Daily Kennebec journal., 1918-09-26
<continued from Page ons)

Die " lie out there, with nay peo-
+, i the green sod of Calvary.
the rNsSh.' Tentative plans tor
lie in stats ! Indicate the body wan
dav ana ~ NE cathedral on Tues-
ON Wei e iuNesal will take place
John Ireland, archbisbon of St.
Paui, held such keen and active in
terest in general affairs in the United
s1ates during the past half century
'hal ne was noted as q pubhcist. e
We'll as for his religious zeal. s nc ths
one Of the most distinguished % of os
Roman Catholic chuFcnMs -
America. There we're few heios o.
intellectual, political or spiritual en-
deavor in which he failed to take
positive stand, making himself at
times the center of controversy.
Born in 1888 in Ireland, a carpen-
ter's son. he was carried with his
parents in the tide of Irish immlgra-
ton to America while he was a child.
Alter service at Burlington, VT, ana
a jolting trip west on a prairie
schooner were among his boybood
memories. bringing him finally to st.
Paul, Mimi, in 1862, when Indians In
gay blankets stalked the streets OF
that frontier town. One evening, the
missionary Cretin, first bishop of st.
Paul, while watching from his win
dow some boys of his parish at play,
called to John Ireland and Thomas
O'Gorman--who later became bishop
of Sioux Falls-to come into the
church. He asked them if they
and his playmate agreed that priest
hood was their ambition. Bishop
Cretin sent them. in charge of a
guardian, to France, where they were
educated by the Marist fathers.
When he heard Of the outbreak of the
Civil War the student turned home
ward, fired with as much patriotism
as religion.
After being ordained at st. Paul. he
eagerly accepted an appointment as
chaplain in.the Fifth Regiment of the
Minnesota Volunteers.
He was ardent for the Unionist
cause and shared every hardship of
the soldiers life in their terrible win
ter raids. At Iuka he gave yeomans
help by rushing ammunition to the
front when it was sorely needed. He
was stricken with fever after less
than a years service and returned to
st. Paul pastorate.
He soon attracted national atten-
tion through his work for temper
ance. The story is told of how on
nj itrht in
drunlards staggered into his door
way and handled him a rumpled
sheet, which read:
For Gods sake organize a Tenn
perance society. The paper was
signed by seven men including a sa-
loon keeper. Those were the days
when st. Paul was filled with border
The neXteSunday Father Ireland be-
gan his campaign by organizing a
Temperance Society of eighty mcm-
bers. He made hut-to hut visits to
st. Paurs shanty town, throwing
whisky bottle out OF the suualid
doorways. The work he thus began
he extended throughout the North
west and travelled the whole country
preaching temperance. He even car
ried the battle back to Ireland and
Great Britain. His energy was so
abundant and his zeal for work such
that the term ''consecrated blizzard"
as applied to him by one of his ad-
mlrers, was accepted by many others
as a peculiarly happy expression.
He at one time conceived the idea
of consolidating the catholic paroch-
lai schools and the public schools.
The plan was tried at FairabauIt and
saltwater Mimi, but friction which
the archbishop could not relieve arose
and the scheme was dropped. He
was founder of the Hill seminary en-
the Minnesota side of the Mississippi
river. To this he gave his highly
priced library, one of the most COM
prehensive in the Northwest. One
of his early works was the founding
Of colony Of 900 Catholic farmers in
western Minnesota in 1876
He became Bishop in 1875 and
Archbishop in 1886. He received
support from many Of his admirers
for appointment as the fourth Am
erican Cardinal. Celebrating is
golden jubilee few years ago, the
priests of his diocese presented him
with a purse of 100000.
AS a speaker Archbishop Ireland
was direct and magnetic. with
sense of humor. One of the phrases
which has often been quoted as char
acteristic of his particular endeavor
in life is this:
THE watchwords Of the age are
reason. education, liberty. the ame-
horation of the masses"
Archbishop Ireland's strong Amer
icanism, first put to the test when The
Civil War began, was manifested
afresh when the United States IN
tered the world conflict. No sooner
had Congress formally declared wa.
on Germany, than the Archbishop
called upon people of his faith to re-
member that they were Americans
above all other ties and declared it
their duty to help in every Hay.
Later, when occasion demanded, he
advocated purchases Of Liberty bonds
tr;J> b.