CHAPTER XXXIV.

MISSION AND SCHOOL WORK. FATHER P. PRANDO.

The little band of three Ursulines, having safely reached their destination, began at once to prepare the new building for the reception of the children. By much hard work everything was made ready ina short time, and some twenty Crow children entered the school. But scarcely a week after, owing to the Sword-Bearer disturbance--which was now about to reach its crisis--the parents took all their children home, leaving the school without a pupil. With the death of the disturber, the excitement soon subsided, and the children returned in larger numbers than before. By Christmas some fifty pupils were in attendance. The accommodations soon proved insufficient, and two new structures, one 25 X 100 feet, for additional school facilities, and the other 36 X 75 feet, for a chapel, were completed by December, 1888.

The number of pupils increased soon after to 150. The school today is in a flourishing condition, and the result of the Father's' and Sisters' efficient work is the noticeable advancement of their pupils in the paths of both virtue and knowledge. The branches taught and the methods followed here are the same as in all other Catholic Indian Schools, book-learning going hand in hand wit useful manual exercise, and everything being directed to make the Indian youth moral and industrious. The Crow children are bright and intelligent, have good retentive memories, and like to be instructed. The girls are, perhaps, somewhat quicker to learn, easier to mould and more responsive to the teacher's care, and, consequently, somewhat more advanced than the boys.

Comparing these children with what they were some few years ago in their savage surroundings, vicious and degrading beyond conception, one cannot but wonder at the gratifying results that have been accomplished. To see them approach the Holy Table each Sunday, to hear them offer up their prayers to

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God every morning, and evening, one would imagine himself not among recently converted savages, but in the midst of an old-time civilized community.

The boys' department of St. Xavier's school is conducted b y six members of the Society of Jesus, while the girls are under the care of eighth Ursuline Sisters, the U. S. government making a yearly allowance of 120 pupils at the rate of $180 each. The school, however, has today accommodations for twice the number. As with the Holy Family Mission, so with this of St. Xavier, the funds for this establishment were furnished by the Misses Drexel, of Philadelphia, at whose expense the new and substantial brick building just completed was also constructed.

While the progress in the education of the young Crow generation has been encouraging, the fruit of the Fathers' missionary labors has been equally gratifying. This part of the work is carried on by Fathers. R. Crimont, S. J., and P. Prando. The baptismal records of the Mission, from its beginning to the end of 1891, contain 1070 baptisms, this being nearly the half of the whole Crow population. During the same time 65 marriages have been solemnized according to the rites of the Church, and some w00 of the tribe have been confirmed by the Right Rev. J. B. Brondel.

As a means of advancing the moral and religious welfare of these Indians, there is at St. Xavier's a Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, canonically established. It is divided into three branches, one being for married people, men and women; another for the young men, and the third for the young women of the tribe. The Indians, not less than many of their pale-faced cousins, are attracted by show, and to stimulate their fervor and piety the oldest and exemplary members of the married men's Sodality are dressed in long, red gowns, with a yellow sash, and go by the names of Red Gowns. Their bearing when among the other Indians is so dignified as to verge at times toward the ludicrous. Many of the men desire to become Red Gowns, but the privilege is granted to such only as by their conduct will be an example to the rest. The women Sodalists wear a long, black cloak, with a head-fear in the shape of a hood. While the garb somewhat

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tickles the wearers, on account of the natural vanity of the sex, it also prompts them to be well-behaved and exemplary. The grace of God, co-operating with the work of the missionary, has, made a number of true and fervent believers among the older members of the tribe, and the following examples, taken at random, may serve to illustrate the simple and active faith of some of these Indian converts.

On one occasion the chief, who had received Holy Communion, asked to be allowed to speak. He stood in front of the altar and spoke, or rather prayed aloud as follows: "O God! I believe all your words the Black Robe has been teaching me. O God! when after a long life on earth I shall die, I want you to take the key of Heaven, and open the door so I can go in and see your face. O Virgin Mary! I love you; I would like to see you in Heaven. O God! pity us, We are poor people. Let the grass grow high, our ponies be fat, our cows of many calves, our potatoes big, and keep away from us the lightning and small-pox. I finish."

An old man, a brother of one of the chiefs, on being slapped on the face by other Indian, bore the insult without the least resentment, because he had received Holy communion on that day and wish to put in practice those words of our Savior, "Forgive us as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Some of these Indians abstain from smoking for months, some even for a whole year; out of devotion to the Blessed Virgin, while ethers will abstain from tasting any flesh meat on a Friday, when they scarcely have a morsel of other food. A good number attend Mass and instruction every day. Neither rain, nor cold, nor deep snow can keep them away from their first Friday's communion. They are eager to learn the Christian doctrine, and old people with a poor memory will gladly remain in the church several hours repeating prayers. Although many of the Crow Indians turn persistently a deaf ear to the voices of the Priest of God, and refuse to embrace Christianity themselves, still they willingly permit their children to be baptized and brought up in the faith.

But despite all these encouraging and hopeful signs, the field is till, to a large extent, covered with briars and thorns. The moral corruption and sensualism of the Crows, together with their pride, deep-rooted human respect and superstitions, are the

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greatest obstacles in the way of their conversion to the faith. Some of the young scamps of the tribe appear afraid of the crucifix and look upon it as "too strong medicine" for them. But this is the one kind of medicine they need the most, and the only one that can and will cure all their moral distempers.

