![Revision History for the First Edition
2015-10-06: First Release
See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781491910856 for release details.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. RESTful Rails
Development, the cover image of a Desmarest’s hutia, and related trade dress are
trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the
information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the
author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation
responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the
information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code
samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source
licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that
your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.
978-1-491-91085-6
[LSI]](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/12301-250325085616-2a1e7144/85/RESTful-Rails-Development-Building-Open-Applications-and-Services-1st-Edition-Silvia-Puglisi-11-320.jpg)
![Lovely? Of course she is lovely. What a ridiculous question! Who ever
heard of a heroine who wasn’t lovely, still less a heroine who was
also the niece of a rob—Peste! The cat was almost out of the bag
that time—so nearly out, in fact, that we may as well slip the noose
and let her go at once. Scat! And now, the author’s mind being freed
of an enormous load, he breathes more freely and announces that
our luckless M. de Boisrobert has literally fallen into a den of thieves.
For what purpose otherwise that artful hint about the rustics prying
into the stables, the horses falling dead upon the way, the elaborate
setting forth of the gloom and desolation hanging like a pall over the
ruined château—to what end, do you suppose, was all this
expenditure of literary artifice, except to prepare the reader’s mind
for some blood-curdling and harrowing event? But the curé? the
curé? Why, simply no curé at all: a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as there
were then but too many in France.[111]
Of this, however, as yet M. de Boisrobert knew nothing. Filled with
vague forebodings of evil he could neither define nor reason down,
he felt but little in the humor for talk, and still less—being, as you
remember, in his tenth lustrum—for flirtation. So, after one or two
wise remarks upon the weather, or the state of the crops, or the
latest opera, or whatever other topics gentlemen-farmers then chose
to break the ice of conversation with a pretty girl, had been
answered more virgineo with shy blushes, or faltering monosyllables,
or embarrassed and embarrassing silence, M. de Boisrobert betook
himself to the window to look out upon the surrounding country. A
full moon threw upon every object a lustre like that of day, and—ha!
what is this he sees in the court-yard? Can that be his host, the curé,
talking so confidentially to those exceedingly sinister-looking chaps
(one of whom he now remembers to have had pointed out to him at
the fair as a coiner of base money, the other as a more than
suspected thief), and handling those three exceedingly long and
ugly-looking poniards!—ugh! how their keen edges glitter in the
moonlight as the rascals run their dirty thumbs along to try their
temper.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/12301-250325085616-2a1e7144/85/RESTful-Rails-Development-Building-Open-Applications-and-Services-1st-Edition-Silvia-Puglisi-25-320.jpg)
![Catholics in the United States outnumber those in England more
than fourfold.
In 1830, according to the most trustworthy estimates, there were
600,000 Catholics in England and 475,000 in the United States; now
they number two millions there and from six to seven millions here.
In England to-day the church has a cardinal, twelve suffragan
bishops, and 2,064 priests; in the United States she has a cardinal,
66 archbishops and bishops, and 5,297 priests. In England,
according to the English Catholic Directory for last year, there were
997 Catholic churches, 7 theological seminaries, 312 ecclesiastical
students, 15 colleges, 38 asylums, and 5 hospitals. In the United
States, according to the American Catholic Directory for the same
year, there were 5,292 Catholic churches, 34 theological seminaries,
1,217 ecclesiastical students, 62 colleges, 219 asylums, and 95
hospitals.[112]
We have drawn out this comparison for the purpose of accentuating
our former remark that the marvellous growth of the church in the
United States during the last half-century has been mainly due to
emigration from Catholic countries. Had it not been for these
accessions, it is doubtful, in our opinion, whether the church in the
United States would to-day equal in numbers the church in England.
But would its growth have been so great, so pronounced, so
commanding to the attention of all beholders, had this emigration
been directed away from the cities and dispersed throughout the
rural and agricultural sections of the country? A little reflection will,
we think, show that this question must be answered in the negative.
It would have availed the church nothing had these emigrants been
placed in their new homes under conditions where the preservation
of their faith in any practical form would have been almost
impossible; where they would have been deprived of the care and
counsel of their spiritual guides and of the sacraments necessary for
salvation; where their children would have remained unbaptized,
their marriages have been degraded to civil contracts, and their
souls starved and enfeebled by the absence of the Bread of Life. Yet
that this would have been the fate of the great majority of them,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/12301-250325085616-2a1e7144/85/RESTful-Rails-Development-Building-Open-Applications-and-Services-1st-Edition-Silvia-Puglisi-34-320.jpg)
![had they not congregated in the cities, cannot be doubted, unless,
indeed, God had chosen to work another miracle in their behalf and
to create for them a miraculous supply of priests—a supply so large
that every little hamlet in the far-off wilds of the West and North
should have been furnished with a spiritual director.
Some boast of having even nine millions of Catholics in the republic;
but it can be shown that there are perhaps half as many more
Americans now living who are the children of Catholic parents in the
first or second generation, but who have lost their faith and grown
up as Protestants or without any religion at all, chiefly because their
parents had gone into districts where there were no priests, and
where the exercise of their religion, save as a spiritual meditation,
was impossible.[113]
It was only when the Catholic emigrants began
to arrive here in large numbers, and to dwell together by hundreds
and thousands and tens of thousands in the great cities, that it
became possible, humanly, to provide for their religious wants and
for their Catholic education. How nobly they have themselves
furnished the material means for this work the statistics given above
show. They have mainly done it for themselves. In England the Irish
Catholics, in their works of charity and in the erection of their
churches, have often been aided by the contributions of their
wealthy English fellow-Catholics; but in America the foreign-born and
the descendants of the foreign-born Catholics have for the most part
built their own churches, their own convents, seminaries, and
schools, and have received but little aid from their co-religionists of
native ancestry. Indeed, in some instances within our own
knowledge it is the latter who have been the beneficiaries of the
former; and many an American Catholic to-day is indebted to the
charity and self-denial of German, French, and Irish Catholics for the
services of the priest who was the means of his conversion, and for
the erection of the church in which he hears Mass. We repeat that all
this was made possible by the congregation of our Catholic
emigrants in the cities, and that the most deplorable consequences
would have followed had not this congregation taken place.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/12301-250325085616-2a1e7144/85/RESTful-Rails-Development-Building-Open-Applications-and-Services-1st-Edition-Silvia-Puglisi-35-320.jpg)
![the country in which they have become so important a factor, to
permit this, and what the arrogance of man has so often stigmatized
as folly has proved to be the highest and best wisdom both for
eternal and for temporal ends. The whole number of foreign
emigrants who have landed in the United States during the first 75
years of this century was 9,526,966. We showed in a former
article[114]
what proportion of these has remained in the cities; and
we have now pointed out some of the results of this congregation.
We must not be understood, however, to convey the idea that a very
considerable proportion of our foreign-born Catholic citizens have
not made homes for themselves in the rural districts of the country,
under conditions which rendered it possible for them to continue the
active exercise of their religion, and that the happiest results have
not followed. In the New England States, in New York, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania, in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, in Wisconsin, Iowa,
Missouri, and Minnesota, the number of Irish and German Catholic
farmers—well-to-do, prosperous, and faithful—is very large. In the
New England States the increase of this class has of late been
marked. The farms throughout this section are generally small; their
native owners, especially when they are young men, find it difficult
to extract from them incomes large enough to supply their desire for
the luxuries of life; they are often anxious to try their fortunes in the
cities or in the West; whenever one of them offers his little estate for
sale the purchaser is most likely a German or Irishman, whose wants
are more modest, and who finds it quite possible to derive from a
farm of twenty or thirty acres a comfortable subsistence for his
family. This change in the proprietorship of the soil in New England
has gone on to an extent much larger than is generally known; and
one would labor under a serious mistake who supposed that the
foreign-born and foreign-descended population of New England was
altogether, or even unduly, congregated in the cities. There are in
New England, according to the last Catholic Directory, 539 Catholic
priests, 508 churches, 167 chapels and stations, with a Catholic
population of about 890,000 souls; and it is evident from an
examination of the list of the churches that a large proportion of](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/12301-250325085616-2a1e7144/85/RESTful-Rails-Development-Building-Open-Applications-and-Services-1st-Edition-Silvia-Puglisi-37-320.jpg)
![been only 21,677, of whom 1,210 came last year and 1,088 in 1875.
