In the land of the strenuous life

Front matter

H r-JN,

IN THE LAND OF THE STRENUOUS LIFE w /

IN THE LAND OF THE STRENUOUS LIFE

Chapter II First Visit To New York

Up the Bay. — The Paulists. — A New York Monastery. — Father Elliott and Father Doyle. — A New York Sunday . — Religious Condition of America. — Standing of Catholicism. — Chinese, Italian, and Jewish Quarters. — Wall Street. — Riverside Park . . . . . . . . . • 14

Chapter III From New York To Montreal By Way Of Boston

Regrets at Missing the Hudson River and the New York Lakes. — Boston. — Its General Appearance. — An Historic Town.

— Monuments and Schools. — Harvard University. — French Memories. — An Evening Vision, — A Model Parish. — From Boston to Montreal . . . . . . . 45

Chapter IV Canadian Ideas And Views

A Visit to Canada, — Montreal. — A Sunday with the Indians. — Analysis of Canadian Patriotism. — Iroquois versus Sulpician.

— Ottawa. — The Canadian Parliament, — Colonization. — The Apostolic Delegate. — The University. — The St. Lawrence.— The Thousand Islands. — Ontario. — The Poem of America ......... 62 xiv CONTENTS

CHAPTER V AN INVOLUNTARY VISIT TO BISHOP MAC QUAID page

Unforeseen Itinerary. — A Visit to Charlotte, New York. — An Unexpected Call Upon Bishop Mac Quaid. — Reassuring Welcome. — A Model Seminary. — A Right Reverend Viticulturist. — A Tireless Cicerone. — Difficulties with Archbishop Ireland. — A Visit to a Grammar-School. — Surprise of a European . . . . . . . . .91

Chapter VI Buffalo And Niagara Notre Dame University

Beauty of Buffalo. — The Knights of Columbus. — American Broad- Mindedness. — Niagara. — A Growing Town: South Bend. — Father Zahm at Home. — The University of Notre Dame, Indiana. — A School of Journalism. — Latin and American Systems of Education. — St. Mary's Academy. — French Origin of Notre Dame . . . . 115

Chapter VII Chicago

My Fellow-Travellers. — Immensity of Chicago. — Solitude and Business. — In a Church of Colored Baptists. — Beauty and Ugliness. — The Two Chicagos. — Visit to a Public School. — Hospitality and Charm. — Hull House and Settlement- Workers. — Chicago's Wonderful History. — The City of the Future ........ 134

Chapter VIII Peoria And Bishop Spalding A Small City And A Great Bishop

Across Illinois. — Bishop Spalding at Home. — His Philosophy and Prestige. — A Typical American City. — Peoria, its Resources, its Social and Educational Advantages. — Administrative Simplicity in the United States. — A Bishop Beloved in his Diocese . . . . . . . 153

CONTENTS XV

Chapter IX

ST. LOUIS AND THE WORLd's FAIR PAGE

The Louisiana of Chateaubriand and That of To-day. — The Immensity of American Cities. — Archbishop Glennon. — The Louisiana Purchase Exposition — Its Dominant Idea. — The President of the United States at the Jesuit College. — Religious Tolerance. — The Contemplative Life. — A Pioneer: the Bishop of Wichita. — An Old French Family. — A Word About Mexico. — A Fine Christian Brothers' College. — A Grand Seminary of the European Kind. — The Living Church . . . . . . . . 171

Chapter X The City Of Iron And Fire

Returning to the East. — In the Manufacturing Districts. — St. Jerome and Pittsburg. — Andrew Carnegie. — His Apprenticeship.— His Social Ideas. — His Gospel of Wealth. — A Well-Bred Frenchman. — The Electric Works of Westinghouse and the Forges of Carnegie. — How Masters and Inventors are Formed. — With a Business Man. — Nocturnal Reporting. — A Club on the Twenty-second Story. — A Dantesque Scene. — Through Pennsylvania by Rail. — Irregularity of the Trains. — An Invitation to Baltimore . . 196

