The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-12-15
SHEPHERD OF THE SEAS. .
Count Way de Vaya Spends Life Minis
tering to Poor Emigrants-

County Way de Vaya, Lord Abbot of
St Martins in Hungary, has earned
the title of 1.-The Shepherd of the Seas
because he spends his life and wealth,
his talents and his strength, in minis
tering to poor emigrants seeking fairer
chances for life in distant lands. A
man of lowlier birth, and one bred
amid scenes of sdualor and suffering
might so spend his life without Great
ing wonder that he should seek to
help those who are his equals and in
Inmates.
Count de vaya is one of the richest
and one of the most influential men
in Hungary. This wealth he is using
to help the poor emigrants from his
country and from other countries, and
he has forsaken the ease and comforts
that his riches would bring to sail
with them on many troubled seas and
teach them how to conduct themselves
in the new life they are to face.
|, AT home" he said, ''the poor are
N0rever watched over by the parish
pifest, who is their spiritual father. He
tells them how they shall conduct their
lives and listen and obey. Then also
there are the neighbOrs with whom
the peasant hopes to stand we'll and to
ne respected. This environment helps
him to lead a Christian life, to be
honest, industrious and strong to resist
temptation. Then he hears of brighter
opportunities in a new land, and he
sells all of his little possessions and
sails away. Everything that has helped
priest, the good work of old neighbors,
the traditions of his home, are swept
away from him and he finds himself
on the sea with nothing to do and an
absolutely vacant mind, ready to be
flled with anything any one cares to
pour into it
This is a very trying period. All
his life he has been a worker. He has
toiled all day and at night there were
the family and friends to fill his mind
But here, upon the deep, his mind
flows vagrant. 1t has nothing to an
lor it. Like the mind of little child,
it is very receptive. If evil is poured
into it. that evil may last as long as
he lives and be the controlling infiu-
ence of his life But if It is good, why,
then he viii be good man as long as
he lives Now, the work that I am
trying to do with all of the gifts that
God has given me is to meet with these
poor people and to fill them with the
thoughts of our Creator, with the duty
we all owe to one another, and with
the peace that comes from good and
the torment that comes from evil.
Il opened the first Hungarian church
in the slums of Chicago. This was in
1905. I have visited all of the differ
ent labor centers in the United States,
and I have crossed the ocean 10 times
And always am seeking to place in
the hands of the helpless the sword of
with which to fight
temptation. On one ship, the Ultonia,
from Fiume. preached to 1900 emil
grants I speak nine different Ian
guages. and preached to them, so all
could understand, in Hungarian, il
German and in Slav. A more deVout
people never saw. am glad to say
that I have seen som netting of the re-
suits of the seeds that I have sown.
And if the work is continued, in al
or two it Will go far toward
lettering conditions all over the
world. New York Times.