Communications
rather than mere libertines given over to indulgence and lust. Przybyszewski, judged solely by his writings, is seen always as the bewildered seeker after light, even though he makes--as indeed he...
...A further complication was added by the federal form given to the "United States of Mexico" in imitation of our own, regardless of the fact that Mexico was and is es- sentially a unit, while the colonies in North America were well-developed and independent communities which banded to- gether after independence, as a federation, for definite purposes which each state was unable to accomplish alone...
...The crux of the matter, it would seem, lies not in Mr...
...He started at once for Mexico but was not permitted to enter and came to Chicago and lived there in my house for more than two years, always keeping in touch with his diocese and really governing it from a distance...
...a con-stitution fitted to its needs, not a mere imitation of any other constitution no matter how well it may have worked for other people...
...T CRITICS AND MR...
...Chesterton at all" reveals a condition of mind strangely akin to that of the breezy Record chairman- elect...
...Volumes beyond number have been, are being, and will be written for all time to come upon the graces, prerogatives and mercies of Our Blessed Lady...
...He is not only an accom-plished musician, but perhaps the foremost of the criti- cal interpreters of Chopin, that great countryman of his who, if not a peasant like Przybyszewski, neverthe- less drew his best inspiration and wove the fabric of his finest textures from peasant life...
...Wright's position...
...To Warsaw in I9OO ; and from then on, growing in power and influence, he has become recognized in Europe, in Germany, France, and Russia, as well as in Poland, as an arresting and disturbing power...
...O the Editor :--Recently in The Universe, the great Eng- lish Catholic weekly, there appeared several letters upon the use of blue vestments for Our Lady's feasts...
...Chesterton is "a bore...
...Art is the revelation of the soul," he has written...
...Chester-ton discovered Christ...
...But in Snow also we hear him confuting his own dic-tum that "death is the only remedy" for the boredom of life, uttering the ringing phrase, "A man who fights, who slaves, who wears himself out in bloody struggle to achieve the unobtainable, is beautiful...
...He preached the retreats himself...
...Only the strong know how to conquer themselves, he cries, as if challenging his own weakness and his own despair...
...Now, it would seem, he has found his own strength and has indeed conquered himself...
...His sister, now dead, was the wife of a prominent French-Mexican merchant, one of the wealthiest men in the republic...
...He is willing to shed his own blood but will not let the people shed theirs for him...
...It's worse than a relic of provincialism to disparage things Spanish in this day of such world-wide dissemination of knowledge and enlightenment, yet how much crass ignorance is displayed amongst even our very...
...In the jail at Tampico he was threatened with death if he did not withdraw his appeal to the civil courts...
...In Polish, the most flexible of all the Slavic languages, he is acknowledged not only as a master, but even a magician...
...In the evening the soldiers came with a warrant from Governor Dieguez--who had sent word that he would be safe--and arrested him...
...Cuthbert Wright, reiterating his opinion that Mr...
...Chesterton as an intellectual force is dead...
...O the Editor:--I have just received your telegram and answer it as follows: His name is Francis Orozco y Jimlnez...
...He got another and one night a bomb was exploded under the window of his sleeping-apartment, but it just happened that he was in the country that night...
...Since then his whole life-work has been a dissective process...
...CHESTERTON New Haven, Conn...
...Oh, perhaps Aldous Huxley's neurasthenic master- piece, Antic Hay...
...or Ronald Firbank's peccant masterpiece, Prancing Nigger...
...And this is all the more to be remarked when it is recalled that, born in the "German" Poland of pre-war times (in the same year that Reymont was born in "Russian" Poland, I868) and educated in German schools, he did all his earlier writing in the alien tongue...
...The former seminary was a building of remarkable beauty with a magnificent library It was seized in early revolutions and the library scattered...
...You know that they did not leave of their own accord...
...An overwhelming majority of the people are very pious and very faithful...
...White, for her purity, is certainly appropriate, but it is also used on many an occasion and feast that is not in the remotest connected with Our Lady...
...To the Catholic, hearing of Przybyszewski's ac-ceptance of the Faith, the thought inevitably comes that, through it all, he must indeed have possessed a soul dear to God, given at long last, the starlike surety it has so hungered after...
...Wright's privilege to be bored...
...For much of the time he lived in a cave but when he got a chance he went to the houses of priests in the Indian country and in each place he gathered some of his clergy around him and had them make their retreats with him...
...But the serious critics are very serious about something...