CHAPTER XI AT THE cardinal's HOUSE IN BALTIMORE

America Represented in the Conclave for the First Time. — Return of Cardinal Gibbons. — Public Reception in Baltimore. — A Popular Archbishop. — The Creed of Constantinople Sung in the Twentieth Century, in a Great American City. — A Walk with the Cardinal. — Conversations: Montalembert, Paul Bourget, the Catholic Press, the Conclave. — Cardinal Gibbons and the Election of Pius X . . . 224 y xvi CONTENTS

CHAPTER XII AT THE WHITE HOUSE page

The President at Home. — The Man of the Strenuous Life. — His Conversation. — A Representative American. — The Character and Ideas of Roosevelt. — Roosevelt Among Catholics and Among Protestants. — Sermons of the President. — Opposed to All Abuses and All Prejudices. — National Act of Faith. — The State, Religious and Neutral. — "Look Upon This Picture, and on This" .... 242

Chapter XIII Reminiscences Of Washington

The Capital City. — St. Patrick's Rectory. — A Clerical Orator, Dr. Stafford. — A "Mixed Marriage" Ceremony. — Catholic University of America. — Apostolic Mission House. — Discourse of Archbishop Glennon. — Higher Education of Catholic Women. — Trinity College. — Columbian University. — The International Bureau of American Republics. — Is a Pan-American Soul Being Formed ? . . . 262

Chapter XIV The Education Of Whites And Blacks

At the Bureau of Education. — Organization of Education in the United States. — Extraordinary Development of the Higher Education. — Statistics of Some of the Liberal Professions. — A High School for Negroes. — The ^neid Explained by a Colored Woman. — The Negro Question an Unsolvable Problem. — The Best Education.— The Ideas of Booker T. Washington ....... 285

Chapter XV Baltimore Revisited

Change of Plans. — At Baltimore. — Father Magnien: the Influence of a French Priest on the Church in America. — The Great Rôle of Cardinal Gibbons and the Episcopate. — Balti-

CONTENTS xvii

PAGE more a Centre of Catholic Life. — The Plenary Councils. — Mgr. Falconio, the Apostolic Delegate. — How a Parish is Formed in the United States. — An Enemy of Abuses: Mr. Charles Bonaparte. — His Ideas on the Parish School. — Ought It to Receive Grants from Public Funds? — No Change Desired. — The Prosperous Convent of Notre Dame of Maryland. — Bryn Mawr School. — Johns Hopkins University ........ 304

Chapter XVI National Festivities

With the Army of the Cumberland. — An Impolitic Major. — The Dedication of Sherman's Statue. — Splendid Solemnity.

— Review. — Prayer. — Speeches of President Roosevelt and Four Generals. — Too Long a Ceremony. — Archbishop Ireland.— Military Soirée. — The Banquet of the Four Armies.

— Prayer, Toasts, and National Songs. — At Washington's Tomb . . . . . . . . 322

Chapter XVII Philadelphia

Departure from Washington. — A Notable City. — Philadelphia.

— Historic Memories. — Independence Hall. — Ecclesiastical Reunion. — Parochial Finances. — Influence of Ireland on Catholicism in the United States. — Archbishop Ryan. — Indian Commission. — An Anti-Clerical Foundation. — Girard College. — Central High School of Philadelphia. — University of Pennsylvania. — Principal Gifts Received by the Educational Institutions in One Year. — A Great College for Women. — Bryn Mawr. — Always Tolerant. — "Remain in America". . . . . . . . 338

Chapter XVIII Last Days In New York

Saint Sulpice in the United States. — Tuxedo Park. — The Integrity of Politicians. — McClellan and Seth Low. — Municipal Elections. — New York by Noon, Evening, Night. — "The xviii CONTENTS

PAGE

Star-Spangled Banner" in the Sky. — The International Catholic Truth Society. — Episcopalian Clergymen. — The "North American Review." — The Hour of Parting. — At St. Paul's. — On the "Lorraine." — "Sweet Land of Liberty" ........ 360

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

Portrait of Abbé Klein Frontispiece

Portrait of Bishop Mac Quaid 94-

Portrait of Father Zahm iz^f

Portrait of Bishop Spalding '54 -^

Portrait of Archbishop Glennon ^7^ y

Palace of Education, Louisiana Purchase Exposition . . 182 ''^

Portrait of Andrew Carnegie 198

Portrait of Cardinal Gibbons 226

Portrait of Theodore Roosevelt 244

Portrait of Mgr. Falconio 268 -

Portrait OF Archbishop Ireland 3^4

The Sherman Statue, Washington 324

Portrait of Archbishop Ryan 346

Portrait of Archbishop Keane 358 '

XIX

Chapter I The Voyage

Leaving France. — First Impressions. — Fellow- Travellers. — Exiled Nuns. — Canadian Immigrants. — American Toungsters. — Â Progressive Convent.

