Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-08-07
NOTRE DAME CHARITIES.
A Wonderful Cathedral Whose His
tory Goes Back TO the Time
OF the Drulds.
A statue that Has worked miracles-benu
tifui windows Of Kueo Work
mRnehip.

a correspondent oil the new IOIh AihSo
The reddest Of them must perceive tina
the cathedral and other sanctuaries o
Chartres require the constant attention
of a little army OF cierics, and II Is to b.
hoped that none lives with soul 10 deaf
AZ never 70 have felt proud Of Notri
Dame de Chartres DO not the indefati
gable disciples OF the "master," Jobl
Ruskin, LII. D., come over In shoali
from the country Of fogs and spend hour
in copying line by line, curve
by curve, solitary group out o.
the hundred or 40 which the ma
sons Of old carved in stone 10 form The
dals for one Of the hundred statues, 81
they more or less, thai decorate a single
side u the cathedral? No ordinary MS
tory Is that which sticks to Notre Dame
dc Chartres, whether you take II from tht
art side or that Of ho0r antiquity, IRON
the direction Of church history or that OF
religion in general. One Of the chapelt
underground takes you back to the
seventh century before Christ, and In
forms you that the Druids OF that prehls-
toric age had prophetic knowledge Of a
Virgin who would give birth to a child.
Nay, they even made prophetic group Of
the Virgin Mary, which was found IN the
very grotto, now the chapel, by Saints
POtentienus and Altinps, the mission
aries sent TO Sens by ST. Peter him
self, with their spiritual chief, st. Saw
inlenus. The cathedral Is Indeed one Of
those middle Gge poems which centeTs
about the name Of some great conqueror
and gets additions before as well as be-
hind. The Druids's statue makes pro.
phetlc miracles, among others the revival
OF drowned child Nine. Ia Baronne dc
Chabaunes has written a touching ac-
count OF this miracle, wrought six cen
turtles before Christ Geoffroy dc
Monthlery, the Gaulish father Of the
drowned BOY, enters the grotto, and,
"full OF trust and faith he lays his child
on the altar OF her whose heart was des
tined without doubt TO know In advance
what sorrow there Is In the loss OF a son,
and LOT at once the little fell
low moves, opens his eyes, utters low
cry, and casts upon the Druidic statue
soft and tender glance"
Thus we fnd some mOnkish legend Of
the middle ages tackled on 20 the prehis
toric part Of Charities cathedral as In the
old sagas a Jealous poet would compose
legend about the grandfather Of the hero
in.chief and run the lauer's glory back
into the still more cloudy ancestral past.
The Roman period Is complete with a
somewhat nobulous account Of martyr
doms, rude bass-rellef Of a bearded,
gOwned man, possibly Druid, on a
block Of stone, certain portions OF the
foundation said to be Roman, and names
Of early blshops whose faces and dg
ures q modern artist has evolved from
his own pious fancy and placed on
the walls Of the crypts. Needless TO
say that the Danes were drawn by
the treasures Of Notre Dame as the needle
by the pole. These Nfarouches insul.
aires" as Nine de Chabannes calls them,
or "Northmans," 10 use her commoner
expression, were badly beaten at the
walls Of Chartres "a. d 9ll), owing 10
the forethought OF Charles the Bold, who
gave To the bacillCa what Nine de Cha
bsnnes calls the veil or Inner garment OF
the Very Holy Virgin, but which rude
though deyout populace Insisted, and still
insist, on termiug the Virgins chemise
This portion OF the Virgin Mary's attire
torms the main symbol on the coHt-of-
arms OF the cathedral and appears on
certain old medals which are called
chemlseites. II would be useless TO
number the kings, popes, dukes and great
ladies who have honOred Notre Dame
with visits and presents 1t has seen the
browning Of many king, the start OF
many crusade. Good Queen Maud OF
England, the wife OF bad Norman, sent
over the lead for Its reoi Doubtless,
were the documents TO be had, this
church, too, would prove TO have been
largely erected by English money II is
certain that the right TO beg for the
cathedral throughout Great Britain was
sought and gained of Richard Cmur
de Lion Here prayed the Black Prince,
here Henry ", abjured professionalism
and became Catholic, and here the
lconoclasts exercised numner OF their
cheerful feats Of destruction. But the
rudeSt blow came with the reign Of ter
ror IN the last century, when the ancient
image OF the Virgin with Child, the
Druidlc statue, was burned by the revo.
lutlonists on the square before the cathe-
dral, and the inner garment OF the Virgin
was lost for time. The'old paganism--
kept down for so many centuries by
persuasion, by force and by fraud
boiled up again IN 1893, and holy statues
and eruclilXes went into the flames. Such
days win probably never come again.
Now a cold contempt has taken the place
OF the burning bigotry aud burning La
tired which once fought each other about
this mighty pile,
The mere mass Of Charities cathedral ia
Impressive, but the architecture Is orig,
inal. The main facade has been greatly
damaged and much restored The south
side Is venerahlei It Is covered with
slender colonnottes applied TO the face of
the huttress and column in an odd fashion,,
and one gets complete outline of the
enormous banking towers, with steeples,
the aspe, and another building back Of
the aspe. But the quaintest side is the
north, nearest the station, side
facade running up like great thick
screen above a triple portal, with columned
lpopholes, narrow aud with pointed
arches, piercing the screen through.
Rouen cathedral Is more bewildering
from the mass Of inches, statues, hanging
and rising decorations, but there is a
baroness, savage simplicity, in all the
detail OF this cathedral which sets IL quite
apart from others, Gentle touches of
yellow aud green moss give II the most
grateful of celebration, and there are
broad, unadorued spaces OF plain mason
~, upon which the eyes, tired with too
many particulars OF architecture, rest