The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 31, 1897, Page 22

2 < 2 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1891. FOUR PROMINENT CHURCHES OF THE NATION’S CAPITAL ‘While the capital city was being planned. before the Government had been estab: lished within i1, the Catholics, with their accustomed zeal, secured land and builta | church. | 3t. Patrick’s, the parent church of ‘ Catholicism in the city, dates its bistory | from 1794, when Rev. Father Caffrey pur- chased from the United States Govern- ment several lots in what is now the best ‘business scet No denomination has grown so rapidl ing so many fine | edifices, as the Catholic, whose original | members all worshiped for a few years in | this one little brick church on the edge of { the marshes. | | | In 1504 Father Caffrey was removed from St. Patrick’s and was succeeded by Father William Matthe vresident of | Georgetown College, whose buildings to- day beautify West Washington, as George- town is now called. The church was en- | larged after the war of 1812, and from the Episcopal church of Dumfries, Va., Father | Matthews purchased an organ, said to be | the first set up in the District of Colum- | bia. The first a: twas called in 1822, Father Matthews remaining pastor until his death, in 1854 That office has been filled since 1894 by Rev. Father John Gloyd. ‘ In 1870 the old building was declared unsafe, so two years later it was demol- ished and a new building wascommenced, the cornerstone being laid November 3, 1872, by Most Rev. Archbishop Bailey. few of the red-letter days i of this new edifice are as follows ber 80, 1895, a new organ, built by Carl Barckhoff of Mendelssohn, Pa., was fin- ished, and the keys formally surrendered October 1; the day following first mass was said on the beautiful new altar, this service being followed on October 2 by the pontification of Satolli, Bishop Keane preaching. The second assistant, Dr. D. J. Stafford, a man of remarkable eloquence, draws great crowds 10 the church on the Sun- days when he preaches. He 1s very pop- ular among Washingtonians as a lecturer, Shakespeare being a theme on which he is especially attractive. All denominations feel that they strengthen themselves by representation at the national capital, and this belief, coupled with the fact that Christians of every creed have gathered there, has caused many sects to build churches within its boundaries. Frequently sister | congregations throughout the land con- iribute toward the erection of these edi: fices, thus establishing what they call a | national memorial church. Thus have been constructed two of the churches de- scribed in this articie, the National New Church Temple (Swedenborgian) and the Iniversalist Memorial Church. e first disciples of Emanuel Sweden- borg 1in this section of the country with- drew from the Pr tant Episco munion to found chu land County, Va., in Ba timore, and over y years ago in Washington. In 1850 the church in this city, built near the Capitol on land given by William Cranch, son of the firs :f Justice of the District of Columbia was destroyed by fire, and | THE COMMENCE At the close of our narrative in last| Sunday’sCaLLweleftthe Third and F German armies under command of the Crown Princes of P a and Saxony on their merch to Paris, where they arrived Sa2ptember 17, and ice commenced invest the great city from souih to nort The rénks of the two armies had been considerably thinned in the many pie- vious engagements, so that their when they arrived at P. little over 120,000 men, wi which was only 2C0 000 men with 1100 guns. Paris, uuder commana of General Trochu, consisted marines, 10, tillerists, national guards and from 15,000 to 18,000 men of independent corps (Franc-tireurs). These forces, though very strong in num- | bers, were for the largest part of small | value and service in a war with well disci- | plined and equipped troops. By far the | best were the marines and the regulars, who distinguished themselves throughou the siege by their bravery and dis cipline. General Trochu had only 3000 cavalry, which were gradunally increased | to0 5000, but was abundantly supplied with artillery. On September 19, 1389, fortress | guns were mounted at the forts and 805 on the walls of the city and within six weeks | more the factories of Paris turned out 600 pieces of ordnance of the most improved construction. Powder and ammunition were produced in plenty and wasted shame- fully on all occasions. Large quantitiesof provisions nad been stored before Lhe ar- rival of the enemy, but they were hardly sufficient to last the more than two mil- lion inhabitants of the giant city three months. As soon as the Germans arrived before Paris, a series of small battles and skir- mishes with the French regulars under Ducrot and Vinoy ensued, which all ended in tLe evacuation by the French of the villages and positions outside of the range of the forts’ guns. As General Vinoy said afterward, “The effect of the many mistakes made by the French troops during the days of September 19-22 could never be rectified by all our exer- tions later, and we had to suffer from it till the last day of the siege.”’ = irength samounted to a h 620 field guns, | Jules Favre, the Foreign Secretary of the new republic, as well as M. Thiers, had repeated interviews with Bismarck, and tried to negotiate a peace. They offered “all the money we have and are able to borrow, but not a foot of our soil or a sione of our fortresses.” Bismarck ex- plained that France had declared war #gainst Germany over thirty times within | the last 1wo centuries, had repeatedly an- nexed large parts of Germany, which the latter had to recognize, under great sacri- fices, and that he was now going to take back those parls of Alsace and Lorraine which Louis X1V baa grabbed from Ger- many. He did not care so much for these two provinces as for the guarantee they would give to Germany against future attacks from France, as the strong fortifi- cations of the ¥vo provinces constituted a constant menace to Germany. The French diplomats answered that the honor of Francs would not permit her to concede these tarms, but Bismarck replied that the honor of France was of no better quality than ths honor of other countries; that France, whenever she was victorious, had demanded territorial compensation, and had but lately taken Savoy and Nice from Italy. Favre and Thiers then asked for a iruce from twenty-five to thirty days, but as they insisted that Pans should be alloved to supply her:elf with provisions the truce was not granted. Meanwhile the newly created French Committee of ffational Defense and par- | years % ling a cradually increa-ed to | of October and part of The troupsin | 1arge German forces investing Me!z sieged by under Gene cations of the city, buiit after the Vauban the general convention, meeting that year 1 Washington, immediately took s'eps toward the rebuilding of the edifice ou a far finer scale. Accordingly the old siie on North Capitol street was abandoned, | and a better one selected in the northwest. New churches ail over this country and England contributed largely, and now the | beautiful gray sandstor in all $120,000, loftily lif: spire—a graceful, and no doubt endurin monument of Swedenborgian zeal. Lan, ford Warren of Boston was the architec In the congregatlon the army and navy are weil represented, also literary and edu- cattonal leaders. Mrs. E. D. E. N. South- worth, the novelist, is a member. The congregation is not given to changing pastors, as it has had only fouriu the fi odd years of its history, Rev. Jabez Fox, the first, serving twenty-five years. Frank Sewall, pastor for the past eight building, costing Y/SEIZIIINSNN | = ranks high among literary and men. Born in Maine, he r s collegiate and theological trair Bowdoin College, as well as in several German universities. He has filled ticularly its head, M.Leon Gambetta, had organ three complete armies in the provinces, which man forces in the rear, theredby causing them to raise the siege of Paris. These three armies—the Loire, North and East armies, of whose operations we will speak | our nex: article—were marching on Paris in different directions, and it cannot be denied that the tituation of the com- paratively small German army before Parfs was somewhat serious during the month November, s burs and the other fortresses couid not bz 130,700 line troops, 14,300 | withdrewn from their places at the time, 00 gendarmes, 3000 reserve ar- | and neither could 160,400 mobile guards, 344,000 | Germany arrive in timeto be of much valpe to the besiegers. re-enforcements from Besides the abov, mentioned French armies bodies of Franc- tireurs (guerrillas) were formed In all parts of the country, the old Italian hero, Gari- baldi, had arrived with his sons and many of his o!d soldiers, and numerous adven- turers irom all countries had come to as- ist the new republic ana drive the victo- rious invaders from French soil. under these circumstances the Germans couid continue their victories and bring France entirely to their feet is due exclu- sively to the bravery, endurance and mag- niticent discipline of their soldiery and 1o the superior stratexy and military knowl- edge of their leaders. Almost since the beginning of the war the jortress of Strassburg had been be- Baden and I von Werder. The fortifi- its symmetrical | Rev. | should attack the Ger- | That | Prussian troops | | ) “ Ay a number of distingnished places in his church, amone them being the presidenc of the New Church College at Urbana, Onio; the pastorate of the Giasgow (Scot- land) Church, and the gereral pastorat: \ENT OF ! system, were unusually strong, but | far antiquated that they had not provided with advanced foris, and, e- quently, could not withstand the modern rifled ordnance for any length of time. Von Werder had commenced to bombard the town, but received orders from head- quarters to go over to a regular attack at once, so that no time might be lost to bring his