Semi-weekly herald., 1911-07-17

fant that has Just seen the light OF
day for the first time, returns al
most Immediately to the dust whence
il came; the school boy meets death
at his play; the blooming youth fades
in a few short hours, and mans pow
cr wrcstles vainly with the destroyer
Death. But here we have a woman
who seemed to have de1ied his most
poignant shafts. For nearly ninety
years she has struggled along through
this. world of sorrow and pain. The
sweat of toll and the wear and tear
of accommodating years had washed
the bloom from her cheeks, just as
water grasses a painters colors. The
cares and griefs of life had wrinkled
her brow and furrowed her face, but
still she fingered on--a faded flower
withering on its stem, while many an
opening bud was nippcd in its prime
by the cold pitiless hand of Death.
"'OId age says the Holy Ghost,
is crown of dignity, when it is found
in the ways of Justice 1t is true the
'hoary headed sinner is not unknown
upon the earth, but old age is gen
orally great grace. 1t is the reward
of youth spent in piety, virtue and
fear Of the Lord. AS the day Of the
youth, so also shall thy old age be-
The unchaste, the incorporate, the
naughty, the choleric, do not as a rule
become old Vice in any form is like
an unholy fire which consumes the
thread of life. But an honorable old
age is only reached through virtue
and rectitude, through industry, tenn
perance and self-denial.
"To us, indeed, life of ninety years
seems very long, but compared to
eternity it is only a moment. When
the patriarch Jacob was asked by
Pharoah the number of his years, he
answered The days of my pilgrimage
are a hundred and thirty years, few
and evil, and they are not come up
to the days of the pilgrimage of my
fathers Few and evil he called them,
though to us they would seem incred-
ible. But what are they after all
compared to eternity? The number
of the days of men are at most n
hundred years and as a drop of water
in the ocean are they esteemed, and
as a grain of sand on the sea shore
so are few years compared to eter-
nifty. In the hey-day of youth and
strength, life seems stable, but how
quickly the years glide by! How
quickly time robs the hair of its dark
beauty and burrows wrinkles in the
checks! How rapidly does little
sickness destroy the florid complexion,
render the voice tremulous and bow
down the stately neclsl Oh, truly my
friends the longest life is but short.
'All flesh is grass, the grass is with
cred and the flower is fallen All
age is short, all time flies, all hfe
vanishes and great multitude of
years are but a great nothing.
"This was truth that this dear old
lduY IGdilLtu tllig wv nNh' 'AiAN
Cod had given her a number of years
granted only to one in five hundred,
she seemed to be ever on the watch
for the coming of the Bridegroom.
In her long career she experienced
many vicissitudes and bore much sor-
row. She saw her children and her
children's children grow up to man
hood in faith and rectitude, and many
oe her friends she has followed to the
grave. But never in all those years
did she forget that I'VE have not here
a lasting city, never did she cease to
be fervent disciple of her Lord. She
belonged to generation of Irish peo
pic that has now alas! almost passed
away. She belonged to a people that
had fought and suffered for the Faith
Of their Fathers. She was born at
time when to be an Irish Catholic was
to suffer cruelty from the irou rod
of persecution. In her childhood she
heard tales of how her parents and
grandparents knelt to hear mass on
the bleak mountainside with one hand
ON their heads and the other ON their
rifle, when the same price was placed
on the head of priest as on the head
of a wolf. These stories of dark per
scouting days she heard in her child
hood from actors in the scene, and
they entered like iron into her soul
and though like millions of her race
who left fair isle whose beauty was
overshadowed by the cruel laws and
tyranny of the conqueror, for the land
of liberty beyond the seas, in all
her wanderings she never tarnished
that faith which was the most pre-
cious inheritance she had received
from her parents.
"Her sickness was long and weary,
but it was always frightened up by
the hopes of better life which she
cherished in her breast. Her rosary,
which was her lifelong companion, was
her inseparable one in the years Of her
feebleness and pain, and when no
longer able to open her lips in prayer
she never ceased to pass the beads Of
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