Had Father Hecker continued in good health there is a chance, though a desperate one, that he might have overcome all obstacles.  Many zealous souls would have followed his lead.  As a specimen we may name the Vicar-General of San Francisco, Father Prendergast, who, with the help of a few earnest friends, raised several thousand dollars in gold in that diocese alone.  But in 1871 Father Hecker’s strength began to fail, and in the following year his active life was done.  As already shown, it had been the intention to establish branch societies everywhere, whose delegates would regularly meet and control the entire work, giving the Church in America an approved, powerful auxiliary dominantly made up of laymen.  In that sense the Society never was so much as organized, the number of branch societies not at any time warranting such a step as a general meeting of their representatives.  The money actually collected was all spent in printing and circulating the tracts and other publications given away or sold below cost, Father Hecker and the Paulists managing the entire work.  When the collections gave out, Mr. George V. Hecker contributed a large sum for continuing the undertaking.  The result was his finding himself in the publishing business, which he was compelled to place as far as possible on a basis to meet the current outlay.  The Society, as far as its name went, thus became a Catholic publishing firm, with Mr. Hecker mainly involved financially and Mr. Kehoe in charge of the business.  Mr. Hecker sunk a small fortune in the Apostolate of the Press, much of it during the hard times between 1873 and 1876.  The history of the whole affair is as curious as it is instructive, and hence we have given a pretty full account of it.  It weighed heavy on Father Hecker’s heart, though he astonished his friends by the equanimity with which he accepted its failure.  His work, if it did not perish in a night like the prophet’s gourd, withered quickly into very singular form and narrow proportions.  The amazement of Protestant bigots at the appearance of the Catholic tracts, speechless and clamorous by turns; the quaker guns of the Second Plenary Council, and the bright dreams of a vigorous attack upon the enemy all along the line and by all classes of clergy and laity—­how Father Hecker did in after years discuss these topics, and how he did inspire all about him with his own enthusiastic hopes of a future and more successful effort!  When he went to Europe in 1873, too feeble to hope for recovery, leaving the enterprise behind him in the same condition as his own broken health, how unmurmuring was his submission to the Divine and human wills which had brought all to naught!

Not more than a few words need be said of his undertaking to buy a New York daily paper.  It happened that in 1871 a prominent journal, a member of the Associated Press, could be bought for three hundred thousand dollars.  In an instant, as it seems, Father Hecker grasped the opportunity.  By personal appeals to the rich men of the city more than half the sum required was subscribed, Archbishop McCloskey heading the list with a large amount.  But soon the doctors had to be called in, and the enterprise went no further.