Father P. Prando, who seems to have been especially cut out for Indian missionary work, is beloved by all the Crows, and is entirely devoted to their welfare. A frontier lady, living in that part of the country, while praising him one day to the Right Rev. Bishop Brondel and Father Cataldo, qualified him with emphasis as "A true gentleman and a Crow." He visits the Indians in their homes, and while very successful in relieving the bodily infirmities peculiar to these people, he is equally so in curing and saving many a poor soul.

Indian gratefulness, however, takes at times very odd turns and may manifest itself when you least expect it. On one occasion Father Prando came upon an old man, who, on account of the repulsive disease that afflicted him, had been cast away by his own people. The poor wretch was a mass of rottenness. The Good Samaritan picked him up and took care of him and at the end of three years' treatment and careful nursing the patient was able to return to his people entirely cured. Some time after, an old Indian woman rode up to the Father, saying, "Black robe, I have brought you back your son." "My son? I have no son," answered Father Prando. "There he is," said the old witch, pointing to the man. "he was going to die, you took care of him and cured him; you now keep and feed him." It would hardly do, however, for this kind of remuneration to become general; it would be risky for the patients; and it is quite enough for the physician to lose his fee without having to feed his patients besides.

Father Prando's numerous adventures with white and Indian on this and other missionary fields, if written down, would fill a good-sized volume. Returning from one of his excursions, he

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arrived one Sunday evening at a cowboys' camp, where he sought shelter for the night. He was treated with that generous hospitality that is so characteristic of those seemingly rough, yet really kind-hearted people. While spending the evening in a friendly chat together: "Boys," said one of the number, "this is the Sabbath, and we must observe it by a little reading of our Bible." And stepping towards a small shelf, he brought out what he called "their bible," and what proved to be one of Robert Ingersoll's ill-famed works. He read a passage where the cynic sage of modern agnosticism ridicules the veracity of the Scriptures, from the fact that in Genesis IV, reference is made to Cain a having a wife, and still it does not appear that she was or could be of Adam's family. Whence did she come from? There were, then, human beings on earth who were not the offspring of Adam and Eve, contrary to what is taught by Christian faith.

After the reading of the passage, there was a lively discussion on the subject by the cowboys, at the expense, of course, of religion and the teachings of Christianity. Father Prando, being now applied to for his opinion on the knotty problem, told his hearers that Cain's wife was also Cain's own sister, and that it was not exactly necessary for the Bible to say everything. One of the learned disputants took exception to Father Prando's explanation as unwarranted took exception to Father Prando's explanation as unwarranted and not found in the Bible. "Well, sir," said Father Prando to him, "can you find me anywhere in the Bible that Adam ever went to the closet? You must either admit, then, that he had no human necessities, because not stated in the Scripture, or that something can be true though not expressly mentioned in the Bible." This reasoning ex visceribus, though not causae, exactly, brought down the house, and all agreed that the priest had the best of the argument.

Hem et one day an Indian in whose heart was rankling a bitter grudge against another brother, and who, brooding over his wrong, was biding his change to revenge himself on the offender. Father Prando undertook top dissuade him, and brought up every argument he could think of to induce the embittered Crow to put aside his rancor and forgive. The man stood statue-like, most attentive to the words of the priest, at times appearing to Genealogybug2005 ate with himself what he had better do. After a rather long interval

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of indecision and silence he, at least, came to this conclusion: "Give me two dollars," said he to the Father, "and I forgive him."

On another occasion Father Prando had made a bargain for a horse with two clever Crows, on the express condition that the animal should prove satisfactory. Upon trial, however, the beast was so fractious that to saddle and mount him they had to blindfold him, and this was done by one of the Indians pulling off his shirt and holding it over the broncho's eyes. Still, despite the balkiness of the animal, the red-skin dealers were insisting with Father Prando that he should stand by the bargain and accept the horse. It is not an easy task to reason an Indian out of what he wants, but the shirt performance furnished Father Prando a way of extricating himself. 'My friends," said he to the Indians, "your animal is a very fine one, and I should like to have no other to ride over these prairies; I could fly with him, and no one could see me when I should have to mount him. But, you know, I am a Black Robe, and do much horse-back traveling. Not only among you, but among the pale-faces as well. Now, you see, among these people I could not very well pull off my shirt every time that I should have to saddle and mount my horse." The two Indians could not resist the cogency of the argument and the deal was declared "off."

Father Prando has had more than his share of hardships attendant upon the life of an Indian missionary. We give here one instance. While going from the Cheyenne Mission to the Crows one winter, he lost his way in the Wolf Mountains. After traveling the whole of the first day through deep snow, climbing mountain after mountain, ina vain effort to discover his whereabouts, he tied his horse to a tree and laid himself down by the side of a rock, his only shelter for the night. He was again on the saddle the whole of the next day until late in the evening, when his Guardian angel most unexpectedly brought him to a cabin, where he found a solitary cowboy, who received the worn-out missionary with the greatest kindness and hospitality. Father Prando had not eaten a morsel of food since leaving the Cheyenne Mission.

Shortly after its establishment, St. Xavier's was supplemented by the erection of a chapel on Pryor Creek, for the accommoda-

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tion of a numerous band of Crows under chief Plenty Coues. Though, friendly to the missionaries and desirous to have a church and school among his people, Please Coues, thus far, has shown no disposition to embrace Christianity himself. When the last Crow shall have been baptized, said the chief time and again, to Father Prando, then he, too, will enter the fold.

Quite recently a school has also been opened in this Indian village. It is a dependency of St. Xavier in common with which it was designated at its start; but it is now named after St. Charles. At the time of our writing another supplementary chapel is being erected near the Agency and is intended for the benefit of quite a number of Crows who are living on the Little Horn, Lodge-Grass Creek, at the Agency and in other neighboring places.

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