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A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER,
"AMEKICA FOK AMEKICANS." We bold that all mm are AntrrcUns who Swear Allegiance to the United States without a mental renervattiin.
l'HICK FIVE CENTS.
VOLOJIB VIII.
OMAHA, NEBRASKA, FRIDAY, FKMtUAKY 18, 1898.
N UMIIKK 7.
WAS IT TREACHERY
OR AN ACCIDENT?
.1
To Which Was Due the
Ship "Maine" in the
' --The Question in
Opinion Generally Prevails Among Patriots
that Spain's Treacherous Roman Sons
Did the Deed.
WAR flAY
All Protestant Patriots Who are Willing to Go to the
Front Can Join the Company now Being Or
ganized by Coming to this Office.
Its HottoWill Be "No Surrender," and Only Those
Who Would Prefer Death to Roman Catholic
Success Are Wanted.
RALLY ROUND
The destruction of the battleship
Maine la Cuban waters last Tuesday
night, following as It did the dis
missal of the Roman Catholic Span
ish minister, Do Lome, leads many pa
triate to believe Roman Catholic
treachery was at the bottom of the
disaster. Nor are these patriots all
members of patriotic organizations.
Men In all walks of life have besieged
this office with requests for an opinion
and an explanation of the fatality
ever since its occurrence, but we can
see but one solution of the affair.
That le the church of Rome Is impli
cated ia the dastardly del that crip-
Died the navy. Nor are we alone in
this opinion. Men who have not even
sympathized with the movement we
have been helping to foster and for
ward are charging the crime to Spain,
whose every soldier is a Roman Cath
olio and whose every arm and flag has
been blessed by the pope of Rome.
While the details and reports at
hand are meagre, and while there ap
pears at this time to be a desire to
charge the disaster up to accident,
still we believe the future will reveal
the culprit as well as the cause, for
we are firmly convinced that bloody,
treacherous Rome land Spain plan
ned and executed the damnable trag
edy.
We believe the same foul band that
plotted the assassination of Abraham
Lincoln, that planned the Gunpowder
pldt to destroy the British parlia
ment, that conceived the St. Barthol
omew massacre; the same red -headed
band of desperadoes who took the life
of the beloved Lincoln, who slew Cbl
Igny and his compatriots, planned and
executed the destruction of the battle
ship Maine of the United States Navy.
They did It for the two-fold pur
pose of crippling the naval force of
this country, and to see how far they
could proceed without their declared
intention to take this country and
keep it becoming known or guessed
by the American people.
If the government of the United
States will not see Its open and avowed
enemy, individual patriots should pre
Destruction of U. S. Battle-
Harbor Off Havana?
Patriotic Minds.
RESULT.
THE FLAG, BOYS.
pare for the worst and be ready at a
moment's notice to take up their
march to the chief city of their state
and place themselves under the direc
tion of the men who will rise up
leaders to oppose Rome in her traitor
ous designs upon this country. .
RENOUNCE!) ROME.
Abbe Cbarbonut-1, Cleric and Author
Turns his Back
A Paris dispatch says: "Like a bolt
of lightning from a clear sky came ths ? l ?f an anti-clerical nature, as may
nn,mnf ...... vl.Jbe erred from the fact that he pub-
,. luol Auue
Victor Charbonnel, one of the most
distinguished clerical writers of
France. and a. shining uht in h. u
r,Kl,. ... . . , ,,
man Church, had cast off his alleg-
lance, and declared that in the future
he would worship God untrammelled
by restrictions and regulations creat-
kA h th. D.i, n. . ...
luo IM"B,8 nierarcny, says tne
Christian Herald. It was while try
ing to put through his project for a
Congress of Religions in 1900, similar
to the one held at the Chicago World's
Fair, that this earnest worker real-
ized the wide gulf which separated
the Catholicism of today from the
principles laid down by the poor and
humble Nazarene. Let me quote his
own words from his letter published the Catholic world of Europe, from the
In all of today's newspapers, address- Holy, Father down. Taxll's confes
ed to Cardinal Richard, the archblsh- slon brought a storm around his ears.
