various subjects within the scope of the society's work are delivered frequently, and many of the ancient Irish festivals are duly commemorated by appropriate musical and literary exercises.

There is no charge for admission to any of the classes or lectures. Το enable it to continue and extend this work, the society earnestly appeals to all sympathizers for active support.

The society is non-political and non-sectarian.

Information as to membership can be had upon application to the secretary, No. 47 West Forty-second Street, New York City.

Under the direction of Dr. Richard Morse Hodge, lecturer in Bible study, and Professor Frank M. McMurry, of the department of elementary education, a Sunday-school has been started at Teachers' College, New York City, to instruct teachers in a branch of work which, for the most part, has received little scientific educational attention. In respect to this phase of the Teachers' College work, Dean Russell recently said:

We may deplore the wretched work of our Sunday-schools, but nothing better can be expected until better teachers are available. The endowment of a single professorship is all that is needed to begin a work which, so far as I know, has never yet been attempted, but which is greatly needed for the education of the American children.

Evidently Dean Russell is not fully cognizant of all the facts in this matter. During ten years past the Catholic Summer-School at Cliff Haven, N. Y., on Lake Champlain, has provided at each session a course of instruction by specialists in Sunday-school work, who are also quite at home in the domain of pedagogy. Under the auspices of the Paulist Fathers, a Child Study Congress was held in the year 1897, at Columbus Hall, New York City, chiefly to discuss the laws of spiritual growth and to foster the study of religious knowledge among children. For over twenty years a very high standard of excellence has been maintained in the Sunday-school connected with the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, corner Sixtieth Street and Columbus Avenue, where the average attendance is rarely below sixteen hundred. About two years ago

a normal training class for catechists was established by Mrs. B. Ellen Burke,
in conjunction with the managers of St. Rose's Settlement, No. 323 East
Sixty-fifth Street. From October, 1902, to May, 1903, these Catechists and
others attended the course of free lectures at the hall of St. Vincent Ferrer,
Sixty-sixth Street and Lexington Avenue, indicated in the following list:
The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine and its Saints. Rev. James N.
Connolly.

Attendance at Catechism. Rev. Dennis J. McMahon, D.D.
Sunday-school Discipline. Rev. Michael J. Lavelle.

Devices for Securing Interest. Rev. Michael J. Considine.

The Art of Questioning.

Rev. Thomas L. Kinkead.

The Sunday-school and the Spiritual Life. Rev. Henry A. Brann.

Bible Study in the Sunday-school. Rev. Joseph H. McMahon. Ph.D.

The Sunday-school as a Social Factor. Rev. William O'Brien Pardow, S. J.
Sunday-school Music. Rev. Richard O. Hughes.

The Teacher as Missionary. Rev. Clement M. Thuente, O.P. Has Controversy a Place in the Sunday-school? Rev. Thomas J. Cullen, C.S.P.

The Instruction of Ignorant Adults. Rev. S. R. Brockbank, O.P.

A Reading Circle Manual, by Humphrey J. Desmond, editor of the Catholic Citizen, Milwaukee, contains many useful suggestions and lines of reading gathered from some of the best workers. It deserves a large circulation, and will be found of special value to beginners seeking for guidance in the choice of books. On page 43 due credit is given to The Columbian Reading Union department of THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE, established June, 1889, but there is no mention of the fact that the Ozanam Reading Circle was formed in 1886 among the graduates of St. Paul's Sunday-school, New York City. Another important point omitted is, that the discussion of the need of a general movement for courses of reading after graduation was begun in the department "With Readers and Correspondents" of THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE for December, 1888. The first unsigned communication was written in Milwaukee, Wis., by Miss Julie E. Perkins. Further particulars regarding her valuable personal service in awakening latent forces for the practical realization of her plan, may be found in the Tribute of Praise, published in THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE, August, 1894, shortly after her lamented death. She had very strong convictions that the Catholic people of high position in social life were in many cases allowing the intellectual opportunities of the present age to be monopolized by shallow, self-constituted leaders. Her efforts to make known the enduring claims of Catholic authors deserve perpetual remembrance.

The request for a discussion of the plans submitted by Miss Perkins was answered by numerous letters from readers of THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE, showing that in the United States, in Canada, in Australia, and throughout the immense area of the English-speaking world there was need of a wider diffusion of the best Catholic literature. From reliable sources of information it was estimated that thousands of dollars were annually spent by Catholics, especially in the rural districts, for ponderous subscription books. Unscrupulous agents grossly misrepresented the value of such publications, while enemies of the church were enabled to point the finger of derision at the vulgar display of shocking bad taste in printing, binding, and caricature photographs of distinguished ecclesiastics. Proofs were abundant that avaricious publishers had engaged in the nefarious work of deceiving simple people, seeking to establish the impression that the sale of these books in some way procured revenue for the church. A vast field of activity for intelligent Catholics having wealth, leisure, and zeal was thus brought into public view. The intellectual defence of the truth under existing conditions required an organized movement to secure the best books of Catholic leaders in literature, and banish from Catholic homes the clumsy volume kept on a marble-top table.

By request of A S. D. the back numbers of THE CATHOLIC WORLD

Mrs. Craven. September, 1873, was the date when the article appeared, and it was written by the late John McCarthy, formerly assistant editor of THE CATHOLIC WORLD MAGAZINE, who is best known as the author of an excellent short History of the World still for sale in Barclay Street.

