the interest of some wealthy people in the cause. In a certain city recently a lady gave $5,000 for a deaf-mute school. The Catholic Church Extension Society might be allowed to contribute a helpful sum. Moreover, several states and large municipalities, as, for instance, is done in New York State and New York City, would be willing to contribute a per capita sum for so benevolent a cause. Thus not only a possible but a probable sum of $500,000 could be raised in one year. This "Deaf-Mute PennySunday" need not be continued for many years. A few years would suffice to place the idea of Catholic schools for the deafmutes on a good working basis. After that each diocese or ecclesiastical province could easily take care of its own schools.

Let me repeat that the deaf-mutes are falling away from the Church like leaves in autumn. The cause of this sad fact was a lack of knowledge on our part and a lack of means. Will this excuse be valid for the future? No. If this sad condition be allowed to continue, what will be the rightful explanation? A disregard of the duties of the ecclesiastical state, a disregard of the providential opportunities placed at the disposal of the Catholic Educational Association. The graces of the ecclesiastical state, episcopal, sacerdotal, are special, constant, awful. There is the dedication of ourselves to the holiest, supremest cause-God. Listen to the words of the Lord God: "I have chosen you and placed you." I, the Lord God, have chosen and placed you, a Bishop, in that diocese where so many deaf-mutes are deprived of Christian training; where so many deaf-mutes are losing their Faith and losing their souls.

This knowledge is now made patent to you, and knowledge is a call to action. I have chosen you, a priest, to be another Christ, to be imbued with the same zeal for souls. I have in the fullness of time created this Catholic Educational Association for many present and future noble and divine purposes, and, amongst others, the saving, by Catholic education, of my afflicted deaf-mutes.. This knowledge is now made evident that deaf-mutes are falling away from the Church and from heaven for the want of Catholic education. Knowledge is a call to action. I have chosen you, religious, whether you be priests, Brothers or Nuns, whether your work lies along educational lines or as missionaries to the most

abandoned souls-and who are more abandoned than the deafmutes?—I have chosen you religious to consecrate your lives to the highest cause, the redemption of souls. Can we stand idly by, and, without a scruple or a shudder or remorse, see souls lost, God dishonored, His eternal interests neglected on account of human respect and fear of sical and financial discomfitures and a lack of confidence in His Divine Providence? Here, again, knowledge is a call to action.

Quis est hic?

This train of thought brings me to a point that I feel I should emphasize, namely, the need of religious teachers for our deafmutes. What order of Brothers or Nuns will be willing to take up the noble work all over the country? Quis est hic et laudabimus cum! says our Divine Teacher, Christ Himself.

There are some orders now who for years have made noble, divine-like sacrifices for the Catholic education of our deaf-mutes. The Sisters of St. Joseph deserve the palm for being the pioneers in this work of teaching the deaf-mutes. Equal to them, if not in time, certainly in their efficiency and the excellent results of their work, must be ranked that heroic, and I hope immortal, Society of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart of Mary, who have accomplished so much good in New York, Brooklyn and Chicago, for the teaching and preservation of the Faith amongst our deafmutes. The Jesuits, the heroic sons of Loyola, always in the van of the army of the Church and in the thickest of the glorious fight. by their skill in organization have kept thousands of deaf-mutes under the banner of the Catholic Church. I wish also to state that the sons of St. Alphonsus, the Redemptorists, have established a deaf-mute Mission Band at St. Alphonsus' Church, New York City. Within the last six months the Redemptorists have given. six missions to deaf-mutes which resulted in the return of many stray sheep and the conversion of a score of Protestants, and the organization of societies for the deaf. This is certainly the fullness of time. This is the time the Lord hath made; let us be up and doing. Let us sound the call to action. From this solemn conclave of the Catholic Educational Association of America a call is sent out for teachers, Brothers, Nuns and missionaries.

What order of Brothers and Nuns will heed that battle-cry? Quis est hic et laudabimus eum! How many orders of priests will enter the mission field for the rescue of our forlorn deafmutes? Quis est hic et laudabimus eum!

