Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, August 19, 1894, Page 10

— RESUME OF LOURDES. Brief Synopsis of the Portion of Zolo's Story Which Has Been Published. T DAY ening scens of “Lourdes,” in serial form -in Sun- is In @ car of the '‘white e very wick pilgrims Among the pllgeims is Sung woman, who, for vn. Ghe I8 nccompanied Abbe Froment Abbe Plerre was the of a chemist who lived at Neuilly. = LIVIng nex them were M. de Guersaint and b Lt Marle de Guersaint and Plerre p and finally fell in love with each other as they grow up. Marie re an injury which wulted in nearly rilysis. As she ¢ me 111 ing In the train 18 in- it stops At an hour Suersaint, ¥ has been bedrid ¥ i and_t CHAPTER 11Tk telly the story Juteau foot by v the cure acce simply dipping it CHAPTIER V.—The Abbe Bernadette, anl deserives Brotto. As the train rolls into Lourdes an unknown man dies. SECOND DAY. CHAPTER 1—A vivid picture confusion when the invalids are landed and con the hospital T 1L—The hospital fs greatly over AL the procession o the grotto “ vast congs of the station at {s given of th [§ crowded. starts, tion to st the ma the train 18 wmersed in the pool in hopes that lfe will restored Abbe meets his ol friend, crowd forces the Auhe to n 18 brought in and im- On going out Ll en bithed without the po mersed. Abbe finds tha effect. CHAPTER 1V.—Dr the Abbe to the Grivotte, who consumptio am_cured ! CHADT! losing I tinuing the accompanies \ncations. La last stay shouting, Chassalgne Tushing In, ie Abbe visits Marle, who I3 . He reads to the invalids, con- story ernadette. THIRD DAY. CHAPTER L—Pierre discovers that Mme. V. mar, a devout pilg meet her lover [ relongue, visit pla Ly her father and the magnificent torchlight processior CHAPTER 1 fe to the grOto to rem the night. Baron Suire shows culous Spring. CHAPTER 3 t 1s about his Inferview with Bernadett M1 deseribes the efforts of the Abbe Peyramale to bulld a church At Lourdes. FOURTH DAY. L—The death of vividly d CHAPTER i1—There shown the services. Brother _Isidore ¢ CER I cart he s called in o in a perfectly ds up in her cart. Bured, and her cure js put on record. GHAPTER 1V.—Marle drags her cait in the prodesaon. Plorre has 1ost his faith, and by his Vows has lost the Hght to love Marie now. that she can be o wite GHAPTER V.—Dr. Chiassaigne takes the Atbe to Berpadette’s room. He nlso takes him to the church’ that the Abbe Peyramale started to WA, The ambitions and dieams of the Abbe Peyramale are graphically described. FIFTH DAY. CHAPTER L.—The abbe {5 summoned to alrendy dead an old lady whose fortune goes to o crippled boy who has been brouxht to Lourdss to be cured. The father regards the old lady's death as a_divine recompense. CHAPTER IL—Marie 15 annoyed by the atten- tion her cure has atiracted. With Plerre and her father she makes a final visit to the grotto CHAPTER [L—Amid great confusion the pii- grims board the white tra'n (> take them back to Paris. ‘With the exception of Marie, the inva are all jn about same condition a5 w they arrived. The clorgy, however, are enthusi- in_thelr tions’ of the miracles that heen One’ lady who rdes o p the reformation of Mme. Vetu s great rel In the midst of it lerre stands beside that one of the n said she could al way. Suddenly She walks to the come 10 g0 hom the greatest miracle of all—the heart, Chapter V—Continued. Ah, how often Bartie's and her freo child- hood, behind her lambs and the years lived in the hills, in the high grasses, in the thick woods, must have been lived again by her in the hours that she dreamed, tired of pray- ing for sinners! No one then sounded her soul, no one could say if involuntary regrets i not bruise her heart. She used one day an expression that her biographers recall for the purpose of making her passion more touching. Confined far away from bher mountains, nailed to abed of suffer- ing, she cried: “It seems to me that T was made to live, to aet, to bo always stirring, and the Lord wishes me to be motionless What a revelation of a terrible evidence, of a great sadness! Why did the Lord wish to keep motionless that dear being, full of gayely and grace? Would she no Vi R s, mauch oy Iviag . hay feen lifé, the sound life that she was born to 1ivé? And instead of praying for sinners— her constant and vain occupation—would she not have worked harder to increase the world's happiness and His own if she had glven a share of love to the husband who awalted her, to the children who would be born of her flesh? Some evenings, it is said, she who was 80 gay, so active, fell into an extreme dejection. She became sad, kept o lerself, as though stunned by an exccss of sorrow. Without n doubt the chalice would end by being too bitter, and she would nter into agony at the idea of the perpetual renouncement of her existence. In St. Gildard did Bernadette often dream of Lourd. What did she know of th trlumph of the grotto, of the prodigles that dally transformed that land of miracle? The question was never positively answered. Her companions had been forbidden to talk to her about these matters; she was surrounded by absolute and continual silence. She her- self did not care to talk about If, but kept sllent ubout the mysterious past—did not seem anxious to know the present, however triumphal it might be. N rthele dia not her heart fly there in imagination to that enchanted country of her childhood where her family lived, where all the bonds of her life were tied, where she had left the most extraordinary dream that any being had ever had? Surely she remade frequently in thought the fine trip of her memories she must know In a general way all the great events of Lourdes. What frightencd her was to return there in perso always refused to do it, well knowing that she could not pass unpercelved, dreading th prowds whose adoration woull meet her