Project Canterbury

The Life of Father Dolling

By Charles E. Osborne

London: Edward Arnold, 1903.


Chapter XIX.

Father Dolling's visit to America (1897-1898)--Lands at New York (May 26, 1897)--His impressions of the American Church (lecture to English Church Union in Portsmouth after return)--Stays with Rev. Dr. Mortimer, S. Mark's, Philadelphia--Conducts retreats at New York and Boston--Work in Western and Middle States--Friendship with Mrs. Stevens--He conducts mission at S. John's, New Brunswick (January, 1898)--Work at Boston and Buffalo--Visit to Chicago-Impressions of the city--Offered charge of cathedral (March, 1898) by Bishop of Chicago--Accepts living of S. Saviour's, Poplar, East London--Other English offers--Holy Week and Easter at Chicago-Conducts Diocesan Retreat at Chicago--Visits Utah and San Francisco--Return to England from New York (July, 1898).

'Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.'--LORD BACON: Essay on Travel.

'Religion stands on tiptoe in our land,
Ready to pass to the American strand.'
GEORGE HERBERT: The Church Militant.

ON May 26, 1897, Father Dolling landed in New York, having crossed the Atlantic by the steamer Majestic. He bore with him letters commendatory from several English prelates to their American brethren. The Bishop of Rochester wrote of Dolling's life as being one of 'entire self-sacrifice in the spirit of brotherly fellowship with all sorts and conditions of men,' and asked the Episcopate of the United States to give him a 'most friendly and fatherly reception.' The Bishop of Southwell described him as 'a devoted clergyman who has dealt with very poor districts in very large towns with singular power and success.' The present Primate (then Bishop of Winchester) wrote: 'I gladly testify to my profound respect for the devoted work be has done in my diocese, and I entertain for Mr. Dolling personally a very sincere regard.'

The Primate of Ireland (Dr. Alexander, Archbishop of Armagh) also wrote as follows to Dolling, who was his cousin:

'THE PALACE, ARMAGH,

'June 15, 1897. 'MY DEAR ROBERT,

' What I can say with all my heart is that you are a Christian and a gentleman, that you have a loving heart and noble gift of utterance, that you have the spirit of self-sacrifice, received, as I am sure, from Christ Himself. I cannot say that you always express yourself as I might do, or interpret Scripture and the Church upon my lines; but that men may learn much from you, and especially the mode of dealing with those who are "out of the way" in this world of sin and sorrow, I feel assured.

'Your affectionate friend and kinsman,

'WILLIAM ARMAGH.'

A very great many other friends also wrote to him to wish him a prosperous voyage and 'a good time' in America, as well as, if it were God's will, a speedy return to some congenial sphere of work, in which all memories of previous conflicts and misunderstandings might be forgotten. We do not add 'forgiven,' as neither on Dolling's part, nor on that of his ecclesiastical superiors, nor even of his strong theological or political opponents was there, we believe, any bitter personal feeling. Many of those who disliked his teaching and methods yet regarded his character with respect and his self-sacrifice with admiration. He himself was incapable of nourishing vindictive feelings, and was too large-minded to fail to realise what was to be said for the usual Episcopal position in regard to Ritualism, as well as for that of the 'advanced' or 'extreme' men among whom he himself was generally reckoned. It was especially gratifying to him that the crisis at S. Agatha's did not involve the slightest overclouding of his affectionate relations with so many of the Winchester masters and men. Amid all the difficulties between Dolling and the present Primate, Winchester College, as represented by its responsible authorities, acted with a tact, wisdom, and generosity which deserve special recollection. They gave the Bishop the loyalty which he had a right to expect from them, since he, and not the Headmaster, was responsible ior the spiritual oversight of S. Agatha's, both of its clergy and its people. They also never allowed any possible irritation at Dolling's uncompromising position as to matters on which they were not as a body in sympathy with him to hinder the expression of gratitude to him for the efficiency of the mission, and for his good influence at Winchester, or of affection for his personality and admiration for his character. From several letters sent to him by Wykehamists at this time we may quote the following from the Rev. Reginald Waterfield, an old Wykehamist, then a master at Eugby, and now Principal of Cheltenham College:

'RUGBY,

'Mayll, 1897. DEAR MR. DOLLING,

'I cannot tell you with what sorrow I am thinking of your departure from England the day after to-morrow, and I send you these few words of affectionate farewell. May God bless you always and everywhere! May the love that really, in spite of all, knits Winchester to you and you to Winchester pervade your life, and bud afresh in your path in new affections, which shall recall, rather than deaden, the old; and if it is His good pleasure, may He who is watching over you now, as He has done through long years of trial, bring you back to us before your work on earth or ours is finished.

'Your affectionate friend,
'REG. WATERFIELD.'

Before dealing with any of Father Dolling's sayings and doings in America, let us first hear some of his own impressions of the United States, especially in regard to the American Church. We quote from a lecture which he gave on this subject to the Portsmouth branch of the English Church Union on November 15, 1898, after his return to England. 'After a year in America,' he said, 'he had come back again, though,' he added, 'a certain gentleman had said it was not permitted for cranks and fanatics to come into this good town of Portsmouth.' He went on:

'I have always been a "crank," and I suppose I always shall be. I suppose, also, I have always been a "fanatic." I take it that such persons have their use in any forward movement. A crank is a person who represents a small minority, and who is therefore called a crank by wiser people. (Laughter and cheers.) I take it that if there had not been that kind of person in the Church of England for the last fifty years we should be now what some people would like us to be--a very quiet, decent sort of people, with a very quiet, decent, respectable sort of religion--a religion without that enthusiasm for souls which is willing to do all and suffer all in order to win them. I feel that, while cranks are often very disagreeable to the moderate party, still, the members of this moderate party often find themselves after a time just where the cranks and fanatics were a few years ago. Then all the moderate people say, "Well, this is all owing to us; we did it all"; and the cranks and fanatics are perfectly willing that it should be so, and in the end the glory of God is achieved and the message of the Church proclaimed.

' But I think it is dangerous to look upon the present state of things as in any way satisfactory. The Reformation Settlement is still incomplete, and if you paid a visit to the Church in America this is just what you would discover.

