The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-09-24
WAS HE BORN OUT or MS TIME.

WAS HE BORN OUT or HIS TIME?
Father Croquet, of the diocese of Oregon
City. celebrated last Thursday. at Port
land. Or. the fftieth anniversary of his
entrance into the priesthood. He was
born in Belgium OF noble parents, and for
more than thirty years has labored
among the Indians in Oregon and along
Puget sound.
Thirty years ago there were no trans
continental lines Of railroad; Seattle was
barely ten years old; the journey to Ore
gon was long and difficult by land and
tediously slow by water; there were few
comforts and small Inducements to lead
cultivated. well-born and well-bred Euro
pean gentleman to consecrate his life to
the dull. thankless and barren labor of
trying to Christianize and civilize the In
dians of this Northwest coast. The spec
than thirty years, and who intends to
continue this work until God calls him
home, is enough to make an ordinary
money-seeking American rub his eyes and
wonder whether these self-denying mis-
sionaries among the Indians are not men
middle ages. so rare is self-consecration to
anything but the struggle for peif or power
In our day and generation.
The Anglo-SAxon will dare all and do
all to trade: he will face the horrors of an
Arctic winter. or the broiling heat OF the
tropics. if there Is anything in ii" for
him in the shape Of pecuniary reward. but
seif-consecration to the service Of his fell
low-man is not characteristic of the
modern Englishman or the modern
Yankee. Indeed, 1t may be truthfuiiy
said the Protestant missionaries have
Rome in their absolute self-consecration
and high-souled enthusiasm. Take down
Parkman's or Bancrofi's histories and
read the the story of the settlement and
conquest of North America and we find
the famous and successful missionaries
among the Indians have been the priests
of the Romish church. In the Protestant
settlement OF America first came the SOL
der. then the trader and then the priest.
and the priest never moved forward faster
than the soldier and the trader But the
Catholic missionary In his burning zeal for
the advancement of his faith outran the
soldier aud the trader SO completely that
he became the dlscoverer.
What a romantic story is Parkman's
splendid account of the work of the Jssu-
its in America. Father Jouges tortured to
death by the Mohawks; Father Rasles
murdered by the Puritan soldiers in front
of his Indian dock In Maine; Fathers Mar
quet,e. Joliet, Hennepin aud Allonez with
out the escort of single French soldier
discover the Great Lakes and the urper
Mississippi. The same extraordinary breed
Of men display the same enthusiasm on
the Pacific coast OF Asia. Francis Nayier
and his fellow missionaries in the six
tenth century display the same spirit in
Japan and China that the Jesuit fathers
did in North America. They have always
done IL and they continue TO DO il to this
day as calmly as If the nineteenth CEN
fury we're the sixteenth. IL was bat a few
years ago that the Catholic bishop of
Alaska was murdered by the Indians; ii
Was but few years ago that the Catholic
missionaries and their converts were hor-
ribly massacred in Tonquin.
No more romantic story is told In modern
history than that of the work OF the Jesuit
missionaries to the heather in both the
old and New World. 1t is noteworthy
fac, that Loyoia. the founder Of the
Jssaits. and S. Francis d'Asslsl we're both
men OF noble birth. who from dissolu,e
soldiers became pious devoteeS All OF the
social life aud manners OF the middle ages
has disappeared, and yet today In the New
World, at a time when its civilization has
become grossly unitarian and non
romantic In thought and action, xe find
the missionaries Of Rome TO the Indian
unchanged in spiris and purpose. Noble
born and high bred men continue TO enter
the priesthood and go into voluntary exile
for life IN order % prosecute the same
work in the same way that the missionary
aid in the middle ages when Loyola and
ST Francis turned their backs upen the
world and gave themselves wholly up 10
their self-eonseersssd work Of saving the
souls Of ali kinds Of hesthsns who dwell
in outer darkness because no opportunity
has been given them 70 know Chriss
In these times Of gross. non-romsntie
utilitariAnisn. when socialism Is agnostic
If not aths.stse, we tad this survival Of
med sayal religious enthusiasm and self
conservation within The priesthood Of the
RomisA church. Ii Is true that there have
eeea some great Protestant missionaries,
whe have lASorsd hsroieaiiy in Africa and
India: IL Is true thai Bishop Taylor, q the
Methodist church. has exposed his life as
fesrssssiy 50 woala any man; IL Is true
shsi within recent years Easlish mission
aries have heea maresre2 "a Central
AfrlrA bua - rule he sarvsval Of HE old
time naesissvAl missionary 20 the heather
il foaBa most frequently wsthsa theehureA
Of Eeas, tAs klEd VI Essssssess. sAss ssss