Chapter XV. Nations Which Have Been Disgraced by the Toleration of Popish Rule.

There is no nation on the face of God’s green earth to-day which has been enslaved by the power of Popery, and which has been burdened by an idle and worthless army of Priests, Monks and Nuns, but what would have become, not only tired, but disgusted with their burden, if they had ever been permitted to mingle and commingle with Protestant countries, and learn that Protestantism leads to individual intellectuality and collective greatness.

It is true, however, that there are many countries in South America that have been Priest-ridden for centuries, and who are as heavily burdened to-day with this ancient parasite as ever, who offer not a single protest, but the only reason for this is that Catholicism has always forbidden these priest-ridden nations to make any advancement towards Protestantism, which has been instrumental in keeping these nations under the complete control of the Vatican; thus you will see they have never been permitted to taste of the grandeur of Protestantism.

We will take France for instance, which was at one time one of the most priest-ridden countries on earth, but which is to-day endeavoring to extract herself from the meshes of this damnable creed, as the intelligent statesmen of France have learned that Catholicism is only another name for ignorance and superstition, and they have also learned that so long as the affairs of France remain under the control of papal power, just that long advancement and greatness stand aloof from the portals of their country, so in the past two years the government officials have removed tens of thousands of the Pope’s hirelings from authority and have closed up hundreds of parochial schools.

Now, if Catholicism is such a glorious creed, why is it that France is so anxious to get rid of her influence? Ah! France has learned by coming in contact with Protestant countries that she need not expect to ever become a great nation if she permits popery to control her affairs.

Italy, the home of the Pope, has begun to wince under the Vatican’s rule, as her national back is getting raw by the saddle of this diabolical creed. The inhabitants of Italy have been for the past few years protesting against the high-handedness of Catholicism, and the officials have begun to take notice of this vulture of humanity, and my predictions are that within a very short time Italy will do as France has done and close up the monasteries and convents, for just as long as these institutions are allowed to keep open house, and dictate to the inhabitants of Italy, just that long we may expect the immigrants who come over from Italy to bear the Vatican’s mark of vice, immorality and criminality.

Go to Ellis Island and watch the immigrant ships from Catholic nations as they vomit forth their load of human carrion upon the fair shores of this country, and your heart will become sick with fear, as this class that hails from the nations of popery are a class, as a whole, that will disgrace and ruin any nation on earth, as these immigrants are men and women who have no conception of a free country, as they are men and women who have never been taught to look above the horizon of Catholicism; therefore they land upon the shores of America as criminals and not as citizens, and you cannot make pure American citizens out of them until you boil this hellish creed from their system by the fire of patriotism, and this cannot be done as long as this country permits Catholicism to run her mills of degeneracy unmolested upon our shores.

All of our large cities are infested more or less with this “scarlet-robed hag of hell,” and more especially our eastern cities, as this foreign herd of the Pope’s followers land in eastern ports and spread themselves out like a blanket, reeking with a moral stench over the eastern borders of this country, and they make a specialty of settling in our eastern cities.

We will take Boston, Mass., for instance, as there is but very little difference in the “rabble” of that city and the immoral degenerate class that infests the densely populated centers of Catholic countries.

Several notorious cases of open defiance of civil law and violation of civil rights by the tools of popery have recently occurred in Boston. One of these is the escape of two girls from the so-called “House of the Good Shepherd,” in Roxbury, and the re-capture of these girls by a policeman.

Now, bear in mind that this “House of the Good Shepherd” is a Catholic institution, pure and simple, but these girls who escaped from this “plague house,” were arrested by the police and returned to this Catholic dungeon without the semblance of law.

On questioning “The Mother Superior,” she said that the girls were not committed to the institution by the courts, but by “the church.” The question then arose: Has the Roman Catholic Church the right to give sentence of imprisonment with hard labor as a penalty? For this is exactly what imprisonment in this “House of the Good Shepherd” means; therefore, if these girls so sentenced escape, what right has acity policeman to arrest and carry them back to this Catholic institution, which exists without the semblance of a State law and without an iota of moral law? Are the policemen of the cities of Massachusetts servants of the Roman Catholic Church? Have the courts the right to sentence prisoners to Catholic prisons, and after sentence, have the prisoners no right? Many of them are kept for life, or until too old to work, and then they are set adrift to become public charges upon a Protestant country, after the Roman Catholic Church has made hundreds of dollars from the labor of these unfortunates.

We want to call attention to another flagrant case, which happened in the north end of Boston not long since.

