The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-08-19
MISSIONARIES IN AMERICA.
VIEWS OF THE RIGHT REV. MGR.
 COUNT DE VAYA,

siOnarSs on the CohdttiOhs HI AhIS
 COuntry-The ReasOn for Emigration
 From Austria-Hungary to the United
 States.
 In our talk this week the Right Rev. Mgr. Count Way de Vaya, apostolic prothonotary and missionary, gives his impressions of missionary work in the United States, which he has lately visited, to see aftsr the welfare of the Hungarian immigrants to that country. Count Way de Vaya, who left a prom ising diplomatic career to devote his life to missionary work, is known to many persons in this country, which he visited in the suite of Archbishop Sambuchstti, Papal delegate for the jubilee of 1897. His name is house. hold word in his own country. where he at once figures in the historic court functions and works like simple parish priest for the good of the peas
 ants on his own estate. Since his or dination he has visited many countries with the idea of improving the lot only of his own country, but of all those who labor and suffer. The under
 dogs" as the Americans call them the Submerged tenth as we have it appeal to Mgr. de Vaya as they ap- peal to the parish priest working in the slums of Chicago or to the 'Salca- tfonist in the city shelter or farm colony. But it is misery as the loss of iedals, the blank despair that accom- panies social degradation, that brought Count de Vaya from his family estate in Hungary to preach to the steerage passengers of the immigrant liners and to people in the mean streets of cities all over the world. His work has not .bsen limited to those of his own race.t
 He hopes to found orphanages in Kor- lea, where the terrible loss of infant life moved his pity. He has helped to set up schools for the Chinese coolie that ha may learn anew trades and not forget that he has mind and soul, and he has studied missionary work in darkest Africa.
 Mgr. de Vaya must needs to be a wonderful linguist to journey through different. continents unaided, and to teach, lectures and preach wherever he stays. The number of languages that he speaks is indeed incredible. He is absolutely master of Hungarian; French, German, Italian, Spanish, English, and Latin. His English is indeed perfect. On the Cunard liner on which he jouneyed as missionary priest to America, he preached to the slav and the Magyar, being acquaint- with the dialects that make Hungary, croatia, Dalmatia, and Bosnia so pug zling country in which to travel. With this extraordinary gift of ton- gues, Mgr. de Vaya is still on thesunny side of thirty, and possesses a deep fn- sight into the psychology of the peas- ant and the laborer, so that they one and all learn to love him as a friend. This personal sympathy enables him to exercise a good influence on all with whom he comes into contact Perhaps it is the keen light in the steel
 blue eyes that seems to read through one as one talks to Mgr. de Vaya that enables him to pierce the armor of in- ence Certainly I found a strange fascination in his presence. The com
 bination of the grand seigneur and the missionary is irresistible
 My first idea of missionary work" he explained, twas to accompany my own people to America and to see for myself their conditions of life in the new country. It was only by doing that l could understand why it was that the simple peasant when brought into touch with civilization of the New World, so often lost that simple faith
 and love of goodness that makes the Hungarian naturally reliogious. I therefore volunteered to go as a chap lain on o1le of the Cunard steamers bv which thousands of Hungarian work men.go to America. The Cunard Com pany were most kind III meeting my suggestions of establishing chaplians for their immigrant ships in which they carry larger population than the ordinary village"
 Did these, people take kindly to
 your minsion?"
 Yes, most kindly, and they listened most attentively to my sermons from the bridge of the steamer, which the captain courteously placed at my dis disposal. You will understand that one of my objects was to keep the spirit of hope and faith alive in them, so htat they might face the new country with the determination to do their work as good citizens; otherwise, landing like waifs tossed upon a strange shore, they quickly become the victims of circum- ! stance. In the new country, under new and stange conditions, their higher as- pirations and spiritual life are very often lost, ,, to be replaced by alto- gether lower aims. They thus become enfences dans la matiere, with no thought to life their lives out of the dead levels of commonplace toll and qualification. They then become easy preys to social degradation and vice,
 and end by being danger instead of a blessing to the country of their adop- tion.
 During my stay in America" con- tinued Mgr. de Vaya, T tried to visit all the most important industrial set dement's in the agricultural and min- ing districts, where hundreds of thou sands of my countrymen are settled. The immigrant movement from Gen. tral Europe is like the Volker- Wade rung of early times, so great is the shifting of the population to new worlds. From my own country over a hundred thousand go yearly. It is very sad ynt varIy y7ifHa711+ +o e+nnO