The Irish standard., 1892-03-12
WHO is TO BLAME?

oAo
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WHO is TO BLAME?
Tuesday evening, March 2, Patrick
Griffin, laborer in the Manitoba shops
at St. Paul, seized a club and dealt blow
to his fellow workman. Louis Bader an
ex-convict, from the effect of which the
latter died last Sunday. The blow was
not dealt IN self-defense, nor by a man
under the influence of liquor, nor by a
maniac, but by sane and sober man and
yet we venture to say that not the slight
est moral stain attaches to the slayer.
There is a point in provoking a man,
when endurance does not cease to be a
virtue but does cease to be possible.
Bader, it is alleged, went beyond that
point and he is now as a consequence in
his grave When in season and out of
season mans nationality is ridiculed,
his religion atrociously slandered, his
clergy outragiously illuminated, his rela-
tives il the cloister ikened to those
women who are stains on the human race,
We ask, is endurance possible? When the
foulest language that can pass the lips of
man is used in ones hearing until the
very air becomes rank with ribaldrey and
names held most sacred are coupled with
foul epithets and in this way ones sense
of reverence for holy things and sacred
persons is wounded to the quick, is on
durance possible? Can poor workman
ekeing out living for his family, timor-
GUS of losing his situation, be expected to
leave the place, or complain to the fore
man, or call in a policeman, when the la
borer at his side uses foul language that
has more stunning effect ON him than
a blow from club? To all these ques~
tions every man, who has the least sense
of man hood in him, will answer decidedly,
No. Now it is claimed that at the trial
of Patrick Griffin, it will be abundantly
shown that his endurance OF ribald and
talk was put TO a test that to
suffer longer was simply impossible and
therefore in striking down the man at his
side under the overwhelming flush of
righteous indignation he was abso 'utely
blanneless and inamenable to the law.
Whether the criminal code will bear this
construction remains to be seen, but in
the meantime there are persons on whom
the whole guilt of this deed should be
fastened. They are those rank, foul
mouthed ministers, who in the pulpit use
words that would put a cyprian to the
blush were they translated into the Ian
guage of workingmen. On the heads OF
these men who are continually insinuat-
ing CT openly accusing our religion OF
misdeeds lies the whole guilt of the killing
of Louis Bader. But Bader is not the
only man who deserves to have his mouth
very forc,bly and finally closed. Wher-
ever few mechanics are at work you
will always find one amongst them who
cannot say ten words without assailing
the ears Of his companions with his
scurrilous language. A sewer reeking
with the filth Of plague-stricken city is
clean when compared with such man.
IF the Sam Piles and the Simmons and the
Morrills would stand by the working
mans bench and see and hear the effects
of their high sounding denials of Gods
justice or of Catholic virtue, they would:
know why they and their denominations
are an Accumulation to God and man.
The gilded infidelity that the Universal
ist ministers preach TO their aristocrats
and the undiluted scoundrelism that
many ministers infuse into their dis
courses the moment tLey make mention
of the Catholic Church, when taken up
by the uncouth and unpublished laborer,
become things of beauty that these min
listers should be proud of. Such gentle
men must be held UP to the whitening
and lasting soorn OF decency at the trial
of honest Patrick Griffin and the guilt Of
his rash act located where it belongs.
Messrs. Wellington and Erwin have been
secured for the defense and they propose
to make this case the great event of their
long and brilliant advocacy at the bar.
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DISMAY AMONG TORIES.