The New York Herald Newspaper, August 30, 1873, Page 4

4 FRENCH. FERVOR. | National Pilgrimages to the Shrines of the Saints---No, 4, “OUR LADY OF LOURDES.” Conclusion of the Narrative of the Apparition at the Rocks of Massabielle, “TAM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION” Bernadette Soubirons Received by the Church and the Populace as an Inspired Messenger. A HOLY HEALING FOUNTAIN. | Its Stream More Beneficent Than Abana, Pharpar or Jordan. MIRACULOUS CURES. The Blind Restored to Sight, the Lame Drop Their Crutches, and Those Given Over toDie Recover Health by Prayer, Faith and Penitence at the Blessed Grotto. STATEMENTS OF MANY WITNESSES. Lourpes, July 30, 1873, “THB MIRACLE OF THE FOUNTAIN.” Very great was the emotion of the multitude who had gathered round the grotto when they saw that water foweg from the dry rock. Every one pressed round yk at it and to see if it was real, and the mass surged arourfd the child like the waves of a tumultuous sea. In proportion as the crowd drank of this water and bathed their hands and steeped their clothing in ft the miraculous Stream grew ever more abundant, and thousands and tens of thousands of persons now living saw the wonder and believed. Then a great shout rose up from the multitude, and as the frail little child who had been chosen as @ servant ef the Most High passed back with-downcast eyes to her humble home the people acclaimed her with one voice, and cast theinselves in hundreds at her feet, so that they might but touch the hem of her garment. For this miracle, mind you, my money-lending official and generally reasonable stockjobbing friends, had been wrought in the light of day and could not be Gainsayed in the ears of the thougants who had witnessed it. “Pooh, pooh}”’ still said the venal, French official; “I get no fees out of all this, The gevernment must set its face against it.” But he was now obliged to speak in a whisper, as tne Scribes and Pharisees did when the Jews called out, “Hosan. nai’’and spread palms in the way of the carpen- ter’s son, who rode upon an ass, “Is not this the miller’s daughter?’ said the official with @ sneer, well hidden behind a cambric pocket handkerchief, “and are not her brethren Jack and Gili and her sister Mary?’ The whole affair was unintelligible to him. But the multitude remained all that night in the wilderness in fasting and im prayer. Between five and sixthousand persons were waiting for the coming of the little child when morning dawned again, and the miraculous water, rejoicing in its course, sparkled ana danced in the rays of the rising sun like a living tning. When Bernadette came among them, with her quiet footstep and her modest eyes, they hailed her as a saint and asked her blessing. It may be that some worldly thoughta, some «feminine vanity, might nave found her heart opened by so much applause and glided in; for that day the Virgin came not. Bernadette prayed in vain. Either ber eyes were darkened or her faith was weak. Perhaps it was as well that the child, in the midst of popular acelamation, should be taught that she herself was nothing. As the morning wore on rumor spread that the mirac- ulous water cured the sick. Now there lived in the town of Lourdes a poor man named Louis Bourriette, and some twenty years before a sad disaster had befallen him. As he was working in the quarries @ little way off from the city a mine had exploded beneath him and he was frightfully disfigured, Bis right eye was blinded and his life wa: rdly saved after many months of doubt and suffering. Surgeons and physicians could do nothing for him, and tinre, which works so many cures, had been equally powerless. He could scarcely distinguish men from trees walking; they appeared to him lke black things moving about in a deep shadow. The man was well known to all the country round, \d many geople pitied, and some helped him, for he was a member of the numerous trade union or ‘brotherhood of quarrymen. 5: THE BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT. When the poor man heard of the miraculous water he bade his daughter bring him some of it. And behold! he rubbed his eyes with the water and cried out with a loud voice and fell upon his trembling limbs and prayed earnestly, for a miracle had been wrought in him and he had received back his sight. Some days afterward he met with his physician, that Dr. Dozons, who did not believe in the word “catalepsy” as a probable explanation of Berma- dette’s visions. “1am cured, sir,” said the quarryman. “You don’t say so,” repited the doctor. “I have done my best for you; but I cannot cure aman whose sight has been destroyed by gunpowder.” “No, sir,” returned Bourriette, “you have not cured me. I have been cured by the Holy Virgin of the grotto."’ The man of.science shrugged his shoulders, “That Bernadette is in a state of health which, to me, is inexplicable,” observed the doctor, “is certain, ana I have ssid so; but that the spring ‘which she has, by some means or other, found out atthe grotto can heal incurable ills is not possi- dle.” So saying the doctor drew a note book from his pocket, and, with @ wry smile, he placed his hand upon the lefteye of Bourriette and wrote a short sentence. “If youcan read that now,” sald he, “I shall know what to think of the miraculous ‘water.”” A crowd of people had collected round the doctor ana his his patient, for it was market day ‘at Lourdes. Ané the blind man read:—“Bourriette is incura- ly blina in the right eye, and can never be healed.” The doctor started like a man who had been sud- denly shot. “I cannot deny @ fact,” he remarked; “and, however displeasing it may be to the facuky of medicine, I must believe the evidence of my own senses rather than the dogmas of poor human sctence.”’ Dr. Vergez, of Tarbes, also professor of the faculty of Montpellier, being called into consulta- tion upon this strange event, endorsed the opinions of Dr. Dozons a6 to its miraculous character. He had never known such acure. It waa not within the skill of the physician, said Dr. Vergez. THE SIOK ABE HEALED. Other poor persons of Lourdes who had been ‘bedridden for years, bowed down by the weight of incurable diseases, and who had spent all their substance on physicians, suddenly rose up and walked, Their names are Marie Daube, Bernarde * Souble, Fabien Baron and Jeanne Crassus. Divine service was now going on ail day and all night at the grotto without the heip of priest or NEW YORK HERALD, SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1873.