The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1864-01-25

: n TIE rkoPLE AID DxCAxED BIZ TIL
GOVERNMENT.
| from the Valparaiso Mercury. Dec. III
"A catastrophe gigandc, horrible, an
exampled in the annals Of our country
and perhaps Of the world, has absorbed
every ones mind for many DAYS past.
We will use the utmost brevity in re.
lating the calamity to our foreign readers.
Ever since the nswly-invented mys.
terry of the Immaculate Conce ption OF
Mary was declared at Rome, in 1857. tbs
church Of the Company, formerly belofg.
ing to the Jesuits, had become the focus
Of devotion of vast Sisterhood called
the Daughters of Mary, in which, on pay.
ment of so much . year. almost all the
women of our capital we're enrolled.
Every year from the 9Th OF November
to the 9th Of December, the day of the
Immaculate Conception, lasted splendid
festival, In which orchestral music, sing
ing, and astonishing prodigality of in-
cense, of lights OF oil. liquid gas, wax,
and every luminous combustible 10 the
world, gllttered aud Jared in every part,
in the cornices, in the ceiling. and par
ticularly 90 the high altar. Every might
the church blazed with sea Of fame,
and futiered with clouds of muslin and
gauxe draperies. 1t could only be light
ed up in time by beginning 10 the middle
of the afternoon, and the york Of extn-
gushing vas only ended when the. night
was far advanced. In 1853 they thought
of adopting hydrogen gas, but the aneir
neer's plan, though convenient and safe,
was rejected.
A priest named Ugarte, whose mind
mariolatry had marked for its own. bead.
ed that Sisterhood from the beginning.
and worked his way down to such depth
OF superstition, that one of his least ex-
travagances was the invention Of Celes-
lial post Office trick, by which the Dsush,-
ers Of Mary might correspond with the
Virgin in writing. At the entrance OF
the temple the Virgin leiter-box was con-
stsntly open, aud there persons Of re-
bust faith deposited in SAILED letters their
wishes and their prayers. Every We'd
nesday the letter.box for eternity was
placed before the high altar. and Ugarte.
who acted as postman between the Mother
Of God and her daughters, exhibited to
the divinity these oierings--of course
keeping that singular correspondence 10
himself.
The same moun,ebank got up relig
Gus rattle for the favor Of the tirgin-in
recent instance two prizes being drawn
BY skeptical Minister of State aud q
woman whose character was not dubious.
The old times OF pagan idola,ry had re
susci,ated in the center Of exaggerated
Catholicism.
The church of "the Company" built
in the latter part OF the seventeenth cen.
fury, possessed spacious nave, but a
roof that dated from only fifteen years
ago of painted timber The only door of
easy access to the congregation was the
principal one in the center, the small
doors leading irto the isles being open
only half way and obstruc,sd by screens.
Near the high altar there was little door
communicating with the sacristy.
A few minutes before 7 in the evening
of the 9Th Of December, more than 5000
women and few hundred men knelt in
that church crammed to overfowioe.
However that did DOT proven. compact
mass of fanatics from attempting to fight
their way in from the steps. because it
was the last night OF the Month of Mary,
and no one could bear to lose the closing
sermon OF the priest, Ugarte, who always
succeeded by his exciting declamatious in
drowning in tears the place Is tbon ID be
u sea Of FIRE. Then Fizagguife, the Apes
toiic Nuncio and favoritc of Plus TX, the
founder of the American College at Rome,
~as to preseh also. 1t 10 said that Ugsrte,
wounded in his feelings as chaplain Of the
/" Daughters Of Mercy" because Flag.
guirre had told him that the iIlurn nations
of his church could not be compared
with what he had seen in Rome, exclaim-
ed with the enthusissm:. IL will give
him, when he comes TO preach, such an
illumination as the world has never SEEN"
Nobody can deny that Ugar.e has kept
bis word
Indeed, the lighting Of all the lamps
and candles had hardly finished when the
liquid gas in a Transparency on the high
altar. set on fire its woodwork aud
wrapped in fame kind of tabernacle
wholly composed Of canvass. pastebosrd,
and wood. In less than two minutes the
altar, about tventy-three yards high and
ten broad, was an inextinguishsbIe bon
fire.
The advance of the FIRE was perhaps
even more rapid than the panic Of the
audience. When the Ere had flown from
thessaltar to the room, the whole fock of
devices rushed to the principal door.
Those near the lateral doors, were able to
escape at the first alarm; others, and
particularly the. men, gained the little
door Of the sacri.ty, and lastly, those near
the chief outlet forced their way through
the throng, even still struggling to get 10,
and indeed part of which did get 10, even
In the face of the FIRE, stimulated BY the
desire of getting good place. which on
this occasion meant good place to die
in. Then, the flames having crept along
the whole roof, and conse quently released
tie lamps Of oil and liquid gas from the
cOfnices to which they were sfrnnp a