Omaha daily bee., 1883-08-08

service, In 1447 its bells were put into
place, and some of the original number
still ring outtho to the dcvout
ana faithful. After having been dis.
mantled by the French at the end of
the last century and converted
into a hay warehouse for the storage Of
forage for the support of cavalry horses,
the old building lay almost in ruins until
the pious zeal of Frederick William Ill
of Prussia gave the enterprise a new life.
Under him and the present emperor of
Germany the work has gone steadily ON
and to-day, though not yet completed,
the cathedral stands as n monument to
the genius of that master mind, which,
600 years ago designed it.
AN ANCIENT TOMB.
Scattered about through the building
are numerous relics of past ages, which,
to me used to the quick growth of things
American and the youthful appearance of
everything Californian, are Accordingly
interesting. In one of the little chapcls
is the tomb of one Archbishop Zero, who
died in 976, and to whose memory this
stone sarcophagus was erected during the
same century. And though ! had never
heard of Archbishop Gero before, and
knew absolutely nothing about him, cx.
ccpt that, according to the almost illcgi-
BILE Latin inscription on the tomb and the
very unsatisfactory mention made of him
by the guido-book, he lived and died, |
fingered around that old stone sarcopha-
gus and racked my brain trying to ina.
CINE how the old worthy looked in life
and how he managed to amusc himself in
those days when there were no old tombs
too look at, no railroads to carry one
from place to place to see magnificent
cathedrals, no magnificent cathcdrals to
be seen even if there had been railroads
to do the carrying, no American and
English tourists to gaze with wide-open
eyes and read from red-coverod guide
books-nothing, in short, which makes
the world of to-day.
RELICS OF ri BIBLICAL WORTHLESS.
Perhaps | should never have arrived at
any definite conclusion in regard to these
things concerning Zero and his life, but
| had great hopes until thevolublo guide,
aided and Allotted by Chicago and Black,
insisted on my moving ON and going into
the treasury of the cathedral. And | do
not know but what the guide was right.
He has had enough experience with tray
elers to know that they always romance
over the tomb of Zero and are 10th to be
drawn away from it. But whc
successfully lured into the treasury and
put face to face with the magnificent re-
liquary, within whose golden interior, it
is alleged, rest the bones of three kings
who worshippsd the infant Jesus,
the guide knew that Zero would
tpale and retire into the back
ground. And it was so with me. even
though | did have the natural heretical
tendency of all Californians to admit a
doubt as to the authenticity of the docu-
ments proving that the bones were really
and truly those of the original three kings
mentioned i'll the Bible. Silver shrines
to this or that saint, gold and silver
monstrances, set with precious stones and
weighing from five to twenty pounds,
crozlers, professional crosses and the like,
all of which the guide was positive were
of pure metal, were strewn around in
great plenty. Taken altogether, the
treasury contains n good deal of stuff,
which, to one interested in such things,
will give food for hours of solid thought
and lighter musing.
EFFECT OF H CATHEDRAL CHIMES.
AS ! write these lines the bells in the
cathedral spire have all begun to ring,
and n right merry racket they make of it
too. High above the quick, shrill taps
of the little ones comes the measured,
slow strokes of the big bells, booming
out over the roofs of the town and alarm
ing the surrounding country. 1t seems
to me when these bells all get to ringing
ut once that ! can detect Il sort of quar-
rel between them. The little ones of
course, make a great cutlery, but when
the great twenty-tive-ton kalsergloecke
strikes his iron tongue against his iron
cheeks it seems as if all the captured
French cannons from which he was cast
had gone off at the same time; and the
long, quivering hum which remains after
the ponderous stroke is given resembles
somewhat the shrek of a heavy proiectile
hurtling through the air. But, though
the little bells are so vociferous and
persistent in their outcrios, when the
k~eiserglocke speaks their din is, for the
moment, etfectually silenccd. To me it
is no wonder that Cologne, with this
magnificent and awe-inspiring cathedral,
is intensely Catholic. One born within
the shadow of it's spires could not well be
anything else but Catholic.
AMOS KAEG.