A few months since, a Protestant Italian family in the north end of Boston was about to move to New York. There were two children and the wife soon expected to become mother again. She expressed the wish that some one would care for one of her children for a few weeks, until she got well and was settled in her new home. A neighbor sent a woman to her who offered to care for the children, and when this little one was turned over to her, she took it straightway to the home for destitute Catholic children, on Harrison avenue, in Boston. In a month the mother called for her baby and was told that it was “up in the country,” and was requested to leave it there for a month, and was told that it would be good for the child. She consented to this, believing that the fresh air would be good for her baby, but she was an uneducated woman and was inclined to believe what others said, as she was an honest lady herself, but she did not know the trickery of the Catholic Church, so when she was asked to sign a paper, she readily agreed to it, not thinking that she was giving her own blood and flesh away.

In a month she came on from New York to get her baby and was told that she could not have it, and was further told that she had signed a paper giving it away. Then the husband came on from New York and demanded the child, but was refused. He then appealed to the pastor of the Italian Methodist Church, on Hanover street, Boston. The two went to a very prominent Romanist office-holder, who was chairman of the trustees of this so-called “Catholic Home.” This man draws seven thousand dollars per year from the city, and is elected largely through Protestant influence, simply because Protestantism believes that she can reform Catholicism by being liberal with her; but oh! Liberty! what crimes are perpetrated in thy name! This Boston official, after much talk with this Italian father, told him to bring a letter from a priest, and that he would see what he could do. The Italian said, “I am a Protestant,” at which the official became very indignant, but after a little more talk said: “Bring a letter of recommendation from a minister.” This Italian father got a good, strong letter commending his character from a Protestant minister in New York, and one who already knew him, and went this time alone to this Boston official.

In about an hour this heart-broken father appeared before a Methodist minister in tears, saying: “He will not give me my child. He said I am a bad man for becoming a Protestant, and that by doing so I have proven that I am unfit to care for my children, and when I gave him my letter from the Protestant minister, he said: ‘I will not take the word of a Protestant minister!'”

Now, if what we have related is true, which I know to be absolutely true in every particular, would happen in the United States of America, “the land of the free and the home of the brave,” you might know what would happen in a Catholic country which is completely under the tyrannical and damnable rule of the Pope.

A minister informs us that on three occasions lately, children have come to him and told him that an Irish public school teacher in Boston had forbidden them to attend Protestant services, as their parents were at one time Roman Catholics, and that this talk from this Romish school teacher was had during school hours.

What we need in this country is a “vigilance committee,” and we need it badly, and we need it right away, and this committee should be instructed to impeach every public official who endeavors to usurp the law in favor of Roman Catholicism.

The brightest minds of the past, and the brightest minds of the present have pointed out to Protestant America the dangers of Romanism, but it seems as though we will not heed their warning, when we see upon every side evidences of moral decay and national degeneracy by permitting this “Romish hag” to supervise and superintend the affairs of this nation.

Protestant European nations have for many years beheld the despotic march of Catholicism in America, and this country for a number of years has been the laughing stock of Protestant European countries for permitting this brazen demon to tread up and down the avenues of our liberties without molestation.

A few years before Bismarck of Germany died, he, in a public speech delivered in the German parliament, pointed out that the Roman Catholic Church was only free in America, and for the benefit of the reader we will quote a part of this great statesman’s speech:

“The Pope being purely a religious chief, there is no occasion to keep a permanent political representative at his port. Things, indeed, might have been leftin status quo had not the present Pope thought it fit to revive the ancient struggle of the papacy with the temporal power, and more especially with the German empire. The spirit emanating the papacy in this campaign is too well known to require comment; still we would tell the house a story, which has long been kept a secret, but which had better be made public. In 1869, when the Wurtemberg government had occasion to complain of the action of the papacy, the Wurtemberg envoy at Munich was instructed to make representations, and in a conversation which passed between the envoy and the nuncio; the latter said, ‘The Roman Church is free only in America.'”

This nuncio further stated that the Roman Catholic Church in all other countries had to look to revolution as the sole means to retain her position. This, then, was the view of the priestly diplomatist stationed at Munich in 1869, and formerly representing the Vatican at Paris.

Bismarck further stated: “I know from the very best sources that the Emperor Napoleon was dragged into the war very much against his will by the influence of Jesuit priests.”

Who can deny these statements, as Bismarck was a man who made the study of Catholicism a part of his life, and he was a man who was of rugged character and undaunted courage, and a man whom the world at large believed.

There has not been a war for centuries past but what the cunning hand of popery has been mixed up with the blood shed in these wars, as popery never misses an opportunity to take sides with the nation which represents Catholicism, as this creed of abominations will resort to bloodshed if by so doing she believes she can carry her point and establish her rule of despotism.

If America will take a lesson from France she will be taught a lesson that will save this country from passing through the same ordeal that France is passing through to-day, and unless the government of the United States begins in the near future to suppress this giant of darkness, Roman Catholicism, we will within the next fifty years have to resort to the same means that Combes of France is resorting to, to annihilate the serpent of Catholicism from our shores, or else meekly submit to being dragged down to the level of Roman Catholicism, which is equivalent to losing our identity as a government, and taking our places among the nations noted only for either ignorance, vice or criminality.

