“Of course,” they all answered, “But you are the only one who will not give us a cent to get a little drop.”
“So much the worse for you all, gentlemen, if I am the only one. But please excuse me, I cannot give you a cent for that object.”
They then left me, saying something which I could not understand, but they were evidently disgusted, with what they considered my stubbornness and want of good manners.
I must, however, say here, that two of them, Mr. Dunn, pastor of one of the best congregations in Chicago, and the other unknown to me, came to congratulate me on the stern rebuke I had given the collectors.
“I regret,” said Mr Dunn, “the five dollars I have thrown into that hat. If I had spoken to you before, and had known that you would be brave enough to rebuke them, I would have stood by you, and kept my money for better use. It is really a shame that we should be preparing ourselves for a retreat by wasting $500 for such a shameful object. They have just told me that they have raised that sum for the champagne, brandy, whisky and beer they will drink, this week. Ah! what disgrace! What a cry of indignation would be raised against us, if such a shameful thing should be known! I am sorry about the unkind words those priests have spoken to you; but you must excuse them, they are already full of bad whisky.
“Do not think, however, that you are friendless, here, in our midst. You have more friends than you think among the Irish priests; and I am one of them, though you do not know me. Bishop Vandeveld has often spoken to me of your grand colonization work, among the French.”
Mr. Dunn, then, pressed my hand in his, and taking me a short distance from the others, said:
“Consider me, hereafter, as your friend: you have won my confidence by the fearless way in which you have just spoken, and the common sense of your arguments.
“You have lost a true friend in Bishop Vandevelde. I fear that our present bishop will not do you justice. Lebel and Carthyvel have prejudiced him against you. But I will stand by you, if you are ever unjustly dealt with, as I fear you will, by the present administration of the diocese. I fear we are on the eve of great evils. The scandalous suit which Bishop O’Regan has brought upon his predecessor is a disgrace. If he has gained $50,000 by it, he has forever lost the respect and confidence of all his priests and diocesans.
“After the mild and paternal ruling of Bishop Vandevelde, neither the priests, nor the people of Illinois will long bear the iron chains which the present bishop has in store for us all.”