army corps to other noints where it was urgently needed. Strassbarg was_ splendidly defended by tue mander of the fortress, General Ulrich, and 23,000 men, inciuding 5000 National Guards, and by 1200 pieces of heavy ord- nance, which latter, however, proved no maich to the far superior siege guns of the Germans. September 22 and 23 the | Germans succeeded in taking two im- portant points of the fortifications by storm, and September 24 General Wer- der’s artillery ‘on the eniire frontof t part of the fortress selected for storming poured an ali-desiroying bail of steel and iron out of 146 rifled siege guns and 83 mortars on the doomed city. September 27 General Ulrich and his subordinate ‘ generals were convinced that the fortress | could not be held znother day, and when | he saw that the Germans prepared for a | storm he had the white flag hoisted on | the walls, and surrendered with his army | the next morning, and Strassbure, whica | had been 189 years in the possession of | France, opened her gates to the Germans. | The city as well as the inbabitants had suffared severely by the siege, which had | lasted forty-six days. We come now to the second great catas- com- | | slau:hter of their own sclaiers, of the district in which Washington anl Baltimore are lccited., A branch of this church js the Colored mission, planned, with all modera con- veniences for kindergarten and more ad- P I, » =27 § | vanced educational work, by General R. | country for assistance. D. Mussev and continued by his widow, a prominent lawyer. Through Mrs. Mns- sey’s efforts a fine building has been ! erected for this work. NP NN In 1873 a general convention of Uni- versalists was held in Washington. Dr. Brooks, recretary of this convention, had by means of mission meetings gathered a nucleus for a church, and the convention strongly urged its establishment, voting to raise $100,000 for a memorial tuilding. Dr. Ciepin, pastor of the Church of the | Divine Fraternity of New York City, and a rival of Beeciier on the lecture plaiform, was one of the speakers urging this end. However, while the convention was sit- ting, *Black Friday” swept away the fortunes of many who were pledged to give assistance, and the work was post- poned. Meetings continued in public halis under the direction of ministers sent by the denomination at large. In 1877 Dr. Alexander Kent came, and three years later began the erection of a church, appealing to the church throughout the Thus was erected | | at a cost of $47,000, one of the pleasantest | buildings «f the city, with a seating capa- | city of 1300. “ unique, ut'lizing every square inch o space. The pulpit is on aline between the vestibule and the corner diagonally opposite. Folding-doors from either sid of the puipit to the outer walls shut two Sunday-:chool rooms away irom thé main body of the church, or, thrown open, make one iarze hall. Builtoverthe Sunday-sciool rooms and around the outer walls are galleries. Space back of the pulpit was finished in three rooms, two parlors and a reading-room. Above these are the pastor’s study, a choirroom and a kitchen. In 1890 Dr. Kent resigned his pastorate, not because of renouncing his Universalist belie!, but because he was too bread in his views for the average member. He waited until the church had found a new pastor— Mr. Whitcomb (who soon went over to the Episcopal churck)—and then in Oc¢ ber, 1891, started a new movement, kn as the People’s church. ' At present the Universalist churct without a paster, Dr. Rogers havir cently withdrawn. It is hoped public that the usual winter cou lectures, which has given the peoy opportunity to hear such speakers as ! Maclaren, wili not be omitted. When the people of Holiand withd from the doctrines of Luther they cali themselves the Dutch Reformed denomn nation; the Germans, in the same y styled themselves German Reformed, a: under like circumstances the English re ceived the name English Reformed. Al of these denominations established them selves in the United States and the Eag lish and German drew closs enouch t: gether to unite in one general synod o what is known as the Reformed Church the United States. This organizat greatly desires a union with the D Reformed, but as the former is much wider in its view regarding predestination the latter will not agree. The Reformed church States is represented by both E German churches in Washington, the lat- ter having been longer established. In 1867 the congregation built alittle wooden church in the northwest, and there they worshiped until six years ago, when the pastor, Rev. Gustav Facius, raised $30,000 for the building of the present brick structure. Tie sermon, and, indeed, the entire service, is in German. Several of the German Embassadors have wor- shiped there, and there are always kindly relations existing between ths embassy and Dr. Facius, who says he makes it a rule to call at the time of their settlement in the eity. The church is like other Protestant churches in its general work, except