I have often wondered when I was acting as priest in the Catholic Church why it was that Protestants, when they attended my church, would look on in wonderment and surprise, and I attributed this wonderment to a desire upon the part of Protestantism to make fun and villify the teachings of the Catholic Church, but I now realize that this bewilderment came from minds which had been elevated far above the cungerings of the Catholic Church, and I am now surprised that the Protestants who visit Catholic churches are not more bewildered and mystified, as the teachings of Protestantism are based upon the inspirations derived from the Word of God and the teachings of Catholicism are naught but the rumblings of the dark ages. [Illustration: "A LICENTIOUS PRIEST." "A PROTESTANT PREACHER'S HOME" "The unmarried life of the Priestcraft compared to the married life of a Protestant minister."] Chapter III. All Children of Protestant Parents Are Declared Bastards by Catholicism. The Catholic Church declares that all of those who contract marriage otherwise than in the presence of a Catholic Priest, that such marriages are null and void. Catholicism further declares that your darling child, which is the fruit of your marriage, is nothing more nor less than a common bastard. How do you Protestants like to hear this? How do you feel when you know that this is the belief and opinion of all Catholic dignitaries, and this belief is taught to all the Catholic world by those who presume to dictate? Your darling baby boy or girl is branded as an illegitimate offspring by Catholicism, simply because their parents were not united in wedlock by a Catholic Priest, who perhaps is as immoral as hell itself. The reason why Catholicism so sternly demands that all should be married by the priestcraft is from a monetary standpoint, as the Catholic priest gets his fee, as he will not under any circumstances unite any one in wedlock without a fee, and I have known in many instances where the contracting parties were unable to pay a money fee, and the grasping priestcraft would refuse to unite them in marriage until they had given him some article of intrinsic value, and I have often seen jewelry, silver-mounted pipes, watches and many other things confiscated by the priestcraft before they would perform the ceremony. It is strange to me, indeed, that America, which is and should be by every law of justice and right, a Protestant nation, is so unconcerned and so listless over the insults that Catholicism daily offers Protestantism, for if it is not a most damnable insult to stigmatize your offspring as bastards, then we are unable to discern and distinguish between a brazen insult and a flattering compliment. Whenever America learns the actual and true meaning of Catholicism and her teachings, there will be an awakening among the Protestant world that will make the four corners of the government of the United States tremble with a righteous indignation.