first holy Communion" the brother explained to the visiting stranger. Louis Guilbert was about to retrace his way but felt suddenly so faint that he could not refuse the brother's kind invitation to refresh and rest himself. Wearily, he sank into a chair of the college parlor, and when he saw his name once more in golden letters, tears filled his eyes as he thought "The good Fathers have not yet expunged my name, though they must have heard of my shortcomings." Then there came to his ears the sound of the organ from the Chapel and again yearnings rose within his breast, remembering that he too, had made his first holy Communion on the feast of St. Aloysius. An indescribable longing seized him, to see again the Chapel and the high altar, at the steps of which he had tasted the greatest happiness of his life. Suddenly it had become clear as daylight to the scoffer, that never again in his career had he partaken of happiness equal to that of St. Aloysius' day, so many years ago! Breathing heavily, the invalid reached one of the rear pews, while yet the clear boyish voices were reciting the confession of faith. He saw the happy faces and felt very mis erable. If only he might wipe out his past-that he could once more kneel at the foot of the altar, a faithful believer even as those boys! alas! that was impossible! From his youth onward he had insulted God and religion and now the Just One would cast him off as he deserved. An involuntary groan escaped his lips and sympathetic neighbors were about to offer assistance, when the attention of all was attracted to the priest who slowly and laboriously ascended the pulpit. It was old Father Martin-the same who had prepared Louis Guilbert for his first holy Communion. The work of preparation he now yielded unto younger hands then his, but he delivered as of old, the sermon to the pupils on their feast day. He admonished them in earnest and penetrating words to keep the oath which they had to-day sworn to God and never to desert Him and His holy Church. "But should you fall nevertheless" - and the voice of the old priest rang through the Chapel in prophetic tones - "should you have the misfortune to separate yourselves from God and His Church, then do not despair of His mercy! Return! return to the arms of your Father: He cannot cast you off! Was your first holy Communion a worthy one, then your last holy Communion will be a worthy one too. This word of hope I offer you to-day and you shall treasure it to your very death." The Father paused a moment to continue with renewed force. "Supposed you had gone into a strange land and some one had taken you in and offered you hospitality, festooned his house in your honor shared his table and home with you. You would certainly be thankful to him. Suppose, later on he became your enemy-inflicted on you insult and injury and later again, if having lost every thing, he presented himself a beggar at your door, would you send him away?" I was once his guest', would come to your mind and you would receive him into your house! How then should God the infinitely good and merciful, ever be able to forget the human heart that once received Him hospitably, even though this heart had later strayed from the environment of His loving care?" The preacher ceased, for a commotion was started among his hearers. A strange gentleman had fainted and been carried by kind hands into the parlor. No one but old Father Martin who had hastened to the side of the stranger, recognized in him, Louis Guilbert the infidel. "I knew you would return" he said in joyous simplicity to the sick man. "Your first holy Communion was good and worthy and our dear Savior does not forget one who has received him hospitably." Louis Guilbert was indeed changed. He made his confession and then, because the dreaded hemorrhage had come and his life was in danger, he received that very day his last holy. Communion from the hands of his old teacher. It was good and worthy as his first one had been, notwithstanding all the sinful years that intervened. A few days later he died, and the good Jesuits buried him in their own grave yard, placing on his tombstone this beautiful inscription: "GOD'S MERCY LASTS FOREVER." Missionary Work of Catholic Germany. wenty five years ago the activity of German Catholics in foreign missions was exceedingly small; since then, however, Germany acquired foreign territory and Catholics felt it their duty to make known their faith to the heathen population in these countries. And such has been their success that at the end of 1903 there were in the countries under German protectorate 135 principal stations, divided as follows: I. German East Africa: 1. The Apostolic Vicariate North Zansibar has II principal stations with 18 Fathers of the H. Ghost, 14 Brothers and 15 Sisters. At the Mission hospital at Bagamoyo 2340 patients were taken care of during the past year. Since 1897 also German Trappists have been at work in the Vicariate. 2. The Apostolic Vicariate of South Zansibar has 13 Fathers, 17 Brothers, 23 Sisters and 31 native catechists in 11 principal stations. 40 schools are well attended and promise a rich har vest. 3. The Apostolic Vicariate Tanganika, under the direction of the White Fathers, counts in 9 principal stations 21 Fathers, 12 Brothers, 11 Sisters, and 55 native catechists. Its 50 schools are frequented by 1937 boys and 1715 girls. The number of its catechumens exceeds 10 000. 4. The Apostolic Vicariate Unyanjembe. White Fathers. This flourishing mission counts already 7 principal stations with 19 Fathers, 7 Brothers, and 18 Sisters. Catechumens 3 000. 