Pioche daily record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1872-1876, 1873-10-01
MoDERN PILGRIMAGEs.

One of the most remarkable phenom-
ena OF this age is the existence, side by
side, OF the most abiect superstition and
the most advanced scholastic and scien-
tifc culture. Not that they are general
" to be found in the same person, for
the one is commonly exclusive of the
other, but men and women, actuated by
fears and beliefs characteristic OF the ages
which we believed past. are to be found
in contact with those who are the repre-
sentatives Of the science and literature of
the latter half of the nineteenth century.
The English papers inform Us that iii.
grima2e is on foot. which, in some of its
features. recalls us to the era of the
Canterbury Tales" The Duke of Nor.
folk, the descendant OF the Mowbrays,
Fitzalans and Howards, premier duke
and hereditary grand marshal OF Eng
land, leads the pilgrims. Lord Walter
Kerr. inheritor OF another noble name,
whose ancestors found vent for their sur
plus energy in other psstimes than pious
pilgrimages, is the secretary Of the asso-
citation. They go the shrine of Paray-le-
Monial in France, leaving London on
Tuesday. the I'd Of September, sleeping
that night in Paris, arrive at their desti-
nation on Wednesday evening, perform
their devotions on Thursday, and reach
London again on Friday or Saturday.
They travel first-class, raise money by
subscription to pay the fare of the poor
er sort, carry with them the benediction
Of the Catholic Bishop of Winchester,
and bring back an odor of sanctity such
rs attached to the enthusiasts of the cru
sades. The sanctity Of Paray -ie- Monial
is due to woman named Marie Alacoaue
who says she had, not long ago, nm inter-
view with the Saviour Mt that place The
conversation is detailed with suspicious
circumstantiality and o minuteness in
the columns Of NJ. Veuillot's Univers.
Who could have thought such repro
duction OF the fanaticism of the middle
ages possible in this age?
The French clericals are encouraging
the passion for pilgrimages, which isialso
great source of gain to the railway cor
porations. No less than $3.50, 900 tickets,
we are informed, have been issued to pil-
grims since the outbreak of religious fer
vor began. The Pope sanctions it, and
pronounces 'pilgrimages spectacle
worthy of angels and of men" LIE
Monde says: 1--WE have already returned,
not eighty years back, for it is scarcely
eighty years when people following Vol
taire scarcely believed in God; not one
hundred and fifty years back, for then,
owing to Jensenism, they hardly believed
IN miracles; but to three or four centu.
rles ago-to the time of Christian fer
vor. The writer might have said mine
centuries" since that is the proper era
for parallel. A paper called the Pill
grim has sprung into existence to record
the pious journeys and miracles. LIE
Prlfrin says that lately 1900 set out from
Nlsmes, accompanied by the bishop, to
L1urdes. where they met 1900 from La
Roche, and abandoned themselves to
transports OF love and faith"
La Salelle and Lourdes divide the rep-
utation for sauctity, miracles and special
manifestations or grace. with Paray-le-
Monial. The red crosses over their
hearts and rosari-s of large beads around
their necks excite the most rapturous en-
thusiasm among the excitable people of
the towns and Villages throug ii which
they pass. The pilgrims, says lie Pei
erin, relate to us the four miracles
which they themselves saw, the paralytic
woman relieved, the lame woman who
left her crutches at Lourdcs, the deaf
and dumb woman who hears and speaks.
the blind person who was able to see tie
procession o. the pigri'os with torches"
Everybody enves their happiness. TIL
perfume of Lourd-s Is upon them. and
men say to each other: No, France is
not dead, since her faith cannot be
KILLED, y" We seem in reading all this,
to be carried back to the monkish fctions
OF the middle ages. Aud yet tuis hap.
pens In an age of telegraphs, steam.
boats, railways and Atlantic cables, by
which hetriumphs Of modern science a,e
transmitted daily for our morning news
papers. s