...T MEXICO'S PROBLEM Washington, D. C. O the Editor :--President Calles is either extremely clever or he is very ably advised from the United States...
...FRANCIS C. KELLEY...
...There, founding the journal Life (Zycia) he became the spokesman of the "young" revolt of the time, the leader of the symbolists, the su- preme apostle of individualism...
...and his work will surely be judged adversely by those critics to whom Christ's divine religion has come to be an object of scorn...
...Some may retort that this is a Spanish custom, but it's high time Catholics in this country lost that Protestant en-gendered antipathy toward everything Spanish...
...No one who has ever seen the beautiful vestments that Spain and Spanish America use on the feasts of Heaven's Bright Queen but carries away with him an indelible memory of the same and longs for an extension of this beautiful privilege to the whole world...
...One evening when I returned from the office of the Extension Society, he met me at the door of his room and told me he was going to Mexico...
...but I fear it is the position of most people who only discovered that Mr...
...Chesterton's style (which has suddenly "become a bore" to many people besides Mr...
...It may indeed be true that the "tattered rhymester" of 19o 5 might judiciously have clipped somewhat his style's curly locks when he put on the theologian's gown...
...From that point he struck out on foot to reach the mountains of Jalisco and reached them safely...
...His city is the second largest in Mexico and the diocese comprises the state of Jalisco...
...Fearing publicity, the government did not dare to kill him...
...And Mr...
...Archbishop Orozco was con- secrated Archbishop of Chiapas and he busied himself not only with his spiritual work, but also with improving the condition of his cathedral town where he was responsible for the building of one of the large public utilities...
...I can be spared so I am going back to Mexico...
...I have heard that some people think that we are cowards and that if we were American bishops we would stay and be martyred...
...He was put in a freight car which was filled with soldiers under the command of General Delara, who occupied a private car on the same train, and taken to Tampico...
...He withdrew the appeal and the government sent him to the border...
...During the Carranza revolution the new seminary was seized also, and during the present revolution another was taken...
...When the Carranza revolution began the persecution of religion, the Archbishop was in Rome...
...He comes of Spanish stock although like his parents he is a native-born Mexican...
...In our own country in the states of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and Florida this beautiful color dignified the celebration of Our Lady's festivals until after the American occupation when French bishops and priests superseded the old Spanish and Mexican missionaries...
...a true peasant soul, primitive in its appetites, yet healthy enough to throw off the poison of the flesh and rise above the earthly mysteries of procreation to an apprehension of the spiritual mystery of the Creator Himself...
...Something his peasant for-bears, walking their plowed furrows with bare feet, but with their earth-soiled hands in the Hand of God-- something they bequeathed him and kept alive in him, to win him back to the sound faith of their childlike hearts...
...His title is Arch- bishop of Guadalajara...
...Mexican constitutions all bear in them the basic error of partisanship...
...It comes after NIex/co City and Puebla...
...T MARY'S LITURGICAL COLOR Waxahachie, Texas...
...In my parish he took over the spiritual care of the Sisters who taught in the parochial schools, saying Mass for them every morning...
...Nothing I could say would change him...
...He promised to take care of himself as well as he could...
...We have constitutional lawyers of world-wide reputation, whose prestige would ensure Amer- ican confidence in the labors of a drafting commission...
...REv...
...Chesterton throws off the Merry Andrew's cap and bells, to remind the serious critics of what they should have known long ago, to wit that Father Brown is something besides Innocent, that The Napoleon of Notting Hill carries a meaning about patriotism, that Lepanto ~vas more than an exercise in onomatopoeia and the inspiration for The Congo, and that a paradox can be, not merely a bed of coals over which to bake a trifle of witty souffle, but a searing fire to illuminate the darkness of commonplace prejudices and make the Word of God shine forth--when he does this, then, Mr...
...Our serious critics, it would seem, are remarkably timid about being serious in any matter that matters...
...They had a proclama- tion printed calling for a revolution, with his name on it, and tha'eatened that if he did not withdraw the appeal they would publish it...
...But this was his nature--to suffer and to ask...
...He went back again some months later...
...That is a debatable matter...
...WILLIAM FRANKLIN" SANDS...
...The Indians watched for the soldiers and warned him when they were coming...
...It is to be feared that Amer- icans cannot be very helpful in the realization of such a program, for we are neither liked nor trusted in Mexico, by any party, and that with good reasons...
...Chesterton was a bore in the moment that Mr...
