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NIAGARA UNIVERSITY,

College and Seminary of Our Lady of Angels,

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Conducted by the Priests of the Congregation of the Mission

THIS INSTITUTION, founded November 21, 1856, and chartered by Act of Legislature, April 20, 1863, with powers to confer Degrees, is located in the midst of the enchanting scenery of the famous Niagara Falls. It affords every facility for obtaining a thorough

Classical, Scientific, Commercial, or Ecclesiastical Course.

Situated on the most elevated point of "MONT-EAGLE RIDGE," it receives the fu'l benefit of the hea'thful and invigorating breezes that sweep over the country from the lake. In sublimity of scenery it is unrivalled. Southward, it commands a magnificent view of the Seminary Rapids. Whirlpool, and Great Cataract; northward. it looks over the beauties of Niagara's tortuous banks, and the wide expanse of Lake Ontario dotted with sail. The bui dins are large and well furnished. No pains are spared to secure the comfort of the students. The scholastic year consists of two terms: the first ends on the first of February, and the second on the last Wednesday of June.

TERMS: Board, Tuition, Washing and Mending of Articles Washed, per term, $100. Vacation, if spent at the Seminary, $40.

EXTRA CHARGES: Piano, Organ, Violin, Flute, Clarionet or Guitar, with use of instrument, $40 per annum.

For further particulars address the President,

VERY REV. P. McHALE, C. M.

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VOL. XXXII.

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N. Y., NOVEMBER 15, 1899.

A LETTER.

I fell asleep the other night, dear friends

(That's nothing new, except the time was strange: 'Twas during Greek,-and here I recommend That Grecian lore shall have a wider range In all our schools),-I fell asleep and dreamed That fifty years had passed from out my life, Yet was I here, and everybody seemed

For college work as keen-edg'd as your knife. The study hall had moved itself along

The willow'd bank where you and I had oft Cast idle rod, or humm'd the idler song

'Bout ringlets fair,—or something just as soft.— The Ho-Jack road had skyward gone to climb, Disdaining earth, and thus an archway made From "Bridge to " Heights," an aureole sublime (And needed, too, to meet increasing trade). The INDEX house had taken marble wings

And flown beyond the vineyard safe and sound;
With porticoes, and pillars, and “sich things,'
No grander house could hereabouts be found.
Full twenty eds. sat round the marble sill
Translating "rerums" brought from dear knows where,
While twenty more stood staring at a bill

For stolen grapes (the price would raise your hair).
The ice house, with its sawdust and its shade,
Its cooling chunks and dim retreats, alas!
Had disappeared (for now the ice was made
By pressing buttons during physics class).
But "Paddy's shanty," fierce with turkey red,
Defiant of the times that come and go,
Was nestled on an island near the head

Of college lake, 'bout dozen miles or so.
The college lake? ('twas duck pond in our youth),
But poppy wand of Morpheus did the trick,
And stretched its bounds (although, to tell the truth,
The prefect "covers " it with walking stick).
P. S. Dear friend, excuse me if I close

My dreamland tale: the "study keep'" is nigh; "Twere folly, and you know it, to expose

This "confidential" to his freezing eye. Some other day seductive Greek may bend My tired brain, as Lotus flower bowed Who ate thereof,—and then I'll try to send Another squib, that is, if I'm allowed.

A Few Words for the Lawyer. "Tis the fee directs the sense

G.

