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CHAPTER XIX.

THE RT. REV. JOHN BAPTIST BRONDEL. MONTANA'S VICARIATE INAUGURATED.

John Baptist Brondel, the first resident Administrator of our new Vicariate, and the first Bishop of Helena, was born in old, quaint and thoroughly Catholic Bruges, West Flanders, Belgium, February 23, 1842, and received his first instruction from the Xaverian Brothers, a Community that had been recently established in his native city. After ten years given to his Latin courses, in the College of St. Louis, having chosen to devote himself to the Missions of North America, he entered the American College at Louvain. He was raised to the priesthood at Mechlin by His eminence Cardinal Stercks, December 17, 1864, and having been received by the Rt. Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet for the Diocese of Nesqually, Washington, he set out for his destination by the way of Panama, reaching Vancouver on All Hallows's Eve, 1866.

The duties of professor together with those of a missioner occupied him for some time, after which he was assigned to Steilacoom, on Puget Sound, where he spent some ten years, and whither he returned from Walla Walla, having done missionary work there also for a while. During his pastorship at Steilicom, he built churches at Olympia and Tacoma. Whilst attenuating with great zeal to his priestly ministry on the Sound, he was elected Bishop of Victoria, Vancouver Island, and received his consecration at the hands of the Most Rev. C. J. Seghers, December 14, 1879.

Some four years later, April 7, 1883, the Holy see appointed him Administrator of the Vicariate of Montana, where he was now to reside, although retaining at the same time his title of Bishop of Vancouver or Victoria. This action of the Holy See formally organized the Vicariate, and the organization was inaugurated by the Administrator's arrival upon the field.

We shall soon greet and welcome our chief Pastor. In the

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meantime, as we wait for him to come, let us chronicle some happenings, which, whilst they belong to the local history of the Helena Mission, also preceded by a few months his arrival on our midst.

In 1883, Easter Sunday fell on the 25^th of March, and was an ideal, perfect spring day, in keeping with, and enhancing the joys of the great festival. There being no Sunday School, early in the afternoon the writer crossed over for a short while to the Academy grounds, where the young lady pupils were recreating. It was all sunshine externally as well as inwardly, and everybody appeared filled to overflowing with the brightness and joyousness of the day. However, a pungent odor seemed to be in the air, becoming more perceptible as one moved toward the reservoir that stood within the premises of the south.

The reservoir had been placed there some years before by the city, as a measure of precaution in case of fire, and had passed to the Sisters with the grounds purchased by Father Van Gorp. In the transaction, however, the continuance of its use by the city had been reserved, but, in turn, the city has to see to its maintenance, that is, provide the water, and make all needed repairs. For over a year the city authorities and the water company had been at loggerheads on the subject of refilling the reservoir and keeping it in a proper condition. As a consequence, not having been renewed for so long a time, the water had become exceedingly foul. To aggravate matters, a neighbor, the west side of whose dwelling stood but ten feet from the east edge of the reservoir, had secretly made this the cesspool of his premises for a couple of years.

That Easter Sunday night several of the Academy pupils were taken ill. The disease was dread diphtheria, and by the third day St. Vincent's Academy had actually become a hospital.

To cut the sad story short, seven youthful lives were quenched in a few days, that is, from April 23 to May 7, and two more some few days after. The contagion spread, the Scannell family becoming the greatest sufferers, four or five children being carried off by the scourge within a week.

Mae, the eldest of the five and the only survivor, would seen to owe her safety to an act of apparent heartlessness on the

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part of the writer. She was visiting with some friends out of town and started home at once on hearing that there was sickness in the family. We were assisting the dying within--there were three in the throes of death-- and had just left their side to get a mouthful of fresh air at the front door, when Mae happened to be nearing the house. Hailing her from where we stood, we bade her go to some of her friends, as under no condition could she be allowed to enter the premises. She begged, entreated to be let in, her eyes streaming with teas. However, most reluctantly the brave young woman did as bidden, and withdrew with faltering steps. She is today Mrs. James Walker, having married Robert C. Walker's son, James, a nephew of James G. Blaine.

Michael Scannell, one of the four whom god hastened to gather to himself, was the brightest lad we had ever known. A year or so before--he was then a little mite between eight and nine--being asked in Sunday School whether anything could make itself, he became thoughtful, "No, father, a thing cannot make itself." On being further asked why a thing could make itself: "Because it ain't yet," he replied; expressing thus concisely and most tersely the philosophical axiom; Primus est esse quam operati; in other words, a thing must be before it can work.

Aged from grief and sorrowing, Mr. and Mrs. Scannell are still mourning the loss of their children. But they do so in humble submission to Him he killeth and maketh alive, and comforted in this bereavement by true Christian faith.

A protest was made by the town folk against the pesthole on the hill, and the nuisance was partly abated by dumping into it several wagon loads of quicklime. Soon after, however, it was condemned and filled up.

Somewhat unstrung by the happenings just related, the writer felt the need of a little toning up by a short relaxation. Further, the new Administrator being expected to arrive ere long, it seemed desirable to have at hand such information about the different places of the Vicariate as would be of usefulness to him on his arrival. We therefore resolved to visit that spring the northern and eastern part of the territory with which we were less familiar. Accordingly, leaving Helena about the mid-

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dle of May, the writer visited Sun River, St. Peter's Mission and Fort Benton; and hence by boat went as far as Bismarck. He now retraced his steps toward Montana, visiting on his homeward journey all the new settlements along the Northern Pacific Railway, Glendive, Miles City, Billings, Livingston, and also Bozeman. He stopped some days in each of these places, where he said Mass, heard some confessions and instructed a few children. about the middle of July he took the home stretch from Bozeman, partly by coach and partly by rail, on a construction train.

It was the first railroad train with a passenger coach to come near Helena, and the occasion had brought half the town to that terminal spot. Good Brother Megazzini had come there, too, with a vehicle, to meet the rambler. As the cars were an hour or so behind the time announced, the Brother tied the hose to a wagon, there being no fence or post of any sort in the vicinity, and walked over to inspect the track and watch the incoming cars. At the approach of the locomotive the old plug became quite lively, and before the Brother cold reach him, broke loose and ran off, demolishing the whole rig in his mad run.

Upon this, a personal friend, who, by the way, was the sheriff, kindly invited us to ride uptown in his own conveyance, and gave us the place of honor on the front seat beside himself and a deputy of his, the writer sitting between the two. This proved the occasion of a grim joke, for the papers announcing our return stated also the circumstance that the sheriff and a deputy had brought the Father back to town, which, after all, was nothing but the truth.