Arizona weekly enterprise., 1890-10-25
HE REDEEMED THE IRISH THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF FATHER MATHEW, THE ITEM PERANCE APOSTLE. Wonderful Reformation Accomplished by the Famous Priest of Years Ago AntagOnized by the Clergy of
 his Own Church and
 Compelled tO
 Beg.
Inter-occan.


 Mathew, the famous apostle of temper ance, the world will be refreshed by a review of the wonderful success and per sonality of that truly great exemplary man. Whoever can reclaim q dozen of drunkards, like he who can make two blades of grass grow where only one grew before, will ever deserve well of mankind and do something to earn that immortality which fadeth not away. But tO overcome wholesale the temptations of evil, to suecor the weak and needy, to drive back ignorance, to rescue the fallen In thousands, to elevate and ennoble the passions of man and change the charac- teristics of a nation, to make peace where discord reigns, and to substitute the com forts of life for the bangs and sorrows Of despair, Is something which has fallen to the lot of but one or two men m the long course of the worlds history. The Rev. Theobald Mathew is one of these men and his name is held in high esteem wherever co-worker in the noble cause of temperance yet lives.
 Father Mathew was born at Thomas town, County Tipperary, Ireland, Oct, 10, l790, of a family which, like that of Robert Emmett, had gone to Ireland in the times of Cromwell and settled and assimilated with the Irish people, becoming, in the words of the historian, more Irish than the Irish, themselves" For the families which produced priests like Father Ma thew, statesmen like Edmund Burke, patriots like Emmett and Parnell. and soldiers like Wellington, Ireland has no need to blush for these names are the very beacon lights of her glory, at least in the arena of thought and action.
 HIS ANCESTOR, GEORGE MATHEW,
 had married Lady Thuries, scion of the great Duke of Ormonde, and SO inherited some of the vast estates which were found in the hands of the Buffers about the time of James II. In time the Ma thews became Earls of lllandalf, and the recipients of a rental of nearly S200,O a year from Irish tenants. The title is now extinguished in the British peerage and Father Mathew was the last man of his race and name to whom posterity will possibly accord remembrance.
 He was one of eight brothers and two sisters, and was left an orphan at an early age. Lady Elizabeth Mathews, a daughter of the Earl of Llandaff, took him under her care and sent him to school where he continued for some years. And, having evinced desire to study for
  ical course in Spain, and subsequently, at Maynooth, being ordained at the early age of g. Shortly after lelving college Father Mathew was sent to the diocese of Cork, and 1t was here he was destined to develop those wonderful features and charms of life which have since made his name a household word in the annals ol human endeavor second only to some of the apostles themselves. Father Mathew found Ireland and her people weighted down heavily by other chains than those of political Ion lage of which the people have so long complained. They were degraded by the vice of strong drink as we'll as by the tyranny Of power and in order to form some idea of the state of Iceland before Father Mathew began his temperance work. we have only to look up some of the works of the period, like that of Sir Jonah Burlington, in order to ascertain how far the upper classes o the people were.
 GIVEN TO DRINKING AND DUELLING.
 Great excess. whether social or political produce reaction, and in l830 a society was formed in Cork for the suppression of intemperance, chiefly by member O the Society of Friends named William Martin, who was the first man in tn country to declare himself total abstain CT. The society made but little head way for some years, and the masses O the people did not receive its operation very graciously. In 1892 Asiatic choler visited Cork, and the young priest va to be seen daily seeking out objects fo relief and shelter, to whom he was freel giving both money andspiritual consola ton.
 At that period the population of Ire,an was nearly double what it is now, an the church was renping a rich harvest o the burial fees of the poor people wh were stricken down with the choler; Father Mathew immediately bought piece of ground in the neighborhood c Cork, known as the Botanic Garden, con verted it into a burial ground, and d, voted large portion of it gratuitiousl to the interment of the poor, who wei hitherto buried like dogs in trenche This was his first philanthropic act, whic created Father Mathew much deserve popularity and approval. When tn poor Irish peasant was born into Il world he was taxed, and at every su, cessive stage of his life until he wei into the clay from which men original sprung it was customary to tax him. Bl Father Mathew did not believe in wrinj ing money from the survivors of such visition, in order to inter their remains their mother earth. God and humani had decreed for the future temperance r former a nobler aim than this, and or more in accordance with the divine pr cepts which Christ himself had taugf This brought the young priest prominen ly under notice of the humane peop who comprised the Cork Temperan Society, and Mir. Martin, 1898. solicit, Father Mathews aid in the good cause restraining the spread of intemperanc which had already grown to a frightf extent. You have e mission" said NJ Martin. "and do not refuse it"
 In 1888 Father Mathew took up t crusade against strong drink and ( tablished
 THE CORK TOTAL ABSTINENCE LEAGUE.
 He preached the great benefits of te perance and virtue with success whi had never before been equalled since sandalled feet of the apostles had tr the shores of Galilee. People throng into Cork from places far and near, and { fame and example of the young Capucl friar and the raid he was making on groggeries where vice and misery wC hand in hand was the theme and admi ton of all tongues. Like every gr' movement, the temperance cause tl began in Q small circle of earnest n 1t is somewhat unpleasant to know u while it thus received a wonderful
 quisition in Father Mathew, the gene body of the Catholic clergy of the dioc es of Cork and Cloyne, if they did oppose him, it is said, did not cordia further the movement of Father Math whose name is now one of the brightest naments in the Catholic Church. Thi not bit more remarkable than the f that some of the saints who are now c onized were men who in life were col received by the church which now clai the exclusive fame for their virtl Strong pressure was brought to bear the clergy to discountenance the Fat Mathew movement by the saloon-keep whose business it was running, and '
 preferred nursing conspiracies like tn
 of the Terrpalts and White boys, oI
 splitting the people into factions like
 "Shanivists" and "Coravoths," the "Go
 and the "Poleens," than favoring
 virtues in the direction of civilizat
 These factions fought like savages
 frequently met each other by appo
 ment at the fairs and markets and (
 faction had it's headquarters at some
 E.ENn n.