The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-10-12


 ago a popular dancer went through her graceful evolutions before a bril- liant audience that included King Edward and many members of smart society," After the performance the King sent for the dancer, and, con graduating her, asked if there was anything he could offer to show his appreciation. With ready witt and a fine appreciation of the dramatic Your majesty, the head of Bernard Vaughan a dish"
 The witty remark was particularly appropriate for at that time the Rev. Father Vaughan. in his pulpit at the Jesuit Church in Farm Street, was fiaying society for its sins, and there was no other name in England that could have given point to the sugges- tive incident.
 His preaching has been described as a marvellous com mbination of sound and color that reverberates and glows, enforced by tremendous pow CT of action on the part of the speaking to a crowd in the street, telling how the growth of man and woman is often a growth away from God. Then he suddenly leaned for ward, and, catching a little child in his arms said: t'It is this we have ceased to be- The dramatic action it is characteristic, and he won his audience in a moment.
 His Distinguished Family.
 Father Vaughan is peculiarly fit ted by birth to point out the fo1lies and vices of society, for his family, dates back to the Norman kings His father, Col. Vaughan of Courtf1eld, Herefordshire, was one of twenty children, and Bernard Vaughan him self was one of fourteen. In one of his famous sermons he said that up- to-date parents of the present gen eration would scorn< such father, vat hoff ffoz- ran ffl nO1 or to the fence of duty, landing on the other side. Nowadays, he said, instead of being proud, society would be ashamed of owning to a nursery full of children, and, he added, in a sense it was a. blessing, for, what with club life and club habits and club morality, there was no-time left for a mother to care for her one child, which she never fed, nor even saw, except at tea time, when it was brought down to show off it's clothes.
 Of Father Vaughan's thirteen brothers and sisters, several went in to the church. One became cardinal were four whose nicknames in priest. ly circles were 'tThoughts,' words" Deeds" and Omissions Bernard Vaughan was born on August 20, one of the oldest Jesuit college in England. As a professed father of the Society of Jesus he took part in the religious and civic life of Man chester, spending eighteen years among the poor of that city. and building up a reputation as a scholar. know the humble people ofathe sluTns, and it is related that once he was caught cooking dinner for a family of hungry children whose mother had gone out to work.
 In 1901 he went to London and commenced work among the poor of though welcome in Mayfair, despite his criticisms of society, he is more welcome in the narrow court and al- 1eys, where there is nothing save ex- treme poverty. It is said that he can venture into places where a London bobby would think twice before go- ing, and there is good reason for this. He has made the interest of the poor his own, and especially to. children of the streets is he companion and friend. Clubs, concerts, and bazaars ure, and they in turn flock to hear his words of encouragement and ad- vice spoken from pulpit or street corner, as the case may be.
 The church in Farm Street is in variab1y crowded whenever Father Vaughan occupies the pulpit, and it don can draw such a cosmopolitan audience. PeYs and aisles are pack ed with people; side by side sit the poor and wealthy, and what is even more remarkable, there is always a generous sprinklfng of priests and ministers among the listeners.
 Frank Sermons on Society. Soon after he began his series of 1906 the very people whom he yer bally castigated came to his church in droves. No doubt many were drawn thither through curiosity, and they found an earnest, eloquent man who utilized all his scholarship and oratory in appealing to their reason and manhood. He never minced words or >glossed over unpleasant facts. Once he painted a vivid pie ture of Herod and Sa1ome, and, hay ing described the murder of John the satisfy the Woman's revenge for his plain-spealxing, Father Vaughan ask ed his congregation, on the suppos1- tion that Herod and Sa1ome were to revisit this plant, what sort of a re- ception would be theirs if they were to select Mayfair for their residence. They would, he said, be cut by the best society in the best sense of that word, but of course be met by smart society" and petted by its guiding stars It would, you know, he said. be refreshing to be with people who carried all before them, stopping at nothing to gratify passion.
 people in more humble eircum- stances had been ruined financially or morally by smart society. and spoke of letters he had received from tradesmen, milliners, dressmakers, and domestic servants, thanking him for daring to say a word which might, pernaps, bring them some reHei-
 There were favorable and unfavor- able comments upon these sermons and toward Father Vaughan there poured a stream of letters, some com mend1ng, others denouncing him as an alarmist. After a time he made this reply:
 ''I may say that instead of coming, after more time and thought, in the conclusion that was too sweeping in my description of fast society, have on the contrary arrived at an opposite judgment. It is my del1h- crate belief, and I am fully persuad-~ ed, that my sermons understate what IS going on today among some mem bers, not only of the upper classes, but in the middle class, and among working people also"
 King Edward was a. friend of Faith