The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-11-29
TWO GHOSTS OF ST. NICHOLAS.

Scarcely a century ago, was one of fou,
hundred boys who comprised the pupils OF
q large Catholic seminary situated in the
northeast of Belgium. We formed a strange
and heterogeneous assemblage, we students
at the ancient College of st. Nicholas; an
international assemblage to boot; with
representatives in our ranks of almost every
nation of the civilized world. Greeks and
Swiss, we numbered amongst us English,
Irish, French, Germans, Poles, Peruvians,
Spaniards, and Americans-waifs and strays
from all quarters of the globe, who came to
perfect themselves in the dead languages,
and pursue q course of humanitarian study
under the auspices of the Celestian Fathers,
to whose order the establishment belonged.
We were Il pre-eminently busy little com
munity, with more work upon our hands
than the generality'of young gentleman of
our age. The time set apart for recreation
did not exceed an hour and a half per diem,
which was doled out to us in small and I'M
satisfactory doses of from ten to twelve
minutes apiece. These brief intervals of
leisure we usually spent in pacing up and
down the shaded court yard, or in playing
at various out door games; on dull or rainy
DAYS we had recourse to billiards-there
was a handsome billiard saloon attached to
the premises-or lounged about the sale
detude, and whiled away the time i'll desul
tory conversation. On Sundays and holt
DAVIS the classes were suspended, and we
generally paid visit to our cOuntry-hOuse,
d large roomy building, surrounded by a
spacious garden and q small moat, where
on, with the aid of a rickety old tub called
a {" barguetfe," we contrived to amuse our
selves immensely.
Twice year, ct Christmas and Easter,
we enjoyed Il weeks repose, and towards
the end of August came the long vacation,
when our Belgian comrades scattered them
selves over the country at large, and W.
unfortunate foreigners drew our surplusN
cash. looked out our smartest clothes, and
prepared ourselves in n general way for the
two months of comparative freedom which
lay in store for us.
1t was during an autumnal recess which
/ spent at St. Nicholas that number of
new professors came to the college, and
amongst them Messieurs Lucius and Eyre
mond. The first named was IL young man
of twenty five, who for some years past had
conducted Il class in the branch seminary
of S.: he came to us as bounds master,
a capacity i'll which he speedily earned for
himself the esteem of the Juniors, to whose
division his office was more particularly
attached.
Mons. Evremond was a novice who, at
the time of which / speak, had not yet Ia
ken upon himself the vows of the Celestian
Order. He had been a soldier once, despite
the habit which he then wore; and, al
though II German born and bred, had serv-
ed with distinction through many of the
lnnumeraDle calnpaiShS WHICH constitute
South American history. In person he was
n dapper little man, with /: firmly knit
frame, a soldierly bearing, and pair of
twinkling gray eyes, oftentimes kindied in
anger, which spoke of a great volcano of
irascibility slumbering beneath the folds of
his monastic habit. For many months after
his arrival amongst us he retained some
little traits of his former manner of living;
he ordered his pupils he would regi-
ment, and Was wont to bestow upon his
brother professors fierce military salute
in lieu of the peaceful lifting of the hat
which it was customary among the Dons"
70 interchange upon meeting. We nick
ESncd him the q Capitainc,' the first day
tat he appeared in our gravclcd court
yard; on closer acquaintance we voted him
a firm, quick wittcd little man, tyrant
when discipline was concerned, who might,
however, have been worse and was, as we
elegantly termed it, "not such Il bad sort
i'll the long rum
During the October which succeeded the
re-assembling of the classes, there occurred
the fete- day of a great saint-a Celestian
saint-Tin whose honor were annually in
sttuted q series of Juvenile rejoicings.-
These were placed under the direction of
Mons. Lucius, who drew up lengthy pro-