The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-17
MIRACULOUS MANIFESTATIONS.
The Virgin in the Form of IA statu,
Makes Appearances at Tilly
France
From the New York Head.

Makes Appearances at Tilly,
France.
From the New York Herald.
Are we to have a new Lourdes? As
Lourdes superseded other earlier shrines,
is Tilly-sur-Seulles to supersede Lourdes.
For, whereas, in Lourdes, the Virgin has
long ceased to make her appearance in
person, she has been making herself Wis
ible in Tilly-sur-Seulles about a dozen
times during the past two months. The
phenomena are now beginning to attract
the attention of Paris and of the whole
world.
Tilly-sur-Seulles is a little village of
some 500 inhabitants situated in the de-
partment of CalvadOs, some five miles
from the station of Audrien, which is on
the Paris and Cherbourg railway.
On March is, at 4 o'clock in the after
noon a nun in one of the parOchial schools
was telling her pupils how they should
celebrate on the morrow the fete of the
good St. Joseph. She made much of his
relationship to the Blessed Virgin. A lit
tie girl, who had been listening with all
her ears, glanced out of the window, and
suddenly exclaimed:
Look, mqdami Look! There's the Bles-
The nun and her fifty pupils looked as
directed According to the testimony OF
these ffty-one pairs of eyes a statue Of
the Virgin was plainly visible at the foot
of a tree that stood upon a sloplng bit
of ground She held the infant Jesus in
her arms, and was surrounded by q daz-
zling nimbus or halo.
The news of the apparition spread All
the netghbors came rushing to the sa-
cred spot. They have been rushing there
ever since. They have been followed BY
their neighbors, and these in turn Cwheu
all the facts had got into the papers) by
pilgrims from every city in France. Even
the angel Gabriel of Paradise street has
been temporarily obscured in Paris. The
apparitions at lilly are the town talk.
And now 1t is not merely the fifty school
children and the nun who have seen the
vision. Seeing visions has become IN
fictitious. More pairs Of eyes have been
blessed with sight of the Virgins statue
Every day adds to their number.
The vision only appears in the after
noon. At about the hour when # may be
expected strange and ill-assorted crowd
gathers around the tree. Priests and nuns.
peasants and substantial farmers. fasn
ionable ladies and gentlemen and honest
bourgeois from the cities, believers and
sceptlcs, Worshippers and scoffers, all min
gle together. Believers and WOrshippers a re
large in the majority. They throw them
selves upon their knees in the dust when
it is fine weather in the mud when Il
is rainy They remain there praying and
singing in an ecstasy of enthusiasm far
into the night. once in a great while
these devotions are interrupted by a voice
crying out with wondering JOY:
Look, there IS iti'
And then everybody holds his breath
ana strives 10 see for himself, and some
times his imagination assists him into
vision, but II not he and his fellows hud-
die round the more fortunate devotee and
strain their ears to catch every word NJ
description that falls from his hallowed
lips. But why say "he" and "his?' If is
quite as often "she" and her The
women, indeed, have been even more
beautifully blessed than the men with the
sight that all have gathered to witness.
Yet the number of seers. either mon oT
women, is wonderfully small when Won
consider that nearly two score thousand
the place.
In fact, leaving out the original fifty
one, you can count on your fingers the
people to whom the Blessed Virgin has
vouchsafed to make herself visible
hairdresser, wealthy farmer a cowgirl
a travelling salesman (heaVen save the
mark, and steward of the Prince de
BroSl-e, are among the number. The lat
ter, just after the vision, happened to
pull his handkerchief out of his pocket
1t was covered with blood.
Here are the four evidences which 20
to prove diabolical agency.
l. The memory of the old sorcerer, Vim
Tras, who performed many incantations
at lilly during. his lifetime, and is said
to have left behind him a prophecy that
extraordinary events would happen here
toward the end of the century.
2. Very notable differences in the stat
ues or images, which are seen by different
witnesses.
9. sundry lightnings, will O. the wisps or
other strange appearances which have
been seen here and there on various DAYS
4. A great trouble and even a great fear
that disturbs the souls of those who have
seen the apparitions or have even stood
on the spot where they have been seen by
others.
Pretty conclusive evidence, you might
think But don't make up your mind at
once. Hear both sides. Wait until you
have heard the four evidences in favor of
a celestial origin. Here they are:
1. The unanimous persuasion Of compe-
tent Witnesses who all bel eve that they
have seen an apparitton Of the holy virgin
2. The circumstances that the appari-
tions occur or the property Of a man who
rightly passes for a saint.
3. The fervor of the prayers that gem
orally accompany the apparition, and the
fact that the apparition is most dazzling
when the prayers are at their hight and
vanishes when they cease.
4. The results which so far have attend
ed the phenomenon. whose only aim seems
to be to excite to prayer and fervor a
large number of men who have prayed
very little for long period of time