New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-09-16
as Republican by a Democratic organization.
This is the immediate danger to reform.
PARAY-LEMONTdL.


Six hundred pilgrims left London the other
day to visit a sacred shrine in Eastern France.
The voyagers who journeyed painfully afoot
toward the Holy Land in ancient days bore ID
staff and c0ckle-shell the outward signs OF their
destination. The ladies and gentlemen VINO
got aboard the railway train at the VIC
toria Station carried the labels that denoted
their quality pushed under their hat
bands or stuck into their gloves. Perhaps
the old symbol was a trifie more impressive
than the new but who knowsi Five hundred
years hence an excursion ticket may seem ~
romantic and remote an emblem as u cookie
shell. Five hundred years hence our descend
ants NAV read about the English gentlemen
and ladies who were swindled by cab-drivers
and were sea-sick on a Channel packet IN
travelling TO Paray-le- Monial with the same
feelings that inspire us when we hear the
story of Peter the Hermit, and the treatment
he got from the MOslems
And after all where Is the difference NO
body can deny that the English pilgrims are
| inspired with a devotion rs earnest a. that Oh
the old Crusaders though it may be less dem
onstrative and less unreasonable. Inc ladies
and gentlemen who show themselves at
London railway station and III the crowded
streets marked with cross and
flaming heart. must be either enthusiasts
or hypocrites and that they are not
the latter we presume is pretty well agreed
r. is the fashion TO attribute the pilgrimages
entirely to political impulses, aud we are told
that the pravers at the tomb of the Blessed
Mary AIacooue are prayers for the restoration
Of the Bourbon monarchy and the temporal
mower of the Pope. They are short sighted
| observers of the situation who explain the
present phenomena by any such theory. The
| five or six hundred middle class Engllsh
men and women who have gone to pay their
devotions at this sacred spot care very niue
who NAV be the ruler of France. The Amen-
can young men who are said to purpose join
ing in such an expedition care probably still
| less Some Of them may favor the monarchy
rs beipc rather more likely than any other
! Government to help the Pope, If 1t eau; but
there their political preferences stop; and we
| doubt if the sentiments OF the Americans
even go so far We must seek an eXplana-
ton of the pilgrimagcs elsewhere.
The explanation, we believe, lies on the
surface. They are simply what they prport
TO be. the manifestations of religious fervOr.
For a good many years devotion, in the
Roman Catholic sense, has been very much
out of fashion in France, and now comes the
natural reaction. Revivals of this sort are
very apt to follow period of intense mental
| excitement, when the nerves have been
strained and the emotions kept for a
long time at their highest tension. The mind
is peculiarly sensitive then to outward I'M
pressons. The wondrous stories of supernat-
ural appearance find ready believers. The
whisper of heavenly voices, the glory OF
miraculous lights the hymns of angels and
visions of the Divine Mother, fill the imagine
ton and inhame the heart We may call 1t
fanatcism; we may call it folly; but we must
admit that the enthusiasm is sincere.
What the result of it may be in connection
with the future of French politics is subject
of curious speculation There can he no doubt
where the Catholic party stands in the present
division of forces but we shall do well not to
lay too much stress upon this sudden rousng
of its enthusiasm, and to remember that it is
much more closely occupied just now in
chanting psalms aud saying its prayers than
intriguing for restoration of the Fleur de
IyS