The San Francisco call., 1896-02-28
The League of the Cross Holds
a Very Successful
Meeting.
FATHER YoRKE ON ABSTINENCE
Prize Essay on Total Abstinence-Re-
ply to Calumnies on the
Subject.

densely crowded last night at the rally OF
the Cathedral Branch of the League OF the
Cross. A large proportion of the audience
consisted OF boys who are members or the
Catholic Temperance Society.
James Gildea presided, and in brief
opening address stated the purposes and
ambitions of the league. He announced
that prjze-essav contest would be held
among mem bers of the Cathedral Branch,
and appointed A. H. Loughborough,
Brother Erminold and Thomas g. Spill
lane as judges of the essays:
The programme was as follows:
Song, "Hearest Thou" tMattei, Miss Mary
Spillane; essay Captain Deasy; recitation,
'star-spangled Banner" Miss Gonzalez; essay,
e!arionet, aHear Me, Norma" August and
America" audience; essay, William Hughes;
anchored, ,, r. J. Sandy; cornet solo, l. G.
Coggin. ~
The subject of all the essays was, "Why
l am total ahstainer." The judges an
| nounced that they had found the essays
! equal for literary merit and argument, but
that the attractive oratory of Mckinley
gave him the prize.
Rev. 2. @. Yorke delivered timely ad-
dress. When his name was announced it
was greeted with extraordinary clamor,
that grew in volume with age. After the
/ dpplauSe Il1Q SllDS1ieQ tatDer y 0rke dQ-
yanced to the front of the stage, and then
again applause burst from the audience.
Il feel like asking, in the words OF
! famous politician" he said, tf'W here am |
at? | learned this morning / had taken
to the woods Ii we are in the woods now,
all can say is, The woods are full of US.
81 am glad TO see such a splendid audi
dience at this rally of the League of the
Cross OF st. Mary's Cathedral. The league
was begun ny that great and good man.
Bishop Montgomery, in basement. /
only wish ne was here tonight to see how
the little band that met in the basement
/ has grown, till now this hall is too small
for the crowd which has come here to
know about the league.
"The ESSAYS you have heard here to-
night and this meeting tell you better than
| can what are the objects of this organi-
zation. 1t teaches you we are not leading
these boys into paths whereof they know
not the reason, but to stand up like young
Americans who are not afraid of any
man, or to say what they think We need
manly men. The State has need of men
of principle. The time has come when
truth, honor, justice and Loyalty should
be the only passports to social, political
/ and business distinction.
81 say we are doing more for this COM
munity than any other body is doing. We
| hear certain people boast about their patri-
otism, that they are defenders of the Ma
ton. They may say they are defenders
and wind the flag around them to hide
their sores-patriot defenders-for cash.
| We are not passing a basket around the
hall tonight for nickels we are not pratt
| ing for a better parish. This is not for
money, nor personal am bition; but on a
night like this these young men gather in
a good cause which is near and dear to
| their hearts,"
Father Yorke explained that the raIfv
| and hal fn Sta in
| terest and enthusiasm in the work OF the
! organization. The City had to be divided
into four districts, because tie league had
| grown SO fast that no hall in San Fran
cisco was large enough to accommodate all
the members. Continuing, he said:
Every preacher who comes along here
says San Francisco is the wickedest town
on earth. One gentleman / had to do with
| said the hotter place was eleven inches
under the sidewalk. How he knew |
don't know. This much do know; there
is far more intemperance here and it is far
| harder 20 raise little ones III the fear and
| love of God than in any other city of the
| Union. The demon of drink stalks the
streets and there is no one to say him nay
In San Francisco there are 3345 saloons,
while in New York there are 1000. Some
! people declare it is due to the Irish and to
the Pope's Irish at that. They say, You
| can't be good citizens because YOU find the
names of Irish people above nearly all the
! Saloons
II learned a lesson lately from looking
over the statements of other people, [
sent to the license officer in the City Hall,
and here is what l found: 1437 saloons
! owned by men of the German race, 695 by
Irish, 53l by Americans and English, $50
by Spanish, Italians, ETC., Iii by Swedes,
169 by French, % by Slavs, "a by Scotch
and 80 by Chinese.
This same insult has been hurled in our
faces in almost every city in the Union,
and in every city it is calumny. Yet we
hear it every day. Let me say there is no
class of people in this country who are
doing so much in the cause of abstinence
as the Irish Catholics. 1t was an I-shman
who III the beginning of this century struck
the first blow for temperance Father
Mathew All through America are great
Catholic temperance organizations, and
the youngest is not the least-the League
of the Cross. We are trying to do our part,
and more than our part, to combat the
evil of lntemperance.
Fathers O'kyan and Byrnes delivered
short addresses to the boys on temperance
and the successful meeting dissolved.