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About The American. (Omaha, Nebraska) 1891-1899 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1895)
U JLJI ILL4 JTl 1 V U U A 1L OJJL ViLl N A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER. "AMERICA FOR AMERICANS." We hold that all men are Averlcan who Swear Allegiance u the L'niUnl KUki without a mental reservation la favor of the Poio. PRICK FIVE CENT 3 Volcmk V. OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1895. Numbkk 47 PRESIDENT TRAYNOR. He Will Not Answer His De tractors Through the Public Press. Bath Council Will Bet-eWe a I.HUr fruni Him Ksplaining the Ques tion at Issue. About one week ago several of the dally paper came out with a tlonal Btatement made by Rev. Thomas C. Easton, D. D., pastor of the Estern Presbyterian Church, Washington, D. C, and president of Council No. 12, A. P. A., of that city. The charges made against the supreme manage ment of the A. P. A. were of such a character that the Boston Daily Stand ard telegraphed Supreme President Tray nor for his views of the case. In reply, this brief letter has been re oeived: Detroit, Mich., November 12, 1805 Editor Standard: Pardon my delay ia replying to your courteous telegram a delay that was Induced by my do tire to ascertain whether the state ments made against the A. P. A. in general and myself especially were au thorized by the pen-on alleged. Hav ing duly satisfied myself upon that point, permit me to reply that there is nothing In the charges nor ray em phatic denial of them that would be either edifying or interesting to the public at large. My answer will be to the councils of the order through the proper channels, with such evidence and explanations as cannot possibly owing to my high regard for the obligations of member ship and office that bind me be made through any other channel. Icdeed, I deem it most undesirable and out of place for an organization such as the one I have the honor to terve to inflict upon the public its petty grievances and those internal differences of opin ion incidental to all large bodies, more especially when, at best, the half can never be told through euch channels of information. Respectfully yours, W. J. II. Traynor. Here is the attack made by Dr Easton, as given in some of the daily papers: "My dissatisfaction with the manner in which the organization is conducted dates bask to May of this year, when I was selected as a delegate from the dis trict to the supreme council at Mil waukee. When I arrived there I found a deplorable condition of affairs. Over half of the men who sat in the supreme body were not, under the constitution of the order, entitled to feats. They were seated by a credential committee appointed one week before tho conven tion met by Supreme President Tray nor. With a membership in the mill ions, the books of the treasurer showed an apparent balance of a few hundred dollars, and subsequent developments forced the confession from the supreme president that even this balance was only apparent, and that the treasury was bankrupt. A trust fund of several hundied dollars, taken up by subscrip tion for a specific purpose, had been misapolied, and the administration had been characterized by an utter disie gard of the constitution. Through the votes of the delegates 111 gaily seated in the convention, Supreme President Traynor was re-elected. Utterly dis gusted, I left the convention before its adjournment, having previously an nounced my intention to withdraw from the order. At the earnest request of prominent members here and through out the country, I held my n solution in abeyance for a while in the hope that something could be done to avoid aD open rupture, but recent events have satisfied me of the futility of such hopes "The power of the supreme president is in fact supreme. He can pack future conventions as he packed the last. He is as much a despot in his particular province as the Czar of Russia; he can override the constitution with impu nity, and if charges were preferred against him his own appointees would try him. It is useless to struggle against such an organization. Tho dis content is widespread throughout the order. Several of the most peaceful state bodies have declined to pay any per capita tax into the supreme treas ury or give it any support: others pay just enough to maintain a nominal alle giance to the supreme authority. The need for a new national organization is apparent to every one. It can be ob tained with comparative ease, for many of the state organizations notably New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and Ohio are in excellent condition." "Will there be such an organiza tion?" "There must be if any effective work is to be done in a national way. It has been held off because of the fear that an open rupture would injuriously af- feet the growth of tho cause, hut it is clear that nothing could bi more Inju rious than the manner in which the affairs of the order are at present ad ministered?'' "Will any of the councils here sur render their charters and go into the new