LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

CAPT. McCULLAGH DEFENDS HIMSELF
Mr. Wynter's Protest.
Sue—Mr. Charles P. Wynter protests against an extract you took from my book, but as he does not quote the passages which excite his indignation and horror, some of your readers, who have not read the extract, may jump to the conclusion that I have been guilty of unpardonable grossness, and you of inexcusable laxity. I think, therefore, that in justice to both of us, you should allow me to reproduce his extravagant pronouncement as well as the only passage in my article to which he can possibly refer.
Here is the anathema:—
Sig..--May I he allowed to protest? Your contributor, Captain McCullagh, makes the most unjust, one would like to say fool, aspersions against the Americans, the British, and the Irish—mothers, ladies, curates and soldiers alike.
1 refer to you r third article from Ii is forthcoming book printed in the Catholic Herald last week.
Such biassed extravagant pronouncements are wholly unconvincing, but having been made they should not be allowed to pass U nchallenged.
CHARLYS P. WYNTEX. 27, Cambridge Mansions.
Here is the passage to which Mr. Wynter objects. It is a description of a visit I paid to the Alcileer of Toledo after its relief.
" our party was shown through the building by one of the Cadets, a small. thin, :+waythy, dark-haired youth of eighteen, who bad been through the whole siege, hut who did not seem to have suffered in the least from his experiences. his name W114 LF17,11 tAISEL Rodrigues. He was on military duty when his C.O. gave him permission to accompany us, and a better guide we could not have got. ‘Vhat struck me most, was the dry-eyed, dignified. AI nsen ti !twill at way ill which he explained everything. Even in the former swimming baths. now the cemetery where those who died during the siege lie buried, be bad absolute control of his features: in his voice there was a note of pride. I don't think that art English or American boy of his age would have been able to keep so free of sloppy sentimentality and sickly self-admiration, especially if he were converted into an idol by Gold Star mothers, Kiplingesque ladies and bellicose curates. The Spaniard are a wonderful people: murder, often; vulgarity, never."
shall leave these two extracts to speak for themselves. Comment on my part would be an insult to the intelligence of your readers.
The passages selected from my book by the Catholic Herald seemed to me edifying enough to be read out at dinner in a refectory of Carmelite nuns; I tremble to think of what would have happened at No. 27, Cambridge Mansions, if you had picked out any of the lurid chapters in which I really let myself go.
FRANCIS MCCULLAGH.
41, Rue Cambon, Paris. r
A Supporter
SIR,—May I be allowed to protest?
Captain McCullagh only attacks certain undesirable types of curates, etc. The sentence • I dislike bellicose curates" does not mean " I dislike curates "; and the same remark applies to the others. / am a curate, yet Captain McCullagh spends with me a great deal of his free time whenever he visits London, and I know scores of curates who are his friends.
A CATHOLIC CURATE.