—TRIPLE SHEET. : _—_——$—$ tolt apoor woman siffering from cancer. Her { even, unpaved, unlighted. The mifl itself 1s built Une of pilgrims, and the litanies of the Virgin were forever being chanted—“Maver Admirabilis, Sedes Sapientia, Causa nostrm letitiv, ora pro nobis.” “Now,” reasoned the official mind, speaking through the Scribes of the period, “congjdering that neither fees nor profitable jobs are to be got out of this miraculous fountain at Lourdes there can be no such thing. It must be all nonsense.” So itwas printed and published in the official newspa- Pers that the miraculous fountain was only a maddy puddle, That was the oficial version of the thing, to be accepted without doubt or qmestion by all Mankind, Meantime the produce of the miracu- lous fountain was measured, and it was proved to yleld twenty-five thousand gallons daily of pure water. ‘The official mind dealt with tho case of the blind Man who had received his sight in a manner equally impressive and peremptory. It was said:— 1, That the blind man had not been restored to sight. 2. That he had never been blind, 8. That he imagined he had been cured. 4. That there had never been a blind @an. Yet there was the confounded fellow walking about, and mot only persisting that he had been cured, but reading, writing, and ciphering in con- sequence. What could the French oficial do but consign him mentally to the infernal gods? On the 2d of March, 1858, Bernadette called again on the Curé of Lourdes, a clergyman who is still hale and hearty, and whom I saw yesterday. She spoke to him again in the name of the vision. “She wishes a chapel to be constructed and pro- cessiens to be made to the grotto,” said the child, repeating her message. . “That does not depend upon me,” replied M. le Curé; “it depends upon my lord the Bishop. I will wait upon him and say that I have seen you again, and that I believe in your mission.” ‘THE BISHOP OF TARBES. Monselgneur Bertrand Sévére Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes, was at that time one of the most eminent men in France. He had been Superior of the Seminary of St. Pé, which he bad founded ; Superior of the Grand Seminary, and Vicar General. Nearly all the clergymen of his diocese had been his pupils, and he had been their schoolmaster before he became their Bishop. He had beer designated for the prelacy by the universal voice of public esteem, and his life was a model of Christian virtue. He was anything rather than a dreamer. His head was 80 cool, he brought to the consideration of every subject @ mind so calm and unimpres- slonable, that it was sometimes said he was rather too practical and matter-of-fact. Warmth of language and exaggeration were especialy displeasing to him, and no argument that was passionately urged could ever convince him. Acertain plain common sense appeared to bé the ruling power of his intelligence. He spoke very slowly and generally under reservations. He Was one of thoso men who know how to wait. A prelate of rare sagacity and observation, he knew mankind both in their strength and weakness, and possessed in a high degree the art of managing and guiding them. He was very prudent, and had a high sense of his responsibilities, He was careful to offend nobody, and he seemed to be constantly taking soundings as he cautiously sailed down the \Sstream of life. He had contrived to keep his head wellabove water through all the political storms which had burst over his country, and was held in as much esteem by the Second Empire ashe had been by the talking government ‘of Louis Philippe. The Curé of Lourdes informed this Bishop of the events which had occurred in his parish, and the Bishop coughed. Being accustomed to see truth descend step by step hferarchically from the Vatt- can, His Greatness was (indisposed to accept a celestial message’ sent to him by an ignorant little girl. He was staggerea by the Curé’s circumstan- tial narrative, but not convinced. He wanted to see and hear tor himself. Meantime he declined to around him. At little distance some big-headed peasant of Gers; and near him the fine features and delicate profile of a Bearnais, or the straight- built figures of a group of Basques, The news, 00, had spread beyond the border, and some Spantards were present, standing in their large cloaks in sculptural tranquillity while they prayed, with eyes fixed patiently upon the grotto. Not an inch of the road on the river banks on either side, not & hill nor the branch of a tree whence a ight of It could be got, was unoccupled. More than 20,000 men were numbered among the pilgrims that morning, besides women and children, and their number increased every moment, Faith, prayer, curiosity, scepticism, the desire say anything; or, to write more truthfully, @e wrapped up nothing in roundabout words. “The hour,’ observed His Greatness senten- tiously, “is not yet come for episcopal authority to occupy itself with this affair. In order to form the judgment which is awaited from us it is necessary to proceed with wise delay, to beware of first im” pressions, to allow time for reflection and to solicit enlightenment from clear and attentive ob- servation.” This was a safe answer, and the Bishop would not go beyond it, nor would he cancel the prohibition he had issued to his clergy against their taking any part tn the doings at the grotto. THE OFFICIAL ASPECT. While ecclesiastieal authority maintained this extreme circumspection the civil power was much perplexed. The prefecture of Tarbes was filled by M. Massy; the Ministry of Worship, by M. Roulaud, and neither of them, for the life and soul } of him knew what to do about the Lourdes business after the mighty money-making perma- nent clerk in the Home Office, seeing that nothing was to be got out of it, had left him to hisown device. Bayon Massy, at that time Prefect of the