Catholicism does not believe in a free country. Catholicism does not believe in a country of the people, by the people and for the people, as such a country is not the natural abode for this detestable creed.

Catholicism believes in a country which is ruled by a monarch, as she then only has to control the monarch himself, and this is why the Catholic clergy and the Catholic officials, from the smallest to the greatest, are in sympathy with Russia, as the Russian government is a most complete monarchy, and the emperor is an absolute monarch, and this is why Catholicism is always ready to toss up her hat in glee for the success of the Russian army.

Catholic prelates all along the line, up to the Pope himself, have been trying to make Americans believe that Russia is deserving of our sympathy, but her solicitude in behalf of Russia is only a sympathetic shriek for her own polluted carcass.

Catholicism never sympathizes with any nation nor any individual who have for their motto “Emancipation,” as emancipation means to Catholicism a vital blow to her teachings, as slavery of both body and soul is Rome’s uppermost desire.

Can we expect Catholicism to change her abominations without force? Most assuredly not, as her every inspiration comes from a set of men who know no more about loyalty to country than her dupes know about a living God, as the Pope is a native born Italian, and her cardinals are recruited from the ranks of Italy’s king-ruled inhabitants, consequently it is impossible to expect the Pope of Rome or those cardinals to recommend anything in harmony with the teachings of Protestant America, as they are strangers to Protestantism and American manhood; therefore it would be as reasonable to expect sunlight in the caverns of the earth as to expect Rome to recommend a doctrine which would be beneficial to humanity.

When I declare to the American people that unless this country in the near future makes a combined effort to stamp out the political intrigue of Catholicism, or it will not be long until America will find her every interest tied tight and fast to the carcass of Romanism; I do so because I feel that it is my duty to warn this country of her awful fate, for just as sure as God reigns, just that sure Catholicism has America “spotted” as her victim, as this spirit of darkness has for many years in the past made her boast that “America is Rome’s future possession.”

There is not a nation on the face of the earth which has permitted Rome to plant her banner of infamy unmolested but what has been disgraced by the toleration of her creed, and America cannot expect to meet with a better fate.

The dangers that beset the path of America’s future are in the form of a political serpent, as Rome has learned to know that by holding out the “vote bait” to our politicians, that she can retain the balance of power, as she has long since learned that as long as she can be instrumental in keeping two political parties, both largely made up of Protestants, and fighting each other, that she can associate herself with one or the other by offering this party the undivided suffrage of Catholicism, and by this act she can gradually get control of the offices of this land, and this is her main object, for if she can control the officials, she will see that such laws are passed as will enable her to coil her slimy self about the vitals of Protestant America, and just as long as the Protestant denominations allow themselves to be made Protestant simpletons of, just that long Catholicism will fool Protestant hosts by offering the “vote bait” to the politician.

Whenever Protestantism learns that she has a common cause to champion, and a common enemy to fight, then we will have an “American party” on one side, and a “Catholic party” on the other, and when this time comes, Catholicism will be deprived of her cudgel of deception, and will have to fight her battles without the assistance of “Protestant partisan fools,” and will cease to believe that she belongs to either this or that political party. Protestantism is a band of American patriots, and should only have the welfare of Protestantism at heart.

Catholicism, if left alone without the assistance of Protestant votes, could not turn a wheel in the affairs of this country, but by permitting Romanism to make Protestantism believe in one of two political parties thus dividing the Protestant votes, Catholicism is allowed to hold the balance of power and dictate terms to a Protestant country.

Shame, eternal shame upon the hosts of Protestantism for permitting themselves to be made fools of by the Romish Church, as this is exactly what the hosts of Protestantism are allowing Catholicism to do with her!

Now, I know whereof I speak, as I have been on the inside of politics in our large cities, and especially in the City of St. Louis, and Catholicism’s scheme is always to allow the cities to elect a Protestant mayor, but they always endeavor to elect the other officials.

Oh, could I but whisper into the ears of every Protestant in America and make them understand what I know of the cunning and deception of Catholicism I would march an army of Protestants to the polls at our elections that would represent a mighty army of patriotism; but just so long as Protestantism permits Catholicism to make her believe that it is necessary to have two or more political parties, just that long we will have partisan block-heads, and as long as this state of affairs exists, just that long the cunning schemes of Catholicism will be able to control the balance of power, which will disgrace the fair name of Protestant America.

I solemnly declare that there never has been a nation completely under the control of Romanism but what has been disgraced by that toleration, and America will live to realize the truthfulness of this assertion unless she becomes “Protestant patriots” instead of “prattling partisans.”