there. What glory If she had been capri- olo: ambitious, dominating! pe wonld have returned to the holy scene of her visions, she would lmy performed miracles there as a priestess, popess, with an Infallibility, & soverelgnty of one chosen, and of a friend of the Holy Virgin. The fathers seeqover seriously had any fear of it, although the formal order had been to kecp her from the world for har ealvation. They were not afrald. they knew her to be w0 sweel, 80 humble in her terror of a divine being, in her fgnarance of the colossal muchine had put in motion, and of which the exploltation would have made her drop with fright it sh. had understood ., no! It was no longe hers, active with its crowds, its Violence, and Its business. She would have suffered o0 much there, out of her element, stunned asbamel. And when pUgrims Who were going there asked her, with a smile, “Would You like o come with us?" she had a slight ohill, and hastened te reply, “'No, no. Hut how I should like to wore I a litile bird Her thought alone was the little traveling bird, with quick fight, with sillent wiugs, and she | which constantly made Its pilgrim 0. She who had gone to Lourdes neither for the death of her fa'her, nor for that of her mother, must have lived there contin- ually in dreams. She loved her relatives, however; she was anxious mbout assuring work for her family, that remained poor, that she had wished to recelye her brother who had gone to Nevers to complain, and who was lef the door of the convent But he found her tired and resigned; she id not even question him about the new Lougdes, as though the growing city were not . The year of the coronation of the gin, a priest whom she had commissioned pray for her before the grolto, returned tell her about the never-to-be-forgotten rvels of the ceremony, the hundred thou- sand pilgrims gathered there, the thiriy-five bishops dressed in gold in the radiant Basill She trembled; she had her little thrill of desire and of uncasiness, And when the priest cried, “Ah, if you had seen that splen- dor!" sho replied, “1?7 Why, I was far bet- ter off here in my infirmary, in my litte corner.” Her glory had bee stolen from her, her work shone in a continual hosanna, and she tasted joy only when forgotten in the shade of the clolster, where the opulent tenants of the grotto left her. The resounding solem- nities were rot the occasions of her my terious trips; the little bird of her soul flew over there alone only on days of solitude, in prayerful hours when nobody could d turb her devotions. It was before the wild, primitive grotto that she returned to kneel, amid the sweetbriars, at the time when the cavern was not yet walled in with a monu- mental platform. Then It was the old town that she visited in the twilight, in the sweet scented freshness of the mountuins, the old painted and gilded church, partly in the Spanish style, where she had taken her fi communion; the®old hospital, of cool allures, where she had for elght years ymed herself to retreat, all that old, poor and nocent town, of which each paving stone awoke ancient affections at the bottom of her memory. And did Bernadette ever carry as far as Bartres the pilgrimage of her dreams? We must believe that at Umes in her invalid's easy chair, when she let some religious book fall from her tired hands and she shut her eyelids, Bartres appeared and enlightened the night of her eyes. The ancient little Roman church, with its sky colored nave, with its blood red altar screens, was there in the midst of the tombs of the narrow cemetery. Then she saw herself again in the Lauges' house, in the large left chamber, where there was a fire and where such pretty stories were told during the winter, while the big clock gravely struck the hour. Then the whole country spread out, prairies without end, glant chestnut trees under which a perzon was lost, desolate table lands, trom which could be seen the Southern peak, Viscos peak, as light and rosy as dreams, enveloped in a whole paradise of legends. Then, then, it was her free childhood, run- ning where she pleased in the open air; she passed her thirteen solitary and dream- \ng years, wandering through great nature in the joy of life. And, at that hour, per- haps, did she not see herself again on the banks of the brooks, through hawthorne bushes, loose in the high grass in the hot June sun? Did she not see herself grow up with a lover of her age whom she would have loved with all the simplicity and ten- derness of her heart? Ab, to become young again, to still be free, unknown, happy and to love again, to love differently! The vis- fon went by in confusion, a husband who adored her children who gayly grew around lier, the existeuce of eyepybody, the joys and sorrows that her parents had kumown, that her children should have known in their turn. And all grew dim little by little, and she found herself again in her chalr of suffering, imprisoned before four cold walls, baving only the ardent desive for a speedy Qdeath, because there had been for her no peaco in the poor, common happiness of this earth. Bernadette's allments increased each year. It was at last the passion that began, the passion of this new Messiah child, sent for the relief of the wicked, whose mission was to announce to men the religion of divine justice, equality before miracles, cheating the laws of impossible nature. ~ She only got up now to drag herself from chair to chair for a few days, and she relapsed and had to return to bed. Her sufferings be- came frightful. Her neryous inheritance, her asthma, aggravated by the cloister, must have led to phthisis. She coughed hor- ribly, spasms tore her burning chest, leay- ing her half dead. As the height of misery, the bone of her right knee began to decay— a goawing pain that shot through her, draw- ing screams from her. Her poor body, under the constant dressings of the wounds, was one running sore, constantly irritated by the heat of the bed, the continual lylng between the sheets, of which the rubbing finally took oft her skin. —Everybody pitied her; the witnesses of her mariyrdom sald that none could suffer either more or bet- ter. She tried some water from Lourdes, which brought her no relief. ‘Lord, Al- ghty King, why are others cured and not To save her soul? But, then, do you mot save the souls of the others? What an inexplicable choice, what an ab- surd necessity of tortures to this poor being in the eternal evolution of worlds! She sobbed, she repeated to encourage herself: “Heaven has reached the end, but the end is long coming.”’ It was cver the idea that suffering is the test, that we must suffer on earth to tri- umph elsewhere, that to suffer is indispensa- ble, enviable and blessed. Is it not a blasphemy, Oh, Lord? DIid you not make for us either youth or joy? " Do you wish your creatures to enjoy nelther your sun, hor your beautiful nature, mor the human affections that you have made flower in their flesh? She feared the rebellion that tore her at times, she wished to bear up against the pain that racked her body, she spread her arms in the form of the cross to unite herself to Jesus, her limbs against His limbs, her mouth against His mouth, streaming with blood like Him, satiated like Him with sorrow. Jesus died in three days; her agony was still longer; she who renewed redemp- tion by pain, who died to bring life to others. When her hones creaked with agony she made complaints at times: then she imme- Qlately reproached herself for them. “Oh, how I sufter! _Ob, 1 suffer, but 1 am so happy to suffer! There could be no more terrible expression or one of blacker pessimism. Happy to suf- fer. Lord, and for what unknown and idiotic reason? What Is the good of this useless eruelty, this revolting glorification of suffer- fng, when there comes to all humanity the distracted wish for health aud happiness? In the midst of her awful torment Sister Marie Bernard pronounced her perpetual vows on September 22, 1878, It was twenty Years since the Holy Virgin lad appeared to | Tior, visiting her, and she herself had been | Visited by the angel, choosing her. she | Nerselt had been chosen among the humblest and the most candid, to hide in her the Socret of King Jesus, It was the mystic ex- Dlanation of ~saving by suffering; this Teason whv this creature had been separated i so hard a manner from the others, afilicted with pains, become the piteous field of all hu- Tan affiictions. And she was the closed gar den that had so pleased the eyes of the hus- band. He bad chosen her and then buried her in the death of hidden life. when the unfortunate shook under the welght of | her cross, her companion said to her | " ave you forgotten. it? The Holy Virgin | promised you that you would be happy, not in this world, but in the other | “She replicd, strengthened, gorehead “Forgotten it; no, no! It is there d her strength in this il- glory, which she how as striking her She only re lusion of a paradise of Would enter under the escort of seraphim, to be eternally happy. The three personal seorets that the Holy Viegin had confided to ber to protect her from evil were to be promises of beauty, happiness and lmmor- tality in heaven. What a monstrous fraud, \f there was only ulght in the country beyond the tomb, if the Holy Virgin of RNyt g St e L — 1894 THE OMAHA DAILY BEE; §UNDAY, AUGUST 19 her dream was not at the rendezvous, among the prodigious promised re- wards! But Bernardette had not a doubt, she gladly accepted all the Iittle commissions that her companions naively gave her for heaven Sister Marle Bernard, you this, you will say that to good God. Sla- or Marle Bernard, you will reserve for me a little place near you for the time when I die.” And ingly: Have no fear, your commission will be exccuted.” Ah, all powerful will say she answered each of them oblig- {lluston, sweet tranquil- ity, strength ever youtlful and consoling! And it was agony, it was death. On Fri day, March 28, 1879, it was thought that she would not survive the n' it. She had a desperate appetite for the tomb, to no longer suffer, to be ralsed to heaven. So she re- fused to take the extreme unction, saying that twiea before the extreme unction had cured her. She wished that Cod would at last let her dle, for it was too much. He would not have been wise to exact from her still more pain. However, she finally consented to have it. administered, and her agony was pro- longed by it for nearly three wee pricst who attended her, often remarked to her My daughter, you must fice of your life.” One day, becoming impatient, she feelingly replied But, my father rrible words these, furious disdafn for existefice, fmmed of humanity, if had the power to sup- s it by o gesture. It Is true that the poor girl had nothing to regret, that she had had to place all outside of life, her health, her foy, her love, £0 that she would leave ft s one leaves ragged, used and soiled linen And she was right; she condemned her use- less life, her cruel life, when she said “My passion will only end with my dea and will last for me until 1 enter eternity.” And that idea of her passion followed her, bound her more firmly on the crass with her divino Master. She had obtained a large crucifix; she pressed it violently against her sad, maidenly breast, crying that she would like to jam it into her throat. Toward the end her strength left her, she could no Jonger hold it in her trembling hands. “Fasten it to me; press it very har that I may feel it until my last breath It was the only man that her virginity should know, the only blecding kiss given to her useless, deviated and perverted matern- ity. The nuns took strings, passed them under her