But Austria is a country especially fit to emigrate from, and the
incentives which are powerful in Germany will ere long be felt in
Austria also. From Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark,
and Poland emigration of the better class may with reason be
anticipated; and even from Italy, which has sent us 42,769
emigrants since 1847, considerable accessions may be expected.[115]
We have before us a collection of documents relating to colonization
in the West and Northwest. One of them describes the admirable
plan of the Coadjutor-Bishop of St. Paul for Catholic colonization in
Minnesota. In a powerful letter addressed, on the 16th of September
last, to the President of the Board of Colonization of the Irish
Catholic Benevolent Union, the bishop dwells upon the evils which
have followed the settlement of our Irish emigrants in the large cities
—evils which we have no wish to belittle; but he also confesses that
the misfortunes of those who went into the rural districts were
equally deplorable. He remarks:
“Those who—exceptions to the rule—did move forward into the
country, in search of homes on the land, suffered in many
instances from the absence of proper and systematic direction
no less than their companions in cities. They lost their faith.
They strayed away from church and priest, from Catholic
associations, and in certain States to-day there are whole
districts where you hear the purest of Celtic names, and where,
nevertheless, not one man proclaims himself a Catholic or smiles
at the mention of the old land.”
And then, after a charming picture of a certain little Irish Catholic
colony in the West, of which he says that, beginning in poverty and
hardship twenty years ago,
“To-day those families are prosperous—rich; their children are as
innocent and as true as if they had always breathed the
atmosphere of the most Catholic of lands; the number of families](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/12301-250325085616-2a1e7144/85/RESTful-Rails-Development-Building-Open-Applications-and-Services-1st-Edition-Silvia-Puglisi-44-320.jpg)
RESTful Rails Development Building Open Applications and Services 1st Edition Silvia Puglisi
- 1. Download the full version and explore a variety of ebooks or textbooks at https://ebookultra.com RESTful Rails Development Building Open Applications and Services 1st Edition Silvia Puglisi _____ Follow the link below to get your download now _____ https://ebookultra.com/download/restful-rails-development- building-open-applications-and-services-1st-edition-silvia- puglisi/ Access ebookultra.com now to download high-quality ebooks or textbooks
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- 5. RESTful Rails Development Building Open Applications and Services 1st Edition Silvia Puglisi Digital Instant Download Author(s): Silvia Puglisi ISBN(s): 9781491910856, 1491910852 Edition: 1 File Details: PDF, 5.86 MB Year: 2015 Language: english
- 8. RESTful Rails Development Building Open Applications and Services Silvia Puglisi
- 10. RESTful Rails Development by Silvia Puglisi Copyright © 2016 Silvia Puglisi. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472. O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use. Online editions are also available for most titles (http://safaribooksonline.com). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or corporate@oreilly.com. Editors: Simon St. Laurent and Allyson MacDonald Production Editors: Colleen Lobner and Kristen Brown Copyeditor: Rachel Head Proofreader: Charles Roumeliotis Indexer: Ellen Troutman-Zaig Interior Designer: David Futato Cover Designer: Ellie Volckhausen Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest October 2015: First Edition
- 11. Revision History for the First Edition 2015-10-06: First Release See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781491910856 for release details. The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc. RESTful Rails Development, the cover image of a Desmarest’s hutia, and related trade dress are trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights. 978-1-491-91085-6 [LSI]
- 12. To Aaron. For being an inspiration. To Sara. My friend and partner in life and mischief. For always being there. To my family for being so supportive no matter what. To everybody else. Friends above all. For sticking around.
- 13. “We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” Alan Turing “Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.” Aaron Swartz “The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.” Tim Berners-Lee “What sets this framework apart from all of the others is the preference for convention over configuration making applications easier to develop and understand.” Sam Ruby, ASF board of directors “Rails is the killer app for Ruby.” Yukihiro Matsumoto, creator of Ruby “Life is a distributed object system. However, communication among humans is a distributed hypermedia system, where the mind’s intellect, voice+gestures, eyes+ears, and imagination are all components.” Roy T. Fielding
- 15. Preface This book is focused on designing and developing Representational State Transfer (REST) platforms in Rails. REST is the architectural style of the Web, consisting of a set of constraints that, applied to components, connectors, and data elements, constitute the wider distributed hypermedia system that we know today: the World Wide Web. There are a few good reasons why it makes more sense to build platforms instead of just products or applications. Platforms are like ecosystems interconnecting different applications, services, users, developers, and partners. Platforms foster innovation through the inputs of their direct collaborators. By providing application programming interfaces (APIs) and software development kits (SDKs), platforms are more customer driven. Another reason for building platforms instead of just applications is that the Web is slowly but surely changing from a model in which a human reader would browse some content on web pages, to a model in which services and clients (not necessarily humans) exchange information. This was certainly, although only partially, what Tim Berners Lee envisioned in 2001 in his famous Scientific American article, “The Semantic Web.” The Web is becoming more semantic. In the past, a software agent would not have been able to “understand” an HTML document. It could parse some parts of it, but it would not process whether that document was referring to a blog post or something else, like the London bus schedule. We used to think of the Web as hypertext documents linked to one another; nowadays web documents are instead becoming more like data objects linked to other objects, or hyperdata. Applications can either display hyperdata in a human-readable form or parse it so that other services or applications can consume that information. The Semantic Web can be easily explained by considering it as a normal evolution of hypertext. When hyperdata objects are explored through an API, different communication protocols are implemented to allow several technologies to access them independently. To enable this exchange of information among heterogeneous systems, the API implements a language- neutral message format to communicate. This might be XML or JSON, used as a container for the exchanged messages. If we think about it, a “hypermedia API” is one that is designed to be accessed and explored by any device or application. Its architecture is hence similar to the architecture of the Web and we apply the same reasoning when serving and consuming the API as when surfing a web page. There are also reasons for choosing Rails over other web development frameworks. The first of them is having to develop in Ruby rather than another language. Ruby is easy to use, especially from a web developer’s perspective. It is totally object oriented and open source and has a vibrant community working on a variety of diverse and interesting projects and language libraries, making development easier. Ruby on Rails is a pragmatic framework, cleanly and perfectly implementing Model-View-Controller (MVC) patterns,
- 16. which makes it easy to model real-world scenarios. Rails makes it easier to bootstrap an application, avoiding repetitive coding and speeding up feature development. Rails also follows agile methodology, promoting flexibility, evolutionary development, and iterative delivery. This book wants to encourage developers to organically design platforms instead of products and to develop them quickly, in the hope that the new services added to the Web of tomorrow will be more easily discovered and eventually integrated, fostering open information exchange and stimulating partnerships between organizations. At the end of every chapter, the reader will have learned something new regarding how to build and organically extend a multiservice platform spanning different devices. Hopefully, at the end of this book you will have a better idea of how to build an architecture composed of different services accessing shared resources through a set of collaborating APIs and applications.
- 17. Why Rails and Not Node.js Many articles have been written about Rails versus Node.js in the last few years. Although both can be used to build web applications, there are some fundamental differences between Node.js and Rails. First of all, Rails is a complete and highly opinionated web framework, while Node.js is a (nonopinionated) framework based on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime for building network applications. In short, Node.js is a server-side JavaScript implementation. Interaction within the MVC architecture in Rails is clean, concise, and efficient. In Node.js you will need to work with plug-ins and helpers to achieve the same level of integration that in Rails you get out of the box. Also, programming both the backend and frontend in JavaScript doesn’t necessarily mean you will be able to develop your product faster. While this is probably true for fast prototyping, you should really consider whether Node.js is a technology that will allow you to scale your product down the line. Keep in mind that developing a full application in Rails is as fast as, if not faster than, developing the same app with Node.js. We will see how quickly and easily you can build a REST API in Rails. The Rails community is quite mature at this point, while still being fresh. There are still a lot of new things happening in the Rails world, both in terms of exciting projects being created and modules being written. If you start programming in Rails, you will also learn Ruby. The Ruby developer community is vibrant, and a good number of new products are written in Ruby. These include technologies like Logstash, Chef, Puppet, Homebrew, and many others. Also, Ruby programmers are still experiencing a growth in demand. In conclusion, while Node.js is an interesting technology to use and to play and prototype with, Rails is both more mature and more suitable for long-term stable projects.