op of Paris:
Your Eminence: In devoting my
life to the church. In the ardent sin-
cerlty of youth, I had hoped to devote
it at the same time to my God. But a
long and sad experience has brought
me the disappointing conviction that
to serve the church, or rather the men
who today are controlling it, is not
service to my Maker. I cannot, with
a clear conscience, continue to keep
up my connection with an ecclesiasti-
cal organization that uses religion as
an Instrument for governing the
minds of men, as a dominating force,
a means of exercising intellectual and
social oppression, a system of lntoler-
ance all this to supplant its true mis- into the psychology of human rascal
sion, which is to elevate the soul, to ity and human stupidity. One remark
seek a divine ideal, to furnish a moral is however In order. For some years
support, a principle of love and broth-
erhood among men; in brief, I op-
pose a system that turns religion into
a matter of miserably human politics,
instead of divine faith!
Loyal to my conscience, and for the
peace of my soul, I am Impelled to an
nounce to 1 our Eminence tnat 1 am
no more a member of the Catholic
clergy; I am no more of the Catholic
Church!
There is an old familiar ring about
these words; for a moment they take
us back to the days of the Augsburg
confession, and of the old historic
protests against the enroachments and I
tyranny of Rome. I said just now
that this repudiation of the church by Some Catholics, imbued with this spir
Abbe Charbonnel had come like a it. we find in America for example,
thunderbolt. This statement needs to The event leading up to Abbe Char
be qualified. The general public not bonnel's renunciation of Papal author-
being prepared for the announcement, ity was his idea of convening the lead
were in a measure taken back. Those, ing theologians of the world to a gen
however, who, like myself, have been eral assemblage during the year of the
louowing Charbonnel s recent writ-
ings, could, without even reading be-
tween the lines, have foretold the
event. I was much impressed by an I
article of his published in tbe Revue
Chretlenne, the leading Protestant pe-jof
rlodical of Prance, with regard to the
extraordinary case of Leo Taxil, that
accomplished fumlste, or mystlller,
who for twelve Ion years deluded
thousands and thousands of Catho
lics all over the world pretending to
disclose the rites and artifices of a
secret order.
Leo Taxil, whose real name is Gab
riel Jogand, was for many years i
dabbler in sensational literature, much
u8ned a most scurrilous parody on the
Scrintures. when the notion rIrzmI
I n,m one day to make a pretense of be-
coming converted to Romanism. Here
was a triumph for the church! Taxil
then attacked Freemasonry. This
suited a certain portion of the Catho-
He hierarchy
wnettea tne appetites or a
I credulous class for further revelations,
Xa-n hromrht
woman, wbom be called Diana
Vaughn, an associate and like him
self, a convert to Rome. At last, fear
ing eventual discovery and prosecu
tion for fntfiA TiretAnapa hn mihllflv
acknowledged at a special meeting, at
which the writer was present, that
tne wnole business had been a hoax
twelve y6ears ne had eXperlenced the
pleasure of fooling the best part of
For weeks after, the clerical press en-
deavored to explain away its own gul-
libllity, while showering invectives on
the bogus convert's head. Not eo with
Victor . Charbonnel, who saw In this
incident a probably long desired op-
portunity to preach a sermon to those
of his co-religionists who allow their
superstition to dim the bright beacon
of Scriptural truth. Here are the
strong and telling words that summed
up hie presentation of this most ex-
traordlnary episode.