painful loins, around her lean, barren hips and bound the crucifix to her throat, o roughly that it went into it. At last death took pity.. Easter Monday sho was seized with a severe chill. Hallu- cinations bothered her; she trembled with fear; she saw the demon sneer and circle around her. “Go away, me, don’t carry She described how the devil had tried to throw himself on her, and she felt his mouth breathing on her all the flames of hell. The devil in 5o pura a life, in that sinless soul; why so, 0, Lord! And again why that suffering with- out forgiveness, determined up to the end; why that nightmare-like end, that death troubled by horrid visions, after a life so beautiful in its candor, its purity and its innocence? Could she not fall calmly asle:p in the peace of her chaste soul? Doubtl as long as she had a breath it was neces- sary to leave to her portion hatred and fear of life, which is the deyil. It was life that threatened her, it was life that she ordered away, just he had discarded life in re- & for the celestial husband her tor- tured vifginity, nailed to the cross that dogma of immaculate conception that the suffering girl's dream had brought together, whispered woman, wife and mother. To de- cre that a woman is worthy of worship only on the condition of remaining a virgin, cture one who remains a virgin in be- g a mother, who herself born spotless, s it not a cheating of nature, a condemnation of life, a denfal of woman- hood, thrown into perversities, she who fs great only by bearing, perpetuating life? “Go away, go away, Satan! Let me die barren!" And she drove the sun from the room, drove away the free air from entering the window, the air fragrant with the scent of flowers, bearing wandering germs that carry love across the vast world, On Easter Wednesday, April 16, the Jast agony began. The story is told that on the morning of that day one of Bernadette's com- panions, a nun attacked by a fatal illness, was suddenly cured atfer having drank a glass of water fronr Lourdes. Bue she, the privileged one, had uselessly quaffed it. God showed her at last the infinite favor of granting her vows in glving her the good sleep of the earth, where she would suffer no more. She asked everybody for forgiveness Her passion was consummated; she had, like the Savior, nails and a crown of thorns; her limbs were beaten; her hip open. Like Him, she lifted her eyes toward the sky; she spread her arms in the form of a cross in uttering a loud ery: “My Go And, like Him, said: “I am thirsty.” She moistened her lips in the glass; leaned over her head and died. So died, very glorious and very holy, the vision seer of Lourdes, Bernadette Soubirous, Sister Marie Bernard of the Nevers Sisters of Charity. Her body lay in state for three days, and enormous crowds passed by; all the people assembled; the interminable line of hope-hungry believers, who rubbed on the dead woman’s gown medals, beads, pictures, prayer books, to still draw from her some charm, some happy making fetich. Even in death they could not leave her to her dream of solitude; the mass of worldly unfortunates rushed forward, drinking illusion around her bier. And it was noticed that her right eye obstinately remained open—the eye that during the apparitions was on the side of the Holy Virgin. A final miracle astonished the convent—her body did not alter. It wi buried on the third day, soft, cool, with rosy lips and very white skin, as though re- juvenated and sweet scented. Today Berna- dette Soubirous, the great exile from Lourdes, while the grotto resounds with her triumph, sleeps obscurely her last rest in Saint Gildard, under the flagstones of a little chapel, in the.shade and in the silence of the old trees of the garden. Pierro ceased talking; the pretty, marvelous story was finished; the entire car still listened to him in the profound pang of that tragical and touching end. Tears of tender- ness ran from Marie's eyes, while the others, Jlise Rouquet, La Grivotte herself, slightly calmed, joined their hands and prayed to her who had joined God to intercede for the com- pletion of their cure. M. Sabathier crossed himself and then ate the cake that his wife had 'bought for him in Poitlers. In the middle of the story M. de Guersaint, who Qiscommoded by sad things, had fallen p again. And there had only been Mme. wcent, with her face pressed into the pil- Jow, who had not moved, as though she was deaf and blind, not wishing to see anything or to hear anything any more. But the train rolled on, rolled ever. Mme. de Jonquiere, with her head out of the win- dow, announced that they were nearing Etampes. And when they had drawn out of that station Sister Hyacinthe gave the sig- nal and they recited the third string, the fiye glorious mysteries, the resurrection of Our Lord, the ascension of Our Lord, the mission of the Holy Ghost, the assumption of the Very Holy Virgin, the coronation of the Very Holy Virgin. Then they sang the ymn, “I Place My Confidence, Virgin, in Your Help." Pierre then fell into a deep musing. His eyes had rested on the country, now bathed in sunshine, and its constant flight seemed to rack his thoughts. The grinding of the wheels stupsfied him; he finally heard no more, and no longer distinguished the fa- miliar horizons of those great suburbs that he had formerly known. Again Bretigny, again Juyisy, and it would at last be Parls in nearly an hour and a halt. And so the great trip was ended, and the much longed for inquiry, the passionately sought experi- ence, had been obtained! He had wished to make himself sure, to study the case of Bernadette on the spot, to see it grace would not return to him by a stroke of lightning, in restoring his faith. And now he was de- cided; Bernadette had dreamed in the con- tant torment of her flesh, and he himself would never again believe, It