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Show LOURDES' ORIGIN Hubert Larkin's Graphic Description Forty Thousand Pilgrims in One Day Historical Facts Three Grottos Ber-nadette, Ber-nadette, Sister and Companion, Gathering Gather-ing Firewood Bernadette Startled by Rushing Wind Sees a Lady of Incom-able Incom-able Beauty Vision Slowly Faded Away Second Vision Third Vision Reveals a Message Water Gushes From Arid Land (Foreign Correspondence of The Intermountain Catholic.) During the past fifty years processions of pilgrims pil-grims in isolated bodies or in vast multitudes have been moving, like unto a flowing river, to the shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Upper Pyrenees. In November, 1872, in one day, forty thousand people came in pilgrimage to Lourdes. They came by concerted arrangement from Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Bor-deaux, Nantes and other towns in France. Now, there are many stalwart Catholics, who do not believe be-lieve in the miraculous origin of the Lourdes devotion, devo-tion, who are not in sympathy with, and, to use the language of the market, "take no stock" in , these pilgrimages. Nor will it mend matters to use harsh language toward these people; in essentials they believe aa firmly as a bench of bishops, but they, have drifted, consciously or not, into a mental condition which is not receptive to visible manifestations of the supernatural or, rather, perhaps, to the testimonies declaring these manifestations. They are like those who do not bclievevin apparitions of the dead because be-cause they have never seen a ghost. Now let us get at THE FACTS And then, maybe, the doubting Thomases may ex- - ( claim with the apostle, "My Lord and my God.'' Lourdes is, as I mentioned in a former letter, now a town of considerable dimensions and population, buried in the Hautes-Pyrenees. Near it, in fact incorporated into it now, is a mass of rocks called Massabielle, which means "old rocks." Between these rock3 and the town proper, there flows a large brook, the Gave. In the face of these rocks of Massabielle there are three groftoes, one above the other. The middle one is of oval shape, and round it and beneath it twined in early days the branches of a wild rose tree, which formed a kind of drapery drap-ery to the opening. In the town of Lourdes there lived in the year 1858, a miller of the name of Soubiross. One of his children, a daughter, when baptized was given the name of BERNADETTE And another was called Mary. .Bernadette in 1853 was fourteen years of age. On the 11th of February, Febru-ary, Mary, a companion by the name of Jane and this Bernadette, went out to gather firewood along the shore of the Gave. They picked up what wood they couuld find on their side of the river; and, as the brook was shallow, Mary and Jane waded across and continued their search for wood around the rocks of Massibielle. Bernadette lingered behind. She was slower in her movements. Before crossing cross-ing the stream, she sat down to remove her shoes and stpekings, and while doing so was startled by the touch and noise of, a rushing wind. She" looked up astonished, and everything was quiet and calm around her. Again she stooped to finish her task and get ready to cross the brook. Then again came the rush of rind, and looking across the stream, the child was transfixed, for in the oval opening of the lower grotto she saw, standing in the opening and surrounded by a strange and mysterious light, a Lady of INCOMPARABLE BEAUTY. . She was clothed in a robe of wool white. From her head was pendant a veil of spotless white. A sash of virgin blue encircled her waist, and parting, fell away almost to the ankles. She was shoeless, but on each instep reposed a rose of marvelous beauty. The peasant girl, Bernadette, almost beside herself her-self with amazement, went to her knees, tried to make the sign of the cross, and failing, began to say the ilail, Mary." Slowly the vision faded I away and the child rose to her feet and looked 1 around her in wonder, as if awaking from a ravish- ing dream. Meanwhile her companions had gath- ered their faggots, tied them in bundles . and re- crossed the brook on their way home. They had I seen Bernadette on her knees and thought she was saying her Rosary. When they came to her she was still gazing at the grotto and seemed to be tin- - f conscious of their presence. They saw a some- I ' i (Continued on Page 5.). , ' I t .. ' - " 1 1 I LOURDES' ORIGIN. (Continued from Page 1.) thing m the face of the young .girl, unfamiliar and awe-inspiring. They touched her hand and she became her old, familiar self. "What ails you, Ber-nadette?" Ber-nadette?" asked her sister. "Have you not seen her?" questioned the s child. "Whof "Oh, the beautiful, beautiful woman," They all went home together, and Mary, that evening told her mother. The mother drew Bei-nadette to her and, after hearing hear-ing her story, rebuked her for her silly fancies and told her to go no more to the rocks. .For the next! two days the sisters worked around their home. Then on Sunday. Mary and Jane asked the mother to let Bernadette accompany them to the rocks. At first she refused, but at last yielded to their pleadings. plead-ings. Xow these young girls, light hearted and innocent, inno-cent, talked with Bernadette about the lady she had seen and, as they walked along the banks of the Gave, wondered if she would appear again. When they reached the spot where Bernadette knelt two days befoe, the young girl fell on her