pastor and teacher at St. John the Baptist's Church in Bradford, Illinois.

History is a subject that has always appealed to Father Cleary, and he has done extensive research in that field. Welfare work has demanded much of his time too, and he is a member of the Illinois Welfare Association and the Illinois State Historical Society. In addition to translating two volumes of Catholic historical source material for the Catholic Historical Society of Washington, and writing numerous historical articles for magazines and newspapers, Father Cleary in 1947 completed his Catholic Historical Society Book: An Outline History of Illinois. In recognition of his ability as pastor, teacher and historian, the Roman Catholic Church on October 21, 1950, bestowed upon him the honor and title of the Right Reverend Monsignor.

Clay Clement, actor and playwright, was born in the winter of 1864 on the old Geiger homestead six miles northwest of El Paso which was known as the Maple Grove Farm. He was the son of Christian and Sarah Geiger, and his real name was Clement Geiger. He had a brother named Julian who retired from farming and lived in El Paso at 50 West Second Street until his death.

Young Clement Geiger intended to become a lawyer and attended the University of Chicago. After he had been there some time, his father made a trip to Chicago to find out just how well his law student son was getting along. He was getting along very well indeed, but on the stage instead of in law school! He was playing in the production Uncle Tom's Cabin. That episode ended young Geiger's law schooling, but it was the beginning of a stage career, and his rise in that field was rapid. In those days many considered the theatre a questionable occupation and not a glamorous one.

Clay Clement traveled from coast to coast and to distant Australia, for he was not only a star of the stage, he was also a successful playwright. His most noted play was called The New Dominion, which was written one summer when the author spent his vacation at Bellflower, a farm located only a half-mile from the home where he had lived as a child. Clement wrote most of this play while sitting under a tree in the apple orchard, and the work received wide acclaim. Three of his old El Paso friends, George R. Curtiss, Isaac J. Jenkins Jr. and Harry Campbell persuaded him to bring the play from Peoria to El Paso and put it on in our fine Opera House. So on February 21, 1895 The New Dominion showed here with Clay Clement in the leading role, and the El Paso Journal called it "the most artistic piece of acting and impersonation ever given in our city."

In the 1890's Clement was performing in a number of Shakespearean plays, some of his best roles being in Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and King Lear. About the turn of the century Clay Clement was hitting his stride. His own play The New Dominion still had

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