came upon bim with the brutality of & fact; the ualve faith of the chill who kueels down to pray, the primitive faith of young nations, but, under the holy terror of their ignorance, was dead. Although thousands of pilgrims might flock each year to Lourdes, the masses w no longer with them; the endeavor to resurrect absolute faith, faith of the dead conturies, without question or examination was destined to fall miserably. History do°s not turm back, bumanity cammot return make the sacri- it fs not a sacrifice. too; disgust of being, o end ahe 50 go away, Satan! Don’t touch me away! afterward in her delirium at about 3 o'clock, she she to its Infancy, times have changed too much, too many new breezes have sown new erops, to permit of men of today grow- ing again Mke the ' mén of former times. This was decisive, Lourdes was merely an aceldent that could Be explained, even whose stionary violence -gave a proof of the sus preme agony in which belief struggled in the old form of Catholiclsm. Never again would the entire nation prostrate itselt as it did In the cathedrals of the twelfth cen- tury, like a flock gbedfent to the Master's uands. To blindly ffisist on wishing it would result in splitting wkainst Impossibility, and perhaps in rushing.into greater moral ca- tastrophes, And of his trip Piérfe even now retained only a profound pity. -Ah, his heart over- flowed, his poor heart was returning bruised! He recalled the words of good Abbe Judaine; and he had seen thousands of unfortunates pray, sob, implore God to have compassion on thelr tortures; and he had sobbed with them; he kept within himself, like a running wound, the lamentable “brotherhood of all thelr ills. So he could not reflect about those poor people without burning with the desire to assist them. If simple falth did not suffice, if they ran the risk of going astray in wishing to turn backward, was it necessary to close the grotto, to preach another endeavor, another sort of patience? But his piety rebelle 0, no, it would be A crime to close the dream of heaven of the bodily and mental sufferers, whose only re- lief wa= to kneel down there amid the splen- dor of candles, in the lulling infatuation of hymns. He had not himself committed tho murder of undeceiving Marie; he had sacri- ficed himself to leave her with the pleasure of her chimera, the divine consolation to have been cured by the Virgin, Where then was the brutal man who would have had the ruelty to stop humble ones from believing, to Kill in them the consolation of the super- natural, the hope that God watched out for them, that He reserved for them a better life in His paradise? Al humanity wept, be- wildered by anguish, lke a hopeless and doomed {nvalid, that only a miracle could save, He felt that it was so unhappy, he was moved by fraternal tenderness before this pitiable Christianity, ignorance, poverty with its rags, illness with its wounds and its fetid all this lowly little people the hospital, fn the convent, in dens vermin and dirt, and ugliness, and imbeellity; an immense protest health, against life, against nature, in the triumphal name of justice, of equality and of goodness. No, no, it was not necessary to glve despair to the unfortunate. Lourdes must be tolerated, as is tolerated a lie that lielps to prolong life, And as he sald in Bernadette's room, she remained a martyr revealed to him the only religion of which his heart was still full, the religion of human suffering. Ah, to be good, to dress all the wounds, to put pain to sleep in a dream, even to lie so that no one should suffer any more! With all steam on they passed through a village and Plerre confusedly perceived a church in the center of large apple trees. All the pilgrims in the car crossed them- selves, But he now was filled with uneasi- ness, qualms made his musing anxlous. Was not this religion of humun suffering, this re- demption by suffering, a lure, a continued aggravation of pain and misery? It is cow- ardly and dangerous to let superstition live. To tolerate it, to aceept it, is to eternally renew the bad centurles. It enfeebles, it makes stupid, the bigoted defects that hered- ity bequeaths make fmmble and timid gener- ations, a very easy ‘prey for the powerful of this earth. Natidhs are exploited, robbed, eaten, when they have devoled the effort of their will to the cdnquest of the other life alone. On that mceunt would it not be better to have the audjcity to manage hu- manity with brutality, closing the miraculous grotto * when it goes to sob, and thus rostord to it courage to live a real life, evén fo tears? And it was like the prayer, that 'wave of incessant prayers that came from ‘Lourdes, whose end- less supplications had washed him and af- fected him: was it apy/hing but a childish rocking, a degeneracy of, every energy? Will power slept in it, being was dissolved by it and disgust of actign found life in it. Why exert will, why do anything, when all is left to the caprice of .an unknown Almighty? Then again, how strange is this mad desire for prodigies, thiswish to induce God to transgress the laws of nature that He Him- gelf cstablished in His infinite wiston! There “Wwas evidently danger and folly in it: it was only necessary to develop in man, and espe- cially in the child, habits of personal efforts and the courage of truth, at the risk of los- ing in it that divine consoler, illusion. Then a great light came up and dazzled Plerre. He found judgment, he protested against the glorification of the ab- surd and the fall of common sense. Ab, he was suffered through judgment. The train ran between large parks, the locomotive whistled a long, joyful tune that drew Pierre from his reflections. Around him the car was all commotion and stirring. They had just left Jervisy, and it was at last Paris, in scarcely half an hour. = And each