organization?" "I do not wish to speak for the coun cils. Each will probably do what it considers to be for its best intere-st. I will not attempt to influence them in any way. Any action they take must be their own." A prominent official of the order, when interviewed by a St'indord rep resentative concerning Dr. Kaston's letter, said: "Dr. Easton is a strong man in'elUct ually, a clean man morally, and a pa triot on whom there is no discount. In his views on Roman Catholic questions he is as pronounced as Rev. Dr. Fulton His lectures before the great audience at People's Temple, Boston, during the visitof the Knights Templarsdelighted every man and every woman of the pa triotic thousands there assembled. He is a thorough, dyed io-the-wool pa'riot. "But Dr. Easton is evidently grieved with the supreme president and some of the other oflicers of the A. P. A., or else he is being pushed to the front by some other aggrieved Individuals to fight their battles. Probably both views are correct. There are men in the A. P. A. organization who are al ways making trouble, but the hand of the troubler is never seen he works through somebody else. Dr. Easton is a good man, but he is not a wise man in his pre-ent course. He rushes into prnt in the organs of the enemies of the order in the dailies which delight in retailing every particle of scandal which they can discern with a micro scopeevery injurious rumor which they can possibly rake up against the order. Dr. Easton rushes into these papers and spreads before their read ers certain facts, or alleged facts, which, if true and we exceedingly doubt the truth of them should eo be'oro the properly constituted authorities of the order for investigation and correction. Of what possible good will It be to the doctor or to the patriotic work to send such things out broadcast? "The doctor is one of a family. An other member of the family displeases hiin, so he makes public the wronir his father or brother or sister has com mittedor the wrong he thinks such a member of the family has committed instead of calling a family council and keeping it sacred from enemies of the family on the outside. "That is not a wise course, is it? Yet occasionally we find a Free-Mason, or an Odd Fellow, or a church-member, or minister cominc out in the daily press against the organization with which he is connected, instead of settling the alleged grievance in the organization. Dr. Easton 's attitude will not affect the $ m 44' UNCLE SAM'S ROMAN FLOWER (JAR DEN. work of tho order in any way. Ten thousand good men could withdraw without injuring the work to any ud prcciable extent " Washington, Nov. 8. Mr. A. J. Boyer, a prominent A. P. A. and editor of the United American of this city, is disposed to attach little importance or significance to Dr. East m's defection from that rder. He says that Dr. Easton 's grievance Is only a personal one, and that when he professes to make a natural issue out of it he takes altogether too much upon bimse'f. "The truth of the whole matter is," said Mr. Boyer, "that Dr. Easton has taken umbrage at sometrifiine matters that do not meet with bis approval, and if he does not like the way things arc run in the organization he is at perfect liberty to get out just the sime as he would out of any other society. "It is unnecessary to say that every thing does not run with invariable smoothness: there are occasional dis sensions in the ranks and differences of opinion, just as there are in ary other body. Dr. Easton's charge against President Traynor and the recent con vention in Milwaukee are not worthy of serious altsntion. He went into that convention with the rest of us, an j if he had any fault to find with its organi zation that was the time to do it; it is rather a late date now. "1 may be doing Dr. Easton an in justice, but it seems to me the trouble is merely local, and has nothing to do with the national organization. The association is made up of local councils. When there is a sufficient nunberof thesa a state council is formed, and that is just what was done in this city this week. Washington has been en titled to a state council for some time past, but the supreme officers tnought best to wait a while, I presume. Hjw ever, Supreme President Traynor depu tized a state president from a neighbor ing district to come here and organize the state council. This was done Mon day evening and officers elected. Dr. Easton was a candidate for president, but he was defeated by a very small majority. I think if he had been elected, he would not have had anv criticism to pass upon the A. P. A.'' Boston Daily Standard. Famous Humanists Visit Kansas City, lit. Rev. William H. E.der, arch bishop of the dioik-se of Cincinnati, and Bishop Thomas Byrne, of Na-hville, Term., arrived in the city last evening, and are the cues's to-dav of Mrs. Jo seph T. Eilicott, 41.') Aldine place, Mrs. Ellieott being a niece of A'chbishop Elder. Bjth the distinguished Cath olics are returning from a pleasure trip tj New Mexico, where they have spent a portion of the summer and fall. They will leave this evening for