The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-10-29

u
countrymen, when the grim monster IN
.vades their households and lays his icy
finger on the hearts OF those they love.
Ex-PRIEsT SLATTERY AND WIFE.
This city is apparently the Mecca OF
OK priests and escaped nuns who roam
about the country slanderiDg the Church
out Of which they we're cast as unclean
things. Last summer the notorious
Chlniquy lectured here and now, on the
eve OF election, ex-priest Slattery and his
wife ara brought by the bigots to misre-
present the Church which cast them out.
Slattery fed from Pittsburg after an IN
dictment was found against him for cir
culating "a certain lewd, wicked. scan-
dalous infamous and obscene printed
book entitled the DEVILS Prayer Book,
which he has been selling here for twen-
ty five cents, contrary to the laws OF
Minnesota. His wife, who claims to
have been formerly known as Sister
Mary Elizabeth in some unknown con-
vent, has lectured to women only and
sold the well-known book called awful
Disclosures made by Maria Monk, the
Escaped Nun" for sixty cents, being ten
cents more than it can be bought for in
the bookstores. This Maria Monk was
never nun and was too illiterate to write
book. Turning to Appleton's Cyclope
dia Of American Biography Vol. IV,page
367, we find the following sketch of thai
infamous woman: "Monk, Maria, i'm
postor, born about 1917; died in New
York city about 1850. In 1885 she as
serted in Montreal that she had escaped
from the Hotel Dieu nunnery in that
city, of which she claimed to have been
an inmate for years, and told shocking
| story of crimes that had been committed
there. Her stories met with no cred
ence in Montreal, and she was shown to
be- woman of bad character, where
upon she came to New York and repeated
her story, which many believed. She
gained an entrance into good society
and received many attentions from those
who gave credit to her tale; but it was
conclusively proved to be q falsehood.
She had even gone SO far as to publish
plan of the interior of the nunnery, which
| was shown by careful examination to be
incorrect in every particular, and in her
second publication she described an
island in the ST. Lawrence river that had
no existence. In the midst Of the ex-
citement that her story caused, Colonel
William L. Stone, then editor of the
Commercial Advertiser, made a special
journey to Montreal to investigate mat
tors, with. the result that he refuted
Maria's story in maria Monk and the
Nunnery of the Hotel Dieu" (New York
1885,. This raised against him a storm
Of abuse from her adherents, and Laugh
ton Osborne made bitter assault on
him in "The Vision of Rubeta'' Boston
1881, clever scurrilous poem. Marias
adherents believed in her after she had
been repeatedly exposed by men of high
reputation, and the Protestant residents
of Montreal finally thought it best to
deny her allegations at meeting held
for the purpose. Her imposture, con-.
sidering the internal improbabilities of
her story, is one of the most remarkable
on record. The "know-nothing' party
used it to make political capital, and the
burning of Roman Catholic churches in
various cities was indirectly the result
of it, TIE IRISH STANDARD has in it's
possession printed copy Ct sworn aff-
davit made by her Protestant mother,
Isabella Mills, of Montreal, widow of
William Monk, before w. Robertson, j.
p, on Oct. "a, 1885, in which she sol
EMMY declared that the history given by
her erripg daughter was a fabrication, as
she had never been in nunnery and
had attended day school since she was
eight years of age. The affidavit would
occupy two columns of our paper, and
we can give only one brief extract which
is as follows: II told them Cher pastor
and others) notwithstanding that I was
Protestant and did not like the Roman
Catholic .religion---like all other respect
able Professionals I held the priests and
nuns Of Montreal in generation, as the
most pious and charitable persons ever
knew" The wretched and miserable
Maria Monk ended her career Of impos-
ture and crime in the public prison at
New York on Sept. 8, 1849. The Phila-
delphia Times Of July %, 1849, had
this item Of news: "The notorious
Maria Monk was yesterday convicted
Of theft in New York and sent to the
Tombs. She has long led . life Of shame,
and this is but one OF the many charges
brought against her. Since the publica-
ton Of her book Of Disclosures she has
plunged into every excess Of female in
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