- 18. Why (I Think) You Should Read This Book There are certainly many reasons to read a particular book, and many more to write one. When I started writing RESTful Rails Development, I imagined a world of micro- communicating applications, feeding and sourcing from the so-called Web of Data. I thought of RESTful principles, and I imagined device-independent services that would just consume, process, and create streams of data. Before writing this book, I had several discussions with friends and colleagues about the future of the Internet and how hypermedia could be considered the true Semantic Web. The same discussions can be found online in blog posts, forums, and social-network threads. Programmers, architects, marketers, and normal people seem to have a spectrum of diverging and colliding opinions on the matter. Some people complain about possible business adoption, others about poor design and lazy development practices. Some others are thoroughly excited about unleashing the full potential of RESTful services. This book is about: How to develop RESTful applications How to design RESTful architectures How to deploy RESTful services Therefore, you should read this book if: You want to dive into RESTful development. You want to learn about how to design a small application ecosystem. You just want to design an API to connect to some external services. You could be a developer with some years of experience, or you could be a student eager to get started with an exciting new project. You could be an engineer exploring different possibilities to create ambitious applications or wanting to convince your manager of the possibilities of RESTful services and hypermedia. You could be a project manager with some technical background looking to understand the logic behind RESTful services, or you could work in marketing but be willing to learn how to open up your platform to services on the World Wide Web. You should read this book if you are passionate about the future of the Web, if you feel strongly about keeping it open, if you envision the Semantic Web as a mesh of communicating services, or if you want to start writing software that just implements these paradigms. If you have read about API design and hypermedia paradigms, if you are just enthusiastic about the Web of Data, or if you have wondered how you could quickly prototype a new service or apply hypermedia models to a commercial project, then this book is also for you. I hope this book will help you in your present and future projects; I
- 19. also hope it will be your guide to building amazingly disruptive applications, creating services that will make the Web more open and accessible to a wide range of devices, and providing beautifully designed hypermedia APIs that will make data easier to explore and process. This book is for you — and I hope you thoroughly enjoy it.
- 20. What You Will Find in This Book This is not a book that you have to read from beginning to end, although you certainly can if you want. Every chapter can be considered a standalone unit that will present an aspect of RESTful architecture and Rails development: Chapter 1, From Hypertext to Hyperdata This chapter introduces the shift that has been occurring in the way the Web is accessed and consumed, from hypertext documents that were intended to be human readable, to web applications that can either display information for their human users or provide endpoints for software agents that are designed to consume data. Chapter 2, Getting Started with Ruby on Rails This chapter introduces Ruby on Rails. It guides you through setting up your development environment, and then introduces some RVM and rbenv basics and outlines some simple concepts in Rails application architecture. We will then set up our first application. This will be a “Hello Rails” app with a twist, since it will not strictly be an app but an API instead. Chapter 3, First Adventures in API Design This chapter leads you through some API design considerations by creating a simple API using a Wikipedia categories and category links database dump. The result will be an API with two endpoints. Given a keyword, the API will return the category information or the category graph from Wikipedia in JSON. Chapter 4, The REST of the World This chapter covers the basics of REST versus CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) design, introducing architectural constraints, resource and representation concepts, and HTTP protocol semantics. Our categories API will be extended and used to illustrate the concepts. This chapter also covers how Rails plays with REST logic, since it was designed with CRUD in mind. Chapter 5, Designing APIs in RoR This chapter extends what has been introduced thus far regarding REST architectures with hypermedia paradigms. Practical examples will be implemented over our categories API model. The API introduced in Chapter 3 and extended in Chapter 4 will be further developed to illustrate API architecture and design concepts in Rails. Category links will be used to extend the API in order to make it explorable. Chapter 6, Asynchronous REST
- 21. Exploring the Variety of Random Documents with Different Content
- 22. and salad, and the most delicious of cheeses, and a most refreshing draught of cool cider from the great stone jug. Nor can we do more than glance at the humors of the fair—much like other fairs, for the matter of that—with its inevitable jugglers and tumblers and charlatans, swallowing flames as if they were sausages, and pulling endless yards of ribbon from their mouths, to the delight of gaping rustics; its gipsies and gingerbread hawkers; its shrill-voiced peasant women, in high Norman caps, selling eggs and poultry; its shriller- voiced ballad-singers piping out: “Si le roi m’avait donné Paris sa grand’ ville,” or some other favorite chanson of the time. These joys we must pass lightly by, to say that, before the afternoon was well over, M. de Boisrobert had already sold his entire venture at an excellent profit, and it was rumored about the fair that he would go home richer by 20,000 francs (equal to 80,000 now) than when he came. The interest in the lucky capitalist increased; it extended even to his horses, and one or two simple rustics went so far as to push their way, during the temporary absence of the grooms, into the stables, there to gaze in open-mouthed admiration upon the steeds that had the honor of bearing—so history renews itself—M. Cæsar de Boisrobert and his fortune. The hour for departure drew nigh. As the days were getting short and the homeward ride was long and lonely, and, as already hinted, far from safe—few roads in France were safe in those days after nightfall—M. de Boisrobert commanded an early start. He himself was to ride on ahead, attended only by his two mounted valets, leaving the wagoners and herdsmen to follow more leisurely with the carts. The horses were accordingly brought forth and saddled, and the worthy squire was just setting foot in stirrup when he was accosted by a curé, who, calling him by name, politely craved leave to ride with him, as their road lay in the same direction. M. de Boisrobert assented more than gladly, for not only was company
- 23. desirable, but a curé the company he most desired, and which could be accepted, as would not have been the case with every comer, without suspicion. So they set forth together. The curé turned out a most agreeable travelling companion, and M. de Boisrobert secretly felicitated himself on the chance which had thrown them together. So charmed was he with his new-found friend that, when the latter pressed upon him the offer of a supper and a bed at the vicarage, he wavered, until reminded by the sum he had about him of the wisdom of pushing on. But even while he doubted came a most distressing mishap. The horse ridden by one of the servants stumbled, fell, and, before his rider had fairly scrambled to his feet, rolled over stone dead. There was nothing for it but to mount Blaise behind Constant, and so get on as best they might. But, lo and behold! scarcely had Constant drawn rein for the purpose than, with what seemed to the startled hearers almost a shriek, the beast he bestrode set off at a furious gallop, which soon left his luckless rider on the ground with a broken leg. And, strange to say, the poor animal had run but a few yards further when he too stopped, staggered, and—pouf! before one could say Jack Robinson, or its equivalent in Norman French, he is as dead as the very deadest of door-nails or herrings. Whatever M. de Boisrobert may have thought of this odd coincidence, he had little leisure to dwell upon it; for the next instant his own steed was in convulsions, and, barely giving him time to spring from the saddle, like the others rolled over dead. How account for so singular a fatality? Had some poisonous weed got into their fodder? had some venomous reptile stung them in their stalls? or—uneasy doubts crept into the good gentleman’s mind—had they been foully dealt with by reptiles in human form who meant to waylay and rob, if not murder, the travellers? If the latter, it would be indeed most prudent to accept the good curé’s hospitality. His house was luckily not far off, and the disabled servant being first made comfortable in a wayside cabin, and the sound one despatched to the nearest town for a surgeon, M. de Boisrobert and the curé took their way to the home of the latter.
- 24. Night had fallen when they reached it, but enough light still remained to show that it was a partly-ruined château, dating probably from the time of the Crusades. One wing had been so far reconstructed as to be habitable, and the ancient chapel, the curé explained, had also been put in order to serve as the village church. “My parish,” he added with a sigh, “is too poor to build a better.” A moat, still filled with green and stagnant water, surrounded the walls; a few planks served for a pathway across it, where once had hung the feudal drawbridge; a dark and snake-like ivy crawled up the crumbling walls; dense woods cast about it a funereal gloom. Altogether its outward aspect was sombre and forbidding in the extreme, and M. de Boisrobert could not repress a shudder or stifle a sinister presentiment as he looked upon his quarters for the night. Had his host been anybody but a curé, he would have felt like drawing back even then. A little old man, who filled in the modest household by turns the comprehensive functions of butler, valet, groom, gardener, waiter, cook, and general factotum, took their horses in silence, but with a curious glance at the visitor the latter could not help remarking, and the curé led the way to the drawing-room. This was a lofty, vaulted apartment almost bare of furniture, on the walls of which flapped dismally a few tattered pieces of tapestry, the relics of old-time grandeur. A faggot or two crackled and sputtered feebly on the gloomy hearth. Near it, busied apparently over woman’s work of some kind, were seated an old woman of repulsive aspect and a young girl, the latter of whom the curé introduced as Juliette, his niece, and, briefly requesting her to entertain their guest, excused himself to see to the latter’s entertainment for the night. And now, as the heroine of this exciting history has at last arrived—a little tardiness, as you know, messieurs, must be forgiven to her sex —it seems only becoming that she should have a chapter to herself. III.
