The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-03-14
THE STORY OF A YOUNG MAN.


"He used to be an usher here" said
the old sexton, "and as far as l can
remember he never missed the z
o'clock Mass or was late for it during
the three years that he served here.
He had a custom of staying over for
the o'clock, twice month, and Of
receiving Holy Communion at that
Mass. He was quiet and, even though
he was bit pious, everybody liked
him. His mother told me (when they
first moved into this parish) that he
had good job in Wall street and he
kept getting raised each year until
he got to be boss of some kind over
there, with a whole force of men
under him. 1t might have been a
little after that, that began to notice
change in him. He gave up COM
ing to the meetings of the Ushers'
Union and he had short words for all
the boys when they would speak to
him. Finally he resigned from the
union, without giving any reasons,
though he used to hang around behind
the last pew in the church during
that Mass like one of those fellows
that the pastor cells Rail Birds"
You know the kind, they lay their
handkerchiefs on the floor at the Ele-
walton and put one knee on it for a
half minute, and they're out on the
street before the Last Gospels fin
ished. Well, this young fellow that
you asked me about seemed to me to
change completely, and become in
just few months a different kind of
a man. After he left the ushering,
never saw him at the altar rail and
that worried me in way, and made
it my business to go around and have
a talk with his mother. And I tell
you that it surprised me great deal
to find that she did not seem to care
franks very busy, you know she
said to me, and he is doing finely in
New York so I guess he don't have so
much time for Confession as before.
Besides, he's got a car now and that
keeps him out late Saturdays so I
don't like to make him early on Sun
day morning. With the mother TAX
ing that stand, of course l could say
or do very little. l put the matter
before the pastor and he interviewed
the young chap, twice, think, and
I saw him once afterwards at an early
Mass and then. Well, I met him
in the street and to tell you the truth
he nearly ran over me. He was in
his new auto, turning into a side
street fast, and 1 just managed to
pull back to the curb. He stopped
the car and turned with an angry look
to yell at me, but when he saw who
was he Gained down and seemed a
bit ashamed. 1 stepped over to the
side of the machine and I asked him
point blank why he didn't come to
church. His face got red and he told
me to mind my own business. l said
something that made him apologize
for that, but in a moment he told me
that he was going to cut church for
good. I've got no time for it, he
said, and nobody has who wants to
get anywhere in this world. It's a
dead weight on you, this religious
business and you know it. Look at
the class of men you've got there at
Mass every Sunday-the big majority
poor, and they always will be poor.
All this thing of forcing your con-
science to be tender, and of studying
our ways to make yourself unhappy
may be fine for Monks, but it doesn't
suit me. I'm going up high and when
get to the top I'll send you few
thousand and buy badges for the
Ushers' Union He laughed and shot
time ever saw him. knew that he
was young and that he had been talk
ing like foolish young men like to
talk, but I felt very sorry for him at
that. I could not get my mind off the
question of what it was that had first
pulled him away from the Church. I
know now, of course, as everyone else
does, that it was the money which he
had begun lowell, borrow as one
paper put it, from his employers at
that time. Perhaps it would have
come out all right at that; perhaps he
would have had chance to give it
back to them if he had really meant
to do Soft he hadn't taken that one
ride! Oh, if someone could only have
warned the poor boy beforehand!
But they found him, you know, all
crumpled up beside fence and he
had been dead then for hours. I asked
a garage man what had been the
cause of the accident and he said
something was wrong with the steer.
ing gear. What's that? Yes,
it did happen on Sunday morning
and at about z o'clock, SO they tell
me-" TLS in tho Tob,ot