Haute-Pyrénées, expressed a voluble contempt for superstition whenever an occasion turned up which gave himan opportunity of doing so. He professed a belief in the miracles by the Evan- gelists and in the Acts of the Apostles, bat beyond these prodigies, which he considered in some sort as official, ne would not admit the possibility of anything supernataral. Poor Baron Massy, living in such a world of wonders and helping to govern it after a fashion, yet totally unable to see beyond his official nose! “Miracies,’’ Baron Massy had observed, were in- dispensable for the foundation of a church and for the uses of authority. There had not long ago been a miracle at Boulogne, not wholly uncon- nected with an eagle. He (Baron Massy) was, therefore, so good as to accept the necessity of miracles in an epoch of formation, But the Empire was notoriously eternal, and what need could it have of miracles now? Moreover, according to Massy’s baronial logic, the Almighty’s hand had waxed short of late years, and he was contented witha belief in a minimum of miracies oficially entertained. This administrative personage considered that the duties of the Deity were reguiated and governed by the orthodox “Credo” and the concordats of the Church. They were established, codified and settled by law. The Almighty had no power to in- teriere with existing authorities and to trouble them by inopportune proceedings. He was bound to remain, henceforth and forever, within the in- visible depth of the infinite. When a baronial pre- fect like Massy had once been so good as to confess a belief in miracles, which were recognized by his government, he thought itbetter to let bygones be bygones, and felt like aman who had already put his alms in the church plate, so that it was uns necessary for him to do so again. The Baron, therefore, being fully determined to put down any intervention on the part of Heaven in the affairs of his department, caused Bernadette and the grotto of the Virgin to be secretly watched by de- tectives, The detectives found out nothing, and “no in- formation was received” by them to the Virgin's disadvantage. Then M. le Prefet grew angry and wrote to M. Lacade, Mayor of Lourdes, to write to the commandant of the fort to put the gartison under arms and occupy the grotto ina military manner. The mounted police and the local constabulary also received similar instruc- vions It would not do, AU Bigorre and Bearn had now heard of the miracles performed at the fountain which had suddenly sprung out of the rocks of Massabielle, The highways of M. le Prefet’s de- partment were thronged with hurrying footeteps and horsemen and carriages, ali hastening upon the same errand. Along the banks of the river and down the navigable streams, over hill and dale, through lane and byway, poured the endless crowd upon the town of Lourdes. Pilgrims to the grotto arrived by tens of thousands, in carts and carriages, in Wagons, on crutches, by night and by day, a5 they have done ever since and are now doing. GATHERING THOUSANDS AT THR GROTTO, Thursday, the 4th of March, was the last day of the fifteen upon which the Virgin had promised to appear to Bernadette. When the day broke a multitude more prodigious than on the preceding days inundated all the approaches to the grotto, Here, bent down by years, might be seen some venerable mountaineer leaming on his staf, aad SPacen, The pegple flocked there in, one endiesg with luis family to the fourth gomeration grouped for amusement, must have been all among that crowd, and many motives doubtless brought it there; but when Bernadette appeared to keep her last appointment with the celestial visitor every head was bared and every knee was bowed at least in the outward semblance of devotion. The child was perfectly hamble, There was no change in her dress or appearance, She was too fall of her holy mission to feel confused or to blush, though police- men upon horseback now hemmed her in on all sides and escorted her tb her prayers. The vision appeared to Bernadette on this day also; told her to drink and to wash in the fountain and to eat again of the herb which grew there; then she told her to return to the priests and to tell them that she desired a chapel to Me built and processions to be formed on this spot. The child asked the vision to tell her name, a3 Jacobhad dene of a divine visitor who came to him before he was called Israel. But the radiant lady gave her no answer. “Prayer, penitence and abstinence” had been the three things enjoined by the vision. “Pray,’ repent, drink water, eat simple ‘food,” that seems to have been the sum | and substance of her command, by THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. diction on a statue of the Virgin in white marble, representing her at the moment when she had said, “1 AM THE (MMACULATE CONCEPTION,” and this statue was set up in the place where she sppeared to Bernadette. The miraculous water of the Fountain of Our Lady of Lourdes continued to grow in reputation, and cures which had baffled all the science of physicians were dally and hourly performed there, On the 21st of May, 186f, the grotto was opened for divine worship, and high mass was solemnly performed there. I now return to the course of my own personal experience and proceed to relate what I saw and heard, a . x WHAT THE MONK SAID. “Are you really prepared to say that these mirac- ulous cures rest upon satisfactory evidence t” I asked of a Benedictine monk. “Miracles,” replied the brother, ‘always leave | foom for faith; but unbelievers in them are upon the horns of this dilemma—either they do think that the power of the Almighty is equal to work miracles, or they do not. If they do not they must deny the evidence of thelr senses, for the birth of all things on earth and water is miraculous’gin so far that it cannot be brought about by human power. If they do think that the Almighty can perform miracles they must admit that such things as are alleged to be done here are possible. It is quite a gratuitous assumption to,pretend that miracles have now ceased. There is no warrant whatever in Scripture for such @ supposition. Now the evidence upon which the Lourdes miracles