' The Church in America owes her present dangers and weakness in great measure to the fact that the Church of England was "established" when English people went to America, the result of which was that all the different sects--Baptists, Congregationalists, etc.--were allowed to go and possess the land because, for political reasons, the Episcopate was forbidden to go there. So from generation to generation it happened that the needs of the English Churchpeople were tended only by some devoted priests, and large numbers of children were never confirmed. Naturally they said, "England considers one religion as good as another, and is ashamed of the Church which she has established at home." You find the result of this to-day in America. When the scandal got too great, and they felt that the Church could not exist without the Episcopate, they had to go to the Church of Scotland for their first Bishop. This ought, surely, to make English Churchpeople ashamed of themselves, and this accounts for many of the present difficulties of the Episcopal Church in America. She is very largely a missionary Church still, with far fewer members than other denominations.

' Then England has something else to answer for. We are constantly sending out a great number of emigrants to America, and they are mostly the kind of men who are marked by these three characteristics: (1) They think they know everything about religion; (2) they think they ought to get everything for nothing'. (3) they are nearly always not upon the side of the "cranks and fanatics." The consequence is that we English people do not help on the Episcopal Church in America.

' The whole future of the world, from a Christian point of view, may very likely depend on the progress of true religion in America. Meanwhile we are continually pouring into that great country numbers of people who are Churchpeople in name only, but not in reality. Christians of all the different sects in America all know why they belong to a certain denomination, but English Churchmen who go out there seem hardly ever to have any clear idea of what the Church of England really is and means.'

Father Dolling landed in New York on the eve of the Ascension, 1897, and at once went on to Philadelphia to stay with the Rev. Dr. Mortimer at S. Mark's Clergy House in that city. He preached at High Mass in that church on the following day (Festival of the Ascension). On the next day, Dr. Mortimer tells us that, to quote his own words,

'the servant said someone wished to see Mr. Dolling, and I thought probably it was a reporter, and so went down to head him off; but I found a well-dressed, middle-aged man, who told me he had read in the papers an account of Dolling's sermon the previous day and so learned that he was in America, and at once came to see him. He proved to have been a poor Irish boy, whom Dolling remembered very well as having been very ill-treated at home, and whose fare he had paid out to the States some twenty years before. The man was now married and was very prosperous, and had a good house. Dolling went to dine with him. There were several similar cases while he was in the States.'

The former housekeeper of the London Postmen's House in the Borough Road, which we have described in an earlier part of this book, writes in regard to the men whom Dolling had helped to make a new start in America in the earlier part of his life:

'There was a young man staying at the Borough Road house whom Mr. Dolling had brought from Dublin, and kept him at the League House for two months. Then he gave him an outfit, and sent him to sea. This young fellow fell off the topmast of a ship, broke his leg, and was taken to a hospital in America. The doctors there took a fancy to him and made him a medical student, and afterwards he became a doctor. He wrote to me several times and spoke so kindly of Mr. Dolling, and how well he had got on with his help. He said since he had been out there he had met several young men whom Mr. Dolling had helped and sent out there, and they often had a talk together about him.'

Soon after his arrival in the States, Dolling conducted two Retreats at Dr. Mortimer's appointment in connection with the U.S.A. Branch of the Sisters of S. John the Baptist, Clewer. One Retreat was for the sisters at their branch house, S. Hilda's, Morristown, and the other for the associates at the mother house in New York City. He also took similar Retreats at Louisburg Square, Boston, Massachusetts, for the S. Margaret's sisters.

One who was present at the Retreat for the associates of S. John the Baptist in New York tells us that there were about fifty ladies at this Retreat. Some were quite young, just beginning to enter on adult life; others were governesses and ladies working with the sisters under the Superior, Mother Gertrude Verena, in various ways. Some were women of years of experience and of mature knowledge and use of Christian privileges; others were 'feeling their way' towards definite religion, and were persons to whom the idea of a Retreat was quite new. Their worldly circumstances were also widely different, some being wealthy, others the reverse. It was a great experiment on Dolling's part, taking a Retreat like this after being only a week in the States; but his extraordinary faith, sympathy, compassion, and insight triumphed over all obstacles. By the end of the first day all felt as if he knew their needs and difficulties in New York as well as if he had always lived among them. 'To sit at the back of the chapel,' says our informant, 'and notice the smiles and tears and eager looks of his congregation was a lesson in itself.'

The meditations were on the great fundamental questions of religion--sin, death, God, the Incarnation, the Passion, the work of the Holy Spirit--full of solid teaching, and yet always practical, homely, and intensely sympathetic with human needs. He blended together spiritual and secular duties, home life and care of health, as well as prayer and Bible-reading, and right use of the Sacraments and of all means of grace. 'Behind it all lay such fatherly kindness and love for souls that every heart was won.'

Several, after seeing him for Confession or advice, said: 'No one ever helped me so much before; he understood all about me.' An old lady said: 'This is my forty-fifth Ketreat, and it is the best of them all.' Another old lady, an old-fashioned Churehwoman, who knew nothing of what a Retreat would be like, and had come with her daughter with some hesitation, had a conversation with him after one of the addresses. She said afterwards: 'No one ever spoke so to my soul. He reached difficulties in my life that I thought no one ever could help me about. My gratitude for contact with him and his teaching will be lifelong.' To this day, we are told, any reference to this Retreat brings from those who attended it such words as: 'Dear Father Dolling! there is no one like him.'

In regard to the Retreat for the Sisters of S. John the Baptist, the Mother Superior tells us:

'He said it was the first Sisters' Retreat he had ever given, and he only hoped he might give many more. He chose for his general subject the "Call of the Prophet Isaiah" (Isa. vi.) The meditations were simple, but so beautiful, and at the end there seemed to be no part of life he had not touched. He spoke to us as fellow-workers, out of his own experience, whenever it could illustrate a principle. In September he returned to us to give a single day's Retreat. It was clear that during the summer he had been studying the life of the American people. Of the poor little children he said: "I hoped things were better with you than in England, but when I walked in your parks and looked at the faces of the little children I saw that it was the same--they had not proper care."'

One who attended his preaching during part of his visit to the States, and at whose house he sometimes stayed, writes of some effects of his influence on the American Churchpeople who met him: 'My impression was of the joyous simplicity of faith evident in every one of his acts and words, and I believe one of the incidental results of Father Dolling's visit to this country must have been to turn some Catholic-minded priests and people from an unhealthy conventionality to a simple and true use of Catholic customs.'