arranged his things; the Sabathiers did up their little bundies, Elise Rouquet gave a last glance at her mirror. . One moment Mme. de Jonquire worried about La Grivotte and decided to have her taken directly to a hospital in the pitisble condi- tion in which she was, while Marie tried to draw Mme. Vincent from the tor- por out of which she seemed unwilling to come. M. de Guersaint had to be awak- oned, as he had just had a short nap. ‘And’ Sister Hyacinthe having clapped her hands, the whole car took up the Te Deum hymn of thanks: "Te Deum laudamus, te Dominum confitemur.” The voices rose in the midst of a last fervor; all those burning souls thanked God for the splendid trip, for the marvelous favors he had showered on thom and that he would continue to shower on_them. The fortifications. Through the great, pure sky, of warm serenity, the 2 o’clock sun Slowly went down. Above immense Paris, Qistant smoke, reddish smoke rose in light clouds, a thin and flying breath of the colossus of work. It was Parls in its mill, Paris with its passions, its fights, its ever rolling thunder, its life ever ardent to bring forth the life of the morrow. And the white train, the lamentable train with all its mis- ery and all its pain, entered it very quickly, sounding still louder the ear splitting tune of its whistles. The 500 pllgrims, the 300 in- valids were going to lose themselves there and to fall back on,the hard pavement of their existence, on leaving the prodigious dream they had just had, until the day when the need of consolation by a new dream would compel them to begin again the eternal pilgrimage of mystery and of forgetfulness. Ab, sad men; poor, sick, fllusion famished humanity which, in the lassitude of this dying century, bewildered and fnjured by the too greedy acquisition of science, belleves itself deserted by the doctors of the soul and of the body, In great danger of suc- cumbing to an incurable disease, and goes backward and asks for the miracle of its cure at Lourdes—mystical of a past forever dead! There, Bernddetfe, the new Messiah of suffering, so touchink in her human real- ity, is the terrible lesson, the holocaust cut oft’ trom the world, the victim condemned to abandonment, solitude and death, afflicted with the downfall,of having been neither woman nor wife, nor mother, because she had seen the Holy Virgin. THE END, ey THE RULING PASSION, nd facial against s Health; and Home. She had suffered with {he phthisis, and had taken tons of PHySic And whole barreifitfs 'of bitters, and whole loads of nauseous pills. She'd been troubléd With miasma, choked up withthe asthma, And been shakes for a month with ague and with chills She hiad the yellow, foyer, of which nothing could relleve per, And the rheumatism could not go about; And she groaned with "tonsilitis, most acute bronchitis; And she suffered endless tortures from iwinges of the gout. She had tried old school physicans, Chris- tian sclence, magicians, Indian doctors, electricians, and magnetic healers all, And drank tons of masty liquor, ever sick and sicker, And they got the undertaker her shroud and pall; Then the great cheap sale of laces adver- tised In yarious places Caught her feverish eye one morning, and Vhe 1eaped up sound and well; She shook off death’s stiffening rigor and With most emphatic vigor She grabbed her husbaud's pocketbook ahd rushed down town pell mell, and or two lamed her so she and the but grew to prepare - Cook’s Tmperial. World's falr “highe award, excellent champagne; good effer cence, agreeable bouquet, delicious favor, THE TYPEWRITER MUST €0 A Revolution Promised When the Phonan- tograph is Perfooted, A SAN FRANCISCO MAN'S (DEA Just Drop Your hrases Into the Stot and tho Letters Write Themsolves talls of the Apparatus and Its Possibilitios, In bringing his intellect to bear upon the evolution and perfection of a machine which he calls the phonautograph, A. C. Rumble, an fnventor who lives in San Francisco, may not have intcnded to snateh the bread and ple from the mouths of typewriter girls, but if his invention is what he claims it to be it will probably have just such an effect The combined art of stenography and typewriting s doomed, for the meroiless mechanism of Rumble's machine both of these commercial at one fell swoop. In a word, the business man may dictate his letters into one end of the invention and pull them out of the other ready for mailing That is how Rumble intends to astonish the sclentific world as =oon as he has over- come a few defects in his machine. It fs claimed that the phonautograph, on which the inventor has expended many sleepless nights, will direct the sounds of the human any language except Chinese and reproduce them in plain Eng- lish chirography. Astounding as this state- ment appears, Rumble insists that his ma- chine can accomplish that feat and more, It is yet somewhat imperfect, but when on the market the phon- supplants accomplishments receive voice in too. finished and pla autograph will, according to the maker, per- form all the functions of the typewriter ex- copt chew gum and entertain young gentle- men callers during business hours. It will answer the telephone, keep a letter file and spell according to the dictates of its own fancy. While recognized already by its Inventor as a linguist and translator of no mean ability, the phonautograph adheres to the phonetic style of speliing, and its capitalization and punctuation are miserable beyond compare. Those are the defects, so common typewriter now in_ use, and which ventor 1s striving hard to overcome. sanguine of ultin e success, and as soon as the phonautograph is competent to hold a fob in any well regulated business office it will be patented nd installed in place of the winsome article now employed. It was whi.e attending a performance given by one of Edison’s