The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-09-07

any sacrifice? When the little one
is about five or six years Of age the
call comes for the confirmation fee.
and for other expenses incidental to
the great occa sion. Soon childhood
and youth pass away and the time ar
rives for marriage Again the Church
claims her rights, and the amount re-
Quired is an insurmountab',e barrier
to many. We are told that the servant
class are required to pay from tifteer
10 forty dollars. the price varying ac-
cording to the amount Of holy water
and incense used. Civil marriage is
now free. but the priests teach that
those guilty of it commit blasphemy
against the Church. In consequence
they are excluded from the fold and
lose all hope of salvation"
This is a new definition or illustra-
ton of the sin of blasphemy but when
| a good story is the need Of the hour,
why stand upon little point of accur-
acy in making out IAN epitome in" a
life? But the cream of the joke Is the
selection Of holy water and incense"
as the gauge for the scale of fees for
servant girl marriages. Clever as the
story is. it does not altogether tally
with what follows:
DR.. A. T. Pierso:: thus strongly en-
phasizes this points Nearly one-half
of the men and women living in Mex
leo as husband and wife have no legal
| relation as such. The avaricious priests
demand such enormous fees for pro-
nouncing. the marriage ceremony that
| the poor are unable to pay them"
We would understand the humor Of
the story better if we We're told how
the avaricious priests contrive to keep
UP the high scale when nobody asks
for their services.
portion of missonarys outfit I'm
less he is able to give it out when
wanted, he had better remain at home.
But others besides missionaries possess
the gift of storytelling. We once
listened to a gentleman of the COM
mercial traveller persuasion, telling a
large and respectable audience. in the
Drexel lluilding here. that when a
Mexican laborer gets his weekly wage
of two dollars he is obliged to hand
| over a dollar and a half of 1t TO the
! Church! The large and respectable
| audience, all but one, accepted the
story as a good and we'll told one,
even though not the actual truth
They were, for the most part, descend
ants Of those Anglo Saxons who, as
late as the time of Oliver Cromwell,
believed that the people of Ireland had
tails. like quadrupeds. This race Of
credulous people is widespread; we
have some OF them right here. AS an
Illustration of how ingenious and un-
suspecting they are. we reproduce the
following from the Northwestern
"A certain Mrs. S., a lady Of linn
| tied education, had long made up her
| mind to become a Catholic, but de-
layed for a very long time putting this
good resolution into execution. When
her reception into the Church had
actually taken place. a Catholic friend
asked her the reason for her long hes
itation. My dear she answered. I
was so afraid Of the penance given in
confession. l thought might be told
to lick the Cathedral floor. and had
noticed how dirty it was!'"
| But the missionary-the missionary
with his holy water and incense scale
for marriage his baptism fee and his
confirmation fee-holds the field for
fee-faw-fum. He is the champion cake
walker and story teller.