rest would appear conclusive as to any ordinary event that might have occurred there, They are established by the concurrent testimony of many honest witnesses.” WHAT DR. DOZONS SAID. “Neither Bernadette, who saw the Divine vision, nor her parents made any money'‘by their celebrity, ‘They never received so much as an apple, though Bernadette still paid occasional visits to the |@hey might have been very rich. A great lady grotto after this, and upon the 25th of March, the festival of the Apnunciatien, she found an im- mense crowd awaiting her, and the lady of her vision appeared to her with the same divine light and with ttie same benign aspect as before. The child twice asked her name, but two sweet linger- ing smiles only replied to her, Then she asked once more, and at this third prayer the lady smiled again, and separating her hands, which had been crossed upon her breast, she replied, with a gesture cf ineffable grace, “I am the Im- maculate Conception.’ Then she vanished. Upon Easter Monday, also, April 5, 1858, she who had called herself the Immaculate Conception ap- peared again to Bernadette; and the crowd around her upon that day saw SOMETHING MORE EXTRAORDINARY TAN EVER. Bernadette, captivated and entranced by the beauty of the vision, joined her ttle hands above the fame’ ofa wax taper which she carried, and which rested onthe ground before her where she knelt. For more than a quarter of an hour the fame blazed steadily against her palms and passed in jets through her fingers, but Bernadette never moved, and the ecstatic smilejremained fixed upon her face. The flames had No more power to injure her than they had to harm those who of old time were cast into the burning fiery farnace. BOARDING UP THE MIRACLE, Nevertheless, the Ministers of Public Worship thought he would try his hand at putting an end to the thing, and did so, with reaults—for a time, very short time. His Excellency commanded that the Virgin’s grotto should be closed up with boards, and ordered all tres- passers to be fined. There was an idea jor you now! The French officials had found out the way to turn the miracles into money at last, and people went to be fined in great numbers, Then some litigious persons would not be fined any more, pulled down the boards, got into shin- dies witn the police and were condemned to divers patns and penalties for wanting to say their prayers in their own way. Ps AN ECCLESIASTICAL RECOGNITION. It was upon the 16th of July, on the feast of Our Lady of St. Carmel, that Bernadette, who had gone to pray in front of the rock onthe Opposite bank of the Gave, had once more, and for the last time, a vision more splendid than ever of the celestial lady, and then at last the cautious Bishop Laurence of Tarbes resolved to interpase with his ecclesias- tical authority, In coming to this determination he was supported by tne Archbishop of Auch, tile Bishops of Montpellier, Soissons, and tlfat arch- guardian of the Church, M. Louis Veufllot, the famous editor of the Untvers. Indéed It was high time that something should be done, Pre- fect. Massy, in his baronial wisdom, had issued orders to shave Bernadette’s head and to treat her as a lunatic, while M. Jacomet, the policeman, urged by the French officials, again since their appetites had been sharpened by fines, had stotmed the grotto, turned out the pilgrims, broken their kneeling apparatus, seized their money, and very nearly got himself thrown into the RiverGave. At the close of July, 1868, Monseigneur Laurence, Bishop of Tarbes, insti- tuted a commission of ecclesiastics and men of science to report upon the Lourdes miracles, Mean- time, however, all pilgrimages to the grotto were forbidden upon pain of fine and imprisonment. AN IMPERIAL MANDATE. Fortanately for the reputation of his reign, Na- poleon III. happened at this moment to be at Biarritz. He was nota demonstrative monarch. He was a maa of few words, and his ideas trans- lated themselves into action rather than language. When he heard of the absurd behavior of Minister Roulaud, Prefect Massy and the French officials generally his mournful eyes lighted up, as they sometimes did, with a cold gicam of anger. He shrugged his shoulders in @ manner peculat to him and then rung the beil of his study violently. “Take that to the telegraph,” he said, briefly, to the officer of his household who answered the summons. “That” was @ laconic despatch to the Prefect of Tarbes, commanding him instantly to cancel bis absurd prohibition, and to leave peopie free to go to the grotto of Lourdes or not as they listed. Meantime Bernadette had been confirmed, and when her mission was ended she felt a wish for a Iife of religious retirement. She is now one of the Sisters of Charity of Nevers. Of a character sin- gularly pious and simple, she aspires to no eccle- Sstastical dignities and to no authority. She is merely one of the sick nurses, or infirmizres, of the sisterhood to which she belongs. Most of those who once persecuted her have come to grief. The Prefect, Massy, has carried his baronial wisdem to another world. On the 18th January, 1862, the Bishop of Tarbes pronounced judgment on the Lourdes miracles; and proclaimed by mandate, under his episcopal seal, that the “lady who had appeared to Ber- nadette was verily ‘the Immaculate Mary, Mother of God,” and he formally authorized the worship of “OUR LADY OF LOURDES.” . This prelate published at the same time an official record of seven miraculous cures performed during the year 1858, and attested by the medical men who had formed part of the commission appointed to inquire into the circumstances above mentioned, The first of these cures was that of Louis Bour- riette. The second was that of an infant child born to one Croisine Ducoute, which child had been notoriously snatched from the jaws of death by the divine spring. The third was the case of Blaisette Soupenne, of Lourdes, whose sight bad been restored to her by the waters of the grotto, after physicians had despaired of her. cure, The fowth was the case of Catharine Latapie-Chouat, of Loubonjac, who had been cured of a paralyzed hand, The fifth ‘was the case of Henry Busquet, of Nay, cured of & glandular