knees and he-pan he-pan to say herabeads. This was an instantaneous act and she became like one emparidised in beatific vision. Her eyes were fixed in ecstatic wonder, for once again, across the brook, closing the opening to the grotto there stood the marvelous vision. Her companions saw nothing. They beheld the face of the young girl, they saw (lie radiation of the supernatural, su-pernatural, the eyes wide open and motionless, they j looked upon a kneeling figure that seemed no longer one of them. The vision faded away and Bernadette Berna-dette rose to her feet., When she came again, two ladies who had heard her story accompanied her. They brought with them paper, pens and ink, and they said to Bernadette: "If the lady appears today, to-day, ask her to speak to you and tell you what she wishes you to do." Again THE V1SIOX APPEARS And Bernadette drew near and said, "What is it you want of me, Lady Avill you tell me your name and who you are P Then the apparition spoke and said : , "Do me the favor to return here, at this hour, for 1 the next fifteen days." The young girl replied: "I j promise to do so.." Day after day for a fortnight, ' this innocent girl of fourteen yearskept the tryst i and was daily favored with the supernal visit. Crowds visited her every day and went with her to the place of meeting. They saw the wonderful change that came over the face of the child. It was like unto a transfiguration. Men who had no faith in miracles, surgeons, lawyers, doctors and local government officials were present, and they do- ' clared the child was evidently sincere, that her pulse was normal and that her brain and nerves were not diseased. They saw her lips move as if ! speaking to some one, but they heard no conversation. conversa-tion. The efiild declared she spoke in a full voicv and that the Lady also spoke in a strong voice. But only twice were any words heard by those pres- j ent. Once, the young girl said there was a look of ! sorrow on the Lady's face. Bernadette asked her : what was the matter what should she do? Tho lady answered, "Pray for sinners." Besides revealing re-vealing to her three secrets which concerned the young girl herself, the vision told the child to go to the priest of the parish and say to him that it was the Lady's wish that he should build a sanctuary sanctu-ary a church on this spot in her honor. Bernadette Berna-dette took the message to the parish priest, and he laughed at her. "Why, ma petitte," he said, "I haven't a decent soutane to my back and where can I get money to build a church ? Run home to your mother." Again the girl was sent back to the priest to deliver the same message. "See here, my child, return re-turn to the Lady and tell her that if she wants me to build a church there, let her show me some sign that you speak the truth. It is now winter; let her make that dried up rose bush at my door bud sd blossom roses." It was the month of February. The child repeated to the Lady what the priest had said . But the roses did not bloom. Then she gave the second drder to Bernadette in these wwds: "Go drink and wash in the fountain and eat of the grass that grows near it." The child naturally looked to the waters of the brook, but the Lady turned and pointed to the riglit hand corner of the grotto, into which the child crept on her hands and knees, but XO WATER WAS THERE. Then, following further instructions, she "scooped with her hands a little earth away and in the hollow hol-low she made there began to appear drops of water. By degrees the little cavity filled with water, which flowed over in a stream no thicker than a straw. In a few days this streamlet swelled and made for itself it-self a large basin and from this fountain, every clay for the last fifty years, about thirty thousand gallons of water flow daily from the rock that, from immemorial times was as barren as the X'ubian sands. On the fifteenth, Bernadette again asked the Lady who she Was and what was her name. Then, with hands partially spread out like an opening fan, and looking up to heaven with eyes divinely bright and a face supremely tender, she exclaimed: "I AM THE IMMACULATE COXCEPTIOX." And disappeared. "But, surely, surely, you do not expect me to believe this fairy tale," you say to me. "Xo, not yet; this is but the narrative of what happened, lou have still to hear the testimony or.d to examine the evidence and the witnesses. Until then, it is but right that you should hold your verdict ver-dict in'suspension." HUBERT LARKIX. Lourdes, December 27. IRISH BEAUTIES.1 One of the most interesting exhibits at the Irish far, recently held, are the beautiful Irish girls who have come over to exemplify Irish manufactures. The most beautiful woman is Miss Katheryn Carr of Donegal, and she sncke mere Gaelic than Eu- trlisb. i SIGNS OF THE TIMES. The Roman Catholic Church is warning her members against intermarriage, that is to say, against the marriage of Catholics with Protestants. When ministers are preaching, however, as Dr. Xew-nian Xew-nian Smyth preaches, that "Protestantism is passing," pass-ing," it may after a time have so thoroughly disappeared dis-appeared that a man really in love with a Catholic-young Catholic-young woman will agree to belong to any church that she recommends. Buffalo Commercial. There are nervous women; there are hypernor-voiis hypernor-voiis women. But women so nervous that the continual con-tinual rustle of a silk skirt makes them nervous no, there are no women so nervous as that! Flie-gende Flie-gende Blatter. |