- 25. Lovely? Of course she is lovely. What a ridiculous question! Who ever heard of a heroine who wasn’t lovely, still less a heroine who was also the niece of a rob—Peste! The cat was almost out of the bag that time—so nearly out, in fact, that we may as well slip the noose and let her go at once. Scat! And now, the author’s mind being freed of an enormous load, he breathes more freely and announces that our luckless M. de Boisrobert has literally fallen into a den of thieves. For what purpose otherwise that artful hint about the rustics prying into the stables, the horses falling dead upon the way, the elaborate setting forth of the gloom and desolation hanging like a pall over the ruined château—to what end, do you suppose, was all this expenditure of literary artifice, except to prepare the reader’s mind for some blood-curdling and harrowing event? But the curé? the curé? Why, simply no curé at all: a wolf in sheep’s clothing, as there were then but too many in France.[111] Of this, however, as yet M. de Boisrobert knew nothing. Filled with vague forebodings of evil he could neither define nor reason down, he felt but little in the humor for talk, and still less—being, as you remember, in his tenth lustrum—for flirtation. So, after one or two wise remarks upon the weather, or the state of the crops, or the latest opera, or whatever other topics gentlemen-farmers then chose to break the ice of conversation with a pretty girl, had been answered more virgineo with shy blushes, or faltering monosyllables, or embarrassed and embarrassing silence, M. de Boisrobert betook himself to the window to look out upon the surrounding country. A full moon threw upon every object a lustre like that of day, and—ha! what is this he sees in the court-yard? Can that be his host, the curé, talking so confidentially to those exceedingly sinister-looking chaps (one of whom he now remembers to have had pointed out to him at the fair as a coiner of base money, the other as a more than suspected thief), and handling those three exceedingly long and ugly-looking poniards!—ugh! how their keen edges glitter in the moonlight as the rascals run their dirty thumbs along to try their temper.
- 26. M. de Boisrobert turned from the window with a gesture of affright and despair, and beheld Juliette standing before him, no longer a timid child but a lovely and courageous woman, one finger upon her lip, the other pointing to the ill-featured duenna, who had had the good manners to go to sleep. In a few rapid whispers, and still more eloquent gestures, she explained the danger and her unalterable resolve to save him or perish in the attempt. Whether it was her words or her beauty, M. de Boisrobert felt instantly reassured. Indeed, had he known anything of the course of such adventures, he must have felt so from the moment he laid eyes on her. For what other purpose except to save him could he suppose so lovely a creature was to be found in so vile a den? And let it here be said for the benefit of scoffers that the present writer is well aware how often this incident has been used for purposes of fiction—at least ten thousand times in the English language alone. Yes; but does not the very frequency of its use prove it to be founded on fact, that some time or other it was true? Very well; this is the time it was true. Besides, who has said that Juliette is to succeed in her noble but rash endeavor? Suppose—now just suppose—she were to fail; in which of your fictions do you find a stroke of originality like that? If the historian were revengeful; if he had a mind to distort facts, as historians in very remote ages are said sometimes to have done— well, well, we shall see. In her hurried warning Juliette had made shift to tell M. de Boisrobert that it was meant to put a sleeping potion in his wine, and afterwards to enter his chamber and kill him while still under the influence of the drug. “Do not for your life refuse to drink,” she added, “but be careful to eat the apple I shall offer you after it, and which will contain the antidote to the drug.” Scarcely had she ended when the pretended curé came in with his precious comrades, whom he introduced as parishioners. (“A fit flock for such a shepherd!” thought poor M. de Boisrobert.) Supper was served at once, and all went as the young girl had foretold. The wine
- 27. was drunk and the apple duly presented and eaten with a confidence that must seem truly sublime under the circumstances, remembering, too, that one of M. de Boisrobert’s remote ancestors had lost his entire patrimony through accepting a similar gift from a near female relation. Feigning weariness and sleep, the traveller begged to be excused and was shown to his room. No sooner was he alone than he began to examine his means of defence and offence. The flints, of course, were taken from his pistols and the bolts removed from the door—they would be poor robbers, totally unworthy the attention of an enlightened reader, who would neglect such obvious precautions as these. Somewhat disconsolately M. de Boisrobert looked under the bed and into the wardrobe, but found no comfort there. Then he piled all the furniture against the door, drew his sword, said his prayers, set his teeth, thought of Juliette (O middle-aged and most forlorn of Romeos!), and awaited the conspirators. He had not long to wait. Scarcely had he taken position when a stealthy tread outside, a fumbling at the latch, and probably a strong odor of garlic penetrating through the keyhole, announced their arrival. The door was first softly, then strongly, pushed, and then, as the unlooked-for resistance showed their plot was discovered, a furious volley of oaths was followed by an onset that made the barricade tremble. Now should we dearly love to entertain the reader with the description of a terrific combat à l’outrance—also à la Dumas—wherein M. de Boisrobert, calmly awaiting his foes’ approach, falls upon them with such ferocity that in a twinkling he has one spitted like a lark, another cloven to the chine, and the third in headlong flight and bawling lustily for mercy, but pricked sorely in tender places by the relentless sword. But, alas!—such is the fatal limitation of your true story—nothing of the sort took place. On the contrary, our hero was in all probability horribly frightened and thoroughly glad to see a secret panel suddenly slide back, and a white hand thrust through the opening, while the sweetest voice he had ever heard begged him to make haste. To seize that hand—and who shall blame him if he pressed it to his lips?—to dart through the
- 28. opening—quick! quick! good Jean!—to close the panel, is the work of an instant. Scarcely is it shut when cr-rack! crash! bang! go door and barricade, and the foiled assassins are heard stamping and swearing furiously about the deserted room. If you could but have seen their faces and heard—no, it would not have been edifying to hear their language. But the fugitives are safe. Need it be said that the foresight of the faithful Jean (who, of course, follows his young mistress, having, indeed, waited this long time in the robber’s den only for a chance to be on hand in this emergency) had provided horses, on which they soon reached Evreux, where they lodged an information, which, there being no police there to speak of, led to the prompt arrest of the ruffians. Placing the lovely Juliette in a convent, M. de Boisrobert returned home. But it was observed that he hunted less than formerly, that he was often closeted with Father Bernard and his notary, and that he spent much time in settling his affairs. Need the result be told? What in the world is a middle-aged bachelor to do whose life is saved by a lovely maiden of spotless virtue? For, be it known, the fair Juliette, left an orphan only a week before, had, by her dying father, a rich farmer of Brézolles, been consigned to the guardianship of this wicked brother, whose evil courses he was far from suspecting. All that is as plain as a pikestaff; as it is that in less than six months after, just long enough to get the trousseau ready (from the Worth of the day, of course) and to see the wicked uncle comfortably hanged, the bells of Friar Lawrence’s—we should say of Father Bernard’s—little church at Boisrobert rang out a merry answer to the problem last propounded. When the distant echoes of these wedding chimes reached the ears of M. le Comte de Beaumanoir at Paris, he was not at all angry, as people thought he would be. Oh! dear, no. On the contrary, he only smiled, showing a remarkably fine set of teeth. So that people said he was a brave man, this poor M. le Comte, and not by any means as black as he was painted. And, indeed, a great many folks began to commiserate him and to abuse M. de Boisrobert.
