The Irish standard., 1894-08-11
TO MIND.
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AnLLLD IL M lv1I
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present convent, some three miles fur
ther down the river. The old building
still stands, however, though all around
it, almost hiding it from view, houses
have been built since the sisters quilted
the cloisters. "It is now almost fallen in
to decay" says recent visitor to the
place. 1.-THE bricks are dented in the
garden wall, and the mortar has dropped
out, leaving in places deep crevices
As to the building itself you would say,
gazing at it, that it needs but fresh
plaster to replace that which now only
partially covers the bricks, to look as
smart as any of the surrounding houses.
A peaked roof, numerous windows OF
ancient pattern, furnished with the small
panes Of glass of the days of regent of
Orleans, a porch leading into spacious
vestibule, this is the picture that meets
the eye as one enters the garden by the
door of the porter's ledge and eontem-
plates the old convent. Inside, the same
aspect Of antiquity mark how slight the
change in the convent of to-day from the
convent of the past. The great doors
held in their places by rusty hinges;
broad staircase of the olden days, with
iron balustrsdes, and the steps worn
with the footsteps of the hundreds who
assembled them and who ascend them no
more; even the original cypress floors,
worn, too, like the stairs, with footsteps,
and cool with countless scrubbing with
the dust # the red and yellow brick,
while the wood has receded around the
roughly made nails-all seems to be as
it was in that period of Arcadian print
tives, when the alligators splashed in the
neighboring swamp, the frog croaked
csaselessly in their watery beds, even at
the gate in the wall, and the moccasin
basked I'm needed in the sun, on the logs
that covered the river bank where now
stands the United States mint"
Abandoned as it is, though, this old
convent in the lower quarter of New
Orleans stands as reminder OF the de-
claration which President Jefferson
made to it's inmates over ninety years ago,
when he assured Mother Farjon and her
religious associates that the principles
Of the constitution and government OF
the United States were made ample
guarantees that they would be protected
in all their rights Of ownership, and
pledges, moreover, that the government
would neither undertake itself, nor al
low any other agency to undertake, the
slightest Interference with the religious
rights of it's inmates or their manage
ment Of the convent and the educational
establishement attached to it. It is q
reminder, too, of the fact that when the
armies of the countries were battling, on
the plains Of Chalmette, in 1915 for the
| maintainence of the American Union,
the preservation of American liberty and
the continuance of American institutions,
the sisters of this historic house gathered
around them the women of New Orleans
and prayed necessarily for, and in their
way helped to win, the glorious victory
| which jackson won on Jan. 8 of that
year over the British invaders of Louis
lana, men of the same birth, singularly
enough, as are many of the modern "a
natics and bigots who are now vainly
endeavoring to prejudice American opin-
ion against the Catholic church.