San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-12-09

ll8H3H 4 r.<lH II o u l u 10
go shoulder, even
W. in the two chap
J =, els on the right
-~ and left of the
apse, vast gathering of pale men
and women whose eyes were sad, and
in whose faces was written the history
of their nation. The mighty shafts
and pilasters of the gothic edifice rose
like the stems of giant trees in a
primeval forest from a dusky under
growth, spreading out and uniting
their stony branches far above in the
upper gloom. From the clerestory
windows of the nave an uncertain
light descended halfway to the depths
and seemed to float upon the darkness
below as oil upon the water of
well. Over the western en-
trance the huge fantastic or
gan bristled with blackened
pipes and dusty gilded ornaments of
colossal size, like some enormous
kingly crown long forgotten in the
lumber room of the universe furnished
and overlaid with the dust of ages.
Eastward, before the rail which sep
arated the high altar from the people,
wax torches, so thick that man
might not span one of them with both
his hands, were set up at irregular in
tervals, some taller, some shorter,
burning with steady golden flames,
each one surrounded with heavy
funeral wreaths and each having
tablet below it, whereon were set forth,
in the Bohemian idiom, the names,
titles and qualities of him or her in
whose memory it was lighted. In
Vulnerable lamps and tapers before
the side affairs and under the strange
canopied shrines at the bases of the
pillars struggled Intellectually with the
gloom, shedding but few sickly yell
low rays upon the pallid face of the
persons nearest to their light.
Suddenly the heavy vibration OF a
single pedal note burst from the or
gan upon the breathing silence, long
drawn out, rich, luminous and impoS-
ing. Presently, upon the massive bass,
great chords grew up, succeeding
each other in a simple mOdulation,
rising then with the blare OF trumpets
and the simultaneous crash of mix
lures, fifteenths and coupled pedals
to deafening peal, and then subsiding
quickly again and terminating in one
long sustained common chord. And
now as the Celebrant bowed at the
lowest step before the high altar, the
voices of the innumerable cOngrega-
ton joined the harmony Of the organ,
ringing up to the groined roof in an
ancient slavonic melody, melancholy
and beautiful, and rendered yet more
unlike all other music by the undetina-
BILE character of the Bohemian Ian
! guage, in which tones softer than
those of the softest southern tongue
alternate so oddly with rough gutter
ais and strident sibilants
The Wanderer stood in the midst of
the throng, erect, taller than the men
near him. holding his head high, so
that a little of the light from the
memorial torches reached his thought
| full, manly face, making the noble and
! passionate features to stand out clear
| ly, while losing it's power of illumina-
ton in the dark beard and among
the shadows of his hair. His was a
face such as Rembrandt would have
| painted, seen under the light that
| Rembrandt loved best; for the eX-
| preston seemed to overcome the sur
rounding gloom by its own luminous
quality, while the deep gray eyes
were made almost black by the wide
expansion of the pupils; the dusky
brows clearly defined the boundary in
the face between passion and thought;
and the pale forehead, by its slight
recession into the shade from its mid
die prominence, proclaimed the man
of art, the man of faith, the man oil
devotion, as well as the intuitive
nature of the delicately sensitive mind
and the quick, elastic qualities of the
mans finely organized, but nervou:
bodily constitution. The long white
fingers of one hand stirred restlessly
twitching at the fur of his broad
lapel, which was turned back across
his chest, and from time to time
he drew a deep breath and
sighed, not painfully, but YEARLY and
hopelessly, as a man signs who knows
that his happiness is long past and
that his liberation from the burden Of
life is yet far off in the future.
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