Charleston. They were laid out by a Mr. Drayton, who devoted years to the work; and they still belong to his family. The grounds are divided by walks into large grass plots and extend from the river back to two small bodies of water shut in by cypress trees. The avenues and walks are bordered by trees and shrubs ten or twelve feet broad and high-mostly azaleas and euonymus, the branches of which mat together when the bush is allowed to grow very large. Alternating with them are red, white, and variegated japonicas, spiraeas, and cherokee roses. Overhead hangs grey moss from the oaks, magnolias, and cypresses; underfoot sprawl their roots; and all along the walks are azalea bushes. covered with a mass of red, white, magenta, pink or lavender blossoms, a veritable paradise of flowers that fill the air with their fragrance. The estate on which Ashley Hall once stood is four miles from the city on the Ashley river. A drive there is delightful in the spring when the light grey branches of the maples are covered with red keys in such quantities as to make one think they are the foliage, the dogwood bushes are in flower, and the air is laden with the perfume of wild azaleas, and the cape jessamine covers the tops of small trees with swaying masses of yellow blossoms. The pine trees are unlike those in the North. We passed through several stretches of pine woods and saw no other kind of tree, no tangle of underbrush, nothing but an unbroken expanse of tall, branchless boles with clusters of foliage at the top, with needles ten or twelve inches in length. During this drive we saw numerous dwelling places of the blacks from the roadside. Their homes consist of but one room, one door, an outside mud or brick chimney at one end and a front porch. Many have no windows at all, but instead a wooden door two feet square, kept closed much of the time. The interior, into which the occupants disappear like woodchucks into a hole, is as dusky as their complexions. The Biblical prohibition against yoking together an ox and an ass is frequently disregarded in the country by the negroes. On the way we met several two-wheeled carts loaded with moss to be sold to mattress makers. Both men and women were at work in the fields. The elder generation of women courtesied in so far as their stiff old joints would permit, and the men all took off their hats, as we passed. Negroes in the south are far more unobtrusive and respectful than in the North. Before the Civil War there was a manor residence on the Ashley Hall estates, but when the owner heard that all the houses south of the Ashley were being burned by the Federal forces from James Island prior to the evacuation of Charleston, he declared that he would. AN AZALEA BUSHI. Adown the sunset's golden track. The heartbreak trembled on thy lips. Where moaned the weird Atlantic deep. They are not lost, O Motherland! A hundred climes have known their fame. They've blazoned wide thy glorious name. And lo! while breaks in gold the day Thine exiles' hearts across the foam On wildly beating wings of love, Fair Motherland! are fleeting home. L An Apologetic Story, Founded on Fact By REV. R. K. THOMAS, O. P. ORENZO was an Italian dentist. His first excursion to America had hardly enriched his mind. with favorable impressions concerning the Land of Liberty and its people. He had admired the skyscrapers that overlooked the harbor at New York, marvelled at the miles of piering along the East River, and was rather dazed at the ceaseless traffic in the streets of Gotham, in the air, and on the waters roundabout. The suspension bridges had astonished him, and the army of active street cleaners, clad in garbs of white, seemed to indicate that the American sanitary system was fast reaching perfection. But there were a great many things that he disliked. Every one was so preoccupied with personal affairs that he seemed to scorn the convenience of the stranger. Of course, he excepted hotels, etc., where the traveller paid his way. In other places and circumstances he had often been embarrassed, shoved aside, laughed and jeered at by the boys. Policemen to whom he had applied for information had been gruff and disrespectful. Such offensive treatment had hardly been deserved by the gentlemanly Lorenzo. He took a manifest pride in having virtues quite contrary to those that flourished in the New World. He would frequently leave his dental chambers in Italy to aid itinerant strangers. He even deemed that aesthetic tastes rendered such acts of kindness' imperative. But then, there is nothing aesthetic, nothing beautiful in America. Everything that is original there is useful, but not beautiful. He wondered that the statue of Liberty were not rather called Utility, for even liberty in America is servant to selfish utility and is for that reason aggressive. He himself had often suffered from its aggressiveness. But Lorenzo, although serious in all that he had said, was only feeling his way. He had secrets to talk about and he wished to speak of them "to a clergyman," such as he had recognized in Father Tinniens, his chance fellow passenger aboard an Eastern bound Atlantic liner. "My family," he said to Father Tinniens, "are all Catholic and I used to be, but I am no longer so at heart. My wife and children are ignorant of this and I intend to leave them in that ignorance. It would be cruel to disabuse them of it. I am convinced that they are deceived in their religious convictions, but they reap so much consolation from them that I am not going to deprive them of it." The dentist added that he would fain share in the comforts of religion. himself, but that his mind was too well instructed to hold longer to the doctrines that fathered them. "Then you are not a Christian, Mr. Lorenzo?" ventured Father Tinniens. "O yes," he replied, "I am a Christian. I believe that Christ lived on earth, that He was an honest, upright man, a type of all virtue, and I cannot shut my eyes to the good He has accomplished. The only thing that I do not believe about Him, is that He is God." At this point the call for dinner interrupted the confidential talk. But the new acquaintances agreed to meet again. graduate of Pennsylvania University. At a distance, he seemed to be running over with sparkling wit and humor, but "all is not gold that glitters." The physician learned