The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1911-03-16
Father Hoffman.

Now | suppose that by all the rules
of the game of religion, |, Protes-
tant, should not list as among the
great men of my acquaintance, Cath
Ollie priest, but, lam not following amy
rules, and before ! get done | expect
to be telling of good many great
men who have been worse than
Catholic priests and who yet are great
For instance | may tell you of a man
who has no religion at ALL Or, l may
tell you of an English thief, VINO Will
robbipg home pounded waking
servant girls head into a jelly. Or
again l may tell you of the moral
and physical coward who. for six
weeks kept a good sized police depart
ment looking out for "a bold nigh
wayman.'
You see. not all great men are good
men. But isn't that reason mat
we should study the lives of all great
men? If it is possible for men 10 be
great without good morals, what
would they become if they We're good?
However, | am not attacking Father
Hoffmans morals. believe he was 4
very good man. Some of his own
church people didn't like him any 100
well. They said he was too strict;
that he made them contribute too mut
money for the church and all Such
Tommy-rot as that, but they didn't
say it to his face. Personally | sided
with the priest, though ] probably
should have been against him had !
been a Catholic. Not being Catholic
| gloried in the force Of the man
who made a lot of harum Scarum
'ps' and 'qs' and compelled the dads
to dig down for good share of
their spare cash, all of which was
used for building fine big church,
fine big school, church theatre
and parish house. All of these were
larger and better and handsomer than
any similar buildings that | knew Of
in towns three times the size of our
town. SO as the booster spirit" was
even then a large part of me, glor-
led in Father Hoffman.
Why, our town had less than 500
population, but in the Catholic church
We had a pipe organ. Note that? A
pipe organ?a splendid, grand, pipe Or
gan. Some of you Lynden ministers
think of that please. Our towns three
times as big as that town was, and,
We want a pipe organ too.
How did he get it?
Well now, | don't know as ought
to give the secret away, but this is |
how he did it:
He had just finished building the
church at cost of $4,000 or $4,000,
and the big new parish house was
all completed. All of the statues
were in the inches. The parish school
was flourishipg Father Hoffman un
a bright spring morning looked over
what had been done, and l suppose,
stopped to wonder if it lacked any
thing of being complete. Then he
frightened. A brilliant idea came TO
him. He recalled the great churches
in the F'atherland and in memory
pipe organs.
wasn't there but ] can imagine
what happened. If you or J. had ac-
complished as much as Father Ho1i-
man had. and then had thought OF a
nine organ. we would have sighed ana
shook our heads. He didn't. He grin
ned and thoughtfully strolled into MS
study. He called his housekeeper VINO
filled his pipe-not the short one that
he smoked sometimes on the street,
but the long-crooked-stemmed one
the one that was so strong that TIE
good old soul who waited on Tue
rather always filled it behind her
hack Then. the Father looked over
some catalogues and he studied, ana
he figured a bit with stubDy pen
ell Next Sunday he told mis- people
that he had ordered pipe organ
the cost would be SO many Aundred
dollars.
Did they object?
Well now, as l have intimated oe-
fore | don't remember of anyone ever
obiecting to Father HOFFMAN.
He never took money from ou'si
ers. but | am quite sure II ne hao
come down to my office and told me
ha wanted me to donate $40 to ms
church. | shouldn't have objected
I'd spent about two days III ''e
hardest sort of scratching among ue-
,,,,.,,or, subscribers and then he
would have got his money.
Someway that was the way ne was
People didn't exactly dare disoo9y ,,s
him and yet they weren't eAae''s
afraid of him either In fact l. an
outsider. frankly enjoyed the 1ew
visits had with the priest IN MS
b,me He was so far above me III eu-
ucation and thought that ABOUT 'ne
hest | could do was to SIT ana hs'e''
to him. but / used to like to 90 init
wish now that I had been closer
=, ,,,,, Ha mist have nau IL