The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1910-10-08
THE PASSING OF:
FATHER LAMBERT
Death Claims the Distinguished
Editor of the Freeman's
Journal.
Was Best Known to America by His
Now Famous Notes on
Ingersoll."
As a Controversialist He Appealed
Strongly to the Heart of the
Plain Man.

With the passing Of the Reverend
| Doctor Louis A. Lambert, editor-in-
chief of the New York Freeman's
Journal, who died September rs at
| Newfoundland, N. j., there disappears
from the worlds stage Catholic di-
vine whose thought and labor may be
said to have deeply affected the age
in which he lived, as we'll as pro-
! found controversialist who has occu-
pied in America, it has been said with
justice, the same position held for so
many years by the late Cardinal New
man in England. Unpretentions and
unadvertised though his career has
been, it was one of strenuous fight,
and the Catholic Chuch and faith in
America loses by his death thinker
and defender whose place may not
be filled for many long year. Many
who are competent to judge do not
hesitate to assign to the late doctor
higher position as an expounder of
Catholic truths and beliefs than they
concede to the eminent convert from
Victorian Anglicanism, and on the
ground that the Americans exposi-
tions were conceived in clearness
and simplicity that marked higher
order of intellect, while their supreme
lucidity gained him a far greater
hearing among the masses than was
ever the record of the Oxford dialec-
tician.
Father Lambert came on his faith
er's side of an old Irish Catholic fam
lily that had settled several genera
tions back in Pennsylvania. His moth
er, though Catholic convert, was
of Pennsylvania Quaker stock. He
was born in the little town of Allen
port In Pennsylvania in 1885, Edu.
Gated for the priesthood in Missouri,
he was ordained in st. Louis, anil
there occupied a pastorate till, at the
outbreak of the Civil War, he is to be
found with the armies Of the Republic,
easily first chaplain in the hearts Of
the Catholic soldiery who formed part
of the momentous hosts that served
with Grant and Sheridan. Even to
the last he maintained his interest in
the Grand Army, was enrolled in the
list of honorary chaplains, and was
the recipient at his sacerdotal jubi-
lee, held couple of years ago, Of
a gift from veterans who had been
with him at Shiloh and vicksburg.
Among the many who attended the
reception at Scottsville on that occa-
sion were several naval and military
officers Of rank and mark. Far more
remarkable, however, was the pres
ence at the same celebration of half
a score of well known Methodist, Bap-
tist and Presbyterian clergymen of
New York state, who had come to do
honor to "the man who had defeated
Ingersoll." the title he was most
proud Of.
For though his literary labor and
many controversial writings form a
very complete expansion of Catholic
faith in themselves, the late Doctor
was best known to America-to non-
Catholics-by his notes on 1nger-
SOIL" The mavelous commercial
growth which followed on the close of
the Civil War made a man like In
gersoll a terribly dangerous possible
ity in any Christian community, in
asmuch as the country's prosperity
had brought with it corresponding
increase in materialistic, if not down.
right atheistic fashions of thought and
view. The disturbed and unsettled
conditions of the country had also
initiated against the rearing Of pro-
found controversialists. who were
capable Of breaking the lance in any
thing like a full and soldierly effect
iveness with Ingersoll, who, 1t must
be said in simple justice, brought to
his sinister task of Notwithstanding
many splendid personal and intellec-
tual accomplishments and gifts. As
an orator, he was without a peer, and
Il Is fair to his personality as q man