He thus writes home to a friend in Portsmouth after a month's stay in the States:

'I have just finished my fourth Retreat, besides preaching twice each Sunday. I have been at New York, Philadelphia, and Boston--big cities--and Hoboken and Jersey, suburbs of New York. In one month since I arrived I have preached or given addresses sixty-nine times. The people are delighted and delightful. Sunday I preach at a place called Norwich in Connecticut; Tuesday I am in the State of New Jersey, south of New York, at the laying of the foundation-stone of a new church; Thursday I lecture to a big Dissenting Convention on "Peace and War" at Eliot, in the State of Maine; and then get off to Chicago. I met Portsmouth people, my Irish emigrants, everywhere, besides new friends.'

Among the last-named were two ladies either of whose respective houses was his home while he was in the Eastern (or New England) and the Middle States, where he stayed for the remainder of 1897. One of these was Mrs. Charles Wheeler, of Philadelphia, at whose Boston house Dolling stayed. The other was the well-known Mrs. Edwin A. Stevens (since deceased), of Castle Point, Hoboken, New York. Both these ladies had attended his New York Retreat for the associates of S. John Baptist, and met him first after that occasion. Mrs. Stevens (who was a widow) and her grown-up family became his intimate friends, and their palatial house at Castle Point was one where he stayed much at this time, and was always heartily welcomed there. We reproduce here a little recollection of the late Mrs. Stevens and her family, which Father Dolling wrote for his S. Saviour's Magazine, Poplar, for May, 1899, when the sad news was cabled to him of her death at the Easter festival of that year:

'I wish you could have seen New York as I saw it the first night I stayed at Castle Point--nine or ten miles of a city front, stretching from Giant's Monument, and seeming to reach the great statue of Liberty in the middle of the bay, all the ugliness of its wharfage hidden by the night shadows and yet visible, mysteriously illuminated by thousands of lights; buildings twenty stories high and more, all now fairy castles; no actual sound of the city coming across the Hudson, but a deep undertone of continuous life, like Niagara, heard and yet not heard; and almost every moment plying up and down the river steamers or ferry-boats, all dressed with many-coloured lights, passing so swiftly as to seem like a rainbow. As I watched it that first night I knew that I had never seen anything like it before, and I don't suppose I ever shall again, for in the sunshine of the next day the beauty was but a memory.

'I was staying in the one house from which alone this view could be seen--Castle Point, the home of the Stevens family. A great demesne surrounds this home--a wonderful oasis in the midst of all the bricks and mortar and sordid streets and unfinished warehouses, which make up the larger part of the city of Hoboken, a city with 70,000 inhabitants to-day, fifty years ago with only twenty-one houses.

'With every step in this increase the initiative for all that has made for refinement, for education, for true charity, has come from Castle Point. The first public schools, the great Stevens Institute, famed not only in America, but in Europe, as one of the best engineering colleges, the hospital down town, the Episcopal Hospital on the heights, the penitentiary of S. Catherine, the Free Library, the Technical Schools, the beautiful Church of the Holy Innocents, and many institutions besides, but, above all, the great ferries, which have made Hoboken, are the fruit not only of this great generosity, but of a far more meritorious personal care. In the midst of all this is Castle Point, the ideal not only of beauty and benevolence, but of a simple Christian home, where the widow and her children have by the simplicity of their lives kept ever before those who lived around them the highest truths.

'It would be impossible for me to tell all the kindness I received from them while I was in America. And who would not prize a magnificent hospitality, which followed me wherever I went in the States, not only by letters of introduction, which made me a welcome guest in many houses, but even arranged for me in the larger cities where I stayed the hospitality of magnificent hotels, and which put at my disposal a large yacht, thus permitting one to see in the most delightful manner the beautiful American seaside places? All these things seem to me almost a dream in the gray-ness of London and of the Thames.

'But, above all, I value the knowledge it gave me of a true American home. So many English only see Americans in hotels and in the cars. They never see America at all. Every day that I knew more and more of Mrs. Stevens I discovered more clearly the secret which had enabled her through so many tremendous difficulties to achieve such a success--the life of true humility, and yet so penetrated with a consciousness of God's help that she was not only minister to all those amongst whom she lived, but wise and beneficent ruler as well, gaining that strength day by day by the Celebration that I or some neighbouring priest offered in her little chapel. Left a widow very young, with five sons and a daughter to educate and this immense business to manage, and this great wealth wisely to dispose of, true judgment very seldom failed her, because she spared no trouble to discover God's will, and when she knew it, to do it with all integrity. It was this that enabled her so wisely to govern her children and her great revenues. And yet, with all this stress of business and of duty, no house was ever fuller of merriment. Surrounded by her grandchildren, from Archie, a young man at Princeton, to two or three little babies in arms, she shared, too, the ideals and prospects of the elder ones while planning all kinds of parties and amusements for them, and even romping and playing with the babies. One who is so near God can never grow old. Almost the day I left America she had some sort of seizure, but she soon regained strength; and almost every week a letter from her told me what these, my dear friends--numbering forty in this family--were doing, so that through her I might keep in touch with them all. On Holy Thursday the priest of her Church of the Holy Innocents gave her her last Communion, and on Easter Eve she "fell on sleep." I had just finished my Celebration on Easter Day when the news reached me by cable, and I am looking now at an envelope directed by herself which came four days after containing .£10 for our Poplar Easter.

'I am writing all this in the magazine because I want you to know something of those to whom I owe all the health and strength that I brought from America. I went to America very despondent, very down-hearted. It is to Castle Point that I owe all my recovery.'

One beautiful sentence in the above might have been applied to Father Dolling himself as well as to the gracious lady and dear friend of whom he wrote it: 'One who is so near to God can never grow old.'

In September of this year (1897) the Bishop of Rochester and Mrs. Talbot were in the States. Both Dolling and the Bishop had wished to meet, but it was found not to be possible. For Bishop Talbot he had had ever a true affection and regard. The Bishop wrote to him before starting for home:

'Your Hoboken plan [for a yacht voyage] was out of our power. ... It seems we were not to meet. But among my American memories, so many and so delightful, will be one of your friendship and cordiality.'

During these last six months of 1897 Dolling preached much at the beautiful Church of the Holy Innocents, Hoboken, which was built by Mrs. Stevens on her property in memory of a daughter who had died in childhood. The rector, the Rev. J. Ernest Magill, tells us in reference to these occasions:

'Rev. E. Dolling preached at the Church of the Holy Innocents for the first time on Trinity Sunday, June 13, 1897, at Solemn Mass, and again at Solemn Evensong. On the eve of Corpus Christi Day, June 19, he preached to the Stevens Cadets and the Fife Drum and Bugle Corps. It having been decided to hold a mission in the parish in October, preparations for it were begun on Friday, July 30, when a service of intercession with intention for the mission was conducted by Father Dolling. The mission began on Saturday night, October 13, and closed on Wednesday night, October 24. Father Dolling also gave three instructions in Advent. He preached here also at the blessing of a new set of Stations of the Cross, also on Thanksgiving Day, and on several other occasions.'

