The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-10-09
BISHOP SCORNS TO
WEAR THE CATERS
Independent Spiritual Lord of
Ripon Is Coming to THIS
Country
Special Foreign service

Wy Niuid1n bUyu
bishop of Ripon, who viii soon leave
for the United States to deliver the
Noble lectures at Harvard, is one that
is unique. He is the sole occupant of
the Episcopal bench who wears trous--
ers in lieu of CATERS, which the sar-
torial conventions of the English
church prescribe as the proper neither
garments for those who attain to the
dignity of spiritual lordship. Yet ac-s
cording to those who have been priv
LEGGED to see them. Or. Carpenter has
much finer pair of canonicai calves
than most of his brother prelates. He
has no reason, therefore, for seeking to
conceal their graceful. proportions,
while other members of his exalted Or
der SO freely avail themselves of the
privilege of displaying their legs, be
they shapely or otherwise, to devout
and admiring scrutiny.
With DR.. Carpenter this preference
for the neither garb of the every day
man must be accepted as the outward
and visible sign of his democratic
spirit He is pre- eminently the bishop
OF the Masses working bishop. He
keeps in close touch with the humber
| members of his flock. In his diocese
dwell considerably over a million souls,
and in extent it embraces a million
acres. Within this area he is said to
travel between 10000 and $4,000 miles
year. Leeds. the chief town of his
spiritual bailiwick, has over fifty par
ishes. From each of these he has
chosen five working men to form a
committee of management, making a
body of $50 stalwart toflers on whom
he can depend to assist him to the III
most and keep him posted on the
needs of the poor and the Iowly.
Far and wide the bishop is known
among the workinglnen and liked and
respected by them. On one occasion
he found himself with Mrs. Carpenter,
| in a London bus without the where
withal to pay their fares. He explain
ed his dilemma to the conductor and
i was about to get~out when working
| man touched him on the shoulder. I'll
| make that all right. sir" he said. don't
| you and your good lady trouble" Be
| fore the bishop could thank him he
| had made, his way to the door and
alighted. Then the bishop learned from
! the conductor that the man had paid
| the fare of himself and Mrs. Carpenter
| to the end of their journey. At
| church congress the bishop related the
| incident, and referred to his unknown
and humble friend as a splendid type
of the English gentleman
DR.. Carpenter is popular with all
| classes-with men in patent feathers
| equally with gentlemen in hob-nailed
boots He is man of profound learn
| ing. He won an open scholarship al
Cambridge. He is a keen student of
literature and an authority on Dante.
He has gone deep into theology and
has reached the conviction that dis
| tinctionS of creed count for very little.
THE struggle of the future" he says,
will not be between this form of re-
| ligion or that, but between religion and
no religion Wherefore he is an ar
dent believer in Il union of the church
es. IF We could only fight together
he says again, how. irresistible we
should prove. Humanity will be salts
| fed with no church whose borders are
narrower than the world. The religion
| of the future will be. | am convinced,
neither Protestant nor Catholic, but
simply Christian
AS the greatest pulpit orator of the
church he was chosen by the house of
commons to deliver the jubilee sermon
at ST Margaret'S church. Westminster.
He is as gentle in his manner as he is
| convincing in his utterance. There is
| not the faintest suggestion about him
of what the English call side and
| Americans call -Sweiled head He
! owes nothing to the influence of roy
| atty, though many royal personages are
| and have been his friends. AT one time
| he was one of the chaplains of Queen
Victoria, who thought highly OF his
| preaching When her daughter, the
| Empress Frederick of Germany, lay
| dying, it was DIR. Carpenter whom she
| summoned to minister to her.
When the primacy of Canterbury
| became vacant through the death of
| DR.. Temple it was generally thought
| that the choice of his successor lay
| between DR.. Davidson. then bishop OF
| Winchester, and DR.. Carpenter. Had
| the choice been left to the decision of
| a popular vote there is no doubt that
DR.. Carpenter would today be arch
! bishop of Canterbury, primate and
metropolitan of all England, by Di-
vine Providence" 1t may be that the
| question of CATERS versus trousers had
something to do with influencing the
| king in favor of the younger man who
| is now in America. For the king, In
T his way. is a great stickler for estab-
| lished conventions, forms and eere-
monies. He recognizes the fact that,
stripped of them the throne Itself would
| have SO little left to stand on that the
4
| sweep 1t away.
| The bishop of Ripon is now sixty
three years old. but looks much young
err He has a rugged, kindly face and
that broad and short figure which
constitutes such an excellent human
packing box for high pressure, vfgor
| and vitality He is still an enthusiast
| tic cyclist. He began his career as
| curate at Maidstone. and was there
in 1866 when the cholera broke out.
| The vicar was absent at the time ana
did not find it convenient to return I'M
til the epidemic had spent itself, but
young Carpenter stuck it out, working
as hard as any of the doctors ana
| freely risked his life. The people
were taken by surprise" he SAID In re-
1ating his experience of those dreadful
days, land few precautions were taken.
There was no organized system OF
nursing them. The women who were
isSent to attend the cholera-strlcken
people knew nothing about nursing.
+ They drank the brandy intended fer
s the relief of the sufferers. i went into
| a house to see woman. The nurse
| was intoxicated. Shortly after the
poor woman died When | read the
burial service at the graveside there
stood the nurse still suffering from
the effects of drink
He was forty-two when, IN 1884, ne.
was consecrated bishop of Ripon, and
since then his reputation as one OF
| the most strenuous sons of the church
has steadily grown. 1t is an abund-
ance CO the saving grace of humor-.
an inheritance from his Irish mother,