CHAPTER XV.

THE SISTERS AND THE INDIGENT SICK OF THE COUNTY, THE INSANE AND THE ORPHANS.

The reader will remember that we parted with the Helena Mission toward the close of 1870, just after the opening of St. John's Hospital.

Needless to say, the new institution proved from the start a signal blessing for many poor sufferers from the town and vicinity who were brought in for care and medical treatment. As a consequence, the accommodations proved inadequate and had to be enlarged a couple of times within the space of a few years.

At the beginning, only private patients sought admission into the hospital. But soon after, the indigent sick of the County of Lewis and Clark, and later on those also of Jefferson and Meagher counties were confided to the Sisters' care. This arrangement continued for several years, and while it secured much better treatment for the patients, it also entailed considerably less expense on the counties.

At last, however, some wise official made the astounding discovery that in the case of sick people depending on public assistance, a poorer treatment, but withal much costlier, would be a gain and preferable to any other that had the disadvantage of being better and costing less! On the strength of this argument--utterly intelligible to plain common sense, but clear enough to the eyes of an-ax-to-grind policy--the indigent sick of Lewis and Clark county were withdrawn from the Sisters and went back to the poor-farm.

The action was justified on the ground that the too great care which the Sisters took of the patients increased the number of applicants for admission to the hospital, and thus brought a much greater and unnecessary expense on the county. We ourselves heard the please seriously advanced by the member of the Board.

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But, apart from the humane, we mean inhuman, philosophy that underlay the reasoning--the philosophy of spoiling and making the meat unpalatable lest some hungry fellow should ask for a bite--it is to be observed that the Sisters admitted no patient as a county charge unless he was sent to them by the Commissioners themselves or their authorized agent, the county physician, and presented, besides, the proper hospital permit, signed by one or the other of those officials. Now, the applicants for the privilege of being considered and treated as paupers would be persons really destitute and in need of public assistance or the reverse. If the former, how could they be refused by the Board? Was there not a poor fund levied for that very purpose? And let it be said to their credit and honor, no more substantial sympathy and more unstinted liberality were ever shown toward poor suffering fellow-beings than by our Montana people. If the applicants were not in need, and yet hospital permits were issued to them, on whom could the blame fall except the officials themselves, by whom alone the permits were issued?

But strange enough, while the Commissioners were setting up the plea of too much care, there lay before their eyes the official report of their county physician, charging the Sisters with the very opposite, that is, with want of care toward the same patients, and specifically, with "feeding them on pious talk, instead of supplying them with well prepared and wholesome food." The report is on file in the county clerk's office.

But, it may be asked, why such contradictory statements? Could there be any collusion between the Board and their physician, that under one or the other of these trumped up, albeit contradictory charges, the patients might be removed from the Sisters with some pretense or semblance of legality? This we know, however, that it was a foregone conclusion that the Commissioners would leave the poor sick with the Sisters no longer and that the physician's report, if not due to collusion, could only be prompted by prejudice.

If that medico had been an unbiased professional man, he would have known that religion, even from no more than a medical point of view and as admitted by the best and wisest physicians, is an agent of unexceptional curative value, all its

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own, and that a little pious talk at the lips of a gentle Sister of Charity has cheered and comforted in their ills and bodily aches thousands of sufferers.

But since it was not care, but no-care that the Commissioners wanted, and this, according to the report just referred to, they had already secured in St. John's Hospital, does it not seem that the proper thing for them to do would have been to leave their patients where they were, that is, in the hands of the Sisters? Quite so; only, that the charge of lack of care brought against these devoted souls was so utterly groundless, on its face and in the Commissioner's own and everybody else's eyes, that the one plea on which those gentlemen sought to justify their action was not want of care, but the very reverse, that if, because county paupers were too well treated and had too good a time at the Sisters' Hospital.

S they had done in several years pat, so also now the Sisters put in their bid for the care and maintenance of the indigent sick of the county. but the Commissioners were resolved that the Sisters should no longer go to them; and to make sure of this, as well as to carry their point with some apparent show of fairness and legality, straw bids, so-called, were brought into play and made to do the work. The change proved anything but welcome to the patients, but there was not helping the poor fellows.

Being present when the Commissioners gave out the contract, Mother Josephine, at this time in charge of St. John's Hospital, created no little merriment in connection there with. Straw bids were mentioned on the occasion, and as straw bids and straw beds sound much like, somehow the good Mother misunderstood the former expression for the latter, with the further misapprehension that the Sisters were being actually blamed for given to county patients none but beds of straw to sleep on. Upon this, she rose to her feet and entered a solemn protest before the Board and the rest, declaring that there never had been in St. John's Hospital such a thing as a straw bed.

The Sisters cared for the poor and sick of this country (Lewis and Clark) from 1871 to 1880, and for those of Jefferson an Meagher counties, from 1872 to 1886.

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Besides tending and nursing the sick and poor of these counties, the insane of the Territory were also in their keeping for several years. thus, the first insane asylum in Montana was conducted by the Sisters of Leavenworth and remained an annex of St. John's Hospital up to the establishment of the present institution for the insane at Warm Springs, Deer Lodge County.

The taking of this work from the Sisters had much of the look of political jobbery at the time. Nevertheless, some such measure would have had to be adopted by the authorities before long, it being rendered necessary by the ever increasing number of the demented.

The quarters, left vacant by the removal of the insane to Deer Lodge, were now turned to another purpose; they were entirely remodeled and converted into a home for orphan children. the new institution opened its door in April, 1880, under the name and patronage of St. Jerome, because Jerome happened to be the Christian name of the first orphan received. How many little ones have since found in this plain and unpretentious dwelling a comfortable home, and more than a home's fostering care at the hands of the good Sisters in charge!

This new establishment was also the first of its kind in the Territory, and thus to the Sisters of Leavenworth is due the credit for conducting the first insane asylum as well as the first orphanage in Montana.

Though its location was not the best, owing especially to want of space and to the rocky character of the grounds, the orphanage remained for several years an annex to St. John's Hospital, and with no more then twenty to thirty orphan children to be housed and cared for, it answered its purpose fairly well. But as this number kept increasing, sire, accommodations and all became altogether inadequate and undesirable. Hence good Mother Josephine, a true mother to every motherless child she came upon, now resolved to build a new home for the orphans, and such as, with regard to location, size, appointments, and comfort, should leave nothing to be desired. Her efforts in that direction met with gratifying success, even beyond her sanguine expectations and, since last October, seventy-five little ones live contentedly and happy in one of the

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best, most comfortable and most solidly built structures in Helena.

Furnishings included, the building has cost $40,000. It stands just on the city limits, to the north, and on a site donated for the purpose by the Jesuit Fathers, it being a parcel of a hundred-acre tract purchased by them some time before and on which they contemplated erecting a college. The edifice is a conspicuous landmark, an inspiring pile of stone and brick, 80 X 100 feet, three stories high, stairs and floors all hard maple. It is heated throughout by water and so arranged in construction and its every appointment that, though under one and the same roof, the boys' department is entirely separated from that of the girls.

Though construction work did not begin till the opening of spring, in 1892, all preliminary arrangements were perfected before the close of 1891. Work on Mother Josephine's new home for the orphans continued, to the wonder of many, through the spring and summer of 1892-93, a season of unparalleled business depression and financial embarrassment. But despite unfavorable conditions, the good Mother went steadily ahead with her task, till she brought it to completion. Hers was the cause of the orphan, which is God's own cause, and who working solely for God has ever been left to want for ways and means?

When transferred to their new home the orphans counted just forty-two; their number has more than doubled during the last few months.

But by whom are so many helpless little ones clothed, fed, maintained? By Him Who clothes the lilies of the valley and feeds the birds of the air, by the good god, through the charity of His servants. For no state or county aid may be extended to these helpless children, because a denominational institution has them in its keeping.

The new orphanage was opened and dedicated in the befitting manner by Bishop Brondel, who, assisted by the clergy of the Cathedral, formally blessed it and, placing it under the patronage of the head of God's own Holy Family on earth, named it "St. Joseph's Orphans Home." Quite a umber of people were present and some of the leading citizen, who spoke on the

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occasion, set forth very appropriately the advantages and importance of the new institution.

Well worth mentioning in this connection is the marble altar erected in the orphans' chapel by the Galen family as a memorial of Matilda Galen, of whom due reference is made elsewhere in this book. Indeed, husband and children could not have better interpreted the wishes of wife and mother than by the erection of a monument, in itself and all its adjuncts, s expressive of religion and charity, the distinguishing characteristics of that thoroughly Christian woman.

And now let us retrace our steps and return to the early seventies, since, as the reader must have noticed, in giving the history of the orphans' Home connectedly, we have had to anticipate even to the point of extending the time limit of our narrative.

In November, 1872, Father Van Gorp, whose health was failing somewhat from active missionary work, left for St. Louis, Mo., his place in Helena for the while being taken by Father Giorda. A serious attack of erysipelas during the winter brought the latter to death's door, his recovery being well-nigh despaired of at one time. But skillful treatment and careful nursing, together with many a fervent prayer poured forth in his behalf, obtained the saintly man a longer lease of life for the good of these Missions.