PUNCTUALLY at five minutes after midnight our train drew out of the station of St. Lazare in Paris. Sinking into my seat and closing my eyes, I said to the companion who was to go a part of the journey with me, "Wake me at New York." This friend of mine was the Abbé Sicard, well known as an historian, whose parish of St. Medard in Paris was founded under the Merovingians a thousand years before America was discovered. 1 closed my eyes ; he slept. After a prayer that God would protect our journey, I tried hard to find repose. But mind and imagination were active, and a thousand useless fancies tormented me out of all hope of rest. Now, the business of entertaining persistent ideas becomes tiresome toward one o'clock in the morning, so I turned to an infallible foe of thought, the daily papers. In the copy in my hand, huge headlines attracted my attention: "The Humbert affair; eighth session of the court; expected scandals; personages involved; the secret of Thérèse; probable verdict to-morrow." To think that we are leaving France on the eve of such a sensational event! After two pages of the Humbert trial come Macedonian despatches telling of great massacres; then divers stories oï gendarmes expelling the nuns; and finally a piece of information to the effect that the recently elected Pope Pius X , by a rather bold innovation, has ordered that the newspapers given to him shall not be previously prepared or modified. This jumble of things was no great help to sleep, and when we reached Havre I was tired enough. There, however, the very sight of the steamer that awaited us was enough to restore our spirits; a more graceful, elegant, and comfortable vessel than our " Lorraine," or her sister ship " La Savoie," does not sail the sea. A part of the three hours before startingtime we spent in strolling through the town. The sun had not risen, nor the inhabitants. We walked upon the sea-wall, whence we looked far out upon the element on which we were to venture. It was not so alarming, and we went on board rather reassured. I was fairly overcome with the sleep which had forsaken me during the night, so, while the ship still swung at anchor, I lay down. I remember that the whistling of the siren broke in upon my dreams; but it was not until five hours later that I arose. Going out upon the bridge, I found we were in sight of Cherbourg. But it was only a glimpse of the town that I caught, as we were losing sight of France. The island of Aurigny sank into the distance in its turn. Are we launched upon the great deep at last? Not yet; for we can still make out the English coast. There are the lights of Cape Lizard; and later on, those of Scilly Islands brighten the horizon. Then the last gleam of far-off lighthouses disappears, and we have entered into evening darkness and the ocean waste.

But though land was invisible, we were still in touch with it. At dinner I saw passengers receiving and sending despatches. Wireless telegraphy was busy with its miracles, the last word of science; the latest, rather, and not the last, for to-morrow out of radium or something else will come new wonders which may transform the world. Yet there are men who deny progress, or maintain that if it does exist it is confined to the province of the grossly material. But how many of these telegrams exchanged at night upon the sea may be ministering to the spiritual, may contain loving farewells, affectionate reassurances, announcements of joy, or messages of sorrow! I myself left a friend at the point of death the day before I sailed; and if I had but thought of it, I could have had the comfort of thus receiving news of him. Thus science appears to me as a holy light, even like that of the stars whose rays this evening are piercing the darkness of the heavens, and in whose presence on the solitary bridge I breathe my wordless prayer.

It was very late when I went to the quiet room assigned me ; but again it was hard to sleep. The fatigue and the crowded impressions of that first day would not subside. Still, I felt strangely content. It seemed to me that through the darkness resting upon the deep there opened vistas radiant and vast. Following the course of light and progress, we were going from east to west, were leaving the old for the new, the past for the future. I felt full of confidence, full of faith. Our vessel cleaving its forward way was a symbol of the world.

