New Britain herald., 1925-04-01
FRIENDSHIP MAKES PEOPLE HAPP|EST
Priest Says Prizefghters More
 Beautiful Than Modern Girl

according to Rev. George Donahue of Pomfret, Connecticut, formerly curate of St. Sfary's church of this city, who spoke at the meeting of tho Kiwanis club at the Burritt hotel today. Father sDanohue was introduced by President Donald Gaffney as "One who Is more than a preacher-and athlete and sports man-keenly interested in books and deeply versed in literature"
 The speaker announced text mot from the Bible.. but from the works of Robert Louis Stevenson" The world is 50 full of a number of things, I am sure we all ought to be happy as kings" This he explained was taken from a book dedicated to childhood.
 'I don't want to criticize the works of Stevenson, but he is wasting time dedicating his book to childhood. Childhood needs nothing to counsel it where to find joy, the children to recently from God" he stated.
 "kingship or royalty today is not synonymous with joy. A king today is not happy. Then what have we to make us happy? .
 Money Is a good thing. The state needs 1t, the church needs 1t, the in divi dual needs it. But money of it. self does not give joy. MT. schwab said that if his life were to be judged by the money he made he would be a colossal failure, It was the friends he made which made his success.
 "Is 1t fame? Stevenson never had health. He had to leave his home and he died in the South Seas among cannibals. The poet Keats calls fame flirt. If you notice her she throws you down. If you ignore her she Is inclined to bother you.' Marshal Foch belongs to the immortals but he is little known in the town where he was born. Men who have achieved fame have done so, blinded by their own tears.
 But where there is friendship, there life is. The old Greeks and Romans knew this and knew that without friends they would amount to little. They had love for their fellowmen and theyh never. fought y ft.i Ia solutely fearless in battle, but when they led him into exile he wept because he was leaving his friends.
 Julius Caesar was very often but a cheap politician. He mixed up 80 much and so badly in politics that it is no wonder he was slain. Hu- man nature has not changed much throughout the centuries.
 T love prize fighters. love His church He picked 12 ordinary men; some were poor, some were stupid, some awkward, some lacked culture, but He asked but one ques- tion, Lowest thou me- That's all. He built His church on hearts.
 T love prize fighters. love them intensely. I have a set of boxing gloves in my study which were given to me by Kid Kaplan after one of his fights. I went to New York with Jack Delaney when he fought his first bout. The pres ent featherweight champion is a friend of mine.
 Don't criticize boxers. The old times have changed. I know fight CTS today who are cleaner looking men than any girl who ever rouged, because their cleanliness and beauty is natural. I know prize fighters who can blush lot more easily and naturally than the mod ern girl.
 The speaker here told a story of the life of prize fighter friend of his, who, as an orphan, took up boxing to support his brothers and sisters and educate them. He told how he forgot training, self, money and all his prospects one time to spent week at Ossining where he could comfort in his last days q young man he knew who was con- demned 10 the electric chair.
 The fighter stayed until after the execution and closed the eyes of his friend in death, "as tenderly as q mother and then went back to the ring.
 Here the clergyman toldt of the rise of cardinal in the Catholic church. A writer. an Oxford gradu- ate who was sometimes called The King of Oxford" He was Cardinal Neumann. Instead of Rusl1in and MacCauley your high school pupils some day will be reading the works Of John Henry Neumann.
 There was great difference be- tween the BoWery prize fighter and the great cardinal of the Church of Rome-hut yet they were equal. They both had friends, they both loved and love made them almost angels,
 "Rheims is simply art. It Is all Catholic. It. was built so that we might worship theIein. But if all the Rheims in the world were de- stroyed it would make no difference. We would still have the blue sky and we would still have God. We want'to patch up the Rheims in our own hearts which were shell shock ed in the great war.
 Let the author of Mir. Rabbit laugh. We will laugh last. If you breathe friendship remember, love is charity and everybody believes charity is divine
 The program prior to the speech included singing by a quartet com posed of Harry O'Connor, Harry Gleason w. Parker and Stanton Ashley with Sturman s, Dy- son at The piano. This was followed by a solo by Dr. II. T. Bray. who sang, My Bonnie Leaned Over the Gas Tank" the club members join ing in the chorus. A duet, Yankee by Charles W. Hawkins and William R. Fenn followed. Lester Deming won the attendance prize. Harry c. Billings, chairman of the