The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1896-12-06
[BaIb Visiting 6m
Che Sunny 9OgE-ho

of yesterday! The city tnat QHeFS, LOT
small sum. a home, comfortable, modern
and well built, at a reasonable price, so
that the workingman may live as he
should, in house by himself. 1t is the
city OF continual contrasts. Yesterday L
looked with wonderment at the rows upon
rows of beautiful moderns house that had
been built since / last saw Baltimore,
and the day before | admired the quaint
old two-story house with its attic windows
and surrounded by a terraced garden,
in which lived the old Quaker, Johns Hop
kins. whose name to-day is almost synon-
ymous with science, advance and educa-
ton. | fly across the town in clean, fast
cars that make those used in New York
a disgrace. and. behold it is not to-day
1t is not yesterday. 1t is over hundred
years ago.
am knocking for admission at the door
of a convent, and. although, / am expect
ed. | lay my card on the revolving shelf
that spends half its life in the outer world
the busy. busting. brutal world-and
the other half in the world where all is
piety and goodness and sweetness. A low
clear voice directs me to enter the oppo-
site room: it is plain. but scrupulously
clean. 4 few chairs and few religious
pictures are its only furniture, As | seat
myself / am opposite q grating that ex-
tends from ceiling to floor, and the: inner
side Of which has hung before it, a full
curtain Of black serge. In few minutes
a sweet voice-all the Carmelite ladies
have voices that sound like music-greets
me with Good morning. Did you ever
talk to anybody with a serb ecurtain and
q grating between you two? just at first
you are curiously embarrassed; your voice
sounds extremely loud. your chair will
creak, and every time you move your
foot you are surprised at the amount of
noise you manage to make. You and
who are embarrassed at meeting nobody,
find ourselves i'll at ease with a companion
that is a voice and a soul, but no visible
body. However, as Mother Raphael is Il
gentlewoman, few minutes puts me at
my ease, and | imagine the dignfied form
that / do not see.
| ask about the life of the community.
l. wonder if you could live it? 1t means
a life of fasting and prayer; it means 4
life given up exclusively to intercession
for those who forget to pray for Them
selves; ii means life of much self-abne-
CATION as few women dare to try; and
yet there is no community in the world
in which the members live to be so old
as in those of the Carmelite. The Car
melites are an Old very old order. In
France, they always commanded not only
the love, but the respect Of the people,
and when in the eighteenth Century, the
most brilliant of the daughters of Louis
XIV. saw and predicted the horrors that
were coming, there was little surprise
when she became a Carmelite. One day
she was in the court of France, handsome,
brilliant and witty; the next day she had
taken the vows Of a Carmelite nun, and
was out of the world which she had adorn-
ed. Whenever the King was in doubt,
it was to this aughter he went for WIS
dom. She had the brain of man with
the heart of a woman, and if her father
had followed her advice the French rev.
olution might have been delayed-but
who can say? In religion Mime. Louise
was known as Sister Teresa of st. Angus
tine. and her picture adorns almost every
CarmeIite community. She led beauti-
full life and died a saints death. As
Mother Raphael was telling me about
this, / interrupted her and asked:
esWhen di the Carmelites come to this
country
She saws: "The few sisters who believ-
cd # would be wise to make for them
selves home in the New World, after
long and wearisome voyage of many
months. took possession Of their home
on the Feast Of St Teresa, October 10,
1870, in Charles county, Maryland. These
sisters worked very hard, but never grew
weary in well doing Several American
ladies Joined the order, and one or two
of them brought in with their dowry some
slaves. In time, the number of slaves
owned by the community was 30-men,
women and children. Outhouses were
built for them, and they were treated as
fhechildren Of the convent The women
were sought to sew, to cook and to make
their homes comfortable; the men were
encouraged to work, to save their money,
and the little children had their school,
while to all Of them the knowledge OF
God was preached, not only in the SER
mons. but in every way possible. Inc
time came when the home in Charles
county grew to small; it was thought best
for the community to emigrate to Baltl-
more. and then there arose most lmpor-
tant question-What was to be done with
the colored people?
tho civ. they could not sell them, and
they could not be certain that anyone else
wonId look after them in the little group
OF houses that had formed their homes.
So they called them together and the SUI
perior told them the conclusion which had
been reached. 1t was this: Each head OF
a family was to select whomsoever among
the neighboring gentry he would like best
as a master, and his choice meeting with
the approval of the community, he was to
90 to the home which he had chosen.
THAT there was wisdom in this Method of
arranging for their happiness waI shown
nv the fact that each chose a good, kind,
hroad-minded master or mistress, and in
the years that followed they forgot ae
Gentle sisters VINO had cared for thehI
So long. and they regularly wrote them,
telling Of their joys and sorrows.
AIT the time that the sisters came to
Baltimore, there existed a fear that the
british were going to attack the city.
ond among our chronicls is a story about
sbis that is rather amusing In those days
- ,,.oro faw carriages fewer Omni-