Polemic over the Catholic Virgin League in Meran

Austria.

Innsbruck, 20 December. A few days ago, the Innsbr. Ztg. published an article from Meran concerning the Christian-Catholic Virgin League, an article that we regarded, both in terms of "style and tendency," as an exquisite piece of hackwork fitting for such an Innsbruck paper. Both style and tendency pointed entirely to the sort of self-styled public benefactor now found at certain health resorts, where, alongside care for a ruined body, a little "enlightenment politics" can be practiced out of a more specific calling. We might perhaps feel inclined to offer that article-writer, insofar as he is genuinely a stranger and has never heard anything detailed about Catholic leagues, a friendly instruction, from which he might see that these leagues, though vastly different from the tricolour leagues of virtue, are by no means intended to stand in the way of his virtue. We would only wish to request that our instruction need not be wasted on that doctor, known from a bloodless duel affair in Meran, to whom yesterday's Schützen-Zeitung attached the epithet "Cowardly, dishonourable scoundrel!"

As regards the Virgin League itself, whose nature and statutes everywhere greatly enrage radical "moral earnestness," we are pleased to assure our readers that this association approved by Holy Church is finding a welcome spread throughout the land, so that there is good reason to hope that through its cooperation the old custom will long be preserved in Tyrol, even where temptation strives to appear somewhat more refined than was otherwise the case.