The Irish standard., 1906-08-11

An uproar Of protest has come from
+smart" society because of the severe
arraignment which Father Bernard
Vaughan has been making recently
in his Sunday morning sermons at the
Church of the Immaculate Conception
on Farm street, says a London, Eng
land dispatch to the Chicago Daily
Chronicle Of August 4. Probably the
severest criticism has come as a re-
suit of one of the more recent sermons
of the reformer-priest, in which he
arraigned young society women for
their participation in bridge parties
and other forms Of gambling. Bridge
in particular was held up for censure
by the preacher who held it re-
sponsible for the ruin of many young
financially as the result of play for
high stakes that they fell easy victims
to the lust of moneyed men who,
Father Vaughan alleged, set the bridge
trap for already selected victims.
AS the result of sermon delivered
on recent Sunday, in which the story
of 1.-THE Prodigal Son. was taken as
text and in which the preacher re-
ferred to society women as tigresses
lying in wait for modern prodigals, a
great deal of discussion has taken
place. One anonymous writer, who
signs himself or herself as "Pall Mall"
has taken direct issue with the clergy
man and asserts in an open letter
that the speaker either was influenced
by tales of which he could have had
no proof or had permitted himself to
become victim of the we!l-known
penchant Of orators to play with
words to the sacrifice or neglect of the
truth.
The sermon which has occasioned
such a storm of discussion has al
ready been mentioned in the London
correspondence of the Chronicle. AS
only phase of it has been dealt with,
however, it may be desirable that the
address be explained more fully in
order that the reader may have a
better grasp of the accusations and
thus the better understand the anony-
NOUS answer that will be later quoted.
Before a crowded and fashionable
audience, who could not have been in
nocent of the charges made if they
really exist and who must have been
implicated in the general denounce-
ment Of the customs of Smart So
cicty, even if the charges as has been
claimed, are without legitimate found
alton, Father Vaughan took for the
basis of his discourse the parable of
the prodigal son. The audience
listened with closest interest to a
scatching arraignment of the ev:,s: of
present day society and his solemn ap-
peal to the prodigal sons of the day.
At the outset Father Vaughan drew
a striking parallel between the physi-
cal, moral and spiritual condition of
the prodigal son Of the new testament
returning to his fathers house with
heavy trade and a broken heart and
that of the gilded youth Of today
eagerly seeking pleasure at all COSTS
when I read this story" said the
preacher, II want to rush after that
young man, to warn him that it is
not all gold that glitters. to tell him
that his world is a cruel and harsh
thing, without heart, which will open
its arms wide to the young dandy OF
fashion and when it has extracted the
last glittering coin from him will
stamp on him and bid him feed the
swine"
The picture from the Masters hanG
marvelously represented the life Of
today, he said. Had they not repeat
edly seen that young man in Bel.
xravia or Mayfair? Personally, he hat
not met more than. one man resembling
the prodigal so closely that it wa:
difficult to believe he was not living
in clubland today. A genial, fin,
young Englishman-of the type o
which the nation is SO proud-witl
great expectations had not mucl
chance of holding his own when Sc
upon by fast, smart women. The!
went for him and plucked him and, t.
use our Lords expression, "they de