The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1912-12-07
THE CATHOLIC BULLETIN, DEC. I, 1912

sive. He was none the less aggressive,
but he had manner gentle vet i'm
perative.
'Rhinehart,' he would say, do you
ever consider the end of our exist
your case for the Divine Court?
Rhinehart, you are making money
hand over fist. What good will it do
you hundred years from now@
These things, and many things about
Christ, he would say to me in the in
tervals of business. And / was so
deeply impressed | had no answer.
He seemed to have the voice of God
in commonplace words. Then came
the crisis of my life, an expression
grown vulgar from overuse, but poeti-
cally great in this instance. In my
case it was the dawn of heavens light.
II met Burton's family socially, and
fell in love with his daughter. Let
that go, Father, but the woman who
enthralled me then, and whose love
to this day embalms me in hottest
peace and joy, is just the feminity of
her fathers noble traits of manhood.
She was Catholic. She had been a
Methodist when her father joined the
Catholic Church. but she trod the path
of the lawyers daughter into the true
fold. Well, as soon as he saw the
state of affairs between us two young
people-for our affection was mutual
from the first-he listened to each of
us as we opened our hearts to him,
and said very little. He was sad and
happy by turns. But I learned after
wards he used to spend hours in the
old church near his Office downtown,
praying for light and guidance in our
affairs. Then he attacked me dialec-
tically. I could not answer his argu-
ments, and | could not follow his in
vitation to enter the Church. You
may not know he was the author of
singular and powerful book of con-
troversy. He was a sledgehammer.
But l resisted him. I was clad in
armour of triple proof, secular man,
with only one religious disposition
the single heartedness of my thanks
giving to Providence for my wife.
For we got married. Mixed in re-
ligion, united in everything else Soon
I began to suffer pain that she could
be waited up to heaven in prayer and
sacrifice, while I must trudge about
below, a man of clay welded to an
angel. I, absorbed in hopeless en-
tanglements of doctrinal Indifference
and spiritual slOth; she, refined in
finitely with heavens own influences.
But could not join her. God was re-
serving miracle for me.
Three years after our marriage
and soon after the birth of our Sec
ond child, Burton and I were obliged
to go to New York and Washington
in case of mingled business and law,
involving a whole fortune. This was
before the first Pacific railroad was
built, and we took steamer, going
South to the Isthmus, and then we
crossed over and embarked at Colon
on a fine new steamer with large
company of passengers, including
more than the usual proportion of wo-
men and children. Taking what was
then known as the Florida passage
out of the Gulf of Mexico, our steamer
was driven by what seemed a fatal
current out of her course while steer
ing through somewhat intricate
channel. Just before dawn one morn
ing we ran on some coral rocks, were
again lifted up by a huge and ire
mendous wave, another one succeed
ing; and at last we were left upon
the reef, fast and firm! 1t was a ter
rible situation. We were doomed,
every one of us. For how could any
one be rescued out of so disastrous a
situation
CAS- the light grew stronger, SO did
| the winds and waves, and as we
looked out on the awful scene, the in
| terminable stretch of reefs to leeward
| Continued on page o.