- 29. IV. Well? Well what? Why, what came of M. de Beaumanoir showing his teeth? Oh! that? Nothing—just nothing at all. That’s the trouble, you see, of telling a true story: one’s imagination is hampered at every step. It would have been most delightful and exciting to have invented a frightful tale of the count’s vengeance; how he slew his recalcitrant kinsman, immured his weeping bride in a dungeon for life, and laid waste the lands of Boisrobert with fire and sword, etc., etc. But the truth is, he did nothing of the kind. Indeed, his teeth were speedily drawn, and he was glad to get away with his worthless life. The false curé confessed before his death that the count had suborned him to kill his kinsman as he returned from the fair, promising him a sum equal to that which he would be sure to find on M. de Boisrobert’s person, and even suggesting the disguise. He little thought that the very scheme he fondly imagined was to secure him his coveted inheritance was destined really to lose it to him for ever. So ever come to grief the machinations of the wicked! This last escapade was a little too much even for courtly morals, and Monsieur was quietly advised to hint to his murderous favorite that his health would probably be the better for a change of air. And the fatal consequences resulting from this marriage? Yes, yes, of course; how stupid to forget it! Well, a cynic might say that for a bachelor to marry at all, especially at forty-five—but never mind the cynic. Their married life was surely not unhappy? Let us hope not. Do Romeo and Juliet ever throw teacups at each other over the breakfast-table because that duck of a spring bonnet is not forthcoming? In romances certainly not; but in true stories—hem! Let us trust, however, that peace reigned eternal over the domestic hearthstone at the Château de Boisrobert. But his marriage had cost its owner an illusion—a life-long illusion; and that is a painful thing
- 30. at forty-five. Disenchantment seems to come harder as one gets older and has anything left to be disenchanted of. He ceased to believe that rank and birth are the same as goodness, or even greatness, and it cost him many a pang, and no doubt a great deal of real though whimsical unhappiness, to be forced thus suddenly and radically to readjust his scheme of life. But, in spite of the adventure which gave him a wife, perhaps because of it, he never lost his faith in curés or in Juliette; and the games of bowls and of trictrac were all the pleasanter for the sweet face that thenceforth lit them up, and the romping curly-pates that disturbed them and in time effaced from their fond father’s memory his lingering regret for the loss of a noble heir.
- 31. TO AUBREY DE VERE. AFTER READING “POEMS OF PLACES—ITALY,” EDITED BY H. W. LONGFELLOW. I stood in ancient church, ruined and vast, Whose crumbling altar of its Lord was bare, Whose shattered windows let in all the glare Of noonday heat, and noise of crowds that passed With careless jest, of malice not assoiled. Within, fast-fading angels still lent grace Of art, believing, to the holy place That cruel hands of its best gift despoiled. With weary feet I trod the broken floor, With tearless eyes the maimèd aisles gazed down, When, lo! afar a waxen taper shone, Burning a hidden altar clear before: Here hastened I, here knelt—O poet true! Thine was the light that shone my sorrow through.
- 32. COLONIZATION AND FUTURE EMIGRATION. God has apparently chosen the United States as the theatre for the demonstration of the truth that the Catholic Church is the church of the people. She has always been the church of the people; many of her most severe persecutions have been caused by the stand she has taken in behalf of popular rights and individual freedom against the tyranny of kings and the exactions of nobles. But never before has she been furnished with so large a field for the manifestation and development of her popular and democratic character as has been prepared for her here. It is her destiny, we believe, to save the republic from the ruin to which the sects and their offspring, the atheists, would lead her. Even those of our Catholic readers who may not fully share this belief will admit that, to all seeming, the Catholic Church is destined to play an important part in the future history of our country—at least that she has grown in numbers, material wealth, and social influence during the last thirty years to an almost marvellous degree. A better or more certain method of accomplishing the work of the church in the United States could scarcely have been devised than the congregation of a large share of the Catholic emigration in our great cities. The Catholic Church in the United States is not “a foreign church” in any other sense than the Bible, or Shakspere’s plays, or Homer’s poems are “foreign” books; she is, as they are, and far more than they are, the common inheritance of all, and she is as much at home here, and as rightfully at home, as she is or ever was in any other land. Indeed, the church of God is not and cannot be foreign to any of God’s creatures. But a large proportion of her children in the United States at present are either of foreign birth or are the descendants of foreign-born persons in the first or second
- 33. generation. These people did not bring the Catholic Church with them to America: they found her here; she had always had an existence here since Christopher Columbus planted the cross upon San Salvador, and since the Jesuit priests sailed up the St. Lawrence and down the Mississippi rivers. If, however, the emigration which has poured into this country since 1840 had not arrived, or had it come from non-Catholic countries, and had the growth of the church here been dependent wholly, or even chiefly, upon the natural increase of American Catholic families and upon converts from Protestantism or heathenism, the church in America to-day would have been numerically insignificant; which is only the same as to say that, if emigration had ceased after the first European exodus, the population of the United States to-day would be equally insignificant. We may form some idea of what the progress of the church under these conditions would have been here by remembering what it has been in England since the cessation of the active persecutions which followed the Reformation. There are about 1,800,000 Catholics in England to-day. Of these not less than 800,000 are Irish, French, German, Spanish, and Italian emigrants or their children; the remaining 1,000,000 represent all the converts of English birth, as well as the descendants of the old Catholic families who always retained the faith. Half a century has elapsed since the English Catholics were emancipated from the last remnant of the persecuting and restrictive legislation which had oppressed them since the days of Elizabeth. During this half-century the church in England has been free—free in its own government, free in its work of propagating the faith and of bringing back the English people to the religion which their fathers had cherished for a thousand years. Yet, with some advantages that Catholics in the United States did not and do not yet possess, the growth of the church in England during the last fifty years has been vastly less than the progress she has made in this country during the same period. In 1830 there were more Catholics in England than in the United States; since then the church in both countries has been equally free, with the advantages at the start on the side of England. But now the
- 34. Catholics in the United States outnumber those in England more than fourfold. In 1830, according to the most trustworthy estimates, there were 600,000 Catholics in England and 475,000 in the United States; now they number two millions there and from six to seven millions here. In England to-day the church has a cardinal, twelve suffragan bishops, and 2,064 priests; in the United States she has a cardinal, 66 archbishops and bishops, and 5,297 priests. In England, according to the English Catholic Directory for last year, there were 997 Catholic churches, 7 theological seminaries, 312 ecclesiastical students, 15 colleges, 38 asylums, and 5 hospitals. In the United States, according to the American Catholic Directory for the same year, there were 5,292 Catholic churches, 34 theological seminaries, 1,217 ecclesiastical students, 62 colleges, 219 asylums, and 95 hospitals.[112] We have drawn out this comparison for the purpose of accentuating our former remark that the marvellous growth of the church in the United States during the last half-century has been mainly due to emigration from Catholic countries. Had it not been for these accessions, it is doubtful, in our opinion, whether the church in the United States would to-day equal in numbers the church in England. But would its growth have been so great, so pronounced, so commanding to the attention of all beholders, had this emigration been directed away from the cities and dispersed throughout the rural and agricultural sections of the country? A little reflection will, we think, show that this question must be answered in the negative. It would have availed the church nothing had these emigrants been placed in their new homes under conditions where the preservation of their faith in any practical form would have been almost impossible; where they would have been deprived of the care and counsel of their spiritual guides and of the sacraments necessary for salvation; where their children would have remained unbaptized, their marriages have been degraded to civil contracts, and their souls starved and enfeebled by the absence of the Bread of Life. Yet that this would have been the fate of the great majority of them,
- 35. had they not congregated in the cities, cannot be doubted, unless, indeed, God had chosen to work another miracle in their behalf and to create for them a miraculous supply of priests—a supply so large that every little hamlet in the far-off wilds of the West and North should have been furnished with a spiritual director. Some boast of having even nine millions of Catholics in the republic; but it can be shown that there are perhaps half as many more Americans now living who are the children of Catholic parents in the first or second generation, but who have lost their faith and grown up as Protestants or without any religion at all, chiefly because their parents had gone into districts where there were no priests, and where the exercise of their religion, save as a spiritual meditation, was impossible.[113] It was only when the Catholic emigrants began to arrive here in large numbers, and to dwell together by hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands in the great cities, that it became possible, humanly, to provide for their religious wants and for their Catholic education. How nobly they have themselves furnished the material means for this work the statistics given above show. They have mainly done it for themselves. In England the Irish Catholics, in their works of charity and in the erection of their churches, have often been aided by the contributions of their wealthy English fellow-Catholics; but in America the foreign-born and the descendants of the foreign-born Catholics have for the most part built their own churches, their own convents, seminaries, and schools, and have received but little aid from their co-religionists of native ancestry. Indeed, in some instances within our own knowledge it is the latter who have been the beneficiaries of the former; and many an American Catholic to-day is indebted to the charity and self-denial of German, French, and Irish Catholics for the services of the priest who was the means of his conversion, and for the erection of the church in which he hears Mass. We repeat that all this was made possible by the congregation of our Catholic emigrants in the cities, and that the most deplorable consequences would have followed had not this congregation taken place.
