The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1911-04-08
CATHOLIC WRITERS
ARE HANDICAPPED
PATRONS OF CATHOLIC LITERA
TURE NEEDED.
written for The Catholic Bulletin by
Helen Hughes Hielscher)

Helen Hughes Hielscher.)
1t is now year since one of our
most gifted Catholic writer's was laid
away to rest, and the newspaper on
which he labored so faithfully has
brought out a special number in his
memory.
Many kindly and heartfelt tributes
have been paid to him, which only re-
minds us that the world is always
ready with the cup of cold water after
the traveller has died of thirst. It is
a sad commentary on our economics,
that in this country, where Catholic
writer's are not so very plentiful, and
their need so urgent, that such gifted
soul as the late Charles J. O'Malley
should be forced by the sour jade, Ne
cessity, to pour the precious ointment
of his poetic genius on the ungainly
feet of expediency. Not that he wasn't
most useful and capable newspaper
man, but that, with the voice of the
muse in his ears and the sunshine of
the mount of Parnassus in his heart,
he should be forced to walk all the
way with his face to the earth, and
his hands to the pillow of the material.
To what heights might he not have
attained, given opportunity, when in
the few leisure moments that fell to
him he carved out such gems of poetic
grace.
| Tt was my good fortune to know o.
Malley personally, and carry with me
the memory of visit with him in his
stuffy, dusty Office in the New World
Building, Chicago. At that time he
looked tired and worn and sadly in
need of the vacation he could never
afford to take. In the course of our
conversation he said that there were
three lengthy epic poems surging
through his brain but he had not the
time to commit even the outlines Of
them to paper. He was on the tread
mill of routine toll and so he died
with, perhaps, his noblest work un-
done.
We are always sorry enough for
what we can't help, but when we can
help it we are not sorry. We under
stand the pathos of the story of the
boy Chatterton or of the young Francis
Thompson walking the streets of Lon
don cold and hungry with shreds and
drifts and tangles of the mighty con-
ception of "The Hound of Heaven"
teeming through his mind; and we
can weep at the thought of Robert
Louis Stevenson's long hard fight with
poverty and disease. How simple it
would have been to have made life
easier for him when his worst foe was
often vulgar want. In Chicago met
a young Italian boy-one of family
of seven. His threadbare coat was
neatly brushed, and his shock Of dark
hair was in order, but his pale pinched
face and unnaturally big black eyes
showed he was far from well.
Yet this boy of only eighteen years
could write into his verse the very
heart of the flowers, the soul of the
birds song, and the ripple Of the run
ming waters, but how ill-equipped he
was to fight his way in the world.
!, In olden days we had great men;
. there were few of our great men that
were not once struggling boys, but in
; olden days we had what we do not
have now and that was patrons" Of
/ the arts and Neutrality-suspicious., lay
| men and churchmen, who gave the
boys not money nor riches, but oppor-
tunity. That was all that even Loren
, 20 de Medici could give Michael An
gelo. It was all he wanted-oppor-
tunity to work as genius guided.
! Opportunity-it is all our gifted
: children Of today desire or require
: opportunity to work where the spirit
| insistently calls and beckons, instead
5 of wasting their talents in strife with
; world with which they are often ill
> fitted to cope.
7 We are not wanting in Catholic men
) and women of means; but how often
. do we find them searching the Catholic
. newspapers for stories and poems of
. young writer's and, when they light on
Y something that thrills the heart or
1 wakens the soul to higher view of
) life, searching for the authors, giving
. an encouraging word, or making it
: possible for them to spend more time
1 in their literary efforts or procuring
] necessary books for them TO read, and
I then watching the latest talent develop
J like flower unfolding in the genial
j sunlight?
What Catholic literature needs to-
4 day is the Patron the Protector"
of the olden times. We have plenty
! of genius as we always have had, If
rlit we're only cared for and nourished
!. but where is the Maecenas Of this
9 lage?