| Show RPM X T H pt 10 1 A 4 1 anc 1 01 special correspondence sauth cuth of pari parl about a four hours air fc reney ney by the railroad lies a fair I 1 bat province v here the sun shines in summer mummer nearly every day the loire winds through it broad and ample in n the sprint springtime ime shrunken between brown sand banks in the autumn smooth and slow at all seasons and reflecting alike green fields and gray castles whose walls it washes in its tranquil flowing toward the seed sea this Is the country of touraine Tour alne and it is also the real france with a dit dif terent ferent ring from that brilliant cosmo it falls to one ot of them to take a half day days s journey from home all the vil lage assembles to bid godspeed god speed and to cry what courage one reason tor for this inexorable pov erty Is the tax wh ch eh must be paid OB or all fruits of the ground at the town gate before they can be sold in the market place those who falter in the struggle for a 10 cent capital ili ahe e in caves dug out of the earth with a hole for the es cape of smoke yet even they the y are re cheerful at least till they are old church of notre dame du garde politan counterfeit which the foreigner accepts and believes in when he stepi forth from the gare st lazare at pans paris here lives still that genius of france that dominated europe in the later middle age the spirit that sang ron dels that spoke in balzac s novels and here the honest bourgeois walk the streets who emptied their woolen stockings into de lesseps panama canal and whose veneration tor for the army was touched with such passion of patriotism that they could not be just to an ill used jew it was the far sighted louis XI who began this alliance of the cottage and the throne he made actual I 1 his theory of strengthening the monarchy against ane overbearing nobles for he came to live among the people his terrible cast castle leof of plessis les tours with its dreadful memories has fallen to ruins a cow shed and an uncertain tower are all that remain of it but its influence lasted through the reigns of seven kings one by one royal pleasure houses rose along the banks of the loire it is interesting to read the evolution of manners in the transition of their ar from the frowning bastions of loches boches where louis XI went to breathe fresher air to which Is a pearl of french renais ance various fates have befallen the old auntry palaces chinon Is half demol shed and only a stone cellar remains of the room where charles VII gave his first audience to jeanne d arc blois Is held by the government and has been restored till the porcupine of louis XII and the salamander of fran cis I 1 bristle and flame clearly once more from each exquisite pinnacle and lovely doorway two tao or three have been bought bv rich americans and still shelter a gay summer life while chambord Cb ambord Is as waste and desolate as the bourbon claim to french con arol touraine Tour alne alue is now fairly given over to the peasants and they support its tradition of bright contentment even amid hard conditions it is a very sunny country when the monarchy grew grow poor it cut down the royal tim her until now a forest really means they comfort themselves in theli theil blithe fashion by remembering how st martin the patron of tours waa was also a cave dweller for seven year this hoi hol cavern which is now a chapel is shown just outside the walls of tours it stands in the garden of 0 the convent of marmoutier Mar moutier where the nuns keep a school the autumn days are good to pass in tours because the heat beat of sum mer gives way to delicious weather and in september falls the fete ol 01 notre dame de lourdes it Is not yet fifty years ago so runs the story that the blessed virgin appeared in a vision to a dreamy devout little girl of the country lying in the spurs of the pyrenees and showed her a spring of water which should henceforth have power to heal all manner of disease in the century little bernadotte soubirous would have won instant credence for her story but it has been the province of the century to doubt the priests hesitated and charges of insincerity were cast upon bernadotte but so fully did the r sparl parl ling water testify to the mirace lous tons blessing that the church was over come added its benediction to that of heaven and bowed humbly before a revelation uttered as so many times before through peasant lips in the favored time ot of september streams of pilgrims begin to flow toward lourdes from all parts of europe swelling as they roll a ong and en gulling gulfing all conditions of men on the evening before the pilgrims departure a service of blessing Is held in the cathedral A shrine draped in light blue is set up near the choir and lighted by hundreds of candles so that a brilliant shimmering light is thrown far down the aisles the next morning all the town as to see the pilgrims start it is a strangely pathetic sight upon which the of long ago and the hard light of the century tall fall and mingle and become one it Is the faith of the misty ages that goes to drink of a far off well but it Is an un compromising fact of to day when the sick and dying set forth upon a jour ney of miles there Is a long train of thirty car biages drawn by two engines many ta tomb of orleans family a low scrub growth traversed by str straight ight white roads the people work mork hard and contina bously y et he is considered well to do who can count upon an income of 10 cents a day dav for each member of his family that means a white cottage a piece of cultivated ground and a cow yen aten spend their lives within ten miles of their birthplace and if by chance of the suppliants for the mercy of our lady of lourdes come in upon crutches others more helpless still are born in litters their faces white as the litter sheets sisters of charity accompany them to make tha the hard ride as bearable ag as possible it can never be eady tor for the tram train is chiefly made up of third class carriages with wood en seats |
