Antipodal (verse)
Williams, Jessie E.
July IO, 1929 T H E C O M M O N W E A L 275 from us. Then we used our profits on this one-sided transaction to buy up the countrymlock, stock and barrel--as against the day when the wicked...
...We catch a glimpse of him in the refuge he found and fash- ioned for himself and some eighty followers two miles without the city of Tours: a lonely spot guarded on one side by preci- pice, on the others by the River Loire, only to be approached by a single narrow path...
...the younger members worked at script, the elder gave to prayer all their strength...
...Then we used our profits on this one-sided transaction to buy up the countrymlock, stock and barrel--as against the day when the wicked American financiers would whistle for the White House to annex the country which they had thus purchased...
...so in France of the fourth century the young soldier Martin to Our Lord in the semblance of His least child, the shivering beggar of Amiens...
...It was the first monastery in western lands which he founded at Ligug6 near Poitiers, under Hilary its visitor...
...When then, as it happened, tile words of the sacred Office rang out through the Church: "That Thou mayest still the enemy and the avenger"--"Ut destruas inimicum et defensorem"--the people clamored that God had declared with this voice His will and carried their desire by force of multitude...
...Breeze that brings the charm6d scent Of the tasseled locust tree Wakes a sadness in me blent With ecstasy ] JESSIE E. WILLIAMS...
...4n@oda...
...When we regard Fords and Buicks manufactured across the line in Canada as foreign cars and subject them to a duty, the bottom simply falls out of the whole silly theory that the American investment in Canada is an "entering wedge" for that annexation which we are supposed to desire so frantically, and which would be met with shrieks of protest from every major pro-ducing interest in this country, led by the farm bloc...
...Once in the streets of Tours, a thronging crowd from all the region round about acclaimed Martin their spiritual head...
...The bishopric of Tours fell vacant...
...Yet, bishop or no bishop, a man of prayer Martin remained...
...We do not like it in theory, and in practice we have no intention of permitting our altered status to injure our basic national inter-ests, even if the theory demands that we should do so...
...Especially incensed was the great Bishop Defensor, under whom the strife continued hot t111 the hour of prayer...
...There for some ten years he prayed and wrought works of mercy in retreat till his fame spread far and wide...
...yet the far journey of his life gives year by year to the Church at lauds on his day the more excellent memory, the cry of his priests gathered round their shepherd and bishop as he lay dying on that bed of ashes strewn upon the ground: "Why, Father, dost thou forsake us, to whom dost thou leave us desolate...
...and Martin must perforce be dragged by pious strategy from his cell to assume the high office his heart refused...
...A mean-faced creature," mut-tered the dignified prelates who attended this strange congress, "of ragged cassock and untrimmed hair--how could such grace a chapter-house...
...for "every oty and church desired for itself one of Martin's priests...
...Circumstances beyond our control have forced upon us the r61e of creditor...
...And now shall hungry wolves devour thy fold...
...At the same time, it should end the theory that these invest- ments, which we regard so lightly, are part of some vast design to enslave the helpless inhabitants of less favored areas to a novel system of imperial economics...
...When the apple farmer demands a duty on bananas, even though he fails to deliver this blow to the solar plexus of the United Fruit Com-pany, the latter's hypothetic r61e as an instrument of American aggrandizement looks rather empty...
...YVe are told by Sulpicius Severus, his devoted friend and biographer, that one of the worthy citizens of Tours, by name Rusticius, lured the holy man forth by entreaty to save his wife in dire sickness...
...However, when we start on the most dramatic phase of our tariff policy--which is regarded as the causa causans of all this sinfulness--by cutting the umbilical cord which ties $ i,ooo,ooo,ooo of our capital in Cuba from the American market, something is wrong with the picture...
...What is there here in traffic's flow Of freighted blooms and leafy lace That their immortal scent should blow Across my face...
...their food was frugal, their clothing of camel's hide...
...No great aristocrat was this in purple and fine linen, no man of form or comeliness...
...But the subtlety and craft of the devil and man, of heretics and barbarians, was calling aloud in the Western Church of this time for strong and single-minded leaders...
...It is for this simple act of a devoted catechumen that men in general still remember the Saint of Tours...
...When Oklahoma clamors for a protec-tive tariff on oil produced in American-owned wells in Mexico and Venezuela, the theory that we are out to capture and exploit the world's oil supply subsides like a wet rag...
...The present tariff discussion has had the fortunate effect of compelling attention to this phase of our national attitude...
...Why should an image at my feet Of some shaft or fretted spire Plant swaying boughs on city street-My heart afire...
...Whereat the Pharisees were shocked...
...henceforth I fight for Christ," he had hastened to serve Hilary of Poitiers as exorcist, refusing higher rank...
...This theory is attractive and, in view of the histori- cal conduct of some nations, it is entirely plausible...
...From secular labor for the Church he had withdrawn to the solitude of monastic life, his shelter and peace amid all tlle stress of future days...
...It shows that we are quite willing to destroy the value of our own investments if at any time they conflict with our major interests...
...Here dwelt the brethren in cells built of timber, in caves of the mountain rock...
...For from Caesar's camp with the joyous words flung down at feet of Julian's legate: "Thus far have I fought for the emperor...
...From thence he journeyed here and there on missions of instruction, of healing, of championship of the Faith against Arian enemies, among ignorant and superstitious pagans, in...
...July IO, 1929 T H E C O M M O N W E A L 275 from us...
...This monastic home of Marmoutier won great renown as a seminary for future bishops...
...THE SAINT OF TOURS By ELEANOR SHIPLEY DUCKETT S IN England to Tudor Elizabeth Walter Raleigh made reverent salutation...
Vol. 10 • July 1929 • No. 10