The young man who wrote to inquire about the difference of opinion between Catholics and Socialists will find much information in an erudite article by Wilfrid Ward published in the American Catholic Quarterly Review, January, 1903-Philadelphia, 211 South Sixth Street. It contains an outline of the Catholic Social Movement in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Austria, together with a statement of principles and the events that brought the discussion to the attention of Pope Leo XIII. A small volume entitled The Pope and the People contains an admirable condensation of Pope Leo's teaching on many subjects relating to the welfare of society. It is to be hoped that Wilfrid Ward's article will be republished in pamphlet form. Labor leaders would derive much wisdom from the account given of Count de Mun, M. Leon Harmel, Bishop Von Ketteler, and other distinguished workers for the people.

The Light Behind is the title of a new novel by Mrs. Wilfrid Ward, which has been highly praised by some critics not given to partiality in regard to books by Catholic authors. It is not generally known that Mrs. Ward is the daughter of the late James Robert Hoe Scott, who inherited Abbotsford, the famous seat of Sir Walter Scott. Her mother, Lady Victoria Howard, was . daughter of the late Duke of Norfolk. Her husband, Wilfrid Ward, was the son of Mr. George Ward, the friend of Cardinal Newman. Mr. Ward is the historian of the Oxford Movement and the Catholic Revival, and is the author of the life of his father, and also of The Life and Times of Cardinal Wiseman.

Many were repelled from reading Mrs. Ward's first novel by the titleOne Poor Scruple-published a short time ago by Longmans, Green & Co., although it is a most interesting story of modern English life. Various types

of characters are introduced, such as the chivalrous old Roman Catholic Squire; his daughter, who rides straight to hounds, but who begs her father to allow her to give up her position as heiress and become a Sister of Mercy; a literary man of infinitely varied sympathies, but with no convictions; and Cecilia, a splendid pagan creature, who is unscrupulous in her self-indulgence. The story is principally concerned with a young widow, Madge Riversdale, and the title is explained by the difficult position in which she finds herself placed in connection with a question of marriage.

A real sensation has been produced by the editorial writer of a very yellow journal presuming to enter the field against Hamilton W. Mabie and other truly good critics. This ardent defender of yellow journalism feels constrained to condemn Mrs. Humphry Ward in these words:

A girl opens Lady Rose's Daughter. It is written by a woman of serious and established literary reputation-the female William Dean Howells of

puzzled or shocked by what she peruses, is apt to decide that the fault must be with her own smaller and less experienced mind. Mrs. Ward introduces her to the very best English society, and introduces her well. The first half of the book is excellently written. The people have the air of reality. The girl reader meets, on terms of pleasant intimacy, dukes and lords and baronets and their ladies. The heroine, Mademoiselle Julie Le Breton, is flashed upon the girl as a wonderful creature who, besides being possessed of extraordinary social gifts, is perfectly at home as an intellectual equal with the Premier of England, wise old generals, and clear-headed, able men of the world in general. The girl reader never herself saw a young woman like that, so miraculously clever and fascinating and politically powerful, but she attributes this fact to her ignorance of life and feels humble accordingly. Mrs. Ward loves her heroine and admires her and caresses her. The girl reader is expected to share this admiration and liking and sympathy.

Yet Mrs. Ward causes this heroine, in a crisis of her life, to act in a manner that proves her to be without chastity and destitute of womanly shame. And after the heroine has been so revealed, Mrs. Ward continues to admire and caress her, and apparently takes it for granted that the reader will be equally fond and admiring. And in the end the heroine is rewarded by being made a duchess.

To the extent that the girl reader is betrayed into sympathy with a young woman capable of acting as Julie Le Breton is represented as acting, she is corrupted in mind, heart, and character. It is a dangerous book for idle and foolish women as well as for girls. Its intention is not gross, of course; but none the less, so far as its influence goes, it helps to weaken standards of conduct, departures from which must be terribly punished if human society is not to rot.

The New York State Teachers' Association will meet July 1, 2, 3, in the Auditorium of the Champlain Summer-School at Cliff Haven, N. Y. During this annual meeting many of the real leaders in educational advancement will be in attendance, and they will find a most congenial environment for their discussions.

Members of Reading Circles should arrange their plans to be at Cliff Haven August 23-29 for the lectures by the Rev. Morgan M. Sheedy. Reports should be ready August 28, Reading Circle Day. The Sunday-School Conferences are assigned for August 17, 18, 19.

M. C. M.

Y,

1903.

ATHOLIC WORLD

Germany and Russia at the Vatican.

J. T. MURPHY.

(Poem.) M. S. PINE.

(Illustrated.)

WILLIAM SETON, LL D.

The Nineteenth Century Apostle of the Little

(Illustrated.)

E. UHLRICH.

KATE GERTRUDE PRINDIVILLE.

Reflections for Ordinary Christians.

ALBERT REYNAUD.

The Historical Revival in Sienese Treasures.

F. W. PARSONS.

The Strangers Who were Welcomed.

MARY F. NIXON-ROULET.

In the Summer Woods. (Poem.) D. A. FABER.

P. W. F.

MARY SARSFIELD GILMORE.

GEORGINA PELL CURTIS.

THOMAS O'HAGAN, M.A., PH.D.

Price, 25 Cents; $3 per Year.

THE OFFICE OF THE CATHOLIC WORLD, NEW YORK.
P. O. Box 2, Station N.

ART AND BOOK COMPANY, 22 Paternoster Row, London, EC