affection which had broken out im tumors and sores. The sixth was the case of the widow Madeleine Rizan, of Nay, cured of lame- ness, weakness and general debility. The seventh was the case Of Marie Moreau, of Tartas, whose sight had also been restored to her. ‘And ali these cures were well authenticated by the testimony of physicians, a8 undoubtedly due to the water which flowed from the miraculous fountain in the rocks of Massabielle. The Bishop of Tarbes likewise announced that o church woud be erected on the site of Bernadette’s vision, in accordance with the commands of the Virgin herself, and the building of it was immedi- ately commenced. On the 14th of April, 1864, the Bishop of Tarbes, in the midst of an immense concourse of people, pronounced @ agiggin bene offered them 200,000 francs to be permitted to adopt Bernadette. They refused her offer. Many of the pilgrims brought gifts and offerings to the Sou- birons family. Not one was ever accepted, They lived and they died in extreme. poverty. Berna- dette herself never touched a sou.’ (Dr. Dozons is @ clear headed old gentleman, with much sly humor in him.) “I was present at the candle acene. I saw the child hold her hand over the flame, and I saw the flame burning between her fingers. I took out my watch and counted the. time while her hand remained in the flame of the candle. It re- ma.ned there for a quarter ot an hour. 1 examined her hand afterwards, 1t was perfectly uninjured. Then I lighted the candle again and bade her put her hand init. She drew her hand away instantly, for the flame burned her after the Virgin was gone. I have examined this business step by step. I have seen miraculous cures performed on my own patients, Louis Bourriette was my patient and all you have written about him is quite true. One of his eyes, which had been quite blindea by gun- powder, was restored tosight. No physician or oculist in the wor!d could have cured him. The eye had @ broad cicatrix acgoss it and vision was quite destroyed. He was cured by the miraculous water. Bernadette was a nice little girl, simple and modest, There was no nonsense, no tricks about her. I saw her while she was in the presence of the vision. Her face seemed to be lifted up in a remarkable manner and beamed with a light which Inever saw on any human face. Her lips moved as if’she were speaking, but when I put my ear to her lips I could hear no sound. She was not subject to hallucinations, When she had seen the vision she went about her ordinary duties quite calmly. Calmuess was the character- istic quality of her mind—a certain quiet, dignified calmness which had nothing of apathy init. She was not cataleptic. She knew perfectly well what she was about. Even when the vision was before her she would answer questions and light her waxen taper if it went out, and she always con- ducted herself in every way as a reasonable human being. A nephew of the Pope saw her at my house severaltimes. He offered her money and a chaplet of great price for the poor little string of beads which she had in her hand when she saw the Virgin. She would not take the money, and she would not part with her beads. You cannot deny facts. I’ (Dr. Dozons, at. present alive and well, @ doctor of the faculty of medicine, residing at Lourdes) “do solemnly declare, ypon my word of honor as @ gentleman and upon my reputation as physician, that I have seen miraculous cures per- formed by the fountain which Bernadette discoy- ered; not one cure, nor two cures, but Bundreds of cures. I authorize you to aMlx my name to this state- ment, and I am prepared to prove it. I believe, without any doubt or reservation, tnat the whole account which Bernadette gave of the celestial vision 4vas literally and accurately correct. I be- eve that she actually did see the Virgin Mary and that the miracles daily performed here are wrought by Mary, the mother of our Lord.’’ ‘That surely was a fine argument of Pascal when he said:—‘We are told that our religion is incompre- hensibie.”’ (Father incomprehensible, Son incom- prehensible, Holy Ghost incomprehensibie). “if we could understand tt, it could not be true.’ STATEMENT OF THE REV. ROBERT SMITH, The Kev. Robert Smith, an English Roman Catho- lic clergyman, canon of Hexham. now at Lourdes, and an eye witness of the fact, records the follow- ing statement:— Marie Lascombe, of Cadouin, near Perigueux, Dordogne, was miraculously cured at Lourdes on Monday, July 28, 1873, She had been suffering for upwards o! three years from @ tumor on the upper part of the foot, and had been so ill as to be con- fined to her bed ior at least one year. She haa been twice to Lourdes during her illness. Her medical adviser had had recourse to burning and lan¢ing the foot and several times had declared that amputation would become & necessity to save her lite. During the month of May, when it had been long found impossible to heal- the wound caused by the lance, she washed it with the water from the fountain of Our Lady of Lourdes, and at the end of that month the wound had been com- pletely healed up. but the swelling ahd excessive pain continued still. She was not disheartened, and on her third pilgrimage to Lourdes her prayers were heard, Immediately after washing her foot on the batn adjoining the grotto she walked thence steadily and easily, carrying the cratch in her hand, and placed it beside scorea of similar testimonials of miraculous cures. After fervently returning thanks to God she arose from her knees and walk to the bank of the k to grotto, again to the side, receiving the sincere congratulations of her friends ana of all the pligrims present. This occurredeabout half-past six yesterday evening. Whosoever witnessed on the occasion, as 1 did, the joy that heamed in her countenance,’ the aelight rien which she spoke of the happy bg from intense suife to perfect’ repose, will never forget either the hour or the miraculous fact; ior to the mind of any reasonable person it could be nothing else. This favored young person appeared to be about twenty-four years of age. STAPEMENT OF MISS ELIZABETH WHITTAKER, AT PRESENT RESIDING AT LOURDES. On July 26 i think it was that a lady was cured of a bad cancer by the waterof Lourdes. This lady is staying at the Convent of the Immaculate Con- ception, which has been lately built, about a quar- ter of a'mile beyond the grotto,.for the entertain- mentor pligrims. She had come down to the grotto as usual, and determined on taking a supply Of the water home with her, and on the way, & sudden impulse taking possession of her, she threw the water over the affected part, exctaim- ing at the same time, “I know Our Lady will eure me.” Atthat moment all trace of the disease vanished, It was in the ancle, towards the tront. visited the Convent of the Immaculate Con- ception on the 29th of July, 1873, and found that the truth of this statement was fully confirmed, WHAT FATHER RUSSELL SAID. “Tam an English Roman Cathollc clergyman re- siding at Loufles. I am nota member of the ducal {family of Bedford. 