CHAPTER VIII.
UNCLASSIFIED LETTERS-LARGELY PERSONAL.
January 26, 1867.8
Minds are still very much agitated in the United States. You will have learned from the papers that a radical ticket was elected, by means of fraud at the last Missouri elections and that we are at the mercy of these gentlemen. A good case has just been decided finally by the Supreme Court. Five judges out of nine pronounced against the execrable test oath; so to-day we can preach the Lord's gospel without being exposed to fines or imprisonment. Taxes, however, continue to weigh heavily upon Catholic institutions, while those of the Protestants and Jews are exempt. Our University of St. Louis has had to pay an enormous tax, about $6,ooo, whereas the Presbyterian university alongside of us does not pay a cent. Our orphan asylums, hospitals, poor-schools, suffer greatly in this way. That is how matters stand with us in the great and famous Republic. But we do not despair of a better future.
s Extract from letter in French to Ch. De Coster, Heyndonck, Belgium.
First aspirations for mountain travel and labor-Bad Hand Fitzpatrick - A glimpse of Ireland in 1843 - Writes Dr. McLoughlin about missions - Charles Larpenteur about his soul - Zephyr Rencontre about the Sioux - Draws his own portrait - The devil and jokes - Advice to an intending Oregon emigrant -A puzzling letter to a Provincial - Answers charges made against his writings - Denig's studies - Bridger's children - A relaxation - Old friends up the river - Has drawn some maps-Dining with the great-An interview with President Lincoln - Gold in the mountains - Pleads for Sioux murderers - The Jesuits and the war-draft - Tells at last what he knows about gold - The southwestern Indians - Gratitude and a meerschaum - About authorship of his letters - Early Nebraska history - The Church and Indian agents - Last plans.
Reverend and Very Dear Father in Jesus Christ:'
61 RECEIVED your letter of July early this month. I was beginning to fear that you too had deferred your answer to the Greek calends. Will you believe it, Reverend Father? Since the month of June, I have filled up a score of sheets; I have written to fathers and brothers whom I cherish the most in the world, at St. Louis and roundabout. Well, I have received in return, aside from your letter, five lines. Ah ! how gladly would I attribute this afflicting delay to the negligence of the postal authorities. Here, in this veritable corner of the world, remote from our brothers and friends, surrounded with all sorts of miseries, poor as hairless rats, constantly witnessing the most revolting scenes, which are at the same time irremediable, in the midst of strangers and infidels, I will tell you plainly, every letter
that we receive makes a great feast-day for us. Ah ! if they knew the joy and consolation, which news from them brings
1 Unaddressed letter (in French) dated Dec. 18, 1839.