One who attended the mission at Hoboken writes:

'I do not think his power with the people who heard him in the States lay so much in his capacity as a preacher as in his great hold over the hearts of those he met. There was no great crowd at the Hoboken Mission, but I know of many lives of persons that have been turned to God by it, and who are still faithfully carrying out his precepts.

'He did not preach much in the large churches in New York. I fancy his preaching made more of a stir in the West than it did here. Though his name as a preacher in New York was not on every tongue, nor constantly in the newspapers, as was the case when Canon Knox Little was here, yet there were probably none who heard his preaching who were not touched and helped. There are certain sermons that one will never forget--the tone of voice, the earnestness, the touching stories of his experiences, above all, his own dear personality. My mother attended a Retreat which he gave at the Sisters' House. She came home saying that she had never heard anything like it; that he had made them all both laugh and cry.'

Father Dolling was much delighted with the facility of travel, under a most delightful form, afforded to him by the use of Mrs. Stevens' yacht, which was placed at his disposal whenever he wished to use it. He went to stay with the Stevens family, also, at Bernardsville, when they went there, and gave a 'talk 'or lecture there on his Portsmouth experiences which made, we are told, a wonderfully lasting impression. Though he made several extensive journeys when in America, yet Castle Point was, in the main, his home, and one of Mrs. Stevens' family tells us 'each time he returned he grew dearer to us all.'

In a letter to the Rev. J. T. Bramston, the Winchester master, Dolling writes from Washington in January, 1898:

'I am here delivering two conferences a day. I leave on the 17th, preach at numerous places till I get to New Brunswick in Canada, where I preach a mission, another mission at Boston [this was for fourteen days at the Cowley Fathers' Church], then Ash Wednesday at Buffalo, and each week in Lent a different place, spending Passiontide and Easter at Chicago--two or three sermons every day. From my landing on May 26 till December 31 I preached 261 times in fifty-eight different churches in thirty-five cities and towns. This will almost continue as long as I stay. It is full of extraordinary interests. God bless you all!'

As another instance of his constant remembrance of Winchester, we may quote part of a letter written by him from America to Mr. F. Zimmern, on the latter's entering on his duties as Prefect of Hall:

'Commoners and College have so much to learn from each other. It is so easy in keeping aloof from others to magnify one's self and depreciate others, and when we do it as a body there is a false idea of esprit de corps which is very deceptive. Nothing but continued intercourse can remove all that. I used to hope that I was a kind of go-between read otherwise. The highest office of the Son of God Himself is At-one-ment. I appreciate what you say about games, and I think that if men learned that their bodies are a sacred trust, the world would be more natural and wholesome. I pray for Winchester every day, always by name for the Headmaster and the head men. God bless you always. This country is splendid.'

The subjects of Dolling's conferences at Washington, delivered in the parish church, were as follows: 'The Child Life,' 'The Life of Religion,' 'The Life of Business,' 'The Life in Society,' 'The Life God taught,' 'The Life Sacrament fed,' 'The Life of Pain,' 'The Life of Obedience,' 'The Life of Gradual Growth.' He also delivered a special sermon on 'Christian Marriage 'on the last Sunday of his stay there.

Dolling's visit to S. John, New Brunswick, was his only point of personal contact with the life of British North America. He held a mission there from January 27 to February 5, 1898. He was already known there by report, as a former helper of his at S. Agatha's, Mr. William Hays (who is now one of the clergy of S. Michael's, Edinburgh), had gone out to New Brunswick, received ordination, and was working as one of the Anglican clergy of the town of S. John, at S. John the Baptist's Mission, under the Rev. M. Davenport. Mr. Hays had told many about Father Dolling's powers as a preacher, but not about his physical appearance, and the people of S. John the Baptist's Church had, we are told, pictured him as a tall, spare, ascetic-looking individual. Their surprise may therefore be imagined when a stout, burly-looking priest, muffled in a huge great-coat and scarf (the thermometer was about zero), was seen making his way up the side aisle to the vestry. By the end of ten days he had won the hearts of all the people of S. John's Church. We are told that each morning of the mission he might have been seen ploughing his way through the deep snow in the centre of the street, looking thoroughly happy and cheerful, and that he was full of boyish hilarity.

There can be no doubt that he thoroughly enjoyed his visit to America, and that he 'took to' the Americans whom he met as much as they did to him.

Although he was still uncertain as to his future sphere of work, yet he had the pleasure of gradually, yet surely, clearing off the debts in connection with S. Agatha's, and also of paying for the necessary rebuilding of the Infant School. All this he succeeded in doing by the large sums of money which he was able to raise in America both by offertories and by the extensive sale of his book, 'Ten Years in a Portsmouth Slum.'

On his return to the States from New Brunswick he preached at S. Andrew's, Buffalo. We are told by some of the American papers of that time and locality that his preaching in Buffalo attracted large crowds of people, especially of young men. A sermon in the above church on 'The Cure of Sin' was very fully reported. Part of it was a defence and explanation of the right use of confession, but from a common-sense rather than controversial point of view.

Father Dolling's stay in Chicago constituted one of the most important of the crises of his life. Before we allude to the more serious side of his visit, we here reproduce some recollections of its more secular aspect contributed by Mr. Ronald Ogilvie, a son of the late Col. Ogilvie of Southsea, and member of a family who were intimate friends of Father Dolling and his sisters. Most of the family had gone to live in the Stales, and at Chicago Dolling was met by Mr. E. Ogilvie. The latter tells us:

'Father Dolling had already been in Chicago for some few days when I arrived, and knew just what he wanted to see, and how to get there. On the first morning we went up to the top of the Masonic Temple and the Auditorium Observatory Tower, the two highest buildings in the city. While we were on the "Temple" roof he showed me his map of Chicago, on which he had marked out the worst streets, which he wished to see for himself. Afterwards we walked down South Clark Street. I had heard such awful tales of the place that I was not very keen about accompanying the Father on his tour of investigation. But go he would.