- 36. It is not, moreover, in spiritual matters only that our emigrants have been wise in congregating in the cities. One must remember the condition in which the great majority of them landed here during the years when emigration was at the flood-tide, and then compare with that their present state and the future which is before them and their children. They were desperately, or apostolically, poor, because they came from lands where it was impossible for them to acquire anything beyond the means of bare subsistence. They were uneducated, because they had been the subjects of governments whose studied policy it was to keep them in ignorance. They had neither the capital nor the knowledge necessary to render them successful as independent agriculturists. Labor was most abundant in the cities, and in the cities they remained. What have they done there? If you seek their monument, look around you! Behold not only the 57 Catholic churches (12 of them built almost or quite exclusively by Germans, 1 by Poles, 1 by Italians, 1 by Bohemians, 1 by Frenchmen, and 30 by Irishmen), the 17 monasteries, the 22 convents, the magnificent Protectory, the theological seminary, the 3 colleges, the 22 select schools, the 19 asylums, the 4 homes for aged men and women, the 4 hospitals, and the 85 parochial schools of which the city and diocese of New York alone boast; but the great business houses, the large manufactories, the numberless smaller though important factories, stores, and shops belonging to the foreign-born and foreign-descended population of this metropolis; make a similar examination of what this class of our citizens have done in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Boston, Hartford, Portland, Springfield, Cincinnati, Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Paul, Albany, Buffalo, Newark, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Chicago, San Francisco, and twoscore more of our large cities; and then compare these truly magnificent religious, moral, charitable, commercial, and industrial results with all that the same people could have accomplished had they been scattered as sheep without shepherds throughout our Western and Northern wilds, destined to lose their faith, deprived of the support and strength which common association and common interest afford, and doomed, most probably, to lives of hopeless poverty and unremunerative struggle. God has been too good to them, and to
- 37. the country in which they have become so important a factor, to permit this, and what the arrogance of man has so often stigmatized as folly has proved to be the highest and best wisdom both for eternal and for temporal ends. The whole number of foreign emigrants who have landed in the United States during the first 75 years of this century was 9,526,966. We showed in a former article[114] what proportion of these has remained in the cities; and we have now pointed out some of the results of this congregation. We must not be understood, however, to convey the idea that a very considerable proportion of our foreign-born Catholic citizens have not made homes for themselves in the rural districts of the country, under conditions which rendered it possible for them to continue the active exercise of their religion, and that the happiest results have not followed. In the New England States, in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, in Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, and Minnesota, the number of Irish and German Catholic farmers—well-to-do, prosperous, and faithful—is very large. In the New England States the increase of this class has of late been marked. The farms throughout this section are generally small; their native owners, especially when they are young men, find it difficult to extract from them incomes large enough to supply their desire for the luxuries of life; they are often anxious to try their fortunes in the cities or in the West; whenever one of them offers his little estate for sale the purchaser is most likely a German or Irishman, whose wants are more modest, and who finds it quite possible to derive from a farm of twenty or thirty acres a comfortable subsistence for his family. This change in the proprietorship of the soil in New England has gone on to an extent much larger than is generally known; and one would labor under a serious mistake who supposed that the foreign-born and foreign-descended population of New England was altogether, or even unduly, congregated in the cities. There are in New England, according to the last Catholic Directory, 539 Catholic priests, 508 churches, 167 chapels and stations, with a Catholic population of about 890,000 souls; and it is evident from an examination of the list of the churches that a large proportion of
- 38. them are in the small towns and rural districts of these States. It may be unwelcome news to our Protestant readers, but it is true, that nearly 25 per cent. of the present population of New England is composed of Roman Catholics. It may be still more unpleasant for them to learn that nearly 70 per cent. of the births in that region are those in Roman Catholic families. New England, indeed, promises to be the first portion of the country which is likely to become distinctively Roman Catholic. The immigration into New England is small, but it is mostly composed of Catholics; the increase of population is very largely Catholic; the emigration is almost entirely non-Catholic. From this digression from our main subject we return with the remark that the rural Catholic population in the Middle and Western States—a population largely composed of foreign-born citizens and their descendants—constitutes a most important factor in the material strength of the Catholic body, and that, as we shall show, the future course of foreign emigration should, and most probably will, tend mainly to increase this class. The late decline in emigration to the United States, and the present lull, amounting almost to stagnation, which has taken place in it, together with the fact that there is abundant reason to suppose that this lull is but temporary and that emigration will again ere very long pour in upon us, suggest some reflections respecting the changed character which that emigration will probably assume, the changed conditions under which it will be carried on, and the changed duty of the Catholic body in the United States towards it. What was so essentially necessary in the past will be necessary, under these new conditions, no longer; what was so often impossible in the past will now become generally easy of accomplishment. The Catholic Church in the United States has passed through the stage of its infancy and feebleness, and has entered upon the period of its manhood and strength. Firmly planted throughout the land, it fears nothing and can watch over and abundantly protect the faith and the education of its children. In every State and Territory, save Alaska, at least one bishop; in seven States two bishops; in five States three bishops; in one State six, in another State eight bishops, and with more than
- 39. 5,000 priests—surely with this army of shepherds the sheep and the lambs of the flock can be fed and guarded from the wolves of infidelity, sectarianism, and bigotry. God has built up his church in the republic in the manner, and chiefly through the agencies, which we have pointed out, and has thus fitted her, armed her, and made her strong for the great work which still lies before her. That work is the conversion of the non-Catholic portion of our fellow-citizens; the nurture of Catholic children; and the care, the protection, and, if need be, the conversion of the emigrants who, in the future, are to come to us from the Old World. It is only with this latter branch of her duty that we now deal. Emigrants to the United States have hitherto arrived here chiefly as isolated individuals, or at best as isolated families. There have been some attempts at colonization— that is, in bringing in one company a large number of individuals and of families, destined to migrate together to a spot already selected for them, and which they are to occupy as a community. Most frequently these attempts at colonization have been successful. Where they have failed the failure has been due to some incapacity or dishonesty on the part of the agents who had the matter in charge, and not to any vice in the system itself. There is evidence to show that emigration in future will be to a great extent, and may be almost wholly, conducted on the colonization principle. We have already said that emigration from Ireland in the future would most probably be confined within small limits; but if anything could stimulate it, it would be the development in Ireland of wise plans for colonization, carried out by men of probity, experience, and practical wisdom. Our chief sources of emigration, however, for some years to come, are likely to be England, Scotland, Germany, France, Austria, Bohemia, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Poland, and Russia. There are causes at work which even now are stimulating emigration from each of these countries, and these causes may attain great strength. As an instance of the curious manner in which apparently insignificant causes, originating at a distance, produce large effects, we may mention the fact that the shipping of fresh meat from this country to Great Britain—an enterprise only in its infancy—has already so seriously unsettled the
- 40. relations existing between landlords and farmers in England and Scotland that the latter are declaring their inability to make both ends meet, and are turning their thoughts towards emigration. So general and so serious is this feeling that the leading journal of Scotland has sent to this country a trusted member of its permanent staff (the editor of its agricultural department for many years), with instructions “to make the fullest possible inquiry into everything connected with the stock-raising department of agriculture” in the United States, extending his researches to Texas, “where he proposes to examine thoroughly the system of cattle and sheep breeding and raising carried on in that State on so immense a scale, and to obtain all the information that is to be had with respect to the breeds of cattle, the methods taken to improve the quality of the stock, and Texan agricultural methods and circumstances generally.” He is then to visit other States for the same purpose, and “all along his route he will take note of all the phases and conditions of agriculture, and of the suitability of the States for advanced farming.” The results of his investigations, published in Scotland and England, will enable the farmers there “to determine the full significance of the competition of American cattle-growers in the British dead-meat market,” and in all probability determine many of them to emigrate to this country, with their capital and their skill, to engage in this competition on the American side. Farming in England and Scotland—especially in Scotland—has long been a precarious and hazardous business; and now the reduction of four or six cents a pound in the price of beef which has been caused by the importation of about 1,000 tons of American beef and mutton every week at Glasgow and Liverpool, threatens to be the last straw to break the back of at least the Scotch farmer. Irish agriculturists likewise depend to a great extent for their profits upon the money received for their cattle, and they, too, will feel as severely as their Scottish friends the ruinous consequences, to them, of a reduction of twenty-five per cent. in the market value of their principal commodity. Thus the emigration of the well-to-do farmers of the United Kingdom is likely to be stimulated, and these agriculturists,