...In twenty republics in the Americas, blue today is the color of the vestments and why can it not be the same in the twenty- first, namely our own United States...
...The revolutionists hate and fear the Archbishop because of his popularity and his bravery...
...What processes he passed through to reach this end we can easily guess...
...He suggested that they should take him out the back door of the jail and away to some other place to avoid a disturbance...
...But always he has been the peasant soul, primitive in force, mystically attuned to creation, puzzled and bruised by life, disturbing because he has been himself forever disturbed...
...The story is told in his writings...
...there are also very practical experiences to be drawn on in Belgium where the Catholic party has demonstrated the compatibility of liberalism with Catholic thought in government...
...This went on for about eighteen months...
...The state of Jalisco is one of the strongest Catholic sections of Mexico...
...Of democratic thought, of un-derstanding of self-government in the sense that these were understood by the founders of the United States, there was not a trace...
...Hers certainly is an in- dividual prerogative and a unique position and why should we not distinguish and emphasize the same by employing for her feasts a special liturgical color...
...Not a one of us but has re-ceived of her mercy...
...The cathedral is probably the third in size and beauty...
...That is a program for the Catholic party in Mexico, not- withstanding present difficulties...
...What is it...
...in drafting a new constitution, due consideration should be given to the possibili- ties of the far future and as ample preset, t safeguards provided as may be humanly possible for the rights of a backward majority...
...And when a mystical democrat like Mr...
...all previous art, all realistic art, was marked by the absence of the search for the soul...
...Stripped of his desire to bathe his injured feelings in The Commonweal's blood, Mr...
...Wright, though not infrequently they ad- mired it in the essay class back in 'Io) but rather in the gradual development of Mr...
...Such a program with the majority of Mexicans behind it (and Catholics constitute the majority) would attack Mexico's problem at the root...
...The new one was completely surrounded by other buildings so that blowing it up was out of the question...
...Wright a "bitterness" that "is always ultimately bile") are not of signifi- cance...
...But on the way he had a lawyer who visited him take out a writ of amparo...
...But, to balance his mind, to keep him sane, he had music...
...Some one of us must show the truth by an action...
...Well, it is Mr...
...Since Amer- ica took the side-road out of Protestantism into paganism, any- one who turns the other way to find Christ in Christianity will inevitably impregnate his work with an ideal incompatible with that of a Jurgen, a Ulysses, or even a Babbitt...
...Przybyszewski, judged solely by his writings, is seen always as the bewildered seeker after light, even though he makes--as indeed he invariably pictures man as making--his own darkness...
...He spent what private fortune he had and made marked improvements everywhere...
...loyal children of a loving Mother then should strive to have some special honor shown the giver and certainly a people's love and devotion could manifest itself in no more appropriate manner...
...He had to leave that house and rent another...
...They were drawn by parties, for the preservation or for the restriction of definite things...
...consequently it is not necessary in this present communication to dwell upon the indisputable position Our Lady occupies in God's providence or the rea-sons why she so deserves special honor...
...I was silent, and he continued, "Now really, why don't you admit it, Chesterton was a delightful prep-school thrill, and that's all ?" Now in its issue of January 26, The Commonweal carries a letter from Mr...
...own when Mexico, South America, the Philippines or the Antilles are mentioned in discussion, or worse still, when a defense of the Church in the country first mentioned is attempted...
...They reveal a soul too fine to go down, too strong to give up...
...He has found his own soul...
...In spite of his bravery he would never agree to do or say anything that might stir the people up and thus cause bloodshed, although time and time again he has put his own life in jeopardy...
...Wright's opinion that "it is many a long year since any critic of serious pretentions has given a thought to Mr...
...Not only is Mary Im-maculate our patroness but our patronal feast day is that of her Immaculate Conception---certainly both facts are all the more conclusive why she should be especially honored here...
...or that masterpiece of the immensely trivial bon mot, Norman Douglas's South Wind...
...From the twelfth century down to the Protestant Reformation, which so completely blighted that delicate and beautiful flower of English piety and devotion to the Holy Mother of God, blue was a popular liturgical color in Mary's Dowry...
...This balance, this cultivation of his sense of rhythm, coupled with the delicate dissective nature of his mind, are the fac- tors that perhaps account most for the perfection of Przybyszewski's diction...
...It was not until he moved to the ancient Polish cap- ital, Krakow, the centre of Polish intellectual and artistic life, in x 898, that he began to be an influence in his home country...
