CONCLUSION.

And here, kind reader, we close our chronicle; our task is done, poorly, we know, but as well as our short comings and deficiency would allow. And since we must now part with you and our subject, we can do so no better then by recalling once more the words of the Rt. Rev. James O'Connor which, though quoted already before, are not only well worth repeating, but make likewise the best and most befitting conclusion for out narrative.

As we have seen, Bishop O'Connor visited Montana in the summer of 18877, and his impressions of people and country were highly favorable. He wrote us subsequently from Omaha, under date of March 31, 1879, and his letter is still in our keeping and under out eyes, as we pen these line. Speaking therein of Montana, he expresses himself as follows:

You and I may not live to see it, but the day is not distant when Montana will become one of the most fruitful and flourishing as well as most beautiful portions of God's vineyard; and this will be owing in great measure to the labors and virtues of those who have already borne there the burden of the day and the heats.

Our own views on the subject coinciding as they do with those of Bishop O'Connor, in concluding the first edition of Indian and White in the Northwest, we wrote as follows: "We have no doubt whatever that his forecast and bright anticipations will come to pass and be fully realized."

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Now we must speak differently, that is, we must change the future tense to the past, since forecast and anticipations have in great measure been fulfilled and have become an actual reality in this year of out Lord 1922.

We do not write present history of the Church of Montana, our narrative, as declared time and again, coming no further down than the close of 1891. Still, we are not precluded from glancing over the field and taking notice of the strides which Catholicity has made in the State in the meanwhile. Nor need we for that an extended historical work, when a simple glance at the Catholic Directory for the last few years will suffice. In its tables and condensed exhibits there is doubtless evidence enough to show forth and substantiate Catholicity's progress in this portion of the Lord's vineyard during the period in question.

When Bishop O'Connor penned the words quoted above, the Catholic population of Montana--which was still a Territory at that time--did not reach five thousand. As a matter of history, the western part belonged to the Vicariate of Idaho, while eastern Montana was an insignificant appendage of the Vicariate of Nebraska. It is no less history that there were then but two secular priests in the whole Territory, father R. De Ryckere, at Deer Lodge, and Father F. Kelleher, at Virginia City, one west, the other east of the main Range; whilst as to churches with resident priests, there were no more than three for the whites, and Sacred Heart, at Helena; the Immaculate Conception, Deer Lodge, and All Saints, at Virginia City, and three for the Indians, St. Ignatius, St. Mary's and St. Peter's. There were also three chapels or churches without resident priest, the one at Frenchtown, St. Joseph in the Missouri Valley and St. Mary's at Laurin, Madison County.

Of Catholic institutions, Montana has then four small Hospitals, one in each of the following places: Missoula, Helena, Deer Lodge and Virginia City. It had also three schools, two for white children, at Missoula, and Helena, respectively, and one for Indian youth, at St. Ignatius. These seven institutions were conducted by Sisters, who numbered to, but not above thirty.

What is the showing today, this year of grace 1922? It is placed before us by the Catholic Directory of the same year. We have therein Montana making two Dioceses, the one of

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Helena, presided over by the Rt. Rev. John P. Carroll, D. D., its second Bishop, and that of Great Falls, whose chief pastor and first Bishop, is the Right Reverend Mathias C. Lenihan, D.D.

Adding together and under the usual headings what belongs to each of the two Dioceses separately, we have the following summary:

Reader, reflect a moment on what these figures tell and all they imply; and you will readily admit that Montana is not only on the way to, but rapidly becoming, to use the words of the Right Reverend Bishop O'Connor, "one of the most fruitful and flourishing, as well as most beautiful portions of God's vineyard."

It is written, however: Neither he that planteth is anything, nor he that watereth, but God, who giveth the increase. Wherefore, since the good done in the past, and the good to be done by Catholicity in Montana in the future, must needs be due to God, the source of any and all good, to Him, also, now and forever, be the praise, honor and glory.