It would be superfluous to attempt
an explanation of this adventure be-
tween the im poster and his victim,
It would be merely entering once more
back Catholicism has unfortunately
been accomplishing a visible evolu-
tion, which must naturally end in the
worst of deceptions. Apparitions,
pilgrimages, so-called supernatural
revelations, prophecies, new rites and
forms of devotion, psychic manifesta
tions, mysticosensual hallucinations
these are the elements that seem to
hold the highest place in the life and
activity of the church. One begins by
believing in the Virgins of La Salette
and Lourdes, and one ends by accept
ing Diana Vaughan la Couesdon, and
the Virgin of Tllly-sur-Seulles. What
our Catholicism really needs is some
injection of the Protestant spirit
Paris Exposition. It was in vain that
he appealed to his Catholic brethren
In France, Switzerland and even in
tolerant Scotland, to help him main-
tain the theory of the "equal dignity
every form of religious belief based
on nonest conviction," another way
expressing the theory of religious
tolerance. The word was passed
arouU. and his lay adherents sud
denly withdrew from his support
This young and brilliant writer,
whose name had lent an unusual eclat
for the past ten years to the religious
literature of modern France, at last
decided to sever the ties that bound
him to the Catholic hierarchy. The
Gospel of Christ undeflled is his guide
hereafter, without the mockeries and
flummeries created by man!
VALERIAN GRIBAYEDOFF.
From Montrose.
I have read the issue of the 21st Inst.
I also read the press dispatches in the
Dally News In relation to the coming
separation of the government and the
Papacy in Italy. I formed about the
same conclusions you did in regard
to the outcome of the troubles, (If they
have any), and was not surprised any
at reading your account.
But, really. Friends, what are we
going to do about It? You can Inter
est a small percentage of our people
in our cause, and for a time they will
be deeply in earnest, but their en
thusiasm soon cools for want of an
open enemy to fight and they fall
away.
I was talking with a minister who
is my neighbor, and he ridiculed the
idea of any danger coming from Rome.
"Why, " said he , "if trouble comes
up between the Catholic Church and
the United States, four-fifths of our
American Catholics would stand by
out government"
Now, so long as there are rruiny
thousands who entertain the same
opinions as he, and who regard the
Roman Church as a branch of the
Christian Church, there will have to
be open declarations of war before
they will believe anything against her.
I was reading an article in the Feb
ruary Arena in regard to the secret
societies, and the writer after men
tioning some of the great historical
crimes committed by the Jesuits as
one of the greatest secret societies,
could see no wrong in them as much
as he could in the Masonic order.
which he took pains to rant and rave
about to the end of the chapter, lead
ing one to believe that he bad at one
time been rejected membership by
that order.
I feel that while a few thousands of
us may believe that Rome Intends us
an Injury and will endeavor to pro
tect ourselves as well as we are able,
that many lives will be lost, and
thousands spent by Rome to carry out
her plans, but they will in the end
fail. When the eventful day comes
our American's will rally to our stand
ard, and although Rome may gain for
a time, in the end she will be defeated
and forever driven from our land.
And while I am at it, I may as well
say something as to your paper's po
litical action during the last year or
more. Four years ago I was a loyal
friend and supporter of McKinley and
believed him to be a man who would
redeem us from Rome. And when you
hoisted his name at the head of your
paper for president in '96 I cried,
"Hurrah." But when, after his nomi
nation, I saw how strong a hold such
men as Kerens and Ireland had on
mm, and how, in spite or all our
friends in Missouri, Kerens wan taken
Into the fold by llanna and McKlnley.
I felt that no true American could
support him knowing these thlngR.
And when your paper came out so
boldly for him and tried by every
means in your power to compass hi
election, I felt like withdrawing my
support from you. But after thinking
it over and remembering your loyalty
to our cause, I came to the conclu
sion that you would see the errors of
your ways soon and would be censur
ing where you were then praising. My
surmise proved correct and I have
been glad to Bee your change of base,
for I can see no difference between
this and the former administration so
far as Its treatment of Rome is con
cerned. Rome is an advocate of
monarchlal form of government and
is evidently In collusion with the
money power which is aiming at an
enslavement of the people and of
which the Republican party Is a will
ing tool. Everything done by Con
gress for the last 20 years has, almost
In every case, been for the interest of
some trust or corporation or church
and that church always Rome.
She now has control of New York
and Buffalo, Chicago and San Francis
co and It is today more powerful than
before the A. P. A. movement began,
and which the politicians have
almost wrecked.