...He refused, and in the meantime the foreign consuls kept watch on the case...
...The Governor of the state withdrew the soldiers who were chasing him and sent word that he would not be arrested and therefore would not need to remain in hiding...
...To see and talk with him one might be tempted to imagine that he is too polite and kind to be firm, but he is bravery and firmness itself...
...As the revolutionary government by this time had set up civil courts, this action caused consternation for it was intended to deal with him through the military...
...Fearing that the revolutionists would kill him, I protested but he said, "Everybody does not know as much about the situation as you and you know that all the Mexican bishops would gladly have remained or would go back if it were possible...
...His prevailing characteristic is generosity...
...Acceptance of the principle of arbitration by Calles and an arbitral award satisfactory to both sides would isolate the question of religion and leave it unsolved, together with the fundamental question of the Mexican constitution...
...Wright, and--the I927 Yale Record chairman...
...Perhaps not sophomoric but shall we not at least say a trifle broad--a condescending dismissal of Mr...
...Arbitration of the material issues between Mexico and the United States appeals strongly to all Americans opposed to war...
...He went to Jalisco and was received in triumph by the people...
...A new, liberal, constitution is what Mexico needs...
...His family was always prominent and quite wealthy...
...I don't feel that that is necessarily Mr...
...It is not certain that in their hundred years of in- dependence the majority of Mexicans are ready for complete self-government or anywhere near ready...
...He had his office and secretary at the residence of the chaplain of Columbus Hospital where he often attended the sick...
...In Snow he poses the age-old ques- tion of life over and over, in a dozen different ways...
...In the meantime the government had seized his house and turned it into municipal offices...
...Bishop of Oklahoma...
...But it is not in the least debatable that a man who clears his mind of the Ten Thousand Amusing Errors in favor of One Truth concomitantly clears from his audience such "critics of serious pretensions" as Mr...
...When he was lodged in jail there was a turmoil amongst the people and the Archbishop feared bloodshed...
...There are equally widely-known jurists in South America whose presence might help to offset the taint of North American im- perialism...
...The incidentals of his quarrel with The Commonweal editor (who, by the way, slipped into the same alliteration that he found "out of place" in Chesterton, when he unjustly imputed to Mr...
...Even in his early youth we find him, while he is studying medicine in the Berlin polytechnicum, composing his first treatise on The Microscopic Structure of Cerebral Covering...
...Let her have a peculiar and special color all her own, the heaven's very blue itself, which her dignity and position demand...
...He has been him- self "the powerfully powerless soul" that he has de- picted, the soul self-poisoned and self-dismayed...
...Believing this story, he went to Los Lagos where he gave confirmation and participated in a cere-mony at the Shrine...
...Chesterton's viewpoint from that of a clever logician making mince-meat of a thousand little modem idols, into that of a very earnest, though still clever, Christian apologist...
...He went about publicly and even once was arrested for wearing a clerical costume on the street while he was passing from the door of his house to a carriage...
...JOSEPH G. O'DONOHOE...
...Chesterton as "a third-rate and superannuated writer...
...They were drawn, not by people with practical and inherited knowledge of self-govern- ment, but by descendants of the feudal system of Europe--some still feudal in their convictions, others fired by the philosophies of the French Revolution, and tinged by the anti-religious features of those philosophies...
...Rome's permission can be elicited by our bishops petitioning for the same, and such action can be brought about by a deep and concerted interest on the part of Mary's clients and chil- dren throughout this country...
...He went to Mexico dis- guised and got as far as Aguas Calientes by rail...
...HARRY McGun~E...
...The greater part of the Catholic world, geographically speaking at least, uses blue for the liturgical color on Mary's feasts...
...COMMUNICATIONS T PORTRAIT OF A PRELATE Oklahoma City, Okla...
...The Archbishop is a tall ascetic-looking man, very quiet but very friendly...
...But I'll tell you a secret scandal: he still thinks Chester- ton is important...
...O the Editor :--It was only recently that an acquaintance of mine in Yale College, a witty young gentleman who has just been chosen Chairman of the Yale Record for 1927, said to me, "I have finally met your friend Father And the way philosophy rolled from his tongue, really, I was awed...
...Chesterton "becomes a bore...
...In Spanish countries it is an age-old custom and special privilege to do so, and the portent of these communications was to arouse interest among English-speaking Catholics for an extension of the same practice to the whole world...
Vol. 5 • February 1927 • No. 13
