Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-29
A PEEP INTO THE PAST.
rwnrrrrs ron THE DrsrArcH.r

| III Wnicn men nave salu tnelr prayers ioI
hundreds of years, or an old custom which
has come down out of antiquity, provokes
curiosity, inspires imagination, taxes one
| out Of the present into the past, and has an
interest and q value which do not depend
| on the outward appearance.
lam writing this at Canterbury. beneath
| the shadow of the most venerable and the
! most interesting of English Cathedrals.
| Almost everything here is u window through
| which to look into the past. Yesterday Canon
| Dremantle took me for u long walk out
| to Harbledown,a hamlet named in Chaucer,
| from whose hill. beside the windmill, there
| Is wonderful view OF the great church
| towering up over the low red roofs OF the
| town. The path was that along which the
Canterbury pilgrims went in the old days
bearing there votive offe rings to the shrine
of Beckett. We stopped at the old almshouse
| of ST. Nicholas, which was once a hospital
for lepers in the iays before scientific sani-
tation had dispelled that plague. In the
| little church, where there are benches
which date back to the fourteenth century,
upon which generations of restless Chris
tians have set to hear the admonitions of
| the preacher, we saw the lepers' chapel,
| where, with a screen of oak between them
and the congregation, these miserable
people said their pitiful prayers.
Where the Past Was Recalled.
THERE is a long flight of steps down into
the road. And down these steps, in
the Middle Ages. hurried one of the brothers
of the Monastic family whenever the sound
of the feet of the horses of the pilgrims
came along the way, and In one hand he
carried wooden bowl, in the bottom of
which was set big crystal which had once
adorned the shoe buckle of St. Thomas O
Beckett, and in the other hand a small round
hxr 81,
significant slot for pennies. And the pill
grims would stop and kiss the relic of the
holy, blissful martyr and make their CRATE
full Offering. One day Erasmus and John
Colet passed along that road, and the monk
came down and offered the buckle to be
kissed, and they declined. 1t was a sign Of
the change of thought which was making
ready the Reformation. 1 saw the money
box which used to be heavy with the pill
grims' pennies, and the buckle which the
pilgrims used to kiss. And all that old life
seemed to come back, and could almost
fancy that we we're pious and oredulous pill
grims making a Canterbury journey of the
old kind. The interest OF travel depends
not so much on what one sees as on what
one thinks.
Every morning here, a little before 6
O'Clock, one of the cathedral bells is rung.
That bell rang in the Middle Ages, when
everybody who heard it stopped 9 mo-
ment in whatever he was doing and recited
the Hail Mary" Day after day, from that
old time to this, through all the troubles and
all the changes, that bell which walked me
up this morning has wakened sleepy peo-
pie into the light of the new dawn. The
monks were listening to it before America
was known.
Old Customs and Ceremonies.
EVERY night the watchman makes his
rounds here in the precincts, within the
walls which stood guard when the cathedral
was a monastery church and calls the hours
Twelve o'clock! a cloudy night! all is
well?' I remember at Ripon, when the
bell of the cathedral rings for curfew, how
the Waterman, whom they call the wake
man, stands in the square before the town
hall and blows blast upon an ancient horn
1t used to be the summons for the watch to
go on duty. To-day it is only a relic OF old
times.
The other day when Parliament met
among many other ceremonies which once
meant great deal more than they do at
present, they kept q custom which began in
the days Of the gunpowaer plot. They sent
down a company of men to search the eel |
lars of the Parliament House for GUY
Fawkes. And after looking into all the
closets and corners, they came back and re-
ported that neither Guy Fawkes nor any
other Objectionable or dangerous individual |
was to be discovered. 1 read of |
that with pleasure, a pleasure which was |
emphasized by the fact that ust at that |
There was looking at the actual lantern
which Guy Fawkes carried, kept in the |
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. That bat |
tered old lantern was in his hand when
they found him beside the casks of powder |
What an addition of the picturesque it is to |
modern life to have that old conspiracy re-
membered! The present gains mmensely |
by being BET against che dim background of |
the past. In these days OF common sense |
we have need of all the sentiment that |
association can bring in. The ground was |
potatoes. Flowers grow well in it, also,
and we need all the flowers that we can |
have in our gardens, in our behavior Life |
Is more dignified and graceful and pic |
turesque here in this old country than it is |
with US.
Comforting Degrees at Oxford.
Il SAW a number of degrees conferred |
one morning in Oxford. They were chiefly |
degrees of Master Of Arts. The sight was
an interesting one. and illustrated we'll that
element of the picturesque in which they
excel here. The great hall of the Sheldonian
Theater was crowded with spectators. The
dons and fellows were conspicuous in gowns
and hoods, set out with brilliant colors. The
comforting of the honors was pronounced in
the old Latin. 1t had most dignifled sound,
was quite free from the continental pro-
nunciation which in most of our schools
makes gibberish out of the language of old
Rome, and was listened to with great at
tention. So far as 1 could understand 1t,
consent was asked-somewhat as in the |
service-to the procedure of the |
the names OF the men being read |
out. Then two proctors, in cap and gown
and hood, marched up the hall and then
down again past the people who were
seated on the benches. and whoever
would might, as mark of disap-
proval, pluck them by the sleeve, and
prefer complaint. Hence the slang term
'plucking" as applied to failure to get a
degree. The proctors made their procession
That, 1 believe, is the invar-
able way of it nowadays, though trades
men have been known to make threats of
Interference in view of unpaid bills. After
he proctors' march, the gentlemen who
we're now permitted to write NJ A. after
heir names went out by the great gate
where their scouts were in waiting, and
here attired themselves in masters hoods
,f bright color 1t was much more of q
spectacle than the commencement day sight
which is common among us, of q company
ii monotonous young mon in dress coats
reaching out their hands for rolls of sheep
kin.
Where this New Is Very Old.
THEY m AXE more of the past over there
;han we do. One reason is, of course, that
hey have more past. We are but of yester-
lay. dined the other day with
Edward Everett Hale, and he told me
hat he had occasion some time ago to look |