1am aware that on the 2d of July inst. a lady named Caroline Esser- teaux, of Niort, was miraculously cured by the waters of the Fountain of Our Lady of Lourdes, There is no doubt whatever of the fact. Her state of health was so notorious at Niort that public re- joicings were celebraved when she returned thither healed of her infirmity. She had been four years in the local hospital for incurabies, Her spine was affected, her limbs were perished. She coyld not stand upright. She bad been for eleven years in this state, and her condition was acknowledged to be beyond the power of medicine. But no sooner was she plunged in the miraculous water than she stood upright; her legs were strengthened, she walked, she was cured.’’ Who was that Syrian captain whose flesh came again like that of a little child after he had bathed in the waters of the Jordan? WHAT A PILGRIM SAID. “] was standing,” said a piigrim, “at the foun- tain this morning (July Mm 197 When those came | Imust decline to do so. dress mounted uy to her throat, and she was loath, for modesty’s sake, to undo if; but she did so at last, and I hive never geen asore #0 bideous. It Was nearly as large as a ainner plate and horribly foul. The woman did not look as if she bad month’s life in her, so feeble she was and so pale. Isaw her take a little of the miraculous water in her hand, and she sprinkled her hideous sore with it. Then she dropped on her knees witha loud cry, and prayed with passionate devotion. She had. been ease A £0. in 99 eas D - se" WHAT DON DIEGO RIBAS SAW. | “7 was standing,” said the Don, a highly educated gentleman, who informed me that, being on his traveis during the’ troubies of his country, he had come on a pilgrimage to Lourdes rather from curl- |. osity than devotion; “I was standing before tne holy fountain on the day of my arrival here, with the red cross upon my breast and the insignia of the Sacred Heart beneath it. I could-have wished that I had been more impressed by the scene | after the Eastern fashion, It is a rude heap of stones, with wooden balconies running round it. It was inhabited by very poor people—a large, fresh, colored Southern woman, with a child in her arms, and her mother, an old woman with a face made up of wrinkles like a withered apple. Thee house had been sold to strangers. Nobody had tried to make money out of it, and Bernadette’s sister lived in another hard by. 1 was allowed to “enter freely, and when I offered a franc the-Seuth- ern woman showed her white teeth apd smiled a steady refusal. She would take nothing. I stood for an hour where the little seer must have often ‘stood, listening, a bright-eyed, patient child with strange fancies, to the brawling of the mill streati. Beneath mé Was & dejected looking Cae Ly and some tall poplars bowed mo ly io the wind. The waters of the mill stream were of muddy, gray color, and all around was damp and comfortless. It was a place fora little maid to brood in, this mill. In the street beneath were around me, but my heart remained cold to % and | barefooted ghildren scudding about, and hara Isaid within myself, ‘Lord, I believe; help’ ju | times and the wolf seemed near every door—only mine unbelief.’ 4s I continued to muse rather than | g lookout upon broken walls and broken windows,” to pray I saw, borne upon a chair by bisfriendsand | and weeds and muddy water. The walls of the kindred, an old man, who was paralytic. They car- | mill were whitewashed, but the whitewash was ried him to the fountain and assisted him out of his chair on to his crutches. He offered up a silent stained and had rubbed off in patches. The doors were cracked. The floors were overlaid with prayer upon his knees, while his friends supported | planks which had never been sconred, and here him on either, in the miraculous water. ‘Three minutes after- wards, by my watch, which ts en English watch, he began to jump and dance and to bless God. He de, and then they plunged : bis legs | was a rafter and there was a beam, and the win- dows were patched with paper. That was the home of Bernadette. Beside this mill was another where her sister’ called ong again and again that he was cured, and |} now hives, but Bernadette’s sister is evidently not he walked with frm steps and head erect to the chapel, where’he deposited his crutches beside the crutches of other pilgrims, who had once been cripples and who were ‘healed of their infirmity. “I saw this myself, but I had never seen ‘the paralytic man before.. Of course his cure may have been a trick. Ido not think it was. The man be- longed to the peasant class, ‘There were a large number of peasants rouna the grotto. They all wore the red cross, which showed that they were under the protection of the clergy, for upon the wall of her house was painted OO COLORE ORE IE OIE CHAMBRES A LOUER. . I saw Bernadette’s sister and her brother-in-law. They are not lovely people; and are said to have become greedy since their parents died and Bernadette left them. I never heard, however,:that the family of Joseph, the carpenter, were very dis- tinguisned persons, It is certain that they were pligrims, and they seemed to be neighbors and ac- troublesome. quaintances of the paralytic man, who had made the pilgrimage with him. They were hard-featured, THE PEOPLE OF LOURDES are a hard, slow-witted, cautious