phonographs in Cleveland, 0., several years ago that Mr. Rumble con- coived the idea of the machine on which he is at present engaged. Prior to that he had thought of th2 phonautograph in a des- ultory way, being a busy man, but it was the workings of the phonograph which gave impetus o the idea. He is a believer in that entific school which holds that sound v the result of vibration, but has molecular or mechanical force. It is a thing, cording to his theory, with material and independent cha cteristics govi by fixed laws, and upon these the principle of his vention depends. Though air has heretufre been considered a reliab.e conductor of sound, Rumble believes that fluid, though slower, furnishes a much better medium. Electric fluld is the active body employed in the phonautograph, and beyond the principles mentioned the Inventor declines to go into details regarding the workings of his re- markable machine. The model, which no one but his financial backer is allowed to inspect, has been likened to a cash register. It is eighteen inches long, twelve inches wide and ten inches deep. The machine is divided into two distinct parts, on the fronts of which are paced small electric buttons, which con- nect with and control the mysterious inter- for mechanism. You press the buttons, talk into the re- ceiver and the phonautograph does the rest. Projecting from the upper part of the ma- chine is a mouthpiece connecting with a revolving cylinder similar to that used in the phonograph. The impressions of the human voice are recorded upon the cylinder the same as in the Edison invention. Back of the recelver s a travel- ing needle for regulating the cylinder in recording the remarks according to the size of the paper in which they are to be reproduced in writing. When full of words the cylinder is transferred to the lower part of the machine and placed on rollers, above which is a supply of paper for receiving the language. A small storage battery furnishes the electric fluid for translating the sounds into manuscript. No ink is used, and conscquently the machine is not com- pelled to stop and swear at blots. The written characters are produced in a bold, round hand by chemical action, but that fs another of the secrets of the invention. One dozen ordinary letters may be dic- tated to the cylinder, which holds the office secrets inviolate. The button is then pressed and the phonautograph does its work, describing _ the letters with neatness and dispatch while the merchant or lawyer is out at lunch or talking business in the front ofice. From the roll of paper the sheets are led automatically to the cyl- inder, which, as soon as it has finished one letter, goes on with the next, correcting bad grammar, but spelling entirely by sound. When written the sheets slide out through a slit in the bottom of the box. The touch of a button will stop the operation at any point. lmeK to the inability of the phonauto- graph to wrestle with the diphthong, the si- font letter, the capital and the elusive semi- colon, the dictator is compelled to revise his correspondence, but that is generally done anyhow, even with high-salaried secretaries. Translating seems to be the phonautograph’s great specialty, even though it is a little shy on spelling. The written characters resem- Dle those made by the electric pen and are of a dark brown color. Another fault of the machine, aside from its wretched spelling, is that it will not produce figures, but insists on spelling out the numbers as spoken. This, Wwith the other defects, Mr. Rumble hopes to remedy in the ccurse of time. For court reporting Mr. Rumble says the {nvention will prove invaluable. Everything will be recorded with absolute accuracy and fdelity, besides which the machine can act as court interpreter and thus cut down mu- Dicipal expenses in another direction. Harsh words on spoken can never be recalled or modified except by the telltsle pen. It Is the inventor's intention to make the phonautograph so cheap and simple that it will be within the reach of all, and, once engaged, it will never ask for a ralse of sal- ary, ~ Neither will it be continuelly losing halrpins or trying to crimp its bangs in the presence of a 2x4 Ineh pocket mirror. But ot all, it will never cause jealousy in the bosom of any business man’s family. Mr. Rumble, who is a civil and mining enginoer of high standing, has patented sev- eral inventions, among which Is the continu- ous rallway crossing. - A An Impracticablo Preseription, The man was melancholy, and when he called on the doctor for advice that artist thought he had his man sized up on the first turn. He told the doctor his symptoms and the doctor asked a lot of incidental questions, says the Detroit Free Press. “How long bave you been here?" inquired the physiclan, after finishing up the regular list. “Muah longer than I have wanted to be, replied the patient wearily. ppat’s it; 1 thought 8o, exclaimed doctor brightly. “What you need change of scene. The patient threw up his hands as it to ward off a blow. “Oh, doctor,” he wailed, “I belong to a theatrical company playlng a repertoire of five-act plays i History of the Ven. Tho first pens were made of bronze, stecl and iron, sharp pointed like a bodkin. “Theso were used In producing hieroglyphics on stone i Assyria and other eastern countries. Ihen came the camel's hair pencil for paint- ing on the skins of animals, and next the stylus of bone, ivory or metal, But parch- ment and papyrus became known, and the reed pen was invented Time rolled on, and It was discvovered that the quill was better than the reed, and it came Into uni- versal use and continued so until far into in the the in- He Is the s a the present century. Silver, horn, tor- tofso shell and glass came along only to give way to steel, until in 1820 & gross of the latter pens was