AN IRISH ROMAN CATHOLIC SERMON. 191 



Boston. This morning was so cold that some courage was required 

 for a bath. Now it is so warm that I have been obliged to put on 

 my light coat. 



Another Americanism. In every room of the hotel, in every 

 corner and gallery of the museums, there are " cuspadors." This 

 is Yankee for spittoon. Mine is very handy, as I use it for a waste- 

 paper basket. 



Many of the Boston churches were visited in turn, 

 and the " log " contains descriptions of several. Among 

 the special points that seem to have struck my father, 

 besides the use of the English Prayer-book, with the 

 modifications already noticed in the Occasional Offices, 

 was the distribution of functions when more than two 

 clergy were present. The Roman Catholic Cathedral 

 does not seem to have impressed him particularly, 

 save as regards the excellence of the music. He gives 

 an amusing description of a sermon by an Irish 

 American : 



November is the " Month of the Dead," set aside for the pur- 

 pose of freeing the souls of the faithful from purgatory, they, as 



H says, " being incapable of prayer for themselves." And the 



preacher gave us Purgatory, as he called it, hot and strong. After 

 saying that the pains of pui'gatory were the same as those of hell, 

 except that hope was not taken away, he proceeded to describe the 

 scourge, and the rack, and the wheel, and the stake, and said that 

 all these agonies put together would not equal an hour of purgatory. 

 Then he showed us how the faithful departed behaved in purgatory. 

 He shrieked, he sobbed, he groaned, he cried for mercy, and nearly 

 drove the females into hysterics by telling them to think of their 

 loved ones departed as being thus in unspeakable tortures. The 

 upshot, of course, being that the more money they paid for masses, 

 the sooner would their friends escape. Otherwise, when they too 

 entered purgatory, they would be met by the reproaches of their 

 friends for leaving them still in that place of torment. 