Father Van Gorp returned in the spring considerably improved in health, bur before many months it became apparent that the light, keen air of this altitude affected his heart unfavorably. A change, in consequence, was no decided upon by the superior who, late in the fall of 1873, assigned Father Van Gorp to St. Ignatius, while the writer received orders to go to Helena in his place. "It is but a temporary arrangement," wrote Father Giorda, but without ceasing to be temporary such arrangement often admit of considerable stretching, as came to pass in our own case. This, our first stay in Helena, lasted over ten years.

In October, 1871, the place had been visited by a big fire which ad left the larger part of Main Street in ruins. But far more disastrous was the conflagration of January, 1874.

It was about a quarter of 7 A.M.--we were then at the altar saying Mass--when the alarm rang out. On re-entering

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The sacristy we were terror-stricken at the sight of the sea of seething flames below, in the direction of Wood and upper Main streets, and turning toward the Sisters, who were praying and making their thanksgiving, we told them they had better hasten out as everything around was ablaze. Sparks, cinders, flaming shingles and live brands, driven through the air by a furious gale, fell everywhere on the hill as thick as snow flakes in a winter storm. The little church, the Fathers' house, as well as the hospital, and the Academy, caught fire several times from falling cinders, and how they escaped being wiped out, as were so many other buildings, may well be looked upon as bordering on the miraculous. The Sisters extinguished incipient fires here and there with a little holy water, all the water supply that was left. In a few hours hundreds of thousands worth of property melted away whilst several people were also seriously injured.

In the afternoon the writer walked over the burnt district to view the devastation wrought in the morning and words could hardly express his astonishment at seeing laborers already at work clearing away debris and hot embers preparatory to the erection of new and more substantial structures on the base and blackened lots. Surely, here was pluck and recuperative energy, enough to insure one with confidence in the permanency of the town, and therefore, prompted by the example before us, we now resolved on some improvements much needed on Catholic Hill.

The first of these improvements was to replace the little steamboat bell with a large one weighing 2,000 pounds, exclusive of mountings, and costing, freight included, $846. It was cast in Troy, New York, and its transportation to Helena from Corinne, Utah, the nearest railroad terminus at the time, took over sixty days. It sent forth its first sounds whilst being blessed, June 29, the Feast of SS. Peter and Paul, and from then on it rang out the Angelus daily at 6 A.M. noon and 6 P.M. the laboring people of the town, especially on workdays, took their time from it, while on Sundays and holydays of obligation the lukewarm Catholic had scarcely an excuse for his tardiness to Mass.

By this time, however, the old church had become much too small for the worshipers. Hence, at a general meeting of our

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Catholic people, held August 16, 1874, it was unanimously resolved to erect a new and larger church soon. As a step in that direction five members of the congregation were appointed a Building committee, with L. F. La Croix, chairman, and Major Robert C. Walker, U. S. A., secretary, to cooperate with the pastor, and devise means and ways to attain the object in view. The pastor and the Building committee finally accepted plans and specifications for a building of the following dimensions: Main building, 43 X 95 feet; ear prolongation, 18 X 22 feet; the whole structure to be of solid brick with stone foundation and facings of cut granite.

Building operations started soon after, two Germans, H. Miller and his partner, H. Tamm, a non-Catholic, both stone masons by trade, laying the foundations gratuitously. The blessings of the cornerstone took place with solemnity September 29, Father Giorda officiating, and Father Van Gorp, from St. Ignatius, preaching the sermon for the occasion, while Father A. Diomedi, who had arrived from Europe three or four days before, directed the music. The foundations were completed before winter set in and work on the superstructure, which started with the opening of spring, 1`875, continued through the summer and fall.

The year was one of great depression and discouragement for the whole of Montana, fully half the male population of the Territory stampeding to the Black Hills, drawn thither in crowd by the reports of fabulously rich finds made in that country. While some of our Helena people appeared to pity the Fathers for undertaking the erection of a rather large and costly building in such unfavorable times, leading non-Catholic men of the town would point to the massive rising walls as a sure indication that "up on Catholic Hill there was faith in Helena. Why should not the rest of the community be just as hopeful and equally confident?"

By the latter part of September the building had been put under roof so that work on the interior could be continued through the winter without interruption. The new church was blessed and opened for service April 9, which was Palm Sunday, 1876. Of the out-of-town clergy only Father F. Kelleher, from Virginia City, attended the ceremony.

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The whole cost of structure and furnishings came to $38,413.000, over one-third of the amount being contributed by non-Catholics.

The pipe organ here referred to was the first instrument of the kind brought into Montana, and while as allude to it we are reminded of a trivial incident not worth retailing, except for its being a striking proof that truth sometimes is stranger than fiction.

