The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1882-02-11
and her predictions My nervousness
has almost disappeared; I can hear
clap Of thunder without having fit of

3 Z
clap Of thunder without having fit of
the " trembles;" have even begun to
indulge little IN light reading, and
may-thongh have not fully decided if
it would be quite right to plunge into
such headlong dissipation. SO soon after
such a season Of mental distress and
anxiety-before. the winter is past, be |
persuaded to attend q church sociable or
fair for the distribution Of tracts Oh
the sin of hypocrisy among the heather
of senegambia. - si. s,,f a .z.a.
At last; scene first in the farce that has
been playing SO long on the American
stage with the world ASIAN audience, has
ended. One knows not which to admire
most, the consummate acting Of the lead
ing gentleman, Gaitean, or the tritling
idiocy of the others whom lie makes RI
diculous. I sec by the papers that since
tue verdict he has Tort much of his bra
vado, and no wonder, in the face of stern
reality his self-delusion, if it was ever
such, must fail him, aud too late he real
ICES that God is not God of assassihhs. |
1t is difficult to believe that Guiteau's
crime was the result of sincere religious
fanaticism, for nowadays as we'll as in
ages gene By, fanaticism is the scape-
goat upon which so many sins are laid
that one is tempted to paraphr;,ss tho
celebrated saying of the French heroine
andmaftyr, and to exclaim: go, Religion!
how many crimes are committed III thy
name. 1.-THE very word assassin is derived
from Ismaili, a set of fanatics that exz
listed in the eleventh ana twelfth centur-
les; and whose founder and law-giver,
Hassan-ben-Sabab,s better known as
Sheikh-el-Jobelz, himself a willy and sun-
scrupulons imposter, made implicitslaves
OF his devotees. Arrogating to himself
the power of the Deity, his followers
rehgiously believed that all orders e,na-
mating from him wereleclarations of the
Divine Will. By him assassination wasi
sanctioned as an article of faith, made
meritorious by the blasphemously prom.
ised appreciation Of God, aud a reward
of delights held out to those who brayed
danger and death in dealing their subtle
| and cowardly murders. - .@tsss,..
am not arr advocate for capital pun
ishment--the lex ta,ioais of civilization.
Two wrongs can nerer make right.
I"Vengeance is mine, smith the Lord.
will repay" When the shadow of the
first murder darkened the earth, it is not
told us that the fratricide met retribu.
tive Justice at the hands of his fellow
man, rs Christianity now deals it out to
wrong-doers; nay, God was tho Judge
and He punished the criminal MS it
pleased Him best. "And the Lord set a
mark on Cain, lest any one finding him
Should kill him" Whether Guiteau was
an insane fanatic or .. scheming demon
when he perpetrsted his horrible crime
may never be satisfactorily known, and
if not known how can any less than In
finite, judge and sentence a living being
| made in the image Of his Creator. Who
can tell how far Divine Mercy may go,
or set bar to Illimitable Love and Char
| ity9 The old legend of Tanniauser
comes to my mind. In that far away
timo when the gods Of Olympus had
struggled with the "White Christ" for
lost supremacy, and had been driven
from the world, with tho exception Of
| Aphrodite, who took up her abode in the
hill of Horsel, there was one impious
soul who, turning from the pure doctrines
Of the Saviour, 'yearned with great de-
sire for the charmed worship of the lost
gods. Tannhauser, the flower of Thur
ingian knighthood, famed for all noble
deeds and accomplishments, goes out to
the Horsel and is brought under the bale
full influence Of the sea-born goddess.
Days, months and years pass by, "thc
world forgetting, by the world forgot, y
he lives only in the light of Venus
smiles, her humb'est follower, her ahject
slave. But Gods grace is at work there
comes day finally when the leaven of
baptismal regeneration stirs the heathcn-
| lied soul. Tannhauser sees before him
the yawnirg gulf of per.lition, and like
one before him, he cries in agony Of spirit,
"What shall do to be saveds" He
knows that first he must obtain shrift
for his great sin, ere he can hope for par
don, SO lie seeks him to whom the keys
Of St. Peter have been delivered, bnt
even Pope can not absolve SO grievous
sinner, and he hears in despair the pit
iless words: "Sooner, alas, thou uufor-
tunate one, shall this dry staff Of mine,
bourgcon and bloom, than Cod ssrace
quicken soul consumed by hell fires"
Fleeing, like that Accursed One to whom
were addressed the words, eco thou on,
till l come again." Tanuhauser sought
in the hot and barren desert, in the
dreary wilds of the wilderness for that
peace and pardon the Pontiif had denied
him. In penance, in prayer and with
anguished cries for forgiveness, his life
was spent and his last earthly day was
reached. As be yielded up his soul to
Divine Compassion, 10! there came a
messenger from the Pope, fer the dry
staff had bndded and fragrant roses
crowned the sapless stick. God had bee,
more merciful than his erring fellow