The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1919-01-11

THE COMMONPLACE MR..
CARRlGAN.
Felix Carrigan was a commonplace |
man; at least that is the way he was |
classified by the worldly-minded. He |
held a clerkship with the big cloth |
house of Graham & Graham and was |
regarded by them as a reliable en-
ploye, but no more so than are thou
sands of such men who are lost in the |
eddying whirlpool of mediocrity. Felix |
was bachelor. and this probably ex-
planned why he appeared at his desk a |
little earlier than most of the other
clerks and stayed a little later
His very lack of beauty gave him
the appearance of being trustworthy.
A man who is tall and thin and has
great cheekbones and dresses with old
fashioned plainness somehow natur-
ally gains the reputation of being frank
and honest. The man at the next
desk, who is attired in the latest style
clothes and sports loud neckwear, may
be quite as trustworthy, but he fails to
inspire the same confidence
In this case Felix Carrigan was
quite as decent and honorable as he
looked. Indeed, his private life-if a
man who occupies no public position
may be said to have more than one
life-was irreproachable He was
regular in his attendance at Mass and
the Sacraments-had a positive love
for his religion. This found express
sion in constant desire to be of serv-
ice to his fellowmen.
One day in visiting Saint Vincent
Home he was attracted to a little
curly headed fellow and before the
week was ended had formally and
legally adopted him. Hugh Carrigan,
as the youngster was called, became
the joy and pride of his heart, and all
of the love that he yearned to give to
natural son was bestowed on the
boy.
Hugh had one shadow on his life,
and it was the fact that his real father
had been thief-not man who had
been merely guilty of a single lapse
from the path of virtue-but one who
for several years had figured in the
ranks of professional criminals. Both
parents of the boy were dead, the
father breathing his last in the peni-
tertiary.
The youngster only knew of this in
vague, shadowy way, and there was
every reason for believing that the
tually close it to his memory.
There was one incident in the boys
life that he had already forgotten, but
which was told to Felix by the Sister
Superior as matter of duty and for
the sake of the lads future. A few
weeks after his admission to the in
stitution he was found pilfering the
pockets of one of his companions.
The sum at stake was trivial-only a
few pennies-but the principle in
volved was serious and Hugh had been
disciplined and warned of the danger
of a repetition of the offense.
Felix Carrigan was fully informed
of all these things and was acquainted
with the history of the boys father.
So that, when he adopted him, it was
with his eyes wide open and with
complete knowledge of what might
happen in the future.
His knowledge of the one weak
strain in Hugh only made him the
more determined What was at first
merely intended to satisfy his love for
children now presented itself in the
light of a positive duty. Felix had
once heard it said that children in
herited the moral as well as the physi-
cal traits of their parents.
But he resolutely refused to accept
any such theory. He found out by
patient investigation that physicians
generally discarded the idea of chill
dren inheriting the physical ills of
their parents, but admitted that they
might inherit the tendency to such
ills.
Similarly he believed that they could
inherit the tendency to moral weak
ness. So the good fellow, with all of
the force at his command, resolved to
stamp out this tendency in Hugh, just
as man might stamp out a few
smOldering sparks which threatened
to blaze forth into consuming fire.
He started in on the work of char
acter building with logged per-
sistence which some men give to
money making. All of his spare hours
were devoted to the company of Hugh,
and in time they came to be more like
brothers than father and son.
On Sunday afternoons they took
long rambles through the woods, and
on such occasions Felix inculcated
his ideas of life and morality into the
young mind. and he did it without
the appearance of lecturing or preach
ing. He fully realized that the young
required recreation and amusement
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