Some few months after the instrument had been set up, there arrived in Helena a musical wonder, such at least according to the newspaper notices that announced his coming. He claimed to be graduate of the Leipsic conservatory and to have performed as a professional organist in the Cologne Cathedral, the Duomo of Milan, and other celebrated places in Europe. Having sought an introduction through Father Venneman, then our companion and whom he had met in the street, he was invited to test a small reed organ that stood in the parlor and which had just been bought for the new church in the Boulder Valley. He played "Sweet bye-and-Bye," seemingly quite at home., he was requested to rend a piece of two we-known masters, but "he had not with him his repertoire, and to play by heart was unprofessional." On the music being set before him, "his eyes were poor, and unfortunately he had forgotten his glasses.' Our faith in his ability was considerably shaken by this time, still we took the fellow to the organ loft, and by this time, and were going to "pump" and fill the bellows for him when he dumfounded us by asking "What is this for?" The query was about the pedal of the keyboard!!!!! The musical fraud went bull-driving the next day, an occupation likely more suited to his talent.

Some four years after he had left, Father Van Gorp returned to Helena, but he remained only a few months, his health again failing. Affected with valvular trouble of the heart, the [physicians advised a lower altitude. He was therefore sent back to St. Ignatius, a place much to his liking and already found more suited to his physical condition, and there he labored for a number of years.

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The building and furnishing of the new church had cost more than had been expected. But whatever indebtedness was incurred for the purpose by the 1^st of January, 1883,m it had been canceled to the last cent. And it may be well to put here also on record that while there were not wanting some good people who found fault with the edifice as being too large when under construction, so, too, the same type of individuals found fault now because the Fathers had not built a larger church.

The old frame church had been moved out of the way some distance back, and services continued to be held therein all along till the opening of the new edifice in the spring of 1876. It was then transformed into a hall and class-room for boys, and served this double purpose for some years, that is, until the ruthless hand of progress lay hold of it and tore it down to make room for the boys' school and parish hall erected in 1890 by Bishop Brondel at a cost of some eighteen thousand dollars.

Contemporaneously with the building of the new church, improvements were also made in St. John's Hospital, which was considerably enlarged by Sister Loretto, and also at the Sisters' Academy, where a large frame building, 40 by 100 feet, was put up by Mother Vincent, at this time in charge of the institution. This new structure was intended for a boys' school and an exhibition hall, and served its double object for some years. It, too, however, fell under the destroying hand of progress, as did also the older and original St. Vincent's. Those wooden buildings had served their usefulness and now were done away with, to be replaced by a solid stone and brick structure no less substantial than up-to-date in all appointments.

In November, 1874, Father C. Imoda was assigned to reopen the Mission of St. peter, his place here in Helena being now taken by Father J. Menetrey, who from his first arrival took up the work of the former, namely, the charge of the outlying stations, as a special field of his labors.

Though reduced by the coming of Father F. J. Kelleher, who the year before had taken under his pastoral care Beaverhead and Madison Counties, and now still further contracted by the reopening of St. Peter's Mission, whence the settler in Northern Montana were again to be attended, the missionary district of Helena still remained very extensive. It included the Boulder

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and Missouri Valleys, Crow Creek, Radesburg, the two Gallatins, with Three Forks, Bozeman and Fort Ellis. Camp Baker, called after Fort Logan, Diamond City, as well as White Sulphur springs, were also visited from Helena. These were the farthest settlements to three of the four points of the compass, while within a short radius lay, to the south, Unionville, Clancy, Jefferson City with its adjacent mining camps; to the northeast, silver City, with the mining villages above it and in the surroundings everywhere each and all of these places for three years, doing everywhere much good and endearing himself to all classes of people by his genial and cheerful ways.

St. Joseph's Church, a neat frame structure at Canton in the Missouri Valley, was built through his endeavors in 1875-76. In a farming community where settlers must necessarily live far apart, it is no easy task to pick out a site acceptable to all whereon to erect a church. It was so here, the farmers being divided and much at variance with one another on the subject. But finally they decided the matter by putting it to a vote, and with bur on dissenting voice, agreed on the present location. The ground was donated partly by Michael Driscoll, now a venerable patriarch of the valley, and partly by A. Hash, a non-Catholic. The people forming the settlement are mostly Catholics, very industrious, and constitute one of the best communities in Montana.

The missionary district of Helena, as described above, remained substantially the same up to 1881, when the Northern Pacific Railway, heading toward Montana, commenced to draw many immigrants into the Yellowstone country, who tool up lands and settled along the surveyed course of the road. Several new settlements were thus formed between the Dakota line and the Gallatin Range, east of Bozeman.

But before speaking to this extension of the field, we must retrace our steps to recount some previous events, that is, the first Episcopal Visitation of Montana, and other happenings of interest which occurred before 1881, and of which we shall treat in the next chapter.