Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-09-08

of evil at his feet. sometimes holding up
the banner of victory, sometimes lifting
the hand of benediction, saint after saint
. 900 of them, they say, altogether-high as
YOU can go you are in the company of the
apostles and martyrs and confessors. There
is nothing equal to this anywhere. And
thrust in everywhere, among these stately
and sublime figures, are the little gargoyles,
the carved mouths of the water troughs, as
grotesque as can be imagined-heads of
hideous animals, grinning devils, faces of
men laughing, crying, in pain, in derision,
set in all manner of contortions.
GRoTEsoUE FEATURES.
That is a queer thing about the old
cathedral builders. You find it everywhere,
inside the churches as we'll as outside, and
as much in England as on the continent.
The grotesque obtrudes its fools face in the
most sacred places. The corbels along the
bases of the arches of the chancel roof are
grinning heads, sometimes of monks making
faces; sometimes with an animal tearing
mans ear, the mans mouth stretched out in
sympathy: sometimes the blackbird of the
old nursery rhyme nipping somebody's
nose. The misereres of the choir stalls are
like the pictures of fifth century Puck.
The humor of the old monks seems to have
run riot here The sanctity of the church
did not deter them.
Milan Cathedral was at its best the morn
ing we were there. They were having some
solemn service, which filled the great spaces
of the church with the voice of music, and
sent up clouds of incense, amid which
glowed the lights of the altar like dim stars
seen through veil of mist. The church
was full OF praying people. The bread and
wine for the Lords Supper were brought
into the chancei by two old men and two old
women, from whom the priests received 1t,
with much state and ceremony.
Over the altar of side chapel In the
nave is the old wooden crucifix which St
Carlo Borromeo carried about with him as
he did his brave work in the plague days in
Milan. / looked upon it witch reverence.
II had said five paters and five aves at the
shrine might have gained 10000 years
indulgence from the pains of purgatory. A
promise to that effect was set forth on
printed placard with the Pope's name at the
bottom. But passed by.
The most famous saint who ever had his
dwelling in Milan was a greater man than
the brave and good Borromeo. 1t was st.
Ambrose-the righteous bishop who dared
to shut the gates OF the church in the face of
peTOE VI tue Last anu w est. IL Ia al
old story how Theodosius In a seizure of
wrath caused great number of people in
Thessolonica to be massacred in revenge for
a fancied insult. and how Ambrose refused
to admit him to the company of Christians
till he had repented and done penance and
made what amends he could. l saw the old
gates that were barred against the most
powerful ruler in the world. They are very
plain old doors of wood and iron, but they
are as fine as the cathedral in
THE LESSON WHICH THEY TEACH,
and finer. They opened over into a church
which represented impartial righteousness,
and had no respect of persons-a good kind
of church TO have in bad world. 1t is in
Milan that one can see all that is left of one
OF the greatest pictures that was ever painted
Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper" 1t
is on the wall at the end of a large room,
which was once the re ectory of a monas-
terry The monks have been dead these
many, many years who sat last at
dinner in this long room. The monastery
was long ago dissolved. 1t is the guard
room of a garrison of soldiers now. The
picture has suffered much from lack of care,
and the paint is badly faxed off and dinned.
Even while the monks were here they cut
door through the lower part of the picture.
But with all the dimness and imperiection
of the great painting, it is still finer than
anv copy. The face Of the Master, who is
saving. zone of you shall betray me" the
look and gesture of the Apostles, who are
crying out, Lord, is it I?"-nobody has
yet transferred out of Da Vinci's painting
into his own missed the overturned salt
celler at the elbow of Judas, which we see
in the engravings. and could find no trace
o it in the original,
hope that the great cathedral and the
great painting have some uplifting influence
upon the Milanese. and that the memory of
their fine old saint has some helpful inspira-
ton ior them. But the casual tourist sees
small traces of greatness or goodness. Under
the very shadow of the cathedral is book
stall where novels are sold, printed in the
French language, and written and illus
trated BY the devil. And the book-stall--
and 20 others like ;t-seems to have plenty
OF customers. Even the finest of cathedrals
may not save city. G. ii.