- 41. most probably, would need but little persuasion to induce them to emigrate, if they emigrated at all, in colonies, and not as isolated families or individuals. So, also, as respects the future emigration from the Continent of Europe. Different causes are at work in each of the countries above named, but they all tend to the same result. We have already hinted that the emigration of the future will be of a different class from the emigration of the past. At the present moment, and probably for some time to come, it would be dishonest, cruel, and unwise to encourage the emigration to this country of people without capital—those who must earn daily wages in order to live. Hitherto the great majority of our emigrants have been people of this class, and most fortunate is it that they came in such vast numbers. The time will again arrive, no doubt, when this class will be once more necessary and welcome among us, and when they will come, as they have come before, in thousands and tens of thousands. But at present they are not needed here; to bring them hither would be cruel to us as well as to themselves. The emigrants whom we need, and who are for some time most likely to come, are those who possess considerable worldly wealth at home, but who, like the English, Scotch, and Irish farmers of whom we have spoken, find it difficult to provide sufficiently for their increasing families, or wish to secure for them, in the New World, better fortunes than they can hope for in the Old. On the European Continent, and especially in Germany, other causes are at work which are morally certain to promote emigration. The war in the East may be localized—although all the probabilities point to a different conclusion—but even now it has increased the burdens which oppress the German people, and rendered the “blood-tax” that they are compelled to pay heavier and harder to bear. There is probably no intelligent man in Germany who does not look forward to a not distant day when that country will be again engaged in a desperate conflict; and meanwhile the military service exacted from every German citizen, and the cost of maintaining the army, press with a crushing weight upon the country. A thoughtful and experienced writer in one of our daily journals—a writer who, if we mistake not,
- 42. has himself had extensive experience in the organization of emigration enterprises—thus treats of this subject: “But it is in Germany that the fears awakened throughout Continental Europe will contribute most powerfully to a renewal of interest in the subject of emigration among classes to whom this country even now presents all requisite advantages. The stern methods employed by Bismarck to repress emigration movements—his interference with the freedom of American citizens who dared to speak of the attractions held out by the fertile West, and his suppression of whatever seemed likely to facilitate emigration to the United States—were all called forth by the anxious desire of people to escape the liability to military service. The military glories of the empire had charms for the cities, which acquired delusive appearances of prosperity. Among the population of rural districts the situation was different. The burdens and penalties of war, and of a system which exacts incessant preparation for war as a condition of national safety, have among these people stimulated the feeling in favor of emigration to a degree which the action of the Imperial Government has imperfectly controlled. The dread, vague before, will now be a reality. What, as a mere contingency, has sufficed to foster the wish to leave the Fatherland is now so near a certainty that the movement in favor of emigration needs but a guiding hand to assume large proportions. And the emigration available is of the description which, discreetly operated upon, should be attracted rather than repelled by the considerations which have driven wage-earners back to Europe. Those who would gladly get out of Germany to save their sons from service in the army look to the land for a livelihood, and would form valuable accessions to the Western States. As far as Germany is concerned, the difficulty is in reaching this class. Agencies that might be freely used in England or Holland are in Germany unavailable. All that seems possible there is to provide authentic information through channels which would not conflict with local law or incur the suspicion which, in view of recent experience,
- 43. interested representations are likely to excite. Might not our consular agencies be utilized, not as emigration bureaux, but as means of supplying to those who seek it information in reference to lands and farms in the West and South, and to other matters connected with the opening or purchase of farms, and stocking and working them? The laborious head of the Statistical Bureau some years ago compiled a volume of statistics which to the working-men of the Old World was invaluable. The manual at present needed would deal with the phases of the emigration question, and would be much more than an accumulation of figures. It would be more legitimate than half the matter which emanates from the department and is printed at the public cost; and it would contribute to a revival and increase of the only immigration which can be honestly encouraged in the face of hard times.” The French have never shown much anxiety for emigration; but the arrivals of emigrants from that country have increased during late years, and were slightly larger last year than in 1875. In France the burdens which are felt in Germany are also a cause of suffering, if not of complaint; and emigration from France, if the proper means for stimulating and directing it were employed, might reach large proportions. In Holland causes like those to which we have alluded as potent in Great Britain exist. The emigration from Russia has hitherto been of a peculiar character; it has consisted mainly of the Mennonites, whose anti-war principles impelled them to escape from the military service exacted from all Russian subjects, and from which only the temporary and partial concessions of the czar exempted some of them. The mission now undertaken by Russia is of a character which will compel her ruler, ere he has finished his task, to press every one of his subjects into the military service, directly or indirectly. The desire for emigration from Russia may be expected to increase, although some time will probably elapse before large results can be hoped for from it. The emigration from Austria has thus far been small. The total arrivals of emigrants from that country at the port of New York during the last 30 years have
- 44. been only 21,677, of whom 1,210 came last year and 1,088 in 1875. But Austria is a country especially fit to emigrate from, and the incentives which are powerful in Germany will ere long be felt in Austria also. From Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Denmark, and Poland emigration of the better class may with reason be anticipated; and even from Italy, which has sent us 42,769 emigrants since 1847, considerable accessions may be expected.[115] We have before us a collection of documents relating to colonization in the West and Northwest. One of them describes the admirable plan of the Coadjutor-Bishop of St. Paul for Catholic colonization in Minnesota. In a powerful letter addressed, on the 16th of September last, to the President of the Board of Colonization of the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union, the bishop dwells upon the evils which have followed the settlement of our Irish emigrants in the large cities —evils which we have no wish to belittle; but he also confesses that the misfortunes of those who went into the rural districts were equally deplorable. He remarks: “Those who—exceptions to the rule—did move forward into the country, in search of homes on the land, suffered in many instances from the absence of proper and systematic direction no less than their companions in cities. They lost their faith. They strayed away from church and priest, from Catholic associations, and in certain States to-day there are whole districts where you hear the purest of Celtic names, and where, nevertheless, not one man proclaims himself a Catholic or smiles at the mention of the old land.” And then, after a charming picture of a certain little Irish Catholic colony in the West, of which he says that, beginning in poverty and hardship twenty years ago, “To-day those families are prosperous—rich; their children are as innocent and as true as if they had always breathed the atmosphere of the most Catholic of lands; the number of families
- 45. has doubled, through mere natural increase; their district of country is for ever secured to the church,” Bishop Ireland goes on to say that the results of his own colonization labors in Minnesota may be thus described: “We began last February. Our first step was to secure the control of 117,000 acres of land, situated in Swift County, belonging to the St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. There was at the time in the county about as much more vacant government land open for settlement under the pre-emption and homestead acts. The price of the railroad land was fixed, so that during the time it was to remain under our control the company could not advance its figures. We at once placed a priest in the colony, whose duty it was to direct and advise the immigrant as well as to minister to his spiritual wants. An office was opened in St. Paul, where the immigrant would be received on his arrival from the East, and where all letters of inquiry would be answered. Two weeks after publication of our plans had been made in the Catholic press, immigrants commenced to arrive, and up to the date at which I am writing over eight hundred entries have been made by our people on government land, and about 60,000 acres of railroad land have been occupied. We permit no speculation, so that each quarter section generally represents a family, persons, as a rule, being allowed to take more land only when they have grown sons, who soon will themselves need a home.” He then gives a letter from the register of the Land Office, showing that the number of land entries made in Swift County from January 1 to June 1, 1876, was 1,317, and saying that over 800 of these were made by “your people.” The register adds: “In this connection allow me to bear testimony to the intelligence, integrity, and good order always manifested by your colonists in all their business relations with this office. I can now call to mind no instance in which one under the influence of
