The Irish standard., 1905-07-08
BELOVED BY ALL
TIE Venerable PhilanthPopist,
Mgr. James kugent,
Passed Away in Liverpool After
q Brief Illness.

Private cablegrams from Liverpool,
England, announced the death on Tues
day, June %, of Right Rev. Mgr.
James Nugent, the venerable philan-
thropist, whose zeal and self-sacrif1ce
in behalf of orphans and outcasts
have made his name household word
throughout Great Britain for nearly
half a century.
Mgr. Nugent, who was in his eighty.
fourth year, recently visited this coun.
try in company with Dom Gasquet,
abbot-president of the English Bene-
dictines. He visited many western
cities and was about to begin his
return journey when he suffered
severe rheumatic attack. After several
months of rest and careful nursing he
sailed for Liverpool, where he landed
May IL. During the voyage he sus-
tained serious fall, caused by a sud-
den lurch OF the vessel, and though
recent reports were to the effect that
he was slowly regaining his strength,
the accident is supposed to have been
the indirect cause of his death.
In the great Mersey seaport Mgr.
Nugent, or plain Father Nugent, as he
was more familiar known, had for
many years been the most prominent
and most popular citizen, beloved by all
classes and all creeds. He first at
tracted public notice when he estab-
lished Boys Refuge" which he
maintained out of his own private
means, and when these were exhaus-
ted he raised the necessary funds by
delivering sermons and lectures, the
keynote of which was contained in
the motto which he chose for this ex-
cellent institution, "Save the Boys!"
A very forcible and eloquent orator,
he drew large congregations and
audiences at the sermons and lectures,
and the results that have followed his
great work in this direction have been
most uccessful-refuge after refuge
has been established, and thousands of
homeless and friendless boys have
been rescued from the dangerous +.
of the streets and slums, educated,
taught useful trades and fitted to be-
come, as the vast majority of them
have become and are yearly becoming
honest, Industrious and upright cit
liens, credit to themselves and
glory to Mgr Nugent.
But the boys refugees were but
small portion of the lifework of this
octogenarian priest. To do justice to
his long career of practical charity and
benevolence bulky volume would
have to be written. The founder of
the League of the Cross, total absti-
nence organization which has spread
from Liverpool all over the United
Kingdom, he spent the best years of
his prolonged life in the ardent cham.
pionship of the principles of tenn
perance. Tens of thousands owe to
his fervid advocacy of total abstinence
their deliberation from the thraldom
of drink, and their consequent recon-
ciliation with the Church, the resump,
tion of the practice OF their religion
and the betterment of their social
position.
In the cause of Catholic journalism
he spent many toilsome year and
many a thousand dollars, until at last
he placed the "Catholic Times" (for-
merly of Liverpool, but now of Lon
DOM on the excellent financial footing
which it now occupies as one of the
most widely read and inuential Cath.
olic papers in the world.
But the labors in which he spent the
closing years of his fruitful apostolic
life were perhaps the most important
of those that occupied his attention
throughout his lengthy existence. They
had for their most praiseworthy object
in the attainment of which they
have been successful-the establish
ment of night shelters and other
houses for outcast and destitute wom-
en- and girls, and of a home for those
of them about to become mothers. His
great sympathetic Irish heart was
touched with tender compassion for
these unfortunate people, many of
them more sinned against than sin
ming. The initial expenses of found,
ing and equipping this institution at
West Dingle, Liverpool, were borne by
himself.
Mgr. Nugent was one of the very
few public men who have been hon.
ored with public monuments during
their lifetime. On a prominent site
in Liverpool is statue of Mgr. Nugent
erected with money subscribed by citi.
zens of all creeds and classes.