Who amongst our wealthy lay people will give of their plenty and wealth to build schools for our deaf-mutes? Quis est hic et laudabimus eum! There are many Catholics of wealth in this country, but in many instances their wealth is not the wealth of a spiritually healthy wealth; it is not the wealth of a God-like zealous wealth, to be spent in the spending of a God-given wealth for the spiritual health of those who are deprived not only of the wealth of cents, but also of the wealth of the senses of speech and hearing. Who amongst our wealthy lay people can afford to fritter away their time and money in idle amusements, vanities and unnecessary luxuries of life when they see souls going to hell for want of schools, when that same money could be used in building and maintaining Catholic schools for our deaf-mutes? Quis est hic et non laudabimus eum! What priesthood, what sisterhood, what wealthhood will offer men and money, minds and means for this great cause? Quis est hic et laudabimus eum!

THE IMMORTAL ACT OF LOVE.

One day our Blessed Savior, in one of His moments of sadness, asked His disciples: "Will you also go away?" "Lord," they replied, "to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life."

In the name of the Catholic deaf-mutes of the United States I say to the Catholic Educational Association of America, "Will you also go away this year without heeding our cry? It is in your power to have the words of eternal life taught us. There is none to break to us the bread of the word of God. To whom shall we go?"

We read that Mary Magdalen kept some of the treasures of her past life in order to make presents to our Lord. Amongst other things was a precious vessel of alabaster. One day she knelt at the feet of our Savior and poured out the sweet ointment it contained upon His feet. To prove the greatness of her love and sacrifice she broke the costly vessel and let the remnants

of the ointment fall, drop by drop, upon our Blessed Savior's head. The whole house was filled with the fragrance of the sweet liquid, and to this day the whole world is full of the fragrance of the example of her devotion and charity. Our Lord assured her that her sins were forgiven; and He said: "Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done shall be told for a memory of her." (St. Matt. 26-10.)

Now, illustrious members of the Catholic Educational Association of America, by virtue of your influence in every diocese, you hold in your possession the alabaster vessel of the precious. liquid of Catholic education for our deaf-mutes. Pour the sweet fragrance of Catholic training into their young lives by the immediate sounding of that call to action-the establishment of a national bureau for the erection of Catholic schools. Do this, and wheresoever the gospel of the great cause of the deaf-mutes shall be preached, this immortal act of love in their behalf shall be proclaimed to the honor and the efficiency of the Catholic Educational Association of America. Therefore, let us sound the call to action, long and clear. Let the enemy hear our battle-cry, loud and long, for they know that nothing can resist Catholic zeal, because Catholic zeal is endowed with the power of God's right arm. The walls of Jericho fell before the bugle sound of the Israelites; our Catholic.bugle call to action will break down the walls of Protestant monopoly of the education of our Catholic deaf-mutes.

Let me conclude with the opening words of my paper: Knowledge is a call to action. Let the honor of this action be the proprietary right of the most illustrious body of people in America. to-day, the noble-hearted, high-minded and zealous-souled Catholic Educational Association of America.

DIOCESE OF BALTIMORE

REV. M. A. PURTELL, S. J., LOYOLA COLLEGE, BALTIMORE, MD.

The present paper-Caring for the Catholic Deaf in the Diocese of Baltimore-calls for a brief account of the doings for the Catholic deaf, both children and adults, in the school and mission of the diocese of Baltimore. It will, then, briefly tell the story of the Baltimore school and mission, the history, care of boys and girls, doings for adults, societies, needs, resources, trades, Protestant influences, difficulties encountered, encouragement (diocesan and otherwise), successes attained; in a word, what we are doing in Baltimore to solve the various problems that present themselves in connection with work for the deaf.

With regard to the history of the Baltimore school and mission for our Catholic deaf, it may be stated that they both are yet in their infancy. Work for the adult deaf, which in Baltimore antedates by three years the opening of the school for the deaf, had its beginning only sixteen years ago, about the year 1894. Prior to this time one priest had labored some with the deaf of Baltimore.

A community of nuns, the Mission Helpers of the Sacred Heart, at the time of which we are speaking only ten years in existence, observing how sad was the condition of the Baltimore deaf, going about like sheep without a shepherd, in obedience to the spirit of their institute which is missionary and apostolic, decided to take up the work. Their first field of labor was among the adult deaf. Sad stories of the ignorance of Catholic doctrine prevailing amongst them, are told by the Sisters who took upon themselves the instruction of the adults of those days. In their missionary work in city and country, the Sisters found. several adult deaf who were totally ignorant of the truths of our holy religion, owing to the fact that they had been sent as children to the State schools.

The work of instructing these adults was begun in the fall of 1895, the Sisters having prevailed on many of them to come on