To give the reader a better idea of what happens in countries absolutely controlled by Catholicism, and to more thoroughly convince the reader that what I have said is true in regard to nations which have been disgraced by the toleration of popish rule, I desire to repeat a little history that is not many months old, which happened in the United States, where it is supposed that man and woman can worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and if what we are going to relate happens in this free land, what do you suppose is the condition in Catholic countries that are completely under the control of the Pope?

In Worcester, Mass., not long since, a 19-year-old girl by the name of Maggie Barry received a public whipping from her mother for attending services of the Salvation Army.

Miss Maggie Barry, who is 19 years of age, had been for some time occasionally attending the meetings of the Salvation Army, and was desirous of becoming a member of the corps, having been converted a short time since.

Her parents were Irish Roman Catholics and insisted that Maggie should remain a Romanist. They regarded the Salvation Army, which is purely non-sectarian, as a Protestant organization, and they were determined that their daughter should have nothing to do with it, and forbade her attending any of the meetings.

On a Sunday evening not long since she attended the services of the Salvation Army at No. 5 Commercial street, where there were at least 250 people present. While the commander of the corps was reading from the Bible, Miss Barry’s mother came through the doorway and down to the front row of seats near the corner of the platform, where Maggie was sitting, and grabbed her daughter by the arm and began to pound her over the head, and at once proceeded to pull the girl from the hall and down the stairs into the street, all the time unmercifully beating the poor girl over the head and shoulders.

The incident happened so quickly that for a moment the audience could not realize what was taking place, but as soon as the audience could gather their wits, there was a rush made for the street.

After the meeting had adjourned many of the attendants found Miss Barry in the street weeping like her heart would break and afraid to return to her home.

She told the audience that as soon as she reached the street where a number of relatives were waiting for her that she broke away from her mother and fled.

A policeman was called into consultation relative to the case and stated that as Maggie was under twenty-one years of age, that she had better be taken to her parents at 125 Salem street, and two policemen accompanied her to her home.

It is stated that Miss Barry has received many unmerciful beatings because she attended these religious meetings, and her old Romish mother, while dragging her down the stairs that Sunday night, threatened to do her bodily harm if she ever attended these meetings again.

A few days after this disgraceful and un-American spectacle happened in the streets of Worcester, a notice in the Central District Court appeared that “Miss Margaret Barry was charged with being a stubborn child and was sentenced to the Woman’s Prison at Shearborn. She appealed and furnished a bail. The girl was arrested on the complaint of her mother because she would not stay away from the meetings of the Salvation Army.”

Now, reader, you have a case right in the United States of America where a poor girl was sentenced to prison for attending a Protestant meeting. What do you think of a judge of a court who will sentence a child to a State prison for attending a Protestant meeting?

We know what you think if you are a pure Protestant, and we know that your blood boils with pure indignation; but you cannot expect any relief from this state of affairs and you can only expect to see things grow worse if you continue to be “partisans” instead of “patriots.”

If such things are now happening in the State of Massachusetts, how long will it be before the Protestant churches in this country will be closed up by the order of the Pope, and how long will it be before those who attend Protestant meetings will be liable to arrest and thrown into prison, as it was during the dark ages when the Roman Catholic Church had full control?

Authentic history, and history that cannot be denied nor disputed, nor even questioned, gives the appalling record of 70,500,000 Protestants who were slain by the greatest curse the world has ever known–Roman Catholicism.

We, in America, cannot expect anything better until we have a set of Protestant preachers who will practice what they pretend to believe.

Our Protestant ministers of to-day are weak-kneed, weak-spined, “nothings,” who have not enough religion nor backbone to take a firm stand against Catholicism, and until we have such men we will continue to see “Maggie Barrys” dragged from Protestant meetings and publicly whipped by parents, and then sentenced to imprisonment by judges elected by Roman Catholics.

Again we want to repeat the head lines of this chapter for the benefit of those who are weak-kneed and who are entirely “spineless:” “Nations who have been disgraced by the toleration of popish rule,” and we leave it to the reader to decide whether this headline is a misnomer or not, as we have offered you evidence in this chapter that should convince any right-thinking man or woman that if the Roman Catholic Church has grown so bold in America, with the ink upon the Declaration of Independence scarcely dry, what shall we expect for our posterity if there is not a stand made by Protestantism to halt this “emperor of darkness” in his march of devastation?

This black-winged vulture of human rights is growing bolder day by day by being permitted by Protestantism to separate and divide the Protestant vote among different parties, and combining the hosts of Catholicism for an onslaught against everything American in order to control the affairs of this country. If you will listen you can almost hear the death rattle of Protestantism as the serpent of Rome has so gently entwined her slimy self about the throat of our American goddess of liberty that the death rattle is almost perceptible.

Strike while you have the power, and do not delay, or else the time is not far distant when the once powerful arm of Protestantism will be paralyzed by the infusion of Roman virus.