5. The Apostolic Vicariate South Nyanza. White Fathers. This so often and so severely tried Vicariate has II stations with 21 Fathers, 7 Brothers, 14 Sisters and numerous native catechists. The number of catechumens was 8 000; pupils in its 23 schools 1105. IV. German Southwest Africa. Apostolic Prefecture. Under the Oblates of Mary, whose motherhouse is in Huenfeld, it numbers on 6 main stations 12 Fathers, and 17 Brothers. For 1904 Franciscan Sisters from Nonnenwerth are expected to open a boardingschool for white girls at Windhoek. V. New Guinea. Apostolic Prefecture. Missionaries from Steyl. In 5 stations we find 12 Fathers, 12 Brothers and 8 Sisters. The mission has to fight against great difficulties. VI. New Pommerania. Apostolic Vicariate. Missionaries of the S. Heart. The flourishing vicariate has already 26 main and 39 roadside stations with about 11 000 Catholics. There are one Bishop, 28 Fathers, 34 Brothers, 24 Sisters and 33 native catechists. The mission entertains one seminary for catechists (42), a boardingschool for white or halfbreed children (28), 12 orphan asylums with 311 inmates, 54 schools with 2325 pupils. There are besides in the mission on the Marshall Islands 4 Fathers, 3 Brothers and 5 Sisters; 2 schools with 50 pupils. VII. Samoa Islands. Apostolic Vicariate. Marist Fathers. On the German part of the Islands there are 13 stations, on the American island Tutuila 3, on the English island Toelau I station. Working in the mission are 1 Bishop, 20 Eurocatechists, 12 European and 18 native Sisters. In pean and 3 native Fathers, 7 Brothers, 95 native 96 shools are 1152 pupils. The number of Catholics is 6687. VIII. The Caroline and Pelew (Palau) islands since 1886 have been in the care of Spanish Capuchin Fathers, but since last year also 2 German Capuchin Fathers have been at work there. IX. South Shantung in China, Apostolic Vicariate. Missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word from Steyl, Holland. At present there are I Bishop, 46 Fathers, (35 European and II native,) II Lay-brothers and 7 Sisters, and num II. Cameroon. An Apostolic Prefecture. Pallotine Fathers. When the missionaries arrived there first, they found 7 Catholics, now their numerous Catechists. Kiautschou in China belongs ber is 3580. 766 catechumens and 1219 pupils in to the Apostolic Vicariate of South Shantung and the mission schools. There are 7 main stations is in charge of the Fathers and Brothers of this with 12 Fathers, 24 Brothers and 20 Sisters. Mission. Through the unhealthy climate II members of the missionary body have died since 1890. III. Togo. Apostolic Prefecture. Missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word, from Steyl, Holland. It has at work on its 5 main and 34 roadside stations 16 Fathers, 10 Brothers, 8 Sisters and numerous catechists. Its 39 schools are frequented by 1601 pupils. It keeps up also an itinerant school for teaching the trades of tailor, shoemaker, joiner, and locksmith. Not only does Catholic Germany send out its sons and daughters to convert these pagan countries but by its divers missionary societies assists them efficaciously with money and other necessaries. Whilst Catholic France drives out its religious congregations and thus hinders the proper development of its missions, the Protestant government of Germany is very favorable to its Catholic missions. Man proposes, God disposes. J. F. MEIFUSS. R RADIUM. adium is one of the latest discoveries of | science which in itself contains cause enough to upset a great deal, if not all of what hitherto passed as science. In an interview which Professor d'Arsonval gave to the Paris Matin (quoted by La Vérité francaise no. 3780) the doctor is reported as follows: "In 1895 Professor Roentgen discovered the X rays which enables man to look through dark objects and to analyse the mysterious functions of the organs inside of a living being. Once more experimental science has made out of most fantastic dreams a palpable reality. Some months later the discovery of the X rays brought about another, still more astonishing invention. Professor Hy. Becquerel, of the Institute, announced to the world that uranium sends forth an invisible radiation similar to that of the X rays, but different in as much as the X rays required an outward source for their energy, uranium had an inexhaustible supply of its activity in itself. As in science all is linked together, three years later Mr. and Mrs. Curie found in the residue, from which uranium had been extracted, a new body, the radium, which produces the same and still more astounding phenomena, with an intensity 2,000 000 times greater than that of uranium. Radium is a strange element and infinitely rare since it requires the treatment of ten tons of mineral to extract one gramme (500 lb.) which at present is worth about $30 000*. Radium is obtained in the form of salt, chloride or bromide. The radium salts are spontaneously luminous. They affect photographic plates through any kind of body. No body is known as completely opaque to radium rays, although some let them pass quicker than others. The radiation of radium is equal at all temperatures from the freezing point of hydrogen, 2520 centigrade below zero, to that of boiling water, 100o above. be decomposed by a magnet that divides them in three distinct and unequally deviated fascicles, charged with positive and negative electricity. The negative rays resemble true projectiles animated with the velocity of light, 300 000 kilometers in a second, and whose mass is a thousand times smaller than the smallest atom known, that of hydrogen. Radium is a perpetual, indefinite and, as far as we now know, spontaneous source of electricity. A sealed glass bottle containing radium salt becomes charged with electricity as a Leyden jar. Draw a line on the bottle with a file; the cover is pierced and a spark ensues - the operator receives a shock. Radium is also a perpetual and indefinite source of warmth. And in contradiction with all the known laws of nature this element realizes the perpetuum mobile whose very conception seemed absurd to scientists and philosophers. If you place an isolated thermometer at the side of a bottle containing radium, you will notice that its temperature is from 3 to 4 