'We rubbed shoulders with a strange crowd--Jews, Chinese, and niggers--and saw a little of everything. As we sauntered along, gazing at the different sights, one old Jew rushed at Dolling and tried to drag him off to show him his goods, which were all displayed on the outside of his very dirty-looking clothes store. Then we visited some extraordinary places--the "Dime Museums," where they exhibit all sorts of monstrosities (two-headed lambs, Siamese twins, etc.), charging for admission a dime (ten cents). In one a woman allowed herself to be bitten by snakes. Father Dolling watched intently the countenances of some men and boys who were gambling at a "gambling scheme," worked by a man with a wheel. In another room were some Egyptian dancers, and a great show was just on, in which a man was to allow himself, apparently, to be nailed to a cross. Father Dolling found the man had once been in an English regiment, but he was not communicative about himself.

'Then we explored the "Department Stores," enormous places, where one can buy everything imaginable almost. In one there was a large fountain, with seats all round it, and near this the "soda-water fountain," where one could get all sorts of drinks. We read the list, and decided to try a "strawberry ice-cream soda," which we drank perchod on high stools, and watched the crowd of shoppers go by.

'He was also much interested in the people at the hotel where we stayed. He was struck by the immense number of Jews, and said: "I hear they call this place the New Jerusalem." He enjoyed sitting in the large hall or lobby of the hotel and watching all the different people, who made it a sort of rendezvous.

'One morning he decided to go to the "Stock Yards" and see the "Armour Packing House." At the yards he saw a boy in blue overalls, spattered with blood, eating a piece of pie, which seemed to astonish Father Dolling more than anything else he had seen.

'After a little time he went to stay with Father Larabee, at whose church he was to preach during Holy Week. He talked of all the people he had met, and he seemed to have met every American of note. That which impressed him most was the great generosity and kindliness of the people with whom he had come in contact.

'I may say that the majority of the people who met him in Chicago were very much impressed by his preaching and work. The young men with whom he came in contact were simply devoted to him. I have heard it said that "a fellow didn't mind going to Confession to him; he seemed to understand, and though he might give you a good slating, he would stand by you, and help you along."'

We are told by those who knew Father Dolling in Chicago that, during Holy Week there, in 1898, a great many persons went to him for confessions, including many men, and that all Easter Even, from early in the morning till very late at night, he was hearing confessions at the Church of the Ascension, and yet that it was wonderful how, after giving of his sympathy, help, and counsel to the many who sought him in the confessional, he seemed to show no fatigue at the end, carried on by his love for God and his zeal for the salvation of souls. We are told that he seemed to love Chicago from the first, and that the terrible nature of its gigantic problems, social and religious, appeared to cry aloud to him to throw himself into the very centre of its fierce life and to claim that life for his Master.

He was constantly seen in the early morning in the streets of Chicago, when on his way to church, gazing eagerly down Clark Street or other notorious regions, as if longing to be at work in them. Father Larabee, Rector of the Church of the Ascension, Chicago, writes of Dolling:

'Some weeks ahead he engaged to come to us at the Ascension for Passion Week and Holy Week. I was eagerly awaiting his arrival in the city the Saturday before Passion Sunday, 1898, Late in the afternoon he arrived at the house with Ogilvie. I supposed that, of course, he had just reached the city that day, but found to my great surprise that he had been in Chicago a whole week without making himself known to any of the clergy. I do not think there was much about the city which he did not already know when he came to me. With the trained eye of an expert in all social questions, he had taken our measurement in this typical American city, and he could have given a report of what he had found which for thoroughness would have surprised any of the clergy here. He was especially interested in the conditions surrounding the work at the cathedral, and made himself thoroughly acquainted with that neighbourhood, not, I am sure, without a deep longing to plunge himself into the work of rescuing that dark quarter of Chicago. He gave addresses to our Lenten afternoon congregations, and in the evening conducted in his own tender and beautiful way what our people could not quite get used to calling, as he insisted upon calling them, "Prayer-Meetings." He preached while staying with me in other of our city churches, but gave us most of his time. At the Three Hours on Good Friday, which he conducted for us, the church was filled. He also gave addresses at noon during this visit at Handel Hall, in the centre of the city. He was limited to twenty minutes in these addresses, but some of the most beautiful and wonderful of his sermons were thus preached, and they made a deep impression on the growing numbers of those who heard them.'

We extract the following from an American newspaper:

'FATHER DOLLING IN CHICAGO.

'Father Dolling spent Passion and Holy Weeks and Easter in Chicago. He visited and gave instructions and addresses in many of the city parishes, and preached forty times in the Church of the Ascension. On Holy Saturday he was hearing confessions all day until late at night with but little interruption. On Easter Day he gave Communion at the three early Celebrations, and preached at High Mass and Solemn Evensong, as well as at the Workhouse and Lagrange. His addresses at the Three Hours' Service on Good Friday were intensely practical. He preached to the people listening to him as though he knew the special needs, dangers, and temptations of those particular people, and addressed himself to those alone. The first word from the Cross suggested to him forgiveness, human as well as divine; the second, social conditions; the third, home life; the fourth, honest doubt and perplexity, which he distinguished from shallow scepticism; the fifth, carnal sins and temptations. Each one of these subjects was intensely practical, and applied to Chicago of to-day as if it was Jerusalem of old. The sixth and seventh words were applied directly to Christ's person and work. The Bishop of Chicago, it is said, is very anxious to have him take up work at the cathedral, where the social conditions are similar to those at S. Agatha's, Landport.'

It was the offer alluded to in the last sentence of the above which was so important, and which certainly would have been accepted had not Dolling, almost immediately before it was made, cabled to England acceptance of another offer made a few hours before, of S. Saviour's, Poplar, from the Rector of Poplar, Mr. Chandler, the patron of the living.

S. Margaret's, Aberdeen, and a church in Nottingham were also offered within a few hours.

The Bishop of Chicago, Eight Rev. Dr. McLaren, has kindly allowed us to publish the following, which explains the circumstances referred to, and throws much light on Dolling's stay in that city:

' CHICAGO,
' December 22, 1902.

'The Rev. Father Dolling called on me at the episcopal residence some time in May, 1898. I had previously heard of his career at Portsmouth, and of his remarkable aptitude for the kind of priestly labour which such a field demands. The cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in this city waa established prior to 1860 by my predecessor, the Eight Rev. Dr. Whitehouse, and was the first venture of that character in the American Church. It was a modest beginning, and was met with no little criticism in certain directions. Subsequently the nave, of fair proportions, but by no means suggestive in size of one of England's glorious minsters, was enlarged by the addition of transepts and apsidal chancel. During the present episcopate the clergy house, the sisters' house, the dispensary, the choir house, and the home for friendless girls have been added. Since the days of Bishop Whitehouse, in the process of events, the character of that part of the city has undergone a radical change, and of late years the cathedral has found itself in the very heart of a population where the virtuous poor are few, and the vicious are numbered by thousands. Few priests are adapted to the peculiarities of such a field.

