The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-10-26
BISHOP srRossMEYER.
The Great Hobby of One of Europe's Mos
Famous Prelates.

The Great Hobby of One of Europe's Most
Famous Prelates.
One of the strangest and most re-
markabe figures of the Austro-Hun-
garian Empire is Mgr. Strossmeyer,
the turbulent and powerful Bishop of
Diakovar. In perpetual conflict with
the Government for more than twenty
years past, no attempt has been made
to deprive him of his see. AS recog-
nized leader of the eighteen million
SIavs, who constitute an integral por-
ton of the population of Austro-Hun-
gary, he is blindly obeyed by his fol-
lowers, and any attempt to discipline
him would result in an immediate in
surrection of the whole of Croatia and
Esclavonia. Although venerated al
most as a saint in the two provinces
Just mentioned, he is but seldom to be
seen at the altar, and excepting on
rare occasions, he disdains the use of
the cassOck, which constitutes the Gus
tomary garb of the clergy in all Catho-
lie countries. As a rule, the holy man
is to be seen stalking through the
streets of Agram and Diakovar, boot
ed and spurred, dressed in a coarse
dark-gray shooting jacket, a soft felt
hat perched rakishly on one side of
his head, a hunting-crop under his
arm, and a cigar in the corner of his
mouth. Although over seventy-three
years of age, his bristly, bushy hair
shows but slight tinges of gray. OF
commanding stature and imposing
presence, his aspect is much more that
of a soldier than of priest The See
of Diakovar is one of great wealth,
and, during his twenty years tenure
thereof, Bishop Strossmeyer has de-
veloped its resources in such a re-
markable manner as to place almost
unlimited revenues at his absolute
disposal. On every side he has
founder agricultural and industrial
enterprises of the most varied nature.
The episcopal mines are among the
most productive of the empire, the
fame of his breeding stud is known to
all lovers of horse-fesh throughout
Europe, and the vastness of his opera
tions as q timber merchant would
make even the princes of the Chicago
lumber trade open their mouths with
establishment. The resources thus OBJ
tanned have been developed by the
Bishop to the reconstruction of the
Croatian and, in fact, all the Slav
races in Austria, into one political
unity, and to their rescue from the APP
palling ignorance, moral degradation
and barbarism for which they were
prOverbial during the first half of the
present century. His cathedral at
DiakOvar bears an inscription over its
central portal to the effect that it has
been designed, built, and sculptured
for the greater glory of God exclu-
sively by Croatians. No one was al
lowed to put his hand to the work I'M
less it could be shown that he had Slav
blood coursing through his veins. For
several consecutive years the Bishop
kept men travelling through the
country collecting all the old Slav
legends, popular songs, poems, ETC.,
which, after being carefully revised by
the prelate himself, were printed and
distributed gratis everywhere, in
order that, in the words of the Bishop,
1.-The people might no longer be ex-
posed to hearing those hateful German
and Hungarian songs which contain
nothing but curses for Croatia, San
Francisco ArgOnGut.