from Lorenzo at dinner, that the little group of ecclesiastics with whom Father Tinniens was traveling, was not so unapproachable as he had imagined. That afternoon he began to profit by the intelligence. Coming upon the little group unexpectedly, he surprised them with the exclamation: "What a fine pillow to sleep on!" He was in his shirtsleeves and he held at arm's length a finely bound book of about the same dimensions as a small Douay Bible. He looked drowsy and had apparently been taking a nap on the gilt-edged volume. ་ But the Doctor did not mind that, neither did Father Tinniens. Yet, if they had exchanged places, Lorenzo might have regarded his companion as another specimen of American rudeness. After a few remarks about the pleasant voyage so rapidly nearing its end, Lorenzo observed: "I believe the Catholic Church is in a flourishing condition in your country?" "Yes," answered Father Tinniens, "it is spreading gradually and meets with little resistance." "But is it as exclusive in the United States as elsewhere?" "That depends upon what you mean by exclusiveness, Sir. My idea of the Catholic Church is that of a liberal body seeking to be all to all, with a view to "What pillow is that?" asked one of gaining all, Gentile as well as Jew." the students. "Shakespeare," he replied. "Every one tells me to read Shakespeare in order to learn English, but Shakespeare is teaching me that English is one of the sleepiest of languages. Shakespeare would make a good drug." "It that so? What part of Shakespeare are you reading?" "The Comedy of Errors,' and the biggest error of all is that I began it and the next biggest is that I stuck to it till I finished it." "Yes, but then it makes the acceptance of its doctrines an obligation, and that is a relic of Judaism. No one can be saved unless he is a Roman Catholic as if that were the doctrine of Christ.' "And such, with your leave, I beg to maintain it is, Sir, though you must not judge the idea too severely. The Catholic Church is that founded by the Apostles, and Christ made them His immediate representatives. 'He who hears you,' He said, 'hears Me, and he who "But that was hardly an error," said despises you despises Me.' The Aposanother of the students. tles and Christ are one. Of course, that does not mean that every one who lives and dies in any other religious persuasion is lost. There may be certain individuals who never suspect that they are astray, and Christ is too merciful to censure such on the score of having despised Him. Indeed, they might be seeking Him with all their hearts, and thereupon they become members of the soul of the Church." "The soul of the Church! Ah! I like that expression. It is liberal. It is so much like what Christ said of His true followers, that they were to worship 'in spirit and in truth,' and that is the word that has convinced me that religious professions are more or less a humbug. It is the spirit that enlivens. The letter kills." "Assuredly, Doctor, no one can find fault with you as long as you quote the doctrine of Christ and St. Paul in their own words, but I wonder if it would astonish you to learn that you have misconstrued those doctrines?" "Misconstrued them!" Lorenzo was amused at the expression. "That were impossible. They are too clear." "Clear indeed they are, Doctor, but you are aware that isolated quotations are often misleading unless account is taken of the circumstances that gave them birth. For instance, a rebuke might be turned into an encomium by leaving out a few negatives and disregarding its cause." "That may be, but I am not manipulating phraseology now. I am speaking straightforwardly what I believe to be true." "And I give you the credit for so doing, Sir, but let me ask you to think a moment over what you have said. You have branded religious profession a humbug, because, in your way of look ing at it, an upright spirit is all that is needed." "Precisely, my Reverend friend.” "But do you really think that that is what Christ and St. Paul taught?" "Certainly, only those great teachers put it in other words." "But let us see," said Father Tinniens, "I never thought before that Christ had thrown to the winds the laws of love and pity taught by His heavenly Father." "There you are with that Romish notion that Christ is the Son of God. You can never convince me on that score, my friend. That is one of the most ludicrous tenets of Christianity. I call it Romish because all who hold it are either followers of the Pope or those who have caught the fever from them." "Well, then, let that go for the mo "If ment," urged Father Tinniens. Christ were not the Son of God, then He was a mere man, and anything He would teach contrary to the divine commandments would be null and void?". "I suppose it would," replied Lorenzo with a suppressed smile on his lips, such as would be prompted by the thought that Father Tinniens was something of a pendant, "but what then? You know I don't believe that half the precepts contained in the Bible are divine. Indeed, I think the Bible itself would be much improved if it were expurgated." "Well, let that, too, go for the present," persisted Father Tinniens. "You believe that there is a God?" "I would be foolish to doubt that," answered the Doctor. "I can never think of the beauties and the vastness of creation without admiring the first great Cause that gave them being." "Very well, Sir. We have something to start on. Now you must admit that if it is God Who has given us all we have, we must love Him in the degree in which He has done us good." "But do you think the Omnipotent God would put us under precept to do that? He has no need of us. His own. goodness and majesty suffice Him." "What you say is true, Doctor. God has no need of us, but we have much need of Him, and if we do not worship . Him as a Lord, we must at least love Him as a Benefactor." "I trust you do not misunderstand me," uttered Lorenzo. "I firmly believe that we should love God in a befitting way." "But is not God the author of our bodies as well as our souls? Has He not given us our all?" "Of course, and therefore we should recognize His goodness as Christ said, 'in spirit and in truth.'' "You are right, Doctor, but I dare say you put a wrong sense to those words. If God has given us our all, we must love Him accordingly, with our all, with |