The quiet recollection of this first day was too pleasant to last long. Never has conversation consumed so many hours of the day as during the voyage. Without speaking of the Captain, the personification of fine manners and amiability; or of the Commissaire, who was a perfect type of master of the house ; or of the Doctor, whom fortunately one could visit without being sick; or of those of our fellow-voyagers whom we were delighted to associate with, we had also to acknowledge the advances of several who gave us the honor of their company unasked and uninvited.

We carried 1,027 passengers — 233 first, 167 second, and 627 third class. Of these last, about a hundred and forty were returning to the United States after a few months' visit to relatives in Europe. The others in the steerage were emigrants, counting among them 12 French, a few Swiss, 70 Roumanian Jews, 200 Germans, and as many Italians. Many were alone, but the majority (and notably the Jews) had their families with them. Of the 167 secondclass passengers, nearly all were Italians or Germans, going to America for the first time, or returning there after a business or pleasure trip abroad. Most of them were tradesmen. Of the first-cabin travellers, a majority were Americans who had spent the summer abroad for pleasure, rest, or study. It is a matter of less moment to them to run over to France than for a Parisian to make, the eight hours' trip to London. Beside these were two Peruvians, six Germans, three Italians, one of whom was a Brooklyn choir-master, who was taking along from Padua a young wife to whom he had been four years betrothed; three Canadians, two priests, and a settler; and, finally, about thirty Frenchmen, among whom were thirteen merchants, two or three tourists, one Commissioner of the State Council, five insurance men who were delegates to a convention of their profession, one young colonist, one unhappy schoolmaster who had received orders to take a secularized school in Newfoundland into which pupils would enter only when they were driven, and four secular priests, namely, two professors at Montreal, my companion, and myself. To these thirty French passengers who were making the journey by their free choice must be added forty-two others who were crossing the ocean by no voluntary act. These were French religionists, driven from their homes, despoiled of their possessions, and practically expatriated by the laws of their country. They were going, some of them at least, to lands that had formerly been ours, to Canada, and to Texas, which latter was part of the old province of Louisiana. Will the sad day ever come, when, in contradiction to our glorious past, liberty will begin where the dominion of France ends?

I had to put this question to myself, when on our steamer I saw the mournful spectacle of four nuns of Sainte-Chrétienne of Metz who were expiating the error of having chosen to be subjects of France. Their mother house was in the capital of Lorraine. In 1871 the congregation was divided ; the majority, in order to remain French, established themselves at Longuyon in Meurthe-et-Moselle, on our side of the frontier. The others stayed on in their convent at Metz. To-day those that remained under Germany are enjoying peace and toleration; while the imprudent ones who trusted themselves to us are expelled from their home, and deprived of their sole means of living, which is teaching the young. They know not where to turn. The four nuns of whom I speak were sent to America at haphazard, to find, wherever they could, a home where they might work and pray. Their sisters left behind in France, five hundred of them, do not know what day the officers may cast them into the street ; and, naturally, they are looking with anxiety to the result of this venture in America. Some of the community are already waiting at Havre, and others are at various English ports, watching for the word which shall assure them a home somewhere. Long months of seeking elapsed before any success attended our efforts. I say our efforts ; for I tried to help the poor exiles. I shared in their search for an abode, made many fruitless inquiries in their behalf, and am still in correspondence with them. I found them later in Montreal, where they lived some weeks in the hospitable Convent of the Gray Nuns. Hither they had come, worn out with long journeying through the United States, and utterly discouraged. I wish their persecutors could have seen them, downcast and in tears. So little were the poor nuns informed of the true nature of the policy to which they were sacrificed, that they even asked me why M. Combes wished to do them harm, and when they would be permitted to return to France !

Three of the four sisters were French ; the fourth, who accompanied the others as interpreter, was English, the only one of that nationality in the Convent. She too, no less keenly than the other three, suffered at leaving France, for it was the fatherland of her affections and her faith. Bishop Dupont des Loges had there received her into the Church, and there, among her sisters and pupils, her heart had its abidingplace. "We must accept what God permits," she said to me, "but it is hard to lose everything; and then, you see. Father, when one is a Catholic one feels at home only in France."