made In Birmingham and sold at wholesale for § The best gold pens are made in the United Statos. Pt o A THE MAD EMPRESS DYING. of the Unhappy Charlotte of Mexico Expocted in a Short Time, It was a melancholy day for the bers of the royal family of Be 7, when they made their annual pllgrimage to the Chateau de Bouchout, near the vilage of Meysse, to present thelr “best wishes” to the unhappy Charlotte, ex-em- press of Mexico. It was the Gith amniver- sary of her birth. Her condition since that day, has continued to grow that it is Dbelle the princess 18 500l 0 be relieved by death fr vnl| her um:-rm,w” : _Until a short time ago, says the New York Tribune, she had at least moments when she appeared to be herself and understand in part, at least, what was said to her, These moments came most frequently in th presence of her r-in-law, the queen, for om she always manifested a deep love. persons are allowed near her, fn fact thé presence of one whom she does u”l’ or who is unknown to her always her tremble and thus ir her ng. But she had always welcomed the whose prescnce had a soothil effect mem- too, A worse, 8o as like makes suffe queen, upon_her But when her majesty approached the birthday anniversal mentioned the ex- empress 1coked upon her with stony ey from which no ray of intelligence flashed. Even the anncuncement a few days ago that he favorite niece, Princess Josephine, had been: mareied had’ no effect whatever upon her, She did not realize the meaning of the words spoken. Until recently she played daily on Fer plano, and her improvisations at times were beautiful—the fancies of a mad brain, But now she has no interest in music. She is growing weaker dai and the end of her suffering Is not thought to be far distant, She cares little for dress ow, while for rs she was fond of decking herself brilliant colors and wear- ing beautiful costumes. Daily, among other things, a new pair of white gloves had to be laid on her dressing table, but these she now never draws over her shapel. hands. She has given up her walks and remains in ler. room day after day, mostly stretchod o her bed, her eyes haggard o face thin and pale A AL D The people of Belgium have decpest interest in the welfars of the Prin- cess Charlotte, as they always call her, ig- noring the titie of empress, in the twenty- en years since the loss of her reason, There 1s a tradition or belief in Belgium that her condition is due to a drink made from a plant in Mexico, administered to her by her enemies fn the land over which husband ruled for so short a time. The nt, it is sald, caused the loss of reason and gradual death But there are other ways the lamentable affliction of the once am- bitious and lovely woman. The exciting in- cldents through which she passed, the hu- miliations which she suffered, the violent emotions which she felt, the thought of her husband—all tended to shake her reason. 2 4 was on her return from St. Cloud J Napolaon TIT. had rocolved hets that. the, fese mad symptoms manifested themselves, He then had finally announced that he would ll.u nothing for her, and wa to recall the French troops from Mexico, advising Maxi- milian to give up an fmpossible struggle and return to Europe. She left Napoleon in despair, and arriving at the Grand hotel, in Paris, she had an attack of insanity. “Go away, you miscrable wretches, go away,” she cried to Messrs. Castillo and De Valle, her favorites among her husband's coun citlors, who had accompanied her on her mission. A litile later she made her pllgrimage Fomos bol oo e} wopei{AndAbnx CHIEL 1 ters cession, as a last resort. Falling on her knees before his holiness, she cried: “St. her on taken the of explaining | she has believed that h glum on Juno | official | Poter, fssue & bull, T bog you, to all Chris« tlans mning those who wish to Ime prison me The political part which she play ended In that suppiication shut herselt up soon afterward in Chatean Miras mir, and later she was transported to Bel- glum, where she was confined at first in the castle of Tervueron and still later in the Chateau de Bouchout, where she is today. It {s uncertain whether she ever knew the real end of Maximilian. At least, for yoars still lives as a pris- wrote lotters to all the soverelgns of Europe demanding their ald in his behalf, % peelhans=t ke Stab Ends of Thought. Dotrolt Free Press: Most good people think too much about going to heaven. They ought to_live so that heaven would come to them. Women tell things that they would not doj men do things that they would not tell. A groat deal of love fs wasted every year, Fine churchies don't souls " What man done, woman can undo. Cupid can knock a man or a woman silly in ane lick A man who is honest in a horse trade c Do trusted with money e Mammon s the hardest master. A pedigre Is known by its length, A novel is a romance up to the time the hero and heroine marry; after that it bee comes an essay Love Is a game in which the jack pot not to be overlooked il et Women will take advantage of an portunity; man will take the opportunity There are not as many old maids who want to be wives as there are wives who want to be old maids, because there are mors wives than old mafds in the world Lying is not always an acquired habit. g Planted Proviously. » Tribune: “Got a nice plece of real estate in the suburbs, have you?" said the roaming agent of the Wisconsin nursery, “Wouldn't you like to have it covered with some nice trees or shrubbery?"” “No.” 1 have It covered already plied the Dearborn street cigar dealer. “What have you got on t?" “A big, healthy mortgage. wished to op= Chic: " re- MPERIAL HAIRREGENERATOR Instantly Restores Qray Hair, Bleached Halr or Gray Beard To Natural Color. Leaves it clean, soft and glossy and no one dreams that you colog it. 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