race, wonderfully weather-beaten country people, who did not 100K | tike Scotch.folk, with dry jokes about them like at all capable of getting up a theatrical representa- spare cash, One of them has written over his bar- tion. They rejoiced at the old man’s cure, but they | per shop, “Here, on paying to-day, Ishave to-mor- showed no signs of astonishment at It. They ap- peared to have expected it, and were not disap- pointed. Either miraculous cures occur daily at Lourdes, or all the men and women there are liars, Perhaps they are, perhaps they are not, I only teil you what Isaw with my own eyes, comment on it.” Tow for nothing,’’ which is, I presume, the Lourdes. idea of being funny. I asked another what he thought of Bernadette? He turned his tongue seven times in his mouth before he answered, dryly, ‘I think she 1s just a wench who makes a I make n0 | good deal of running about’ (c’est’ une fille qut Jatt beaucoup courtr) ; an answer which would have So far, Don Diego; and as he spoke I remembered | done very well for a North Briton. having somewhere read the story of an impotent man, who asked alms at the beautiful gate of the Temple, and who having been also healed in an in- stant, “went leaping and praising God.” WHAT THE ABBE FOURNON SAID. “I am one of the priests of the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes. If you ask me to confirm the story of thé impotent man under my hand and seal The Church never ac- knowledges that a miracle , has been wrought without inquiry. What we do is this:—We insti- tute an investigation with judicial formalities con- ducted by persons competent tothe task. Wehear A PRIEST OF THE GROTTO. T asked one of the officiating priests of the grotte whether Bernadette had ever seen the Virgin again since she grew up .to womanhood. “No,’” answered the priest, “and she isin perfect igno- Trance of her own celebrity, devoted entirely to her humble duties among the Sisters of Nevers. Is it not written somewhere that the young only ‘see visions,’ the ‘old dream dreams?’ ” COMMEROIAL ASPECT OF THE THING. The water of Lourdes does not work miracles without faith, It is no use to buy it wholesale and: put it in bottles for mercantile purposes. It is not the evidence on both sides, and when it has'been | g mineral water. It has no curative properties ac- given the Church pronounces judgment in accord- ance with the testimony before it. Therefore when you ask me positively to confirm any recent fact which has passed under my own observation Iam bound to answergou that the case has not knowledged in medicine. It isonly very pure and digestible; very wholesome. The revenue of the town is only 30,000f. a year. It is -badly paved and badly lighted. The pilgrims do not throw away their money. Not much is made yet been tried and that I decline to publish my | out of them. Thirty cents for a breakfast of four opinion upon it. “vhere is a list of miraculous cures, however, which have been sufficiently established upon evi- dence :— “1, M. P, Hermann, a celebrated pianist, relates that he was cured of a disease of ophthalmia by the courses, fifty-six cents for a dinner of five courses, wine included; thirty cents fora bedroom, with ciean sheets and plenty of towels, do not leave large profits, EASY SHAVING. {1 go to be shaved every morning, for all the waters of Lourdes, after the oculists nad failed to | Southern people are cunning with the razor, anda do him any good. “2, Maurice Lagorse, of Tourtoiac, Dordogne, was cured of deafness. “3, One of the children of Mme. Marie Labareille, of Aressy, was cured of a tumor which had formed upon one of his eyelids. “4, M. Pierre Joseph Hauquet, aged forty-nine, residing at No. 17 Rue Cheravoie, at Lige, Bel- 1 gium, was instantaneously cured of paralysis and disease of the spinal marrow. His cure is certified by Dr. Davreux, a celebrated physician of Lidge, who resides at 12 Rue Andre-Dumont, in that city. “5, Mile. Irene Rebourseaux was miraculously cured of pulmonary disease. “6, Frangols Macary, aged sixty, a blacksmith, re- siding at Lavaur, was suddenly cured of malignant ulcers after the famous Dr. Viguerie, of Toulouse, had informed him that ‘his disease was incurable.’ His cure is attested by the Abbé Coux, Vicar of St. Alain, at Lavaur.* ‘7, Guillaume Jaffard, a pointsman employed at the station of Lespouey-Lasiades, on the Southern Railway (Chemin de Fer du Midi), was cured of chronic rheumatism which had prevented him from walking without crutches. “g, The Abbé Francés, curé of Belpech, in the diocese of Carcasonne, was cured of malignant fever afterhe had been given over by Dr. Galtier, of Castelnaudary; Dr. Maury, of Belpech, and a consultation of physicians, “9, Mile, Constance Léger, residing in the Rue de la (azotte, Faubourg des Chaprais, at Besangon, was cured of a painful infirmity which had afflicted her for thirty years, and which the doctors of Besangon had declared to be incurable. “10, Mile. H. Breton, residiag at 150 Boulevard Magenta, Paris, was cured of neuralgia, attended by convulsions, after all the usual remedies had been tried in vain. She had been afflicted for eighteen years, and was bedridden at the time of her cure.” i WHAT THE ABBE PEYRETTR SAID. “Tama Roman Catholic clergyman, and I have been in the performance of my duties at Lourdes for about eight months, Ihave never seen a mi- raculous cure wrought &t the grotto, I have been there a moment before anda moment aiter such events are said to have occurred, and [ have seen people who have told me they had been miracu- lously cured, but I had never seen them before and knew nothing of them. Ihave not been suii- clently favored by Heaven to be allowed to witness @ miracie.” (There is evidently no intention on the part of the parochial clergy of Lourdes to endorse the miracles wrought there without ocular demon- Stration of them.) “No,” continues the Abbé Peyrette, “1am unable to dine with you. Your hotel is within the prescribed limits, and I am forbidden to accept invitations so near home. Neither can I take charge of any money for charitable purposes, as I am not authorized to do 80.” WHAT THE HOTEL KBEPER’S SISTER SAID, “T was born at Lourdes. I