I am glad to note how you are keep
ing tab on the appointments of Mr
Klnley, of Romanists to power, ami
publishing them to the world, but
it will do but little good, for men will
read today and forget tomorrow. I
shall take pleasure in sending the
papers which you sent me to as 111. 11 i
friends as possible. Some have al
ready been sent to New York, Texas,
Idaho, California and Iowa, besides to
many places in this state where I
have friends. Our friends here have
been supplied to some extent and we
will hope that good seed has been
sown.
Wishing you all success in your
work and with a hope that you may
arouse our people to their danger soon,
I remain, Sincerely vour friend.
F. M. B.
That Horrible Murderer.
New York Sun: What Spain has
done during tbe last three years in
Cuba in the way of exterminating that
Island's people is more awful in its
destruction than the entire achieve
ment of Spanish armies in the course
of their wars to extend Spain's do
minion in other countries.
Charles V., in the Netherlands, In
the thirty years elapsing from 1520 to
1550. brought death to about 100,000
persons, according to the estimates of
Grotiua. From that time up to 1566
the Spaniards murdered in cold blood,
said the Prince of Orange, over 50,000
persons. The Duke of Alva, in a well-
known letter to his master, Don Phil
lp II., boasted of having slain In cities
and towns, within five years, 18,009
Dutch people. .
But what is all that when, from 1896
to 1897, as declared by ths Bishop of
Havana, 530,000, or more than a half
a million, victims of Himnlnh barbar
ity have been burled in the cemeteries
of Cuba?
What are the awful crimes committ
ed in the name of the King of Spain
by Boves and Morillo during the great
struggle for independence in South
America when. In Cuba, General Wey
ler, in less than two years, extermi
nated over 200,000 peaceful non-combatants
in Culm, slaughtering them
not only with fire and sword but by
the pan k which Dante put among the
first of hell the slow and ruthless tor
ture of hunger?
What Is the record of Spanish atroc
ities in Mexico and Santo Domingo
when, within three months after Gen
eral Blanco's landing In Havana, 80,
000 persons perished In Cuba from
tarvalion or were assassinated, re
gardless of age or sex. In the manner
described by Blanco himself In his de
cree of January 8, 1898, ordering bis
soldiers not to kill any more men, wo
men and children, aged, unarmed pris
oners, or defenseless paclflcos?
These are horrors such as have never
been committed before at any time In
any country hy the most bloodthirsty
savages who have tainted the pages of
history.
(Why is this old bloodthirsty mons
ter of nations treated so tenderly by
the administration at Washington?
Was it not bad enough for Cleveland
to coddle to Spain and act as a yellow
watchdog for Spain against the Cu
ban patriots striving for liberty?
Editor Chicago Tribune
A Monument to Canterbury.
London. Feb. 10. The revival of the
movement Htarted several years ago
but which has since been dormant
for the erection of a monument at
Canterbury on the spot where, 00
cording to tradition, forty-one mar
tyrs were burned at the stake during
the reign of Queen Mary, is causing a
good deal of feeling in religious cir
cles. Nothing had been publicly heard
of the scheme for several years until
recently, when it developed that a
committee, with the co-operation of
Cannon Farrar and other distinguished
men, had been quietly at work rais
ing funds and had actually purchased
a piece of ground 100 feet square, which,
according to tradition, is the exact
spot upon which the burnings took
place. Tbe opponents of the scheme
insist that it will serve no useful pur
pose, and that nothing is to be gained
by the erection of a majestic shaft as
a reminder of the bitter religious con
flicts of tbe reign of bloody Queen
Mary, especially in view of the cordial
fraternal relations established between
the heads of the Episcopal and Ro
man Catholic hierarchies since the
recent pilgrimage to Canterbury. The
promoters of the monument scheme,
however, have not so far been intimi
dated by adverse criticism, and have
Issued Invitations for a public compe
tition, for designs for the proposed
monument.