But, my reader asks, "Do the people implicitly believe all the priest says?" No, sometimes they say, "Show us a sign." This was especially true of the people living on the Chili-Bolivian border. The wily, yet progressive, priest there made a number of little balloons, which on a certain day of the year were sent up into the sky, bearing away the sins of the people. Of course, when the villagers saw their sins float away before their own eyes, enclosed in little crystal spheres, such as _could not be earthly_, they believed and rejoiced. Yes, reader, the South American priest is alive to his position after all, and even "patents" are requisitioned. In some of the larger churches there is the "slot" machine, which, when a coin is inserted, gives out _"The Pope's blessing."_ This is simply a picture representing his Holiness with uplifted hands. The following is a literal translation, from the Portuguese, of a "notice" in a Rio Janeiro newspaper: FESTIVAL IN HONOR OF THE LADY OF NAZARETH. "The day will be ushered in with majestic and deafening fireworks, and the 'Hail Mary' rendered by the beautiful band of the----Infantry regiment. There will be an intentional mass, grand vocal and instrumental music, solemn vespers, the Gospel preached, and ribbons, which have been placed round the neck of the image of St. Broz, distributed. "The square, tastefully decorated and pompously illuminated, will afford the devotees, after their supplications to the Lord of the Universe, the following means of amusement,-----the Chinese Pavilion, etc.,-----. Evening service concluded, there will be danced in the Flora Pavilion the _fandango à pandereta_. In the same pavilion a comic company will act several pieces. On Sunday, upon the conclusion of the Te Deum, the comic company will perform," etc. The spiritual darkness is appalling. If the following can be written of Pernambuco, a large city of 180,000 inhabitants, on the sea coast, the reader can, in a measure, understand the priestly thraldom of these isolated towns. A Pernambuco newspaper, in its issue of March 1st, 1903, contains an article headed, "Burning of Bibles," which says: "As has been announced, there was realized in the square of the Church of Penha, on the 22nd ult., at nine o'clock in the morning, in the presence of more than two thousand people, the burning of two hundred and fourteen volumes of the Protestant Bible, amidst enthusiastic cheers for the Catholic religion, the immaculate Virgin Mary, and the High Priest Leo XIII.--cheers raised spontaneously by the Catholic people." [Footnote: Literal translation from the Portuguese.]