To make out either side's pretense." HE American public seems to take great delight in rehearsing the faults, or what it considers to be the faults, of those individuals who seek a livelihood and attain honor by the activity of their mental powers. The clergyman, whose exalted station in life should protect him from the cal

No. 4.

umny of the masses, does not escape the slanderous tongue of the fault-finder, who often charges him with having adopted the toga as an effective means of concealing his own hypocrisy. So also the man who is skilled in the art of healing, and who, measured by the limits of his own estimation, is possessed of all the knowledge worthy to be retained, is humiliated by the unholy epithet of murderer, which is often ascribed to him; or if the public is unwilling to charge him with the commission of the crime indicated by such a name, it rejoices in reminding his patients that the doctor's skill is limited to the administration of the blank pellet, which, like the baby's friend, castoria, is harmless. But of all the professional men for whom the public can find no place, either in this world or the next, where sufficient punishment can be. meted out for his misdeeds, it is the much maligned lawyer. He is the one individual whom public opinion would charge with the commission of every crime known to the law. And while the legal profession was instituted doubtless for the purpose of promoting the happiness and contentment of mankind, yet they who now constitute that profession are regarded as vile disturbers of the peace and harmony of the universe. Notwithstanding the solemn duties placed upon him, and which demand that he preserve justice between man and man, and that he shall plead for the safety of his fellow-man, and for the protection of their property rights, and which he so faithfully discharges, the lawyer is seldom the subject of a friendly expression.

The writers and dramatists of our day, while they might have been of great service in preserving what is called the old time dignity of the legal profession by an exposition of the true character of the members of the bar, have chosen the baser task of er deavoring to depreciate that exalted profession. Very often they themselves have seen upon the stage an ambitious actor assuming the role of a pettifogger, and at the same time endeavoring to impress the public that his interpretation of the author's lines was a true characterization of a lawyer's attributes. Invariably, too, such attempts have been rewarded with the applause of an indiscriminate audience, while the lawyer who honored his profession would blush both for the stupidity of the applauders and the folly of the ignorant dramatist who, even with the aid of stage-craft, would attempt to degenerate a calling that for centuries has merited praise and honor. For the existence of such absurd caricatures we can assign no reason, unless it be found in the desire of the penniless authors and playwrights to seek redress from the attorneys who at some time or another, by process and execution, have compelled them to pay their honest debts. It is true that in the legal profession there are men whose intel

lects have eminently qualified them to occupy proud positions in the field of legal science, but whose moral turpitude has poisoned their better inclinations, and has made them more celebrated in vice than in virtue. These individuals have been selected by the public as criterion by which all lawyers should be judged, and it has accepted them as the true representatives of their profession. Hence it is not strange that public opinion, with such mistaken ideas as its guide, has long since condemned them as a fraternity of rogues and thieves.

Perhaps the much dreaded fee of the lawyer is responsible in a large measure for the calumny which is hurled upon him; and if that be the cause of the vituperation there cannot be much reason in it. True, the fee of a lawyer may in some cases appear to be far in excess of what is known in law as a reasonable charge, but when we consider the amount of research that is necessary to enable him to elucidate correctly the legal principles underlying each case presented to him, we may be convinced that his fees are well merited. When Cicero, as a member of the Roman bar, shook the very foundations of the ancient Forum by the thunder of his forensic eloquence in pleading the cause of those brought before the Roman tribunal he did so, after the custom of his time, not for compensation or fee, but for an honorary consideration, which was regarded as a reward for services whose value could hardly be estimated by the coin of the realm. Were the lawyers of today to satisfy the wishes of the people by pleading without thought of their fees, and rely for adequate compensation solely, as did Cicero and other members of the Roman bar, upon the magnanimity of their clients, they might gain the favor and gratitude of mankind, but they would doubtless court an early death, for the waut of the wherewithal to obtain the necessaries of life. If, then, the lawyer occasionally transcends the bounds of reason in estimating the value of his services, we believe that he has been so educated by the retrenching spirit of the public which would compel him (if it had the power) to give his counsel for a compensation to be regulated by a fixed scale of wages.

When the public ceased to regard the fee of the attorney or counselor as the reward for services rendered by a member of a learned profession, and when it reduced it to the category of compensation for hire, it became the right of the lawyer to make certain in fixing his fee, that he would be amply paid for every moment spent in the service of his client. To fortify his position all the more strongly he has dictated legislation for his own benefit, and, as a result, the statutes for the regulation of legal fees in most states declare that the amount of the attorney's fees must be governed only by the discretion of the one who had,performed the services. And so it should be, unless we desire to reduce the legal profession to a mere trade; certainly, the individual who is possessed of suflicient intelligence to plead the cause of his fellow-men, should likewise be capable of determining what may be a reasonable fee for his services.

