Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-10-02
FATHER RYAN ON THE NORTH.

FATHER RYAN, "the poet priest OF
the South" who recently visited
Wheeling, has written a letter to the
New Orleans Times Democrat in which
he says:
Indeed, in the material order,
Boston, and the North in general, are
fifty years ahead of the South. Pros
perity smiles on you everywhere.
Every body seems to be in u hurry. They
talk fast, walk fast, make money fast
sometimes lose it fast, but just as fast
recover from its loss. Their mania is
no longer politics-it is money mania.
They have no time for politics and its
talk and troubles and tortuous work
ings, save a month before the elections.
But if in material prosperity these
Northern people are so far in ad-
vance of the South, they are be-
hind them in a religious point
Of view. Among members Of
al churches, and even here and there
among subjects of the Catholic Church,
you will mud u growth OF materIaIistic
opinion aud very much sO-called free
thinking, a great deal Of real and prlC-
teal in'ibeIity, aud here and there a
downright, il not an upright atheist.
MgCIsUil has u large following. Young
men 20 ~ far as the front of the
churches just before the service closes to
look at the ladies and escort them home;
and there are thousands thee who have
never passed the threshold of a church.
! met a young lady only in her teens
who told me she was an atheist. Yet,
side 10y side with the darker aspect of
the religious condition of things, there
is brighter side Of the picture. | staid
with the Jesuits, and as they keep rec
ords of the spiritual condition of their
churches, was informed that in their
church alone $1,000 received CON-
munion during the year.
Once l read IN some Southern paper
1t occurs to me it was in New Orleans
"a rebuke to the people for their loose
Observance, non. observance Of Sunday
and the model Sunday presented to
their imitation was an Anglo Saxon or
New England Sabbath. Well, when
| was in England saw the observance
If those Sundays, one in Liverpool, one
in London, and Easter Sunday IN Man
chester. The churches were empty aud
the people were at home or had gone on
excursions TO enjoy themselves. One
Sunday, while was in Boston, one OF
the Journals next day gave statistics in
regard to Sunday observance, and stated
that on boats and railroads 30 900 people
had gone of to enjoy themselves IN the
neighbOring towns and pleasure resorts,
and that about 10000 more went to
spend their sundays in gardens, parks
and other places of enjoyment.
DO not write this for the
lUrpOse of drawing invidOu,
comparisons, but merely to show that
uuwadaysa New England Sunday is
very much like New Orleans Sunday.
~ long - any class Of people confines
ublIC religious service O. one or two
Gays in the We, X, / can real lily under
>tuud that they, like some of old, wine
blamed our Lord aui His disciples for
conduct UubycOmIug the sabbath,
should hold aud advocate exaggerated
opinions ia regard TO sunday obliga.
tiOus. Nor : 1t my purpose tO blame
them for such OPINIONS, for II Is clearly
none Of my business. Ii all the churches
had daily services, 80 that every dav
would be i'm wIy-as il is in I'll.
Catholic Cuurch--a quiet, weekday
Sunday, il seems to me that they would
take the same lenient view of the Sab
bath, Is they call il, expressed by Christ,
when he said: 1.-The Sabbath was
made for man-nOt man for the Sab
kaLhu