'It happened that when Father Dolling was in America I was looking for a man who by qualities and experience could be entrusted with leadership in the work. He had heard from some source that I had him in my mind, and, as I afterwards learned from himself, he visited (incognito) the cathedral and its group of buildings, and quite searchingly inspected its environment. From the moral point of view he found that the half had not been told him; but he said, while a bright glow of faith illuminated his countenance, "I think the neighbourhood might be revolutionised after five years of hard work."

'It was on the occasion of his call that I proposed to him that he should take charge of the cathedral, and become the leader of its work and workers. His reply was that if the invitation had reached him twenty-four hours sooner he would have returned an immediate and grateful acceptance; but that, on the evening before, he had received from England an appointment to a field in East London, in which he discerned a call from his Master, and which, for that reason, had a paramount claim on him.

' It was evident that his decision to accept S. Saviour's, Poplar, was simply the merging of his own will in that will of God to obey which was the joy of his life. My disappointment would have been more keen had I not tried to profit by the beautiful example he set me of prompt adhesion to the orderings of Providence.

'Father Dolling officiated in several of the churches in this city, and always with spiritual unction and much profit to the people. One remark of his, not made in public, showed him to have possessed the faculty of seeing the humorous side of things. At his week-day services, and, I suspect, on Sundays too, the gentler sex was most in evidence. "I notice," he said, "that in your congregations the shirt waists predominate!"

'Father Dolling was asked to conduct our annual Diocesan Retreat for the clergy, which was begun in 1877, and has been continued with few exceptions through the succeeding years. I called the Retreat for Monday, June 13, the place being Waterman Hall, which is our Diocesan school for girls. It is a lovely spot in a rural region, and the young ladies being absent for the summer vacation, the building was admirably adapted for the purpose. I think there were more than fifty of the clergy present, and some candidates from the seminary. The impression made by his meditations and instructions through three and a half days was profound. By common consent his words were recognised as a message from Heaven sent to strengthen our hands and to rehabilitate our courage for the great conflict with the forces of evil in which we are engaged. In some instances, where at first he commanded intellectual admiration, it was not long before he won spiritual sympathy. There were moments when, with closed eyes, bowed head, and clasped hands, he seemed like one possessed with the awful afflatus of inspiration, and his words were in solemn accordance with his manner.

'The Retreat closed at six o'clock on the morning of the 16th with the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, and a Te Deum. Father Dolling left Chicago a day or two afterwards, and many there are in this city who look back upon his visit with affection and gratitude. The tidings of his departure to another stage of the life everlasting were received here with no ordinary sorrow--sorrow not for him, but for the Church, which in the prevalent dearth of heroic sanctity needs such high-born spirits as his to lighten the darkness and to reflect the splendour of the Sun of Righteousness.

'W. MCLAREN,

'Bishop of Chicago.'

The Rector of the Church of the Atonement, Chicago, who was present at the Retreat, tells us:

'The effect upon the clergy who were present, and indeed upon the spiritual tone of the whole diocese, is felt to the present day. Father Dolling chose Isa. vi. (the prophet's call) for the subject of his meditations. The searching and practical applications were the marvel of all who heard him. Many thoughts in the meditations were suggested, no doubt, by his private conferences with several of the clergy, the addresses plainly taking the tone suggested by the various phases of difficulty or inquiry developed in these private interviews.

'One feature of the Retreat which commended itself to the interest and gratitude of the clergy was the way in which Father Dolling, at the various times of devotion, introduced prayers for the people and nation of the United States, and especially for their soldiers and sailors. It was during the time of the Spanish-American War, and the tenderness and appropriateness of these special petitions were most affecting. Dr. Fleetwood, the rector of the school, had a son who was then with the American troops in Cuba sick with typhoid fever. At each service Father Dolling prayed earnestly and touchingly for "our dear soldier boy sick and away from home."

'Every one of the clergy present has since cherished a thankful memory of the blessedness of the Retreat, and all heard with profound sorrow and a sense of personal bereavement of Father Dolling's death.'

We have been allowed to see the notes of the addresses given by Dolling on these days of the Priests' Retreat for Chicago Diocese, and here reproduce some of them, as follows:

SUBJECT: The Prophet's Call--Isa. vi.

'I am a man of unclean lips': God's call to us a reason for self-inquiry as to ourselves and our methods.

The live coal: (1) kindled the Incarnation; (2) 'touched thy lips,' applied the Sacraments.

God's call and my answer to it by apparent failure.

The seraph represents the ministry of the priest. Clergy of Chicago, test your ministry by two tests: (1) your worship--the worship of the seraphim: 'before Him' they stood; (2) your service to man. The seraph carried the coal to touch the unclean and make him clean. Are you bringing the personal touch of Jesus to sinful souls by your service and by your life?

Jesus is the Atonement--At-one-ment: (1) Between God and man; (2) between man and man; (3) between man and himself.

When the prophet sees God, he sees his own uncleanness as never before. In His Fatherhood I sec my rebellion, in His wounds my sin.

'The live coal': The method of communicating God's knowledge and grace to man is the sacramental method. God knew that for man what is everywhere is nowhere. Man needs something objective, because he is man, body and soul, hence sacramentalism.

'Whom shall I send? He does not take this work solely on Himself. Think of His generosity. Having won graces for all men, He puts them into our hands to use them. He puts souls into our hands.

'This people's heart is waxed hard': There are two kinds of failure--(1) The Divine failure of Christ. No man ever failed like our Lord. He had to die before He could succeed. He had to die for the ideal, in order to make it real. (2) But there is another failure--a sinful failure--the hardened heart. The priest may be a failure in this sense, by want of personal piety; feeding others, yet not fed himself. Or the priest may be a true Christ-like failure, for Christ had to die before He could conquer. This is true also of us. Death is the final victory for ourselves and for others. Our failure is His success. God allows us priests to be often apparent failures--(1) That we may trust Him more humbly; (2) that we may distrust ourselves more.