degrees higher than the surrounding air. Another still more extraordinary phenomenon is, that radium in solution will communicate at once all its own qualities to bodies enclosed with it in the same vessel. Hence, it seems that radium sends forth a material emanation which fixes itself on solid bodies and diffuses among gasses after the manner of an infinitely subtle vapor. But this emanation, contrary to the rays of radium, does not traverse the bodies. It remains confined to the vessel that encloses it. The smallest hindrance stops it, yet it may be transfused even by a capillary tube into another vessel. By distilling this emanation it may be encompassed in a very small space provided that space is sufficiently cooled off by plunging it in liquid air. The emanation of radium, separated from its source, will lose itself spontaneously even in an hermetically sealed vessel. But half of it is left after four days. Another singular quality of radium is this that it will render all such bodies conductors of electricity as heretofore were known as isolators, In short, all in this element is astonishing such as air, coal oil, benzine etc. Where in a and mysterious. I have kept for my conclusion certain vessel radium has been handled for some its most suggestive action, that which it exercises time it is impossible to isolate any electrical ap-on living objects. If one approaches to his closed paratus. Alike to X rays, the rays of radium have neither reflection nor refraction; they traverse mirrors and prisms in a straight line. Yet they may *) The Scientific American (vol. LXXXIX. no. 26) gives the price as $2 000 for 1 gramme and states that even at this exhorbitant price factories in France and Germany are kept busy with ever increasing new orders. eyelids an opaque vessel containing radium it provokes a vivid sensation of light. All the parts of the eye become phosphorescent. The eye itself furnishes the light to the retina. When the skin is brought in contact with a phial containing radium, it feels nothing whatBut if this contact is kept up for sever al days the tissues decay, an ulcer is formed which ever. it takes months to heal. This quality of the radium physician try to utilize in the treatment of cancer and lupus*) "I have said enough to show that the discovery of this body opens up an admirable field. for our investigations and hopes. The properties of radium upset our ideas of force and matter. Radium constantly issues light, heat and electricity, and a subtle imponderable matter. It loses continuously a quantity of considerable energy and yet remains in the same state and of the same weight. Is it the effect of THE YOUNG INVENTOR. a continuous atomic transformation? Is it the transformation of a sensible radiation from space that is still inaccessible to our senses? And finally what is the measure of this energy? ative electricity, is equal to that of light-300 000 kilometers a second. Suppose we reduce it to one third, the energy of a single gramme of radium is still equal to several milliards of horsepower. In the form of heat, radium sends forth enough to raise its own weight 34 kilometers in height within one hour. Add to this caloric energy that of electricity and its other radiations and you will see what indefinite power it contains. Radium constitutes the most troublesome riddle of the century, already over rich in riddles." Professor d'Arsonval, Member of the Institute. Now, dear reader read this over. A Mr. and Mrs. Curie, have had 10 Tons of mineral completely worked up and have as result of there labors one gramme of radium. This gramme of radium, according to the learned man from the French Institute of Science has more energy than all the steam-engines in the world. "Considered as light," says the Professor "it is equal to several milliards of horsepower, considered as heat it developes energy enough to raise its own weight 34 kilometers high in one hour i. e. higher than the height obtained by piling the five highest of all mountains one on top of the other." Do you believe it? Your religion does not forbid it. It sounds incredible, much more incredible than the story of Jonas which by these very men of science is ridiculed so often. Yet for the truth of the story of Jonas we have the infallible word of the Church, and for this story of radium? Only the word of fallible men. Indeed very fallible men. For these very men and thousand others before them had worked out a "science" of heat, of light, of electricity that up to the invention of that trifle of radium by Mr. and Mrs. Curie was claimed to be infallible, was bragged upon as the crowning success of the 19th century and here comes the learned Professor of the Institute and tells you: "The properties of radium upset our ideas of force and matter." So they have built a house which a grain of radium upsets. The boasted science of the 19th century is no more, all is to be done over. Now we can understand that sorWe have said that the velocity of those part- rowful finale of the Professor: "Radium constitutes icles sent forth by the rays, charged with neg- the most troublesome riddle of the century." Thus the boasted science of the infidel world shaken, but the religion, which it tried to upset, stands as solid as on the day on which Christ said to Peter: "Thou art Peter and upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hel, shall not prevail against it." It is, and will ever bel "the pillar and groundwork of truth." radiu n. *) That is the reason why there is such a demand for According to the Scientific American (1. c.) radium possesses all the important qualities of the Roentgen rays in addition to the invaluable property of being ready for use at any time without any apparatus. It has been found that a thousandth part of a gramme of radium is as effective in the treatment of cancer as an expensive and complicated apparatus furnishing the Roentgen ray. is J. F. Meifuss. |