Morning journal and courier., 1884-09-04
PAPER FROM GRAVE CLOTHES.
The Rags Landed at this Port From
 the Mediterranean.

~~AAS
 the Mediterranean.
 Secretary Folgers order forbidding the i'm portation of rags in any part of this country for the next ninety days is provoking opposi- tion from paper firms. The Seymour Paper company, which lands large quantities of rags at this port, was one of the firms repre- scented at meeting in New York at which a committee was appointed to ask for modif- cation of>the order
 It is said in justification of Secretary Fol gers order that at least 75 per cent. of the rags coming in from Mediterranean ports are the grave clothes of those who have died. In Genoa and other Italian cities the mode of burial is to place the bodies in crypts and in each cemetery there are three hundred and seventy six crypts All who are buried the first of January, for instance, are put into the crypt for that day with quicklime and other disorganizing substances and the crypt is then sealed up for a whole year. The bodies thus deposited are put into the crypts naked and it is notorious in those countries that the fee of the priest for burial is the grave clothes of the corpse. These clothes being generally of linen they are the best rags that come to this country They are sold to dealers as our housewives sell their rags to junkmen and are then packed in closely pressed bales and taken for mere nominal freight, as ships loading marble need the bales ot rags for dunnage. If, therefore, infectious diseases can be brought into this country in any manner, there is no more ready way than to permit the unrestricted importation of rags.
 The Des1rab1Iity of Confession.
 Father McGuire, one of the Jesuit preach CTS holding the mission at St. Francischurch, spoke on Confession" Tuesday night He said that confession was ordained by God, and from superficial facts that it was benef- cial to mankind and conducive to the spirit ual as well as the temporal welfare of the race In the course of his address he alluded to the gropings of some Protestants- ulary ritualistic Episcopalians- after what they began to consider necessity for saliva tion-confession to priest. He said that he was astonished one day to be approached by ritualistie minister of Philadelphia and asked to hear his confession. HFather Me Guire wanted to know how it happened that he did not go to clergyman of his own re- ligion to confession The answer was: 'FOh, I would not go to confession to one of these men; I believe that confession should be of the deepest secrecy. Now, if I went to confession to one of our clergy men, might as well tell my faults to the whole community You see they are all married men. They would tell their wives all they knew and their wives would tell a fam fly friend, and soon the gossips would have it'
 Relative to the desirability of confession, he said that if our public men were Catholics, and practical Catholics, there would be no robbery of the national or State treasuries For, in case 8 weak officeholder did pocket any money, his confessor, on being told of the theft, would compel him to return every cent of the stolen property before absolution could be given. In conclusion the speaker urged all to go to confession reminded them of the uncertainty of life and the value of being pre- r)ared when called