Had the offer from Poplar not been made, and had Dolling's life been spared for longer than it was after his return to England, he would have found in Chicago a field of work adequate to all his energies. We quote a part of the account given of a Sunday in Chicago from the striking articles called 'America at Work' which are being contributed to the Yorkshire Post by their special correspondent, Mr. John Foster Fraser (to be published in book form when complete), and which are attracting much attention from those interested in the problems of American life:

'THE CHICAGO SUNDAY.

'Comparatively few of the churches are open on Sunday night. All the theatres, and music-halls, and saloons, and low resorts certainly are. To wander along State Street on a Sunday evening is to witness sights the equal of which is to be seen in no other city in the world, and as to what may be seen in other cities of the world I have not a small experience. There is no suggestion of Sunday evening. The shop-doors are closed, but all the windows are a blaze of light, and before them are crowds of women looking at the bonnets, on slowly revolving discs, or watching the electric appliances that dazzle the eye with sudden gleams of tinted globes. Crowds surge about the lower-class theatres. There is the beating of a drum and the shriek of a hurdy-gurdy to attract to a dime museum. At one street-corner is a man yelling anarchy. He has a big crowd. At another street-corner is a sallow, curly-haired individual demonstrating that the earth is flat. He has 200 listeners. At another corner is a semicircle of Salvationists, and a tall woman in a poke bonnet is nasally yelling in prayer that God would strike Chicago to Hell. There are not more than a dozen onlookers."

We may quote another section--as to the condition of children in the slums of Chicago--

'A wretched sight was the children running the streets--little Jews, Italians, Hungarians, Swedes, Poles, Russians--a motley pack of half-starved, bare-footed, ragged-clad little ones, quite happy, however, paddling in the stenching overflow of sewage. I had a long talk with Mr. Davies about the employment of children. This was his subject, the one dearest to him, the one he is wrestling with, and it is his ambition to crush the evil in Chicago if the law will let him. He told me there were lots of children under the age of twelve working in Chicago. When I refused to believe him he took me to his office and brought out report after report of inspectors who had found children of twelve earning their little four shillings a week amid the horrors of Chicago slaughter-houses. The law of Illinois State is that employers shall not knowingly engage children under fourteen. To safeguard themselves the employers make the parents sign a declaration that the lads are over fourteen. These parents are nearly all freshly-arrived immigrants, the dregs of Europe. They lie, for they need the dollar.

'Everything and everybody in Chicago is judged by money value. The streak of the dollar obtrudes into religion.'

The now famous 'Mr. Dooley' has given us, while certainly not a rose-coloured view of Chicago, as seen from the 'Archey Road,' yet a more genial and humorous one than the above of Mr. Foster Fraser. Whether, however, the terrible conclusions of the latter observer be too absolutely pessimistic or not, it is at least certain that had Dolling become Dean or Rector of the Chicago Episcopal Cathedral, with its slum surroundings of the type so described by all, he would have faced a work compared with the gigantic proportions of which Landport, with its worst problems, would have been but child's play.

But it was not to be. The Bishop of Chicago seems to have had a sort of premonition that Dolling would not live to be an old man, for, in a letter to him after he was settled at Poplar, he writes:

'God has given you enormous physical vitality and a mind to use it without stint. But do not hasten the end too speedily. I have come to believe that occasional attacks of indolence are praiseworthy.'

After he left Chicago, Dolling made his long-planned expedition to Montana, Utah, and California, visiting both Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Among other remarkable incidents on this journey, he had an interview with Mrs. Eddy, the high priestess of 'Christian Science.'

In regard to 'faith-healing,' so akin to this question, Dolling was a profound believer in the power of prayer in cases of sickness; and as a priestly ministry of intercession in accordance with S. James v. 14, 15, he was a strong advocate of the restoration of the sacramental rite of Unction of the Sick, when administered with some hope of recovery, as in the Scriptural use. He agreed with the statement of the late Bishop Forbes of Brechin, his friend of earlier years, and his instructor in Catholic principles, that this lesser sacrament, as it may be called, is 'the lost Pleiad of the Anglican firmament,' and that the omission of the form in the First Prayer-Book for its use, if desired by those in serious illness, is one of the things to be regretted in the 1552 and subsequent Prayer-Books. The discovery of the Canons of Hippo-lytus and of the Pontifical of Bishop Serapion, with their liturgical blessing during the Eucharistic Sacrifice of the 'prayer-oil' for the sick (as the Eastern Church styles it) when required, has again drawn attention to the primitive and Catholic character of this rite. We believe that its use was authorised or allowed in the Diocese of Chicago by the Bishop about this time, and that this was partly, at least, by Father Dolling's influence. At any rate, it was so stated at the time in some of the English Church papers.

As we have alluded to Mrs. Eddy, we may say that the propagators of some of the American 'fancy religions' seem to have come into contact with Dolling, but that while they, as well as the hypnotisers and other similar dabblers in the occult, interested him greatly, they could make little of him. He paid a visit to the Mormon Tabernacle at Utah, and was much astonished and struck by it, though not agreeably so. This occasion was not, however, without its touch of humour. Of this we give his own account, in regard to a curious incident which befell him there. We quote from S. Saviour's Magazine, Poplar, for August, 1900:

'Ever since I first came to live in London I have heard that Rosherville was the place to spend a happy day. I proved this twenty years ago when I went down with dear Mother Kate and a large party from S. Saviour's Priory. Curiously in America the joys of Rosherville were all brought back to me, for the leader of the orchestra of the great Mormon Tabernacle was chief cornet player there before he was converted. I don't know that there was anything in my appearance to suggest that I was a frequenter of Rosherville, or in my accent to show that I was at Poplar. But after he had told me all the wonderful things about Brigham Young and the Mormon religion he became quite a different man, when we fell back upon old times, and he recounted all the beauties of Rosherville, the place that he still loved well.'

Dolling, however, did not confine his attention to those more eccentric bodies by which American religion is often exclusively judged. He frequently, when in the States, lectured before gatherings of those great Protestant non-Episcopal communities, Presbyterian and others, who bulk so much larger both in numbers and prestige in America than at home (being the leading denominations of the United States), and he was received by many of their members with the greatest respect and cordiality.

On one occasion he lectured by special invitation to a number of young men of Princeton University in a Presbyterian chapel, taking part in the service, we are told, quite naturally. The Presbyterian minister, who was with him on the platform, said to him: 'I did not know that anyone in your Church could make an extempore prayer like that, and you have given me a new understanding of the meaning of "wholesomeness."'