that it does not countenance the Christian En- deavor movement. Dr. Facius remarked to the correspondent: robably the or- ganization has done wondeiful things, but I think it assumes work not belong- It permitted it will get to be Such is the at- se of of the United tish and iog to it. 1 the head of the church.” { titude of this church at lare toward that great organization. The inierior is arrangement quite JESNIE 8. CAMPBELL. THE GREAT SIEGE OF STRASBURG trephe fc e which befell France in this so lishly provoked war. Brzaine and his army were held at Metz in a grip of iron by the German fore s under Prince | Frederick Charles, d all attempts ol Bazaine to break through the lines of the | besiegers had been defeated, his army was vartly demoral.zed, his cavalry and field artil.ery as good as useless on account of | the scarci'y of horses, and the provisions for the 187,000 soldiers and for the inhabi- | tants of the town had been exHausted. | On October 26 a council of war, commzis- | iang the three marshals, ine, Can-| robert and Lebeeuf, and twenty of lhe‘ higher generals, came to the conclusion that Metz could not be held two days longer and that any further attempt to brezk through the Prussian lines without cavalry and artillery was equivalent toa | tremendous and perfectly useless Several “ army corps had not received bread or any | | other victuals for two days, the men were exhausted and the discipline had become | very loose and was on the roint of disso- iution. None of the members of the| council saw any way out of tkhe difficulty, | and it was'finally decided to send Genera! | Jarras to Prince Frederick Charles to ne- gotiate about a capitulation. This was concluded the following day, and with | one stroke of the pen the flower of the French imperial army, more than five complele army corps, the imperial guard, three marshals, seventy generals and 4000 officers—in all over 177,000 men—be- came prisoners of war, and at the same time Metz, France's strongest iarlress.] which had never been taken before, sur- rendered to the Germans. Marshal Bazaine has always been se- vereiy criticized tor surrendering with such a large army, hasbeen accused of treason, tried by a court-martial. found guilty and | sentenced to be shot. This sentence was commuted to imprisonment for life, but the marshal managed to escape and after- ward lived in seclusionat Madrid. There | can be no doubt that the finding of the court-martial was largely due 1o the pressure of publicopinion, for the French nation was resolved to blame somebody ! for her defeat. It is not the intention of the writer to enter into a discussion of this subject and the military authorities | have always held that Buzaine might have used more energy in his atiempts to force his way through the German lines, and it is also possible that Bazaine tried to save his army, so that in case a peace had been concluded before the surrender Bazaine, as its commander, would be en- abled to restore order and, at a!l events, 1o exercise a predominant influence on France's internal policy. Be that as it may, nobcdy who saw the French troops marching out of Metz after the | capitulation will say that they wereina ! condition to hold out any longer. The German general staff had foreseeu the surrender, and had calculated that it would take place aimost on the very day it did. The large army of Prince Fred- erick Charles was now free to follow the others into the interior of France, where the Germans before Paris were beginning to be seriously menaced] by the advanc- ing three French armies, which came from the provinces to relieve the capital. | The First German Army, except that part of it which was needed to transport the | French prisoners to Germany, was now | under the command of General | Manieufel and ordered to operaie against | the French Army of the north under Gen- eral Faidherbe. Prince Frederick Charles | was 10 proceed with the Second Army on Orleans, where the Germans so far bad not been able to check the advance of the Loire army under Chancy and Aurelle de | Paladines. General von Werder's army carps, aiter Strassburg had been taken, | was directed to operate against the army | in the south, about whose strength the | | German headquarters seem to have been | tadly informed cr they wou'd not have sent Von Werder to cope with such very | superior numbers. In fact the strength | of the provincial armies was greatly un- | derated by the staff in Versailles, particu- | | larly in regard to their armament, which | was far better than the Germans supposed it to be. Over 400,000 new Chassepot | |it rifles were stored in the magazines of | | provincial towns and the newly created | | French armies could be supplied witn | anything they needed in the way of mod- | | ern armsment and the other necessaries | of warfare. o | The Germans at first were under the | impression that all modern war materials were stored in Paris and the other be- sieged places, and did not believe that such a