The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-09-07
tho successful achievement of her Sec

GA year ago it was found that St.
Roses Free Home must find way to
, make room for more beds. So Rose
Lathrop took the matter to the Mother
of Sorrows in the quiet little chapel
where every day the Dominican sis
a. ters kneel in devotion.
The answer stands in the new Ave
story. brick building-just around the
corner from the little old crowded
house-on Jackson street. facing
Corlears Hook Park. Monseigneur
: Mooney, representing the Cardinal
Archbishop of New York, in January
laid the corner stone. 1t is marked
with a cross, in the four angles Of
which are the initials Of the names,
Jesus, Mary, Dominic, Rose
This fall this new ST. Roses Free
Home for Incurable Cancer will be
,.a dedicated. And two hundred patients
! will enter its comfortable rooms and
a. wide sun parlors overlooking the river
land the ships that pass out to sea.
1.-THE building has cost large sum
OF money. 1t has all been raised with
in a year. Thirty thousand people
were circularized in the. appeal cent
y. broadcast. The response that was re-
turned came alike from Jew and Prot
estant and Catholic.
Were there days when the col!ec-
. finrc pJ1,1u ha Gu
" perior ordered the sisters to their
d. knees in a special novena' of PRAYER
.Novena after novena was offered.
Finally the returns registered $780,
900.
4 think the statue of the Virgin
smiled. I know Mother Alphonsa did.
In the little chapel the Servants Of
Relief sang the 'Laudate' The build
. ing soon to be dedicated will be alb
solutely free from debt.
"It is the triumphant achievement
of woman whose feet formerly were
set in the pleasant paths of ease and
personal pleasure. There came day
:. when one led her to the heights from
which she saw the suffering of the
world She turned. with her beautiful
face TRANSPORTED to give herself to tho
service of humanity. Some call it the
service of God.
"On the third finger of her left hand
she wears the silver ring that made
her the bride OF the Church. She took
off a gold band4 wedding-ring and a
flashing diamond ring to put it there"
The woman who thus changed her
mode of life was the wife of George
; Parsons Lathrop, a well-known man
of letters, and together they followed
the literary life. In,1s94 they both en-
tered the Catholic church. and after
that wrote one more book. the "Story
:. of Courage" an account Of the work
Of the nuns at the Convent of the Wis.,
itation OF the Blessed Virgin Mary in
Georgetown, suburb Of Washington.
We read further:
4 In the burying- ground within the
convent enclosure they found the
fgrave marked with black cross
where lies Sister Jane Frances. She
was once Phoebe Ripley, the niece Of
Emerson and girlhood friend of Rose
r, Hawthorne in Concord.
s.e When the book was finished, Rose
Lathrop wrote on the last page, 'F'inis
libri: initium operis'-'the end of the
honlS. he hou fro ~ A~xJ
as she had written. 80 it was.
What can I do for God?' she one
day asked the Paulist father who had
conducted her into the faith.
,. "He had just come from the bedside
OF cancer patient. a woman of re-
flnemenh left without money and with
. out. friends, who must become a city
g charge at Blackwelrs Island. All the
misery which that meant he told his
" listener: oh, she exclaimed why do
any Of us Stride when such suffering
exists?'
"'Why. my daughter" he echoed
gently, looking steadfastly into her
face.
1t was then that her resolve was
;, made: Within a few weeks she had
entered the General Memorial Hospital
!, .:on One Hundred and Sixth Street,
New York, for training in the nursing
~ Of cancer. Only a short course was
necessary, for there is little beyond
"a ordinary hygiene measures that can
y be done for this dread disease. 1t was
in 1896 that she was ready.
I'm an old f1ouse on SCANNED Street,
4. near East Broadway. she rented two
Z. rooms. They needed painting. They
a. we're 10 dtiapidated that the painter
.; who came to look at them declined to
~ take the Job. So Rose Lathrop paint
cd them herself. 1t was the first man