The San Francisco call., 1910-07-17

NEW YORK, July 16.-Go where you
will on this terrestrial globe and you
will find interesting Catholic settle
ments confronting you. frequently in
the most unexpected and out of the
way places. For instance, should you
make your way to Yangkiapinn, an
isolated part of China, you will find,
nesting in the mountains. the Trap
pist monastery of Our Lady of Con-
ISOLATION. There European and Chinese
monks give their entire lives to
prayer, study and manual labor.
The communication was established
by Bishop Delaplace years ago, be-
cause, among other reasons, he be-
lieved that these monks would afford
him efficient aid in counteracting the
influence of the BONES, or Buddhist
monks, who use their influence to op-
pose the introduction of Christianity
into their country. The work OF the
Catholic monks was to be an apostle
late of example, Of manual labor, OF
modification and prayer.
A recent visitor to this hidden mon
astery found there, as is usual in such
houses, an interesting medley of in
dustries carried on by the monks. He
was shown the shoe making shop, the
storehouse for apricot nuts or pits
from which a cordial is made; the
press where the oil is extracted from
the nuts; the granarieS where the
wheat and miIlet are stored; the laup-
dry the covered wells, the fruit store
house, and, finally, the assembly hall,
where every evening the monk in
charge of the work assigned to each
of the others his task for the morrow.
He was next shown the yard where
the bricks are made, the forge and the
mill, the working quarters Of the tin
smiths, the masons and the weavers,
and, finally, the cattle sheds and the
piggery.
Brother Raphael, the miller, sifts the
meal from the chaff, while the mule
turns the grindstone. When the grain
is ground to -four the miller kneads it
into dough and makes the bread.
Brother Peter has charge of the
barnyard, and moves to and fro among
numerous fowls, 10 or II hogs mules,
oxen and or cows The Chinese
do not use milk.
Beyond Brother Peters domain are
the kilns for baking the bricks, more
apricot trees, and, farther away, the
mountain, the great wall and Mongolia.
Our visitor was also shown the phar-
macy, the infirmary and the vestry, or
room where the clothing is kept. In
one wing of the monastery he found
the assembly room, where the lay
brothers gather, under the charge of
Trappist father. where there is a
library of $500 volumes.
Beyond the novitiate lies the ceme-
terry; the most instructive page in the
edifying annals of this Cistercian mon
astery in China. Here are seven graves.
marked by wooden crosses. Five of
these monks were Chinese; the other
two were French.
The monastery was threatened with
annihilation at the time of the boxer
insurrection, but happily it escaped.
There is something particularly heroic
in this spectacle of these European
monks working year after year in a
foreign land, and these Chinese monks
abandoning the traditions of their an
cestors to live the monastic life, ac-
cording to the rules of st. Benedict.
Poverty is not only their rule, but a
necessity with them. Their work is
laborious; and their food is poor, even
from a Chinese standpoint. The prod
ucts of their fields are sold to main
tain the monastery and its industries.
Thus they go on, year after year;
converting their Chinese neighbors by
their example and prayers, and teach
ing them modern agriculture and civil
lization.
If we turn to far off Argentina in
South America, we find another relig-
ious order, this time the Franciscans.
opening up, at the solicitation of the
government, a missionary settlement
Tor the poor Indians.
In 1900. 100000 acres of uncultivated
land was made over to them by the
government, upon condition that they
settle upon it $50 Indian families. and
educate them in Christian and civilized
ways.
Each family was to receive from the
beginning 250 acres in full right Of
ownership; and the remainder of The
grant was to be divided among the
colonists. after they had been trained
into habits OF civilized life. To defray
the initial expenses of the project, the
Argentinian government voted an al
loWanee of $4,000.
Opening with ten families, the mis-
sion San Francisco del Lafshi" now
numbers 156 families within its limits;
and of these, 12S families are settl ed
on their farms, and tilling their own
lands with satisfactory results.
Agricultural implements are fur
nished by the mission, which, as q rule,
buys the grain that is harvested, main
tains a little steamer on the Paraguay
river TO keep up communication with
the nearby city of Formosa, superir-
tends the building of commodious roads
and bridges. and provides workshops
and mills driven by steam.
The skilled labor required in all
these enterprises is drawn exclusively