The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-29


city that offers, for a small sum, home,
comfortable, modern and well-bullt, at a
reasonable price, so that the workingman
may live, as he should, in a house by him
self 1t is the city of continual contrasts.
Yesterday l looked with wonderment at
the rows upon rows Of beautiful modern
houses that had been built since I last
saw Baltimore. and the day before adj
mired the quaint old two-story house with
its attick window and surrounded by a
terraced garden in which lived the old
Quaker, Johns Hopkins, whose name to-
day is almost synonymous with science,
advance and education. fly across the
town in clean. fast cars that make those
used In New York a disgrace, and, be.
hold! it is not to-day. J. IS not yesterday!
1t is over a hundred yea,e ago.
am knocking for ADMISSION 1T the door
of a convent, and, although l am expected,
/ 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
sweetness and goodness. A low, clear voice
QAGNkS nd ~ CAAANi NAAS CPRSSAN~ ~NAAAf - -
plain, but serupulously clean. few
chairs and few religious pictures are its
only furniture. AS l seat myself l am OPP
posite a grating that extends from ceiling
to floor, and the inner side of which has,
hung before 1t, full curtain Of black
serge. In a 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 serge curtain and 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 l who are embarrassed at meet
ing nobody, find ourselves i'll at ease with
a companion that is voice and soul, but
no Visible body. However. as Mother Ra-
phael is a gentlewoman, a few minutes
puts me at my ease, and imagine the dig
nified form that do not see.
1 ask about the life of the community.
1 wonder if you could live it? 1t means
a life of fasting and prayer; it means
life given up exclusively to intercession
for those who forget to pray for them
selves; it means a life of such self abne-
cation as few women dare to try and
yet there is no community in the world
Ia which the members live to be so old
as in those of the Carmelite. The Carme-
lites are an old, a 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 sur
prise when she became a Carmelite. One
day she was in the court of France, hand
some, brilliant and witty; the next day
she had taken the vows Of a Carmelite
nun, and was out of the world which she
had adorned. Whenever the king
was in doubt it was to this
daughter that 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.
oiution might have been delayed-but who
can say? In religion Madame Louise was
known as Sister Teresa Of st. Augustin,
and her picture adorns almost every Car
melite community. She led a beautiful
life and died a saints death. As Mother
Raphael was telling me about this l In
terrupted her and asked:
when did the Carmelites come to this
country"
She says: 1.-The few sisters who believed
it would be wise to make for themselves
a home in the new world, after a long
and wearlsome voyage of many months,
took possession of their home on the Feast
of st. Teresa, Oct. 49, $780, in Charles
county, Maryland. Those sisters worked
very hard, but never grew weary in we'll
doing. Several American ladies Joined
the order, and one or two of them
brought in with her dowery some slaves.
In time the number of slaves owned by
the community was thirty, men, women
and children. Out houses were built for
them, and they were treated as the chill
dren of the convent. The women were
taught TO sew, TO cook and to make their
homes comfortable; the men were encour-
aged 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 sermons but in
every way possible. The time came when
the home in Charles county grew too
small: 1t was thought best for the commu-
nifty to emigrate to Baltimore, and then
there arose a most important question
what was TO be done with the coloFed peo-
pie?
The sisters could not support them In
the city; they would not sell them, and
they could not be certain that any one
else would look after them in the little
group of houses that had formed their
homes. So they called them together and
the superior told them the conclusion
which had been reached. 1t was this:
Each head of a family was to select who.
among the nelghboring gentry, he would
like best as a master, and his choice
meeting with the approval of the COM
munity, he was to go to the home which
he had chosen. That there was wisdom in
this method of arranging for their happi-
ness was shown by the fact that each
chose a good, kind, broadminded master
or Mistress and in the years that follow
lowed they never forgot the gentle sisters
who had cared for them so long, and they
regularly wrote them, telling of their joys
and sorrows. AT the time that the sisters
came TO Baltimore there existed a fear
that the British were going to attack the
city, and among our chronicles is a story
about this that is rather amusing. In
those days there were few carriages. few
or omnibuEes, and Of course, no street
cars; so the nuns walked, two ny two,
through the streets to the archbishop s
palace. where they were TO rest before Gu
tering their home. The archbishop had
an old colored servant. who was a great
coward, and when he saw these strange
figures. swathed in white nantes, and
wearing long black wells. going up the