Chicago. Mrs. Eilicott will give them an in formal reception this afternoon. Kan sas City Times. FROM MEXU O. Some four miles to the north of the City of Mexico is the town of Guada hM) Hidalgo, noted as having been i,e place where the tieaty of feaeo between Mexico and the United States was signed in 181s, there hangs, in the 'Collegiate Church," a picture of the) Virgin Mary. This picture, painted on an Indian's "Mima" or cotton blanket, is said by the priests to hare been found in a miraculous manner by a supernatural power, on the 12th of December, 1531. During the sixteenth century there is no account anywhere of the pretended apparition of the Vir j.in Mary to the Indian Juan Diego, but in the following century the supposed appearance was asserted by several writers, and the story gradually spread over tho country, has since that time exercised a powerful Influence over the Indian race in Mexico, for the quicker conversion of whom the story was no doubt invented. Mary of Guadalupe has become tho patroness of Mexico, and the object of the Mexican's fondest devotion. She is also the symbol of national unity, and the Mexican who becomes a Protestant is held to be not only a renegade in religion, but a traitor to his country. This makes evangelical work among them doubly difficult. The progress making in every di rection by the Protectant forces has undoubtedly had something to do with the determination arrived at by the liomanist hierarchy to try to arouse the decaying enthusiasm ol the faith ful and replenish the depleting coffers of the church. Father Blancrate, t lie abbot of the Collegiate Church of Cuadalupe, is a shrewd and astute priest of the Jesuitical stripe, who manipulates with wonderful skill his superiors in ( fllce, and manages to ride rough-shod over his inferiors without getting more than a public protest on their part. Father Biunuarta has suc cessfully engineered the most stupen dous and shameless series of idolatrous acts hitherto witnessed on the Ameri can continent, and in addition has brought American, Canadian, French, Cuban and Central American prelates into a fellowship that has recognized as lawful the abominable act of idolatry that took place in Guadalupe em the 12'.h of October, when the rag of a I blanket, with the picture of a young ' Indian woman upon it, was solemnly j crowned by the Archbishop of McxLoj and Miohoaoan. j Twelve Mexican ladies were induced to give $3,000 apiece for the making of the framework of a crown that should j be placed over the image of the Virgin, i To this amount were added large sums of money given by rich and pewr, jew els, precious stones, and valuables of all sorts (thousands of the poor giving scrap-iron, rags and junk, which were sold wholesale by Pud re Blancartc, which was used partly in tho enlarge ment of the church, aad partly in tha furnishing of tho crown). This was made by a jeweler in Purls, and is said to ho worth In tho neighborhood of two hundred thousand dollars. Theba.iblo itself is not handsome, and as a Catho lic paper of the City of Mexico says, it looks, when placed In position over tho image of "Heaven's yuoen," us though the lady In question wero holding a richly adorned lantern in front of her self. The festivities connected with the coronation began on the lir;t of Octo ber, and they will continue ti tho lat ter part of December. Every bishopric in the country huj had its special day, when pilgrims from that, section of the Republic were expec:ed to be present andjiin in the general hurrah over tho approaching coronation. The com ing of these multitudes wa-i regarded by the Protectant missionaries as a favorable time for the holding of spe cial rcligiou-i services in different parts of the City of Mexico, for the scatter ing of the gospel, and tho circulation of a small daily paper that republishes articles and pamphlets once printed by prominent Me x can writers, showing the falsity and absurdity of the pre tended apj-arition. Very much to their surprise, the missionaries found themselves branded by American resi dents of thi! country as intolerant fa natics, and as likely to involve Ameri cans in trouble, if not to uccasion com plication between the two governments. A majority of the missionaries aban doned the enterprise, whiloa few prose cuted their work alone. These latt.-r were not molested; on the contrary, they felt that a special blessing at tended their efforts. Two days before the coronation, in the town of Guada lupe, directly in front of the church that contained the sacred idol, a Bap tist mi.