have lived here half & centu} I knew Bernadette well. She was an innocent little thing. She had neither the desire nor the capacity to deceive anybody. I never heard or knew of anything wrong about her. She was truthful and straightforward. I did not at first believe in her visions, I believe in them now. My brother and I keep the Hotel des Pyrénées, and our house is constantly full—full all the year round—of pilgrims going to return thanks at the grotto for having been cured by the miracu- lous water. I do not understand why they should come from all parts of the workl to retarn thanks for their restoration to health unless they had been really healed, There are twenty- six pligrims now in the hotel, and eight of them have come from distant places to return thanks to the Virgin. No, I bave never seena blind or paralytic person brought into the hotel with his infirmity on him and return cured after a pilgrim. age to the grotto, Iam lame myself. [have been to the fountain and! was not cured.” A very sensible, nousewifely person, this old lady, not in the least disposed to puff herself or her hotel. Very exact and scrupulous tn her lan- guage, she looked Kxe a conscientious person, who was not accustomed to throw about words at random, r THE SHEPHERDESS WHO SAW THE VIRGIN lived at a dirty little water-mill, deep in a hollow, situated in a squalid neighborhood, peopled chieny with wet fowl, on the outskirts of Lourdes, It has three rooms and aloft. The light comes dimly into them all, It may have been in such a place that was found the stable at Bethlehem when the wise men of the East came to worship there. beard is a mere dust-collector on the road. I find @ lot of rosy-faced children playing about the barber's shop, and I ask one of them if he has ever seen asou? The child looks up wondering, and answers, “No.” Then he scampers off with a shout to tell of the strange man who spoke to him of an unknown thing, “Come, thou barber, what’s to pay for doing a dirty job at best, which will take you a quarter of an hour, besides the cost ofsoap and a clean towel? What's to pay at the current price of labor at Lourdes for cleaning the face of @ strange man?” “What you please,” says the discreet barber. “I please twopence.’” After mature thought barber looks amazed, and says, “Thatk you,” through nis nose, not without emotion, and a down-at-heel wile listening with surprise at the door. The current price of his labor for fifteen minutes, soap and towel included, . is under a half-penny. Igo to the Post Office to prepay a letter and am too late, for the Paris post leaves at ten o'clock in the morning. Iam too late. The letter box has Just been sent off to the station. ‘Hallo!’ roara the Postmaster and his wife together. ‘What's the matver ?”’ say I. ‘We have stopped an omnibus for you. You can still post your letter at the sta- tion if youmake haste. Here it 1s ready stamped.’”? “But [have not paid the postage.” ‘Never mind that.” “I have not change either to pay my omnt- bus fare.” “Well, here are five francs.” Ihave. never before seen these good people who are sa ready to render me a service, and [ do not know them from Adam. They do not look as if they be- longed to a population of cheats and humbugs. I cross over to the telegraph office. It is just closing. The telegraph woman is going off to breakfast for the rest of the day, and I just catch her at the door. I tell her Iam anxtous to send a telegram before she shuts up, and that I must go home to fetch some money. “Why,” she an- + swered, “can’t you send it without money and pay another time ?” Igo tnto an image shop and buya little medal fora lady in Paris. Its weight is about that ofa five franc piece, and it is beautifally made. I am charged seven francs for it, and have not enough in my pocket by four francs. “Pay another time,” says & brisk little old woman who keeps the shop. Everywhere I found the same civility, simple trust and honesty. I bought a box of matches at a tobacconist’s and laid down the Paris price of three sous on his counter, He ran after me all down the street, with his hat off, to tell me I had paid hima sou too much, and bring it me back. A couple of active British swindlers would startle these people like the shot from a doubie-barrelled gun falling among a floek of inexperienced wild ducks. Many of the streets of Lourdes have pious names” There- are the Street of the Grotto and the Street of the Banner and the Street of St. Peter. But I find it almost impossible to get hold of a Lourdes priest for conversational purposes. The Curé is drowned in letters by every post and half suffocated by visitors all day long. The superior of the grotto and the officiating priests are equally aMicted; for the miracles of Lourdes are arousing the attention of the whole religious world, besides that of the wondermongers; yet there is no hunting up of likely strangers with subscription lists, THE RUE DE LA GROTTE. I walk down the narrow and crooked lane which 1g the highway to the miraculous fountain and which is trodden by thousands of pilgrims daily. Most of the houses on each side of me can- not let for more than $25 a year each, Many ef them are mere hovels. Bread is sold at the doors, sold cheap; but I see no Inxuries about. There are some religious rubbish shops; but the rubbish is not of an expensive character. A’little girl wants me to buy a taper for half a franco; but that 18 not dear for nearly a yard of wax. There is an aubergisee on my right. He gives a large plate of stewed beef and vegetables for less than ten cents. It looks very clean and nice; #0 do the people eating it. There are no smirking faces about; thera are no debauched watering place people to be seen, There are wooden booths put up ali the way down to the grotto, on each side of the road, after the street ends. NUMBER OF THE PILGRIMAGES, Between the 24th of May and the 14th of June ot the present year the pilgrimages made to Our Lady of Lourdes were gs follows :— May 2%.—About 1,000 pilgrims came from the Valley of Garatson. May 25.—Four hundred piigrims came from Bayonne. % has an Orjental logk avout it: the street ia nar Way 71.—Pllerimages arrived from Clermont t an ,