The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1883-10-18
Father RYAN on the North.


Letter to the New Orleans Times-Democrat.l
Indeed, in the material order; Bos-
ton, and the North in general, are
fifty years ahead of the South. Pros
perity smiles on you everywhere.
Everybody seems to be in 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 torturous workings, save a month
or so before the election. But if in
material prosperity these Northern
people are so far in advance of the
South, they are behind them in a re-
ligious point of view. Among MEM
bers of all churches, and even here
and there among SUBJECTS of the Cath
Ole church, you will find growth of
so-called freethinking, great deal Of
real and practical infidelity, and here
and there downright, if not an up
right, atheist. lngersoll has large
following. Young men go as far as
the front of the churches just before
service closes to look at the ladies and
escort them home; and there are thou
sands there who have never passed
the threshold of church. met a
young lady only in her teens, who
told me she was an atheist. Yet, side
by side with the darker aspect of the
religious condition of things, there is
a brighter side of the picture. l staid
with the Jesuits, and as they keep
records of the spiritual condition of
their churches, l was informed that
in their church alone $1,000 received
communion during the year.
Once / read in some Southern paper
it occurs to me it was in New Or
leans-a rebuke to the people for their
loose observance, non-observance of
Sunday-and the model Sunday pre-
sentcd to their imitation was an
Anglo-SaXon or a New England Sab
bath. Well, when L was in England
| saw the observance of those Sun
oays-one in Liverpool, one in Lon
don, and Easter Sunday in Manches-
ter. The churches were empty and
the people were at home or had guns
on excursions to enjoy themselves.
One Sunday, while 1 was in Boston,
one of the journals next day gave sta
tisticS in regard to Sunday observance,
and stated that on boats and railroads
10000 people had gone off to enjoy
themselves in the neighboring towns
and in pleasure resorts, and that about
10000 more went to spend their
Sunday in gardens, parks, and
other places of enjoyment. l
do not write this for the
purpose of drawing invidious COM
parsons, but merely to show that
nowadays a New England Sunday is
very much like New Orleans Sun
day. AS long as any class of people
confines public religious service to
one or two days in the week, l can
readily understand that they like
some of old, who blamed our Lord
and his deciples for conduct unbecom-
ing the Sabbath, should hold and ad-
Yocate exaggerated opinions in regard
to Sunday obligations. Nor is it my
purpose to blame them for such
opinions, for it is clearly none of my
business. If all the churches had
daily services, SO that any day would
be in way-as it is in the Catholic
church-a quiet, weekday Sunday, it
seems to me that they would take the
same lenient view of the Sabbath, as
they call it, expressed by Christ when
he said: THE Sabbath was made for
man-not man for the Sabbath"