-sionary stationed h imseif'atnid the surging multitude., and distributed trat-'ts and sold gospels until not a copy was left. He could have sold a thousand Testaments in that crowd if he had had them with him. But he had been persuaded by timid Ameri cans that it would ba as much as his life was worth to venture into the place that afli rnoon, let alone carrying bun dles of Bibles and Testaments. What ; pity the missionaries of the City of Mexico should have lost the opportu nity of a life-time to give the Word ef God to the piltrnms from fai-cistant place's, because a few Americans were afraid their business would suffer. As to the coronation itself: The crown stands 21 inches high, and is ot inches in circum'erence. The rim at the base consists of 22 enameled shields representing the 22 bishoprics of Mexico. Above comes a circular row of angeis, represented as issuing from roses, all of gold. Between the angels and supported by them, are- nix en ameled shields, on which are una blazoned the arms of tho six arch blshoprlcs of Meileo. From the back of tho angels, extending to tho apex of the crown, and thus forming the lu perlal dlwlem, are alternate festoons of massive gold roses and diamond tai . Thews cluster at the top under" an enameled geographical globe on which Mexico and tho Gulf of Mexico an represented. Abovu comes the Mexican eagle, gra-plng tho globe with one talon, while with the other it holds aloft a diamond cross. At tha top of the cross is a ring by which tho crown Is held by Iho cherub over the painting. The shields are surrounded with diamonds, and between tho shields are rows of sapphires and emeralds. In the breast of each angel llamos a ruby. Another crown, less costly than this ono, has been made in tho City of Mexico, which Is a fiic-similo of tho more elaborate one made lu Paris, which Is to re worn by tho Virgin on ordinary occasions. It would seem that not all tho faithful can be trusted with so much costly jewelry In sight above the Oollelatu Church, and tho costly crown will bo brought out only on special occasions. Only . few day before tho coronation, tho lieu v silver ornament on tup of thu newel post of the stairway leading to tho picture was carried away by some unknown admirer, and Its companion was wrenched from Its place, and would soon have Ix-en removed hud not other parties appeared on the scene. One of the leading Catholic papers asserts that the Virgin herself Interfered to prevent further reibbery. It Is said that only a few priests will be let Into the secret as to the hiding place of the Virgin's principal crowu, after these feasts have been held. Tho service preliminary to the crowning were in no Important resect different from those usually held by Romanists on great occasions, save that the attendance of Catholic prclatoi was unusually large. Archbishop Cor rigan, of New York City, was the most prominent guest, and his appearance excittd much attention. After the preliminary mass, tho Archbishop of Mexico put on his cope aid mitre of cloth and silver, and tho procession through the church took place. No religious procsnion of any kind is al lowed on the streets of any Mexican city since the Ltiwsof Roform went Into force In 1HI1. About 3,000 puaplo were in- Ide the church edifice, and us many more crowded about the t'oorways. Only the well-dressed werj admitted, the poor being carefully excluded. The descendants of Juan Diego, tho poor In dian to whom the Virgin Is said to have appeared, have not relished tho idea of In-ing excluded from participation in a service that commemorated a favor show n the Ir.dii n race. But now that the hierarchy have Juan Dieg ) firmly under their thumb, they seam to have little other use for him. The proces sion contained fifty bishops, so they say, and these wero followed by a long line of priests acolytes aad others, pro- coding the two crowns, the jeweled one coming last. The Archbishop of Mex ico brought up the rear, distributing his blessings with lavish hand on every side. A platform coverel with scarlet cloth I a 1 been erejlcd behind the great a tar, high up in tho air in front of the image. At eleven o'olocn the Archbishop of Mexico and Michoaean, who had been delega'od by the pope for t 'iat purposi.-, ascended tj the plat form, and taking the cro.vn ii his hands, raised it to its position alove the head of the picture of the Virgin Mary. At this point there was a wild hurrah on the part of the audience, women waived their handkerchiefs at the image and shouted their acclama tions, while the men at the top of their voices cried: "Lonir live Gi)dl ' "Hail, most Holy Mary!" "Hail, CJaeen of Heaven and patroness of Mexico!" ' Hail, Mary of Guadalupe!" "Long live our Advocate and Queen!" etc. Tl.e shouting lasted several, minutes, and could not full to reiuiud the Chris tian of a similar scene in the City of Ephcsus, when the muititud." for some two hours cried: ' Great is Diana ef the Ephesians." The work of tho silver smith and of the goldsmith has always been highly esteemed a nong those who find it difficult tei accept the Lord Jesus Christ as a sufficient Saviour from sin, The coronation of the picture was followed by another mass, and notaries public were called to attest in writing thatthat aet had taken place. After the services a dinner followed, given in honor of the visiting prelates, in which champagne and other wines flowed freely, toasts were drunk, and speeches made, all of them very jovial in char acter, and expressive of t.igh hopes for the prosperity of ths e'ountry, now that the Virgin Mary has been properly crowned. (Continues on fourth page.)