If some of the religionists have not a resignation so perfect as this, who will presume to blame them ? It will be long before I forget the words of one of them, a man celebrated as an educator, who, after long efforts, had built up at the very gates of Paris a splendid college with six hundred students, and was now, at the age of forty-five, flung out of doors. Said he : " For two years, sir, I have been persecuted by the laws of your country as a malefactor ; and as a final blow I have been driven from my home. Speak to me of France no more." I walked away from him biting my lips. I understood then, better than ever before, the evil brought upon us by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the incredible folly of those who are imitating that act to-day. Undoubtedly such bitterness as this sufferer displayed is rare in the hearts of the exiles, and even he must get the grace to pardon from his daily mass. But the growing disapproval of the civilized world, the astonishment and anger of Catholics everywhere, who up to now have been our best friends, the loss of our influence wherever it has been maintained by our missionaries, these consequences, to speak only of results external to ourselves, and not mentioning the discords which must last long among us, ought surely to suffice for a time even the authors" of this absurd and destructive policy.

I have remarked that among our two hundred and thirty-three first-class passengers one was a Frenchman going to the Colonies. This was a young man of nineteen, of fine physique, open mind, and sturdy character, whose whole soul shone in his eyes. He was the nephew of a naval officer, and became my constant companion on shipboard. His interest was keenly aroused at seeing me jot down notes for my narrative of the journey. Whether his anxiety was a desire to figure in my story, or fear lest I should include him in it, I cannot say ; but at any rate he made me promise to send him the book when finished. Friend of mine, shall I record that you were going to Notre Dame de , near the important city of , in Manitoba;

that you are now on a large estate, established and directed by a Frenchman of . great initiative, who receives into his household and trains up young men who come to him with sufficient material and moral guarantees ; that you spend your summers in kitchengardening, in making butter and condensed milk, and your winters in preserving venison and other products of the chase — pheasants, wild duck, moose, hares, and white rabbits which, save for their black noses, show not a speck upon the wide fields of snow; that this active, wholesome, out-of-door life pleases and rejoices you, and fills you with pity for your comrades left behind at their books and desks; and, finally, that my opinion is that you have chosen the better part? If I say all this about you, shall I betray your confidence, which was so dear to me? And will you in anger fling

my book into Lake , or into that beautiful river

with the sweet French name, on the banks of which you read aloud at leisure hours your Alfred de Musset, with only the Canadian birds for auditors ?

Manitoba is west of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec; beyond Manitoba is Saskatchewan, and still beyond is Alberta. Then come the Rocky Mountains, between which and the Pacific is British Columbia. We had on board a colonist of Alberta. He was a man of sixty, who had left France twenty years before, after a bad turn in his fortunes. He had been a lawyer, but became a farmer in the New World, and has followed up failure with success. And now, when he owns fertile fields, and has seen his six children, three of whom are married, well started on their careers, he lo IN THE LAND OF

looks back without regret upon his humble beginnings as a pioneer, when he had to till a virgin soil and to build with his own hands a log cabin for his home. Nevertheless, he thinks people should begin that sort of life younger than he began it. On my asking him for information which might be useful to others, he said that a young man who wished to follow his example should emigrate immediately after marrying, or else when his children are able to work. He can purchase in Paris a ticket for any place in Canada; but it is better to go first to Montreal, where the colonization society will give him definite directions. The middle of April is the best time to start out; for by that time the snow has melted, the Spring is in full bloom, farmwork is beginning, and the demand for labor is greater than the supply. If the young colonist is married, he will need a small capital for household expenses ; but if he is unmarried, this need is very slight. During the summer and autumn, a modest sum can be laid by out of the wages of the ploughing, harvesting, and threshing seasons ; and in the winter this can be increased by wood-chopping in British Columbia. An average of forty dollars a month can thus be earned, over and above food and lodging. After this one can start out for one's self. By making a deposit of ten dollars any adult, eighteen years old and upward, will receive from the state a hundred and thirty acres of land. The first year's expenses on such a property need not be more than two hundred dollars. Beginning with the second year, the farm should bring in an income. Then, if the settler has resided on the land during six months

THE STRENUOUS LIFE ii

of each year for the first three years, and has built for himself even a modest house, he becomes absolute owner, with full proprietary rights, including the right to sell.

