Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1896-12-03


Maryland. The City of Monuments!
The city OF to-day and the city of yes
terday The city that offers home.
comfortable, modern and we'll built, at
a reasonable price, so that the working
man may live, as he should, in house
by bimself. II is the city of continual
contrasts. Yesterday | looked with
wonderment at the rows upon rows OF
beautiful modern houses 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 terraced
garden, in which lived the old Quaker,
Johns Hopkins, whose name to-day is
almost synonymous with science, ad-
vance and education. 1 fly across the
town in clean, fast cars that make those
used in New York disgrace, and, be-
hold it is not to day. 1t Is not yester-
day. 1t is over hundred years ago.
am knocking for admission at the
door of a convent, and, although l am
expected, lay my card on the revoly-
ing shelf that spends half its life in
the outer world-tbe busy, bustling.
brutal world-and the other half in the
world where all is piety and sweetness
and goodness. A low, clear voice directs
me to enter the opposite room; it is
plain, but scru pulously clean. A few
chairs and few religious pictures are
its only furniture. As seat myself l
am opposite a grating that extends
from ceiling to floor, and the inner
side Of which has, hung before it, a
full curtain of black serge. In few
minutes sweet voice-all the Car
melite ladies have voices that sound
like music greets me with, "Good
morning." Did you ever talk to any
body with serge curtain and grating
between you two2 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 no.
body, find ourselves i'll at ease with a
companion that is voice and soul,
but no visible body. However, as
Mother Raphael is gentlewoman, a
few minutes puts me at my ease. and
I imagine the dignitied form that |
do not see. | ask about the life of the
community. | wonder if you could
live it? 1t means life of fasting and
prayer; it means life given up OK.
clusirely to intercession for those who
forget to pray for themselves; it meant
life of such -abnegation as few
women dare to try; and yet, there is nc
community In the world in which the
members live to be so old as in those
Of the Carmelite. The Carmelites are
an cid, very old order. In France,
they always commanded, not only thu
love, put the respect of the people, ant
when, in the eighteenth century, tn,
most brilliant of the daughters of Loui
XIV. saw and predicted the horrors tina
were coming, there was little surpris
when she became q Carmelite. On,
day she was in the Court of France
handsome, brilliant and witty; tn,
next day she had taken the VOWS of
Carmelite nun and was out of tn,
world which she had adorned. When
ever the King was in doubt it was {,
this daughter that he went for wisdom
she had the brain Of man with th
heart of woman, and if her fathe
had followed her advice the Frencl
Revolution might have been delayed
but who can sayf In religion, Madam
Louise was known as Sister Teresa @
st. Augustin, and her picture adorn
almost every Carmelite community
She led a beautiful life and died
saints death. AS Mother Raphael wa
telling me about this interrupted be
and asked:
when did the Carmelites come
this country?''
She says: 1.-THE few sisters who be
lieved it would be wise to make fo
themselves a home in the New World
after a long and wearisome voyage {
many months, took possession of thei
home on the Feast of st. Teresa, Octe
Der 18th, 1880, in Charles county, Nc
Those sisters worked very hard, BIT
never grew weary in well-doins
Several American ladies' Joined til
order, and one or two of them brougf
in with her dowery some slaves.
time, the number of slaves owned b
the community was 80, men, wome
and children. Out houses were bui
for them, and they were treated as IL
children of the convent. The wome
were taught to sew, to cook, and
make their homes comfortable; IL
men were encouraged to work. to sa,
their money, and the little children ha
their school, while to all of them Il
knowledge of God was preached, NJ
only in sermons, but in every way DO
sible. The time came when the hon
in Charles county grew too small;
was thought best for the community
emigrate to Baltimore, and then the
arose most important question-wh
was to be done with the colored peopl
The Sisters could not support the
in the city; they would not sell ther
and they could not be certain that al
one else would look after them in ii
little group OF houses that had form
their homes. So they called the
together and the Superior told the
he conclus ion which had been reache
1t was this: Each head Of fami
was to select who, among the neghbo
ing gentry, he would like best as
master, and his choice meeting wi
the approval of the community, he W
to 60 to the home which he had chose
That there was wisdom in this meth,
of arranging for their happiness W
shown by the fact that each chose
good, kind, brOad-minded master
mistress, and in the years that follow,
they never forgot the gentle Sisters wi
had cared for them so long, and th
regularly wrote them, telling of the
joys and sorrows. At the time that Il
Sisters came TO Baltimore there exist,
fear that the British were goil
to attack the city, and among o
chronicles is story about this that
rather amusing. In those days the
were few carriages, fewer omnibuse
and of course, no street cars; so Il
nuns walked, two by two, through Il
streets to the archbishop's palac