The Newtown bee., 1900-11-30

! oA Ill 8o1Msuts OA cAOtu UT XOlOs anu OI
 the heads of Mother and Child are crownl
 of gold set with precious stones. In tn, light of the candies that burn all about
 this altar and it's images, there is 8 rict resplendence of gold and silver and gems
 This Is tour Lady of the Hermite," tt
 whom Einsiedeln owes it's fame, before
 voutlY knelt in praise and prayer, among
 them many of the princes and nobles o1
 the earth. Hlther have come, often from
 remote regions, multitudes of men and women, rich and poor, high and low, learned and ignorant, to offer their hom. age, to present their gifts, to pour out their sorrows and supplications, to in. yoke miraculous healings and, as they
 have testified, not in vain. And still they come, these pilgrims, to this shrine o1
 great sanctity, sfngly, or in groups and
 companies, every year. every month,
 every week, and almost daily, from the Roman Catholic cantons of Switz zsrland, from Italy, from Austria, from Germany, from France, from Spain, from England
 and from America. The average yearl 2
 number of commuuions in this church, during the last 300 years, has been l5O., GOO! In 1710 1t was 261 ,OOOl In 1749 tt
 was 226 OOOl In tho Jubilee Year of 1861 1t was 210, 900! The annual number of pilgrims to this shrine is said to be ueSrly 14O.OOO! This is village whose inhap- itants, counting in those of all It's outly. ing parishes, number only about 6, 900!
 Th1nk, for instance, of $50 pilgrims, attended by 65 priests, coming here from
 Paris, marchin9 up through the town in solemn procession, sinRing hymns. amid the peal of bells from the church tower, and going up into the church! Think of them, and of their evening services before that holy shrine, of their enthusi. asm, their fervor, their tears and prayers and songs! think no one of you could fntelligently look on such a scene, or even upon that altar and its image, without deep emotion. Deprecste it all as you might, you would feel great surgings of soul. One day when was at Einsiedeln 6 large compspy of pilgrims from Basle arrived-2O0 or m. re. At nightfall they prepared to enter the church, and we followed them. Each pilgrim carried in
 his or her hand lighted candle or torch.
 There was no other light in the great church, save that of the candles before the altar in the Holy Chapel. Four abreast they marched in procession around the church aisles, again and again, singing their hymns with great 1erv0r. There was no sound of organ or Of other instrument. Then they all gathered about the Holy Chapel through
 whose screen the black Virgin is visible !; aud there they stood for . full hour. singing with earnestness various hymns printed on slips of paper which they all had in hand and read by their candles' light. O1e would start a song, and all would join. That finiehed,s some other person would immediately start another. Two women sang plaintive duet. How weird they all looked, in the gloom, with their dim tapers, in their homely dress. They were plain people. But such earnestness and such devoutness have seldom, If eyer, elsewhere, witