Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-04
NO SMOKING ALLOWED.
lRAUCHEN IST UNTERSAGT
MET ROoKEN
IL EST DEFENDU DE FUMER.


IL EST DEFENDU DE FUMER.
There is nobody on board but can read that
emphatic prohibition in some one of its ex-
pressions. But not one of the four languages
could well be omitted here. English, German,
Dutch and French, all are represented among
the passengers.
And so, after rolling night on the North
Sea, you approach Antwerp. You see it lon g
before the boat touches the dock. The great
lone spire of its cathedral towers up over
everything else in the town. Then the tall red
roofs cone into clear vision, running up into
queer gables like meeting pairs of stairs set up
against the sky. At last you set your feet upon
the pavement of the old streets.
| IT is Sunday. Groups of men stand at the
corners, with their hands universally in
| their pockets and pipe in mouth, many with
feet in wooden shoes. Little children run
| about with loud voices. Half the shops are
| open. At noon, when the morning service is
over, band plays in the Place Verte, beside
the cathedral. and crowds gather to listen,
some walking about many sitting at little
tables along the sidewalks drinking beer. 1t is
| excellent music, but not particularly of o
religious nature, not at all what we are fond of
calling sacred" music. All day long the
streets are full Of people chatting. laughing.
evidently enjoying themselves. In the courts
| and alleys hand organs-fve times louder (and
better) than ours-are:playing lively Jig tunes,
and boys and girls are dancing to the music. In
the evening bands of young men go about the
/ streets singing. 1t Is a Continental Sunday"
But the churches were full. And full of men
as we'll as women. Services were going on all
the morning at .he cathedral unit. O'Clock.
And it was full all the time, with people coming
t~,,,l h111 arol
/ thousand people, showed no sign OF scant at
tendance So was st. Andrews full in: the
afternoon, and st. Paul's Everybody in Ant
| werp seems to 20 to church. And everybody
| who goes seems to go in a most reverent spirit
| There was the entirest devotion everywhere.
| And after church there was no nlbehavior.
| The people did not keep the day after the
Puritan fashion, but they did seem very gen.
uinely to keep it. "This is the day which the
Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in
it." They kept 1t in that spirit, anyway.
And all day long, every 10 minutes, there
rained down over the town of Antwerp the
lovelist music. The best thing in that old town
is the carlton which chimes in the tower of its
cathedral. Whoever has never been to Antwerp
has never really heard the ringing of bells.
don't know how many bells there are, nor how
much they weigh, nor who set them in their
places, nor do 1 care very greatly, but l do
know that they rain down music like the
harmonies of heaven. There is no tune which
the English ear catches, but the air is suddenly
filed with chords, and notes and trills. and
raptures of sweet sounds. All the year round,
day and night and hour by hour that benedic-
tion of fair and heavenly harmonies falls on the
ears of Antwerp.
THE Antwerp Cathedral is so big that 1t is
almost like being out of doors to be under
its root. The ceiling does not shut you In. The
great pillars like the trunks of tall trees of
stone, And the people walk about among
them as II they were under the free sky. There
is not a single iixed seat in the cathedral, only
light chairs, which people take up and carry
about as they please. And accordingly there is
no fixed order. Everybody does as he wills.
Here, beside the queer old wooden pulpit-a
great structure carved into shapes of trees and
flowers and animals, with an angel with
trumpet flying down upon the top of the canopy
beside the pulpit is great crowd OF men and
women listening TO a sermon. Elsewhere peo-
pie are walking up and down, or quietly saying
their prayers by themselves, or kneeling at their
devotions in one of the many chapels which
cluster about the chancel, or hearing mass
which priest is saying at the side altar. And
when the sermon is done everybody turns his
chair about and either sits down In 1t or kneels
down in II, resting against the back, and out
from a side aisle comes gorgeous procession
of men with tall candles. and boys with bells
and censers, and priests in garments Of red and
gold, bearing the host to its place on the high
altar For little time all people in the great
church are intent upon one service, but when
that is done the free, unordered. unconven-
tional worship begins again. There is another
sermon, to which he listens who Wills 500 or
800 people gathering about the preacher. There
is display of holy relics, which the people de-
voutly kiss. There is perpetual. incessant,
persistent and obtrusive passing of contribu-
tion boxes.
The glory of the interior Of the Antwerp
Cathedral is its great picture, the "Descent
from the Cross" 1t is the first thing you see as
you 60 in the transept door. The elevation
of the Cross" hangs on one side of the chancel-
opening. facing the nave, and the Descent
from the Gross" hangs on the other side. For
the first time you see great religious picture
Just where it belongs, on the walls of a church,
uplifting devotion and helping prayer. Fortu-
nate burghers of Antwerp with the music of
the cathedral chimes raining down upon them
every day, and these great pictures Of Ruben's
in their sight at least every Sunday.
nNE of the queerest sights In Antwerp Is the
~ Calvary" which is built beside the walls
of st, Paul,s church. You wander through the
crooked streets, which are twisted and tangled
and tied up into hard knots at every other cor
ner. and SO narrow and scanty Of sidewalk that
you 90 in the middle of the road, and you come
out at last into the presence of the most singu-
lar spectacle. Long ago the monks of st.
Dominic, who worshiped at St. Paul's, con-
ceived the idea of representing the crucIfxion
in life-size figures and upon the summit of an
artificial hill beside the church. And there it
is 10 day. You approach between rows of weep
ing angels, Behind them on the left are figures
of the Old Testament prophets standing about
on the green lawn, or set high against the outer
wall of the church. On the right are the apostles
statues large as living men. Before you, away
up in the air is the great crucifx standing out
against the sky as it stood at Golgotha. The
Blessed Virgin and st. John stand on either
side. A little below is Adam with his spade;
from beneath the cross death il skeleton
shape looks up. At the base Of this black hill
is the holy sepulcher. Beside 1t are the watch
ing soldiers. You look in and there lies the
dead Christ waiting for the moment of the
resurrection. On one side, little away, He
appears risen to Mary In the garden. On the
other side. behind stout iron gratings, are seen
the faces Of people amid the flames of purga-
tory lifting up beseeching eyes. and little
cherubs telling them the good news of Easter.
Antwerp is partly French and partly Dutch.
The names of the streets, which are posted al
the corners. are in both languages: advertise.
g. -1.s...