- 46. liquor has been in this office. Cases of profanity are extremely rare; in no instance have we had trouble or contention with any one. They are model colonists. I know this opinion to be shared by all who come in contact with them.” The bishop adds: “We have already in the colony two churches; one more will be built in spring. Two promising towns have sprung up—De Graff and Randall. In De Graff there are some forty houses, stores or residences, a large brick-yard, a grist-mill; a grain elevator and a convent school are to be put up during the winter. The settlers, whom I had the pleasure of visiting a month ago, are full of hope and delighted with their prospects. Last spring Swift County was a wild, untenanted prairie; to-day on every side new houses and freshly-broken ground meet the eye. Our expenses in organizing and directing the colony were large; still, we were able to meet them by direct revenue from the colony itself. Each settler paid a small entrance fee, and we sold town lots. We have also reserved from sale some choice sections of land, which can at any time, if there is need, be disposed of at a high advance over the original price; so that we are safe against all losses in our enterprise. As soon as a settlement is formed the land advances at once in value; one farm bought in Swift County last spring at two dollars per acre has been sold since at nine dollars per acre, and a settlement that embraces three or four hundred families always affords room for a valuable town-site. The two excellences which I deem our Minnesota plan possesses are the following: We had control of the land; this is necessary to ward off speculation and preserve the land for our own colonists. No sooner would twenty families be settled in a district than the surrounding land would be bought up by speculators or strangers, if you had not complete control over it in some manner. Next, we began the colony with a priest on the spot; the presence of a priest does more than any other agency to attract immigrants and to encourage them in their difficulties. We
- 47. have been so well satisfied with our work in Swift County that our programme for next year includes the opening of two new colonies.” Our space does not permit us to summarize even the accounts of the other Catholic colonization movements which have come under our notice. These movements are serious and important, and those engaged in them should take every possible precaution to prevent them from falling into the hands of careless, incompetent, or dishonest persons. The work, it appears, will have two chief departments—the home and foreign agencies. The former will undertake and supervise the task of selecting and securing proper localities for colonies, and of procuring as settlers families and individuals already resident here, but whose interests would be promoted by their translation to these new homes; the foreign agencies would be employed in diffusing the necessary information among the classes in Europe who would be most likely to emigrate, and who would be the most desirable emigrants, and in inducing them to join new colonies already established or to form others of their own. The Catholic Advocate, of Louisville, Ky., in some well- considered remarks on the subject, says: “Now, it is our opinion that a great impetus could be given to this good work if the directors of the colonization project could so manage as to awaken the Irish people at home to the value of the movement; if they could have their plans placed in all their development before that class in Ireland from which emigration recruits its numbers. This could be best and most efficiently done by inducing the formation of corresponding organizations in the old country. There are very many thousands of people in Ireland, with farming-stock worth two and three and four hundred pounds sterling, holding their lands by an insecure tenure and at a rack-rent, who would come out to this country to-morrow, with all their valuables converted into gold, if they knew or understood the advantages of the colonization scheme. As it is now, they only hear about it. It comes to them by
- 48. newspapers, as a kind of far-off echo. It is not brought forcibly to their notice. Its benefits are not urged upon them personally. There is no persuasion about it, and it is as a dead interest to the great majority of the people, who, if they only knew and understood it thoroughly, would grasp at it. The British government was very earnest in its efforts to colonize Australia and New Zealand some years ago, and the advantages it had to offer were far and far away from those offered by the Catholic colonization movement amongst us. But how did the British government act? It sent agents amongst the Irish and English and Scotch, prepared with maps and pamphlets and lectures, to impress the value of their project upon the people at home and put it immediately before their eyes. What was the consequence? Numbers of emigrants came forward, and of a class which had the means to colonize, and they settled in Brisbane, Queensland, and New Zealand, where they are to-day prosperous and promising. We do not say that paid agents should be sent to Ireland for the purpose we indicate, but it would be very easy to communicate with influential persons there to put before them the value of forming organizations in connection with Bishop Ireland’s scheme, with the St. Louis scheme, and any others that may be started. What is required is emigrants with some capital, and this is the way to get them.” Bishop Ireland, in the letter from which we have already quoted, sets forth at some length what such a body as the Irish Catholic Benevolent Union could do in this work. It could constantly agitate the subject of colonization, and it could establish a national bureau of information, which would collect information, publish pamphlets, secure the co-operation of bishops and priests, and open colonies of their own. But the “crowning stone in the work of colonization,” in the bishop’s opinion, would be “the formation of joint-stock colonization societies.” He says: “By no other means can the poor among our people—those most in need of homes—be colonized. However successful our
- 49. Minnesota plan may seem to have been, it does not reach the poor. We have received hundreds of letters from most deserving persons, to whom we were obliged to answer that we had no place for them in our colony. How many there are who have simply means to bring them West, but who can neither pay for land nor maintain themselves while waiting for the first crop! A joint-stock company would give them land on long time, at reasonable rates of interest, and would also advance them small sums to assist them in opening their farms. The plan might be somewhat as follows: The executive power of the company should be in the hands of most reliable business men. Stockholders would be promised that their money would be paid back in five years, with interest at six per cent. per annum, and, in order that men of all classes might take part in the work, shares would be put at low figures. The inducement to take shares is that good is done to our fellow-countrymen without any loss to ourselves. The company purchases a tract of land; cash in hand, the land would cost but little. Immigrants, in purchasing it from the company, would give back a mortgage, promising to pay the full price in four or five years, with interest at eight per cent. per annum. An industrious settler could not fail to meet such obligations. If he failed to do so, the land reverts to the company, worth much more than it was when first purchased. The company derives its expenses from the two per cent., which it charges the settlers over what it pays its shareholders; but to protect itself the better it could sell the land at a slightly increased figure, especially a few choice pieces; it could also lay out for its profit a town-site, and sell the lots. “There should be colonies in every State where cheap lands are to be found. The movement should be made general, our entire Irish Catholic people entering into it: one class coming forward with advice and money, the other profiting, for their own good and that of their religion, of the assistance offered to them. What is to be done must be done quickly. The time is fast passing when cheap lands can be had in America. Already the
- 50. tide of immigration—bearing, alas! but a small number of our people—has crossed the Missouri, leaving in its wake but inconsiderable portions of unoccupied land, and reaching even now the limits of the arable lands of the continent. Patriotism and religious zeal are two great incentives to action for Irish Catholics. Colonization is a work upon which both can be most easily brought to bear.” Already one such joint-stock company has been formed—on the 10th of April last—in St. Paul, in which the bishop and the coadjutor- bishop of that see have taken shares. It will henceforth be the duty of the church in America to see that no Catholic family landing on our shores and seeking a new home in our Western States and Territories shall be permitted to stray beyond her control, but shall be conducted to localities where her priests are already prepared to receive them, and where their fellow-citizens will be bound to them by the ties of faith. Catholics in this land are already about as one in six. We receive accessions every day from the ranks of the Protestant sects; few, if any, of our own number fall away from us; the emigration of the future, to a great extent, will be in our hands. Thus will the church in America—where to-day, to use his own words, our Holy Father “is more truly Pope than in any other land”—grow in strength and beauty, and thus will she be prepared, when the hour comes, to save the republic for which her sons, from the hour of her birth until now, have shed their blood, and given their toil and their prayers, in unstinted measure.
- 51. A THRUSH’S SONG.
- 52. Underneath a leafy cover, Green with morning-wealth of June, Wanting still, like gift of lover Craving even greater boon, Deeper chords of light to perfect summer’s fulness, love’s high noon; Just apart from all the glitter Of a busy crystal world Where, amid quick human twitter, Pond’rous engine huge arms hurled, Leaping shuttle wrought bright fancies, girded wheels obedient whirled; Just a little from the glimmer, From the footfalls’ tuneless tread— With the distance ever dimmer— Rose, so calm o’ershadowèd, Sound of lusty drum and hautboy, with clear flute voice interlaid, Notes exultant loud outpouring Chant of nations, lightly bound With frail melody, up soaring O’er the people gathered round, Resting from the glare a little, from the wearing sight and sound. Ears of loyal Briton tingling Hark’ning there, “God save the Queen”; Erin’s children’s tears commingling At “The Wearing of the Green,” Thinking of a loveless bondage, truer trust that might have been. Sounds of wrathful people seeming Storming through the “Marseillaise,” Stirred a land, nigh dead in dreaming, Through Hortense’s song of praise, Through its wailing sadness tolling bells of old chivalric days.
- 53. Through sad France’s slumber breaking Germany’s triumphant hymn, Armed peoples, eager waking, Watching Rhine-lights growing dim, Hearing clear a weary nation struggling sore with spectres grim. In the nations’ anthems swelling Ever twanged some chord of wrong: Broken notes in anguish welling Even in our starlit song— Shadowy notes from swamp and prairie mingling with the suffering throng. Stilled at last the music’s clamor, Drum and hautboy laid to rest, Softly through the silence’ glamour Stole the light wind of the west, Gently parted the green branches, tenderly each leaf caressed. And a sudden thrill of sweetness, Mellow, careless, glad, and clear, Love’s noon-song in its completeness, Poured in peaceful nature’s ear From a thrush’s throat of silver—happy song without one tear— Fell like precious, heav’n-dropped token 'Mid the elements of strife, 'Mid the melodies, grief-broken, Blare of trumpet, shriek of fife— Only with undarkened blessing was the thrush’s singing rife. Where the ways were broad and ordered England’s Indian blossoms flamed; Here, where guarding thickets bordered, Bloom of May June’s sunshine claimed, Lifting, 'mid the throngs of people, glance, half-fearing, half- ashamed;
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