Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1870-01-20
TIE GREAT SAINT BERNARD.

TIE GREAT SAINT BERNARD.
The Corpses of the Lost Preserved
TIE PERKS of Alpine Travelling PIE
GUS Work of the Monks OF St. Ber-
nard.
from the London Telegraph.
Three travellers, il Is stated have Just lost
their lives on the Great Bernard Mountain.
They have been travelling from Martigny
toward the Italian frontier, with the inten-
ton of resting for the night in the famous
Hospice that stands almost on the boun-
dar- line between Switzerland and Italy.
o'clock in the evening they had reach
little inn on the way to the Monastery
T. ey had still.to journey for seven toilsonie
miles before reaching the monkish place
of Welcome; and, since the night was dark
and stormy, the innkeeper besought them
TO wait until the morning. Being poor
they refused. They belonged to that class
of poverty stricken pilgrims who are con-
stantly passing between Switzerland and
Italy, and who carry all their worldly
goods in knapsack IF untanned deer's
hide A few minutes will suffice to take
such travellers from any part of the great
Canton Valais to Aosta. They shun inns
with horror as places of Inscriptions ex-
tortion; and their aim is to break the jour
ney ct the Hospice. where they get food
and lodging for the night tree of charge,
and in the morning are provided with
the necessaries of travel on the
same benevolent terms. Hence, a.
though the night was pitchy dark, and the
wind was coming down with hurricane-like
gusts from the great mountains that shut
in the valley, the three travellers resolved
that they would push on to the Hospice
Soon after leaving the chateau they began
to ascend winding, rocky, and steep path,
which overhangs a bowling torrent and
leads TO the Monastery. The road is per-
haps one of the toughest IN Europe. So
many rocks int out. so sharp are the turns
round the course of the brook, and SO steep
are some Of the ascents, that even a mule
might be pardoned for slipping. When the
night is dark and the mists come down. the
path could hardly be kept, even by man
who had daily traversed it for years; and
the only guide would be the roaring of the
torrent On the night of the fatal accident
all those perils were combined. So black
was the sky that the wayfarers had slowly
to grope along by means of the precipice
which hens in the side of the path farthest
from the torrent Had the moon been up,
they might have been guided by the poles
which the monks have planted in direct
line from the Hospice to the valley, to in
! iicate the direction when the path is bur.
led under the snow, and the torrent is fro
zen. But, in the pitchy darkness, the
| friendly beacons We're obscured. Hence
the travellers seem to have again and again
been brought to a standstill, before reach
| ing that ford of the brook at which the
-oad dips, and then goes up with one swift.
spring to the spot where the great barrack
4 oh fl.xah sU1f
ed traveller by its beacon-hght The poor
pilgrims were so near to the blaze. that
had they Leen able to exert themselves for
few minutes longer, they would have been
safe But the toll and the cold had so par
allied their faculties, that they could not
proceed one step further; they were over
come by that craving for sleep. for rest.
which is the effect of intense cold; and
within sight of the friendly gieam that
beckOned to them overhead, all three trav-
elers laid down and died.
On the Great St. Bernard the winter sea-
son begins soon and ends late. Already it
| is winter beside the mountain dwelling;
and during the long months when the snow
covers the ground. or the cold makes tray-
cling perilous, it is the daily custom of the
good monks to journey as far as the bottom
of the pass in order that they may lend as
sistance to any traveller who may have
dropped by the way. Clad in their long
black serge gowns, and broad-brimed hats,
accompanied by their attendants, who
/ carry wine and provisions for the restora-
| lion of the wearied or fainting travellers,
and guided by the famous st. Bernard
dogs, which do the WORK of pointers. two
or three monks daily male the seven miles
journey to the valley below Until the oc-
currence of the late accident, they had not
| for some years found any traveller dead or
Gradually, indeed, the perils of the terri
BILE pass have become so fully appreciated
that even the poorest traveller shrinks from
attempting the ascent to the monastery af-
ter nightfall, if the ground is covered with
snow, or if the great storm gusts blow
down from the hills; the three who have
last fallen victims, however, were less dis
Greet; and next morning when the search
ing party of monks had proceeded to q
! short distance from the Hospice, they found
the bodies stiff and cold. They were TAX
en- to the little ''morgue, which is situated
at short distance from the principal build
ing of the monastery; and in that naked
mausoleum the remains will abide with
other relics of mortality, unless claimed by
the kinsfolk of the lost. 1t is grim rest
I ing place. In that small hut perched
among the wintry mountains dwell the
! skeletons of the men and women and chill
dren who, in the course of many genera
tons. have persisted in the fatal pass. So
intense is the cold. that the unembalmed
bodies resist for long years the hand Of de-
cav. Uncofined, and dressed in the clothes
which they wore when found dead among
the snow, they stand perched against the
wall, and, while the visitor looks through
the iron grating of their tomb. they peer
| grimly forth, as if soliciting recogni-
ton and an undesecrated place of
rest. An old man leans against the
wall, his head bare, and his staff in his
hand, and his attitude stiffened forever by
the death that snote him years ago. A
woman clutches in her arms the babe that
persisted with her in the snow. From the
other grim figures the clothes have rotted
away by fragments, leaving bleached pro-
truding bones The floor of the dungeon
like tomb is strewn with memorials of the
dead; and going from the blazing Ere of the
monastery to the '.morgue," the traveller
can pass in single instant tom the hum
of mirthful conversation or the Joyous
sound of music to what might seem place
of the living dead. Europe contains no
more weird or gloomy night than that pris-
| on house of clothed skeletons, perched in
the Alpine wilderness, and seen through
the misty and wintry gloom.
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