We are told that he much disliked the elaborate choral services, with orchestral music, common in the American Episcopal Churches, especially on festivals, and that at Chicago he seemed as if he could throw the surpliced choirs into the lake.

'Father Dolling's soul was sorely tried at our solemn mid-day service,' writes an American clergyman. 'The elaborate service for which the choir had been preparing for some weeks (it was a great festival) was torture to him, though we thought it fine. I am sure that could he have had his way, he would have sent the choir and orchestra packing, and then have given out some simple hymns for the people to sing.'

Father Dolling also noticed that the women's bonnets in the churches were bright with all the colours of the rainbow, and the 'smug' type of congregation (to use his frequent expression) to be found so often in America under the asgis of well-to-do Anglicanism was not to his liking. He found it hard to pierce the integument of its self-satisfaction; but, on the whole, he returned with great hopes for the American Church, and with feelings of deep affection for many of its members, both clergy and laity.

We do not think that he came into personal contact with any of the great leaders of the Roman Catholicism of the States, such as those remarkable prelates Gibbons, Ireland, and Spalding, whose large-minded and sympathetic mode of dealing with modern problems, and the combination in whose teaching of Catholic Christianity with genuine enthusiasm for social progress, naturally strongly appealed to him.

At a meeting of the gathering of London clergy, known as 'Our Society,' held soon after his return to England, Dolling spoke with hope and interest of the movement in the Roman Catholic Church in the States popularly described as 'Americanism.' It interested him intensely, and he foresaw in the more liberal tone of the Roman Catholicism of the United States a possible factor towards the Reunion of Christendom, in a sense that the 'Vaticanism' pure and simple of the Italian type could not be.

This was on an occasion when the present writer, by an invitation of 'Our Society,' read a paper on 'Father Isaac Hecker, the Pounder of the Paulists,' who was, in many respects, the spiritual progenitor of men of the school of Bishop Spalding. The paper was based on Father Elliott's book. Canon Hensley Henson, Dolling, and others spoke on 'Roman Catholic Americanism' at that meeting.

While in the States Dolling inspected some of those philanthropic and social institutions which there, as at home, are managed on lines independent of connection with any organised religious body. When at Chicago he visited Hull House, a 'Settlement' conducted on purely secular lines. He called there, with one of the clergy of the city, when a Socialistic meeting was being held. An animated discussion was in progress. It was just what Dolling wanted to hear, and the kind of meeting where he might have been expected to be welcomed, or at least admitted. But he and his companion were told that it was not thought advisable to allow ministers of religion to be present. Dolling's disgust was much increased when, after a consultation behind closed doors, he was told that were it not for his clerical garb he could have got in--that 'mufti' would have passed him. When the high authorities of Hull House, as an ultimatum, offered to admit him to the 'kindergarten 'of their establishment, the last straw was laid upon and broke the camel's back.

The constant pressure of Father Dolling's preaching and lecturing in the States was relieved, as we have seen, by a great amount of kindly hospitality and pleasant social intercourse, often of the most cordial description. His sense of humour made his visit specially enjoyable to him, though he never used this for the purpose of 'taking off' any of his new-made friends and acquaintances in an unkind way. Sometimes, however, very risible incidents occurred. While he was at Newport a well-known lady gave a luncheon for him, at which he was the only man present. It rather tickled him, we are told, to hear on this occasion one lady say sotto voce to another, 'A very lovely man, my dear.' He did not know exactly what she meant by 'lovely,' until a young lady asked him to call upon her mother, who, she said, was a 'perfectly lovely woman.' When Dolling called he found a very charming lady, but not exactly, he said, what he would call 'lovely.' He went on to say, in describing the incident, that at first he thought she could not be the mother he was supposed to call on, so he asked her, and when she seemed rather surprised, he explained that Miss------had said that her mother was a 'perfectly lovely woman,' and he did not think she could be the one he was looking for. Whereupon the lady, understanding the situation, told him that in America the expression 'perfectly lovely,' when applied to a person, did not necessarily imply beauty of face, but rather charm of manner and sweetness of disposition. We ought to add that the above is Father Dolling's own account of the incident in question. He was much amused, when in Boston, by a good lady who asked him to excuse her for saying that, while she was much edified by what he had said, she ventured to express a hope that he would 'try to be more particular about his English.' An Irish lady, who has lived for a considerable time in America, writes:

'When we met Father Dolling we took him off to our boarding-house, and he kept all of us there either in roars of laughter or else ready to cry all the evening. The lady of that boarding-house, who is an intimate American friend of mine, has never forgotten him since, and gave me money to send him for his work for several years.

We must draw this long chapter to a close by noticing that the institution of Father Dolling as Vicar of S. Saviour's, Poplar, was fixed for July 22, 1898. He hurried back from the Pacific shore across the continent to the Atlantic (taking Chicago again on his return), so as to be in London in time to enter on his Poplar duties by the date appointed.

We conclude this chapter about his memorable visit to the States by a delightful passage in his first 'Quarterly Letter' from S. Saviour's, when the elixir of the air of America seemed still to be within his veins:

'It is just about fourteen years since I left dear S. Martin's Mission, a mile distant from this. I hope that during those years I have learnt to be wiser and, I hope, more patient, trying very imperfectly to translate into my own life some of that Divine compassion which makes Jesus the true sharer in the tears and laughter of men. I come back, thank God, feeling stronger, and, I believe, younger than when I went away, for this year in America has done for me a hundred times more than any words of mine can express. I have been living in the sunshine; it has got into my bones, into my marrow. Travelling from the Atlantic to the Pacific, I have seen deserts turned into gardens, great cities of many hundred thousand inhabitants almost of spontaneous birth, inland seas, mighty rivers, mountains whose foundations are iron, and out of whose sides men dig gold and silver. I have seen all these things in the truest sense the servants of man's daily use, and indomitable courage illuminated by an unfailing invention teaching him to subjugate them.

'Above all, I have seen that which may fitly be called the youth of the present humanity. I am not blinded in my judgment, for youth possesses many faults, but in spite of these many faults, the glory beyond all glory, the glory of being young. The deep tones of Niagara, the never-ceasing pulse of Chicago, the thousands of their choicest and goodliest young men, from the drawing-rooms of New York or the prairies of the West, going forth to the war; it is all one vast, inexpressible song, "King out the old, ring in the new."

'I bring back, then, to my work, I hope, something of the enthusiasm of this echo--at any rate, much of the warmth and affection of its love.'


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