The Irish standard., 1899-12-30
Distinguished Convert a Man
Of Mighty Intellect.
SPENT HALF HIS LIFE IN OXFORD
And the Other Half in Spreading
Catholic Doctrines.

St. Johns church lecture course at
Mechanics hall, Worcester, Mass, was
opened with an address on Cardinal
Newman by Henry Austin Adams OF
Brooklyn, N. Y, before an audience
which was worthy OF the lecturer and
his subject.
He talked for an hour and half, and
in all that time he held his audience as
if it were spellbound, there being no
noise except when the pent-up feelings
broke loose in burst of applause.
. He talked rapidly, but in the flood OF
words he emphasized his points by bril-
liant SMILES and figures OF speech which
shows he has great command of the
English language.
In addition to the excellence of the
entertainment, the lecture had another
attraction for the audience, as it was
the first appearance of Rt. Rev. Mgr.
Thomas Griffin, d. D., since his return
from Ireland. The audience turned out
to welcome him back.
The hall was filled when Rev. Michael
T. O'Brien, who has been indefatigable
in his efforts to make the course sue
cess, called the meeting to order and
announced the first number on the pro-
gram as the singing OF Cardinal New
mans hymn, Lead, kindly light" by a
quartet composed OF Michael w. Hand
lin, Edmund Hunt, John F. Mccartney
and Robert Dow. Fr. OBrlen then in
troduced Mgr. Griffin as the presiding
officer OF the evening, and, in taking the
chair, Mgr. Griffin referred briefly to
his recent visit to Ireland and the work
which England has done, unwittingly
perhaps, in spreading the doctrines of
the Catholic church. Mr.. Adams was
then introduced. He said:
Your pastor has asked me to speak
to you on Cardinal Newman. Every
body wants to hear about him, not only
here in the East, with all your educa-
tional facilities, but away out in Osh-
kosh, in Waco, Texas, and in Pixies
county, in fact, all over this great coun-
try the people are interested in this
singular old man, because they all ask
me to talk about him when l go to lee
ture to them.
Why are they SO interested in him?
What do they see in man who was
born at the beginning of the 10Th CEN
tury, who lived half his life in Oxford,
and spent the other half, endowed by
God with most gigantic intellect, in a
quiet way spreading the doctrines of his
holy church, caring nothing for the ma
terial things of his times? Whatever
else you may say of the American peo-
pie we are the most hard headed and
practical people God put on this earth,
and is it strange we want to know SO
much about this quiet old man? We
take our religion all on Sunday and pass
the rest of the week trying to see what
we can do, what we can learn, what we
can teach, what we can buy, what we
can sell. So man who lives here for
70 years is all submerged under inter-
ests that are on this side. If we have
religion, we have it principally in our
wives names. Why, then, ask, should
we take such an interest in this man
who lived nearly 100 years and never
even raised an eyebrow to show any
interest in the so-called burning ques-
tions of the day, who never heard of the
new woman and who would have turned
up his contemptuous nose at your Fri
day afternoon clubs, your committees
and your organizations?
Our Protestant friends, God bless
them, know more about him than we
do and that hymn you just heard so
exquisitely sung by the four gentlemen
who opened this evenings entertain
ment, is the prime treasure of the Bap-
tist, Methodist and other Protestant
churches, and guess it has even got
into the Jewish church.
Why do we want to hear OF Cardinal
Newman when we have Cardinal Man
ming, who lived in the same country
and in similar sense, but who. was
tingling with life from the top of his
head to the sole of his foot, whom we
Americans would call a hustler, who