Morning journal and courier., 1890-07-18
Blessing the Sea at Ostend.
IGaIignani Ustenu Cofresponuence l.. n.iand uuiIh ika hinh

Modern Ostend, with its high Flsmish renaissance villas, It's Hollands-By zsntine Kursaal, and its chalet-palsce, has only a
 very remote connection with the "hideous
 seaport townn to which worthy Dr. Baron
 yon Glauber was accustomed to respectfully
 conduct his noble patients from Pumpre-
 nickel for their annual "dib" in the ocean.
 The "exceedingly dear and uncomfortable
 lodging house" where Major Loder and Cap
 tain Rock used to cheat poor Jos Sedley at
 cards, has long since been superseded by such luxurious establishments as the Hotel de la Page; and doubt if single pile remains of the mean little wooden ietty along which Amelia walked in the rain, while she waited for the arrival of the faithful Dobbin. There was, however, an Ostend long before Thack- eray,s days, which was more famous for its Notifications and its sieges than for it's bath Ing and its oysters; but the old Ostend is clean forgotten, although the quaint octago- nal brick tower of the church dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul formed part of it, and was kept in repair by the tithes of the honest herring-catchers, who regarded the annual | benediction of the sea as essential to the profitable exercise of their calling as the stoutness of their nets.
 The ceremonial formed pious prelude to the fishing season as far back as the fifteenth century ,and although the French sansculottes strictly forbade its observance, 1t was re- | sumed under the auspices of the First Consul and Emperor, and has fourished uninterrup. | tedly ever since. A woodcut in the Illus trated News of July, 1854, portrays it as talk ing place by the side of @ windmill on the ramparts, with the homely old Kursaal of th'
 Sedley- Osborne epoch, approached by rick | ety wooden bridge in the background. Tn
 windmill, the ramparts, and the salle de jer have all vanished, but the time-honored fet | survives, and the high altar was erected yes
 terday at e point on the "dyke," just mid
 way between the ostsnd of the past and tn fashionable Quartisr de POuest, which savor only of the present. As l emerged from tn
 Gothic railway station in the rain Co shove
 on ssblessing day" is de rigueur) King Leo pold drove up in e ponderous court carrisR on his way to Brussels, and the smiles wit which he acknowledged the salutations c 7 | his subjects afforded no indication that , hitch had arisen at the last moment in con nection with the anti-slavery negotiations , and that the gala dinner in honor of the Ger 8 eral Act had to be postponed.
 7 The "blessing of the sea" tnauguraft
 officially the summer season, and althoug
 Ostend (except at the last election) has "gor Liberal" the orthodox Catholic visitor sti 8 regards 1t in the light of e theological cond a tion precedent to bathing with beneficial rs suits. A long and narrow thoroughfar
 which commences as the Rue de Ia Chapel
 | ana boKLulHbteb ds tue flhhnuerenatfat
 takes you at once to the digue, and it was Y the further extremity of this street that yc b caught from afar faint glimpse of an Ia { fresco altar through vista of fir branche i, tri-oolor flags, and festoons of Chinese ls y terms. Clericals and non-clericals bury the d differences over the "blessing," which brin 70 so much grist to the common mill, and | is only distinction observable yesterday W
 that the former burned wax tapers in tn, windows, while the latter exhibited nothi he more scclesiastioal than fowers.
 v Threading ons's way through the der