Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/65

 "Amidst that sickening jerry-jumble of cheap bricks and cheaper British industry, over a hundred thousand men, women and children, toil and exist, sweating in the vast, hot, stuffy mills and sweltering forges—going, when young, to the smut-surrounded schools to improve their minds, and trying to commune with the living God in the dreary, dead, besmirched churches and grimy puritanical chapels; growing up stunted, breeding thoughtlessly, dying prematurely, knowing not, nor dreaming, except for here and there a solitary one cursed with keen sight and sensitive soul, of aught better and brighter than this sickening, steaming sphere of slime and sorrow." Contrast this picture with a crowded "supper-night" at the Carlton or any other fashionable Feeding-place of London, and then maintain, if you dare, that the men and women who are responsible for two such differing sides of life are "Christians"!

England is, we are told, in danger of becoming "Romanized." Priests and nuns of various "orders" who have been thrust out of France and Spain for intermeddling, are seeking refuge here, in company with the organ-grinders and other folk who have been found unnecessary in their own countries. From Paris official news was cabled on September 11, 1902, as follows:—

"JESUIT EXODUS FROM FRANCE.

", Wednesday, September 11.

"It is announced officially that by the 1st of next month not a single Jesuit will be left in France. Most of them are emigrating to England, and will make Canterbury their headquarters.—"