large number of well-equipped | troops as were actually bougnt against them could be raised in France. This ac- | counts, in some way, for the small num- ber of German forces that during the months of September and October were | | sent far into the interior of France, where they were placed in a more or less isolated position and opposed to numerically su- | perior forces. That these isolated detach- | I ments succeeded in holding their positions and to defeat their adversaries almost | every time they came in contect is another illustration of the superiority of dis- ciplined troops to militiamen. ‘We will conclude this article with a few words about Garibaldi, to whom the na- tional defense had given the command of the army of the Vosges, and so dispense or.ce for all with the pari the old Italian pairiot played in this war. Thne army of the Vosges bad been organized in Bur- gundy aud, at the time when Garibaldi took command of the same, the French officers were much dissatistied with being commanded by a foreigner, who at once appointed his two sons, Menotti and Ri- cotti, to the highest positions under him. Several of the French generals could not agree with him, and had themselves trans- ferred to the other armies, The many Itelians and adventurers in Garibaldi’s ranks were never on good terms with the French soldiers, and the conntry people were much offended by the continual hatred which Garibaldi ex- pressed againsi the Catholic church and her servants on all oceasions, and by the miserable discipline maintained by his soldiery, which was dreaded much more than the enemy. His soldiers were clad in all kinds of uniforms, and were equipped with many different but very good modern rifles. Garibaldi possessed undoubted talents as an army organizer, but under prevailing cireumstances was not able to achieve any success in this re- spect. A comparatively small force of Germans sufficed to keep him in and around Dijon till the end of the war, and when he had to evacuate this town in consequence of the truce of January 31, 1871, and marched his men through the German lines, they had more the appear- ance of a mob than of soldiers, and com- mitted excestes wherever they came. ! in the heart of a flaming wood. Afier peace had been established G 1ie baldi was elected member of Parliament from Bordeaux, but was treated so badly by the other members, who made fun o the inability he had displayed daring the war, that he resigned and returned to Italy. The progress of the siege of Paris ana other interesting events of the war will be narrated in next Sunday’s Carn. WiLriay Lopraax THE BOOK MAN. Alone he sits within a cozy nook By Curtin’s Greene made Cable’s roar; He Reades all day the long forgotten lore Of goblin, nixie, pulpocan and spook. This man is Wise. No Priest nor Hardy crook Who Praed in Holmes or at a2 Wilde Scott swore, So Gay as he who Borrows Moore and Moore The Marvells that ne’er Wither in a book. Upon his shelves the Butlers -meet the Popes, The Bunyans fill the Boyles with Rays of Hopes, And Sucklings turn to Bacon on the Sills; The Savage Landor Donnes an Usher’s Hood, While Dickens Burns to Hunt the Grimm, Gray Wood And Shakespeare, at the Lambs Ney Berkeley Miils. z HOWARD V. SUTHERLAND. — e — N. deaf to / A Thousand Yards Through Fire. It isnot an uncommon experience for people driving in the mountains to fina their passage cut off by burning forestry or underbrush, but very recently two men of Santa Cruz encountered it under most peculiar circamstances involving extreme peril. Thev were L. il. Wessendorf ard George Staffler. A man had died up at Skyland, above Santa Cruz, and they had been sent up to bring the body back. They made the start early in the morning, and arrived at the destination safely. On the way to Skyland, however, they ob erved a fire burning briskly in the woods not far from the Hotel de Rd wood. So far as they could judge at the time there was no immediate danger of the flames spreading to the road upon which they were traveling. But subse- quent events proved their error. Oa the return journey with the dead body in the wagon Wesiendorf and Staf- fler were within about half a mile of the Hotel de Reawood when they discovered with consternation that the fire seeu in the morning had made its way down to the county road and was burning fieccely all arynd it. The ‘situation was peculiar for them. Had they been alone the natural course of action would have been to turn back, but with the corpse in the wagon that seemed out of the question. Had there been another road to Santa Cruz they might have driven around to it. A sharp lash of the whip overcame what scruples the horse might have had, and for the next ten minutes the two men, the corpse and the horse and wagon were lost The neat was scorching and the smoke suffocating/ but they drew their blankets up over their moutis and kept plying the whip gener- ously to the horse. It was a thrilling dash, covering fully a thousand yards be- fore they emerged, ¢ ¢