The location of these lands is very accessible. The Canadian Pacific Railway crosses just such a region ; and it would appear that the new transcontinental line is to be still more convenient. Immigration is availing itself of these excellent opportunities, and few who have kept in mind the economic development of recent years will be surprised at the words of Sir Wilfrid Laurier: "There is every indication that in the opening up of new territory the twentieth century will be for Canada what the nineteenth century has been for the United States."

But this is not to be a description of a Canadian tour; and perhaps the reader, who of course cannot know how pleasant it is for me to linger on the " Lorraine," is grumbling a little at my delay in getting into port. To tell the truth, I should have been glad to anticipate my impressions of the States by describing the American types whom I met on the steamer. But my opportunities for knowing them were slender. I made acquaintance with a publisher and a merchant, both of New York ; but they were far from communicative. I found both of them indignant, and justly so, over the prevalence in France of unbecoming pictures flaunted in the public eye. The only other information I got from them was the complaint of one that New York was too full of Jews ; and a remark from the other that the cost of Hving in Paris is twentydollars a day ! This much they told me, with interruptions in the shape of several invitations to a "cocktail," which I politely refused. They showed no inclination whatever to talk about their business, evidently realizing that they would be immersed in it again soon enough.

But the Americans on board who were of chief interest to me were a happy group of boys and girls from twelve to sixteen years old. They readily made acquaintance with me, and often ran with me upon the bridge. Not one of the group — there were six or seven in all — did I see with his or her parents, except when they were landing. This was their American independence; and they enjoyed the liberty without abusing it. In America one never hears a distracted mother calling out, " Go, dear, and see what your little sister is doing; and tell her to leave off doing it." In contrast with this happy group, however, there was an intolerable young coxcomb ten years of age. In the gravest manner in the world he came to tell us that at our age we should no longer indulge in amusements. I took a curious interest in the immature prig, and had experience of all his faults, which indeed came to the surface at a first meeting with him — insolence, egotism, and every species of absurdity. Even when I approached him in the kindest way, he never departed from his unvarying impertinence, never surprised me by a single display of politeness. When both independent and good, the American child is a charming companion ; when independent and disagreeable, he is really a little monster.

Approaching America, we began to feel the thrill of a new life. Strange power of our faculties for adaptation! Even the good sisters seemed buoyed up; and an occasional word of cheer or of confidence in God put them in better spirits. They were especially encouraged at being told of the great things they would be able to accomplish, of the religious freedom awaiting them, and of the brilliant future of the Church in the United States. Our approach to a new, free, and active world seemed to affect these devoted souls, and arouse their imagination, when, after Tuesday evening, we could say that we were " on the other side." I began to wonder if I did not possess the unsuspected vocation of convent chaplain ! Still, all convents are not to be found in the middle of the Atlantic; neither are they all moving, like our " Lorraine," at a speed of twenty and a half knots an hour.

Chapter II First Visit To New York

Up the Bay. — The Pautists. — A New York Monastery. — Father Elliott and Father Doyle. — J New Tork Sunday. — Religious Condition of America. — Standing of Catholicism. — Chinese^ Italian., and "Jewish Carters. — Wall Street. — Riverside Park.

TT was nightfall when we entered New York Bay, after an ocean voyage of six days and a half. One of the pilot-boats which are ever on the watch to guide vessels into the harbor spied us in the distance, and quickly headed toward us. The "Lorraine" stopped, cast anchor, and for a while so pitched and tossed in the heavy sea that a number of the passengers were frightened. We had no idea how heavy a sea was running, until we began to notice the fantastic leaps and bounds of the little vessel that was trying to reach us. Soon, however, it came alongside ; and as our vessel steadied itself, the pilot clambered aboard, pleased with his good luck. It was a very stormy night; indeed, so dense was the fog and so rough the sea that the pilot decided not to enter the harbor until the following morning. The last night on shipboard is rather hard on one's nerves. To say good-bye to the friends of a week, some of whom, perhaps, may prove the friends of a lifetime ; to picture beforehand the people and customs of an unknown country; to wonder what lies beyond the darkness, broken now and again by those strange distant lights which flit across the horizon; this is more than enough to keep most travellers awake. Indeed, all of us were ready to disembark next morning long before we arrived at the wharf.