars, and never got back principal or interest.
He paid the greater part for the building of
the Cedar Grove academy" As usual in
such calamities, the blacklist ingratitude
is shown by many who have been
helped by the Purcells. Some deny they
owe what has been advanced them. others
refuse to help those who saved them when
they were in trouble. Very many sums were
lent without any written Acknowledgements;
many notes are worthless from lapse Of time;
and there are borrowers who deny that they
are the persons whose names are on the
notes. The Germans are stated to be dis
pleased to some extent, because, while three
tourths of the money due is owing to Ger
mans, the funds were used principally among
the Irish. Rev. J. 6. Albrink, of the Holy
Trinity church, states on this subject: cit is
not a matter for doubt, however, that, if the
Germans had asked for aid, they could have
had it quite as freely as the Irish; but the
Germans are a self-helpful people, and
wanted little assistance pecuniarily. So it
happened that one Irish church still owes
Father Purcell fifteen thousand dollars, and
another eight thousand dollars, while the
largest debts owed him by any German
church, which l can recall, are, IN one in
stance, two hundred and fifty dollars, and in
another two hundred dollars" The same
gentleman adds that for the forty years the
business of receiving deposits has been car
ned on, Father Edward has kept no books,
and often not even made a memorandum;
interest on old deposits has been allowed to
be compounded, and for an apprOximatiye
knowledge of the assets there is only Father
Edwards memory, and he had destroyed
many notes because he Was convinced they
were valueless. He had many friends, was
a kind hearted man, and lent small sums to
the distressed poor, and large sums to men
in business. eff, - concludes this priest, "he
got the money back, it was all right; and, if
he did not, he charged tn amount to profit
and loss, metaphorically speaking, for he did
not actually charge up anything" The suns
article concludes by saying that the cost of the
Cincinnati cathedral was paid from depositors'
money, and not tenth of the money was so
invested as to pay the six per cent. allowed
for it. Father Edward Purcell lent out large
sums of money to private individuals and
business firms without adequate security,
often without written acknowledgment. He
loaned money at stipulated rates of interest,
and then, when the borrowers pleaded pow
erty, would remit the Understandings
the principal also. He would receive de-
posits, give the depositors mere memoranda
on bits of paper, and fail to make any entry
of the sums so received upon records for his
own information. When interest was
claimed he would jot down the amount on
the back of the old memorandum. When
he made loans to churches, in many instances
he did not take notes or other records. The
archbishop relied upon him. As long as his
brother found the money for him to carry out
his benefcent schemes he had no thought as
to where it came from. He was encouraged,
too, in that mistake by the confidence of
those about him in Rev. Father
Edward Purcell. Surely a sadder story
was never told than this. On
one side characters Astounding in the
connected with a want of business
tact and common prudence that partakes of
the simplicity and consciousness of the fu-
ture that characterizes The inexperleEce of
childhood. On the other the poor who
have lost the fruits Of long self-denial, toll,
and scrupulous saving, and who are left with
out resource IN sickness, without pittance
for old age. Then there is the venerable
priest Of God-his life of zeal, earnestness,
and devotion, his success, his honors, left in
his old age, with silvered hair and wrinkled
brow, to see the objects of his life's tolls
wreck, the church he loved agonized, the
poor he compassionated wronged and desti-
tute. None IN whose heart is treasured ''the
bond OF perfectness, be his creed what it
may, however powerful his prejudices, can
regard the whole scene this history sets be-
fore us without the profoundest compassion.
Let him that is without sin cast the first
stone"
THE export trade OF sole leather from New
York has been doubled in six years, and
here is a strong probability that this will be |