The exorbitant fee, so-called, of the lawyer, which is accepted as an indication of the absence of conscience, is perhaps responsible for the statement which so often appears in the public press-that the pro

fession of the law is degenerating. But whatever may prompt such an assertion, we believe that there was never a statement more unsound, for the trend of legislation during the past one hundred years has been toward the improvement of the methods of legal practice, and toward the elevation of the standard of the profession, by requiring a more extensive education as a condition to admission to the practice of the law. The Roman bar, which is often referred to as having been a galaxy of the greatest legal minds with which men were ever endowed, had as its guide the false system of philosophy which maintained that eloquence was the first and paramount principle of pleading; and hence Cicero himself was guilty of placing eloquence before a knowledge of the law. Time has changed that old philosophy, so that the lawyer of more recent times has almost disregarded altogether the forensic pleading, and has developed and fostered the science of jurisprudence. No Inger can the advocate stand in the halls of justice seeking a verdict by eloquently appealing to the passions and sympathies of those who may constitute the tribunal, for such a method of legal practice has vanished with the development of law as a science. The attorney must now seek to convince the judgment of his hearers by the elucidation of those legal principles upon which his case is founded, and by applying them to the case at bar so as to support his contention. In this respect the bar of today is far more elevated than the much lauded Roman bar, and, as a consequence, in the present age there is more reason in the decisions of our courts of justice than during any previous epoch in the history of the world. By years of work in perfecting the science of jurisprudence the lawyers have succeeded in making the law what it was believed to be in the ages gone by-the perfection of common sense. So, therefore, those disciples of the law who have been ostracized from the hearts of society's members, and who have been tolerated only because they were neces-ary evils, are entitled to some generous consideration for their efforts to elevate the methods of legal practice, even if, for self-preservation, they have failed to constitute themselves into one grand eleemosynary corporation having as its object the dispensation of law for charity's sake.

Notwithstanding the ideas to the contrary which occupy the public mind, the lawyer is actuated by higher and more noble purposes than the acquisition of wealth by imposing upon his clients the payment of unreasonable fees. He enters a profession that for all time has been distinguished for the wisdom of its members, and his aim is, in most cases, to make himself worthy of a place in the ranks of that profession, by discharging all the duties and respecting all the obligations placed upon him, and which in every commonwealth are commensurate with the "power and majesty of the law." The law, whose disciple he is, does not contemplate or justify the existence of the lawyer of which we read in the Hudibras, who,

"With books and money placed for show,
Like nest-eggs to make his clients lay,
And for his false opinions pay,"

for such a "limb of the law" must exist, if at all, only in the mind of him whose trade it is to entertain the public at the lawyer's expense. Performing the

solemn duties which he owes to the public and to his clients, the lawyer becomes a member of society whose services and advice are necessary for the preservation of peace and harmony. The law extends to him no privileges, but bids him swear obedience to the same laws and constitutions that govern the actions of the most obscure citizen. The oath administered to him when he assumes the duties of his offic impresses him with the truth that as the ignorance of the law excuses no one in the commission of a crime, neither will a knowledge of the law protect the transgressor in its violation. He must in all things, if he is honest to himself and to his professson, act honestly and above board with all those with whom he may have business dealings.

But of all the rules laid down for the government of the lawyer's actions there is none which he more faithfully adheres to than the one which admonishes him to be true to the interest of, and to maintain in violate the confidence of h's client. And let it be said to the credit of the lawyer, that whatever else may be his faults, though he may be guilty of more serious crimes against the peace of society, it is only when he has lost all human respect that he will permit himself to betray the client who, relying upon his confidence, has unfolded to him the secrets that lie hidden within his breast. It is this element of honor that has won for the legal profession the respect of intelligent men, and has made its members, more than all other men, the subjects of the civic honors within the gift of the people. The lawyer who follows his profession within the limits and in the manner directed by his mistress, the law, cannot fail to improve society, by compelling the law-breaker to have greater respect for those regulations which have been adopted for society's welfare, and for the advancement of civilization. And although he may seem to have no other object in life than to fathom the depth of public and private treasuries, let us tolerate him until we can find a better substitute to aid and counsel us when we have fallen into the clutches af the law. J. D. E.

66

Leprosy. (Continued.)

T was said that the use of sulphur had been for some time of service to this boy, but had not altogether removed the disease." He then adds the following from the papers of Dr. Forskal. May 15th, 1763, I saw a case of the bolak in a Jew at Mocha. The spots in this disease are of unequal size. They have no shining appearance, nor are they perceptibly elevated above the skin, and they do not change the color of the hair. Their color is an obscure white, or somewhat reddish. The rest of the skin was blacker than that of the people in general, but the spots were not so white as the skin of an European, when not sunburnt. The spots appear only on the neck or face; not, however, on that part of the head, where the hair grows thick they spread gradually. Sometimes they remain only two months, sometimes one or two years, and go away by degrees, of themselves. This disorder is neither infectious nor hereditary, nor does it occasion any inconvenience." "That all this," remarks Michaelis, "should

be found exactly to hold at the distance of three thousand five hundred years from the time of Moses, ought certainly to gain some credit for his laws, even with those who will not allow them to be of divine authority."

In Leviticus the term leprosy is also applied to garments and to houses. Such a disease as a leprosy of cloth, and of a house, seems strange to us, who have other names for these appearances. The term as applied might even suggest to the ignorant something akin to human leprosy. A brief explanation suffices to clear away all that may seem obscure in these laws.. Moses gave two statutes, one for garments, the other for houses. Men, cloth and stones do not have the same sort of diseases, but the names of human maladies may, by analogy, be applied to the diseases of other things. This occurred in these laws. Properly. speaking, these two regulations, do not refer to any human disorder, but were sanitary precautions taken to check in every way poss ble the spread of leprosy. If our own boards of health would but imitate Moses in this respect the germs of disease would find less breeding places, and there would be more healthy men and women among our poorer classes.

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Moses minutely describes the leprosy of garments. The marks given as symptoms of the disease are white or reddish spots which appear in woolens, linens or skins. If these spots were seen the garment was put away for seven days. Should they, increase in size "it is a fixed leprosy." The cloth and everything wherein it shall be found" were declared by the priest unclean, and burned. If the disease had not grown, the affected part was washed and laid away for seven days. Should the original color not have returned, and even if the leprosy had not spread, the garment was burned, "for the leprosy had taken hold of the outside of the garment, or through the whole.? "But if the place of the leprosy be somewhat dark, after the garment is washed," the priest "shall tear it off and divide it from that which is sound." If other spots appear, as a "flying and wandering leprosy, it must be burned with fire." If it cease, "the parts that are pure" are washed a second time, "and they shall be clean."-Lev., 13: 47 59..

These regulations may be applied both to garments in use and to stuffs packed away for safe-keeping. As regards the latter, experience proves that woolens and linens laid away for a long time become moth-eaten and speckled with ill-looking spots. These spots can rarely be washed out. Weaving, at the time of Moses, was yet in its infancy. It therefore stands to reason that cloth was not so firmly and closely woven as now, and consequently gave easy access to germs of every kind. Linen was a luxury among the early Jews, and hence their clothing was chiefly made from wool and skins. One single garment sufficed to cover the body. In hot countries stuffs are more exposed to vermin than in cooler climes. It stands to reason that this vermin will multiply rapidly in clothing heated by both the body and the air. It is also safe to say that if clothing is worn too long in those countries germs will spot and even eat away the cloth. The thick, matted hair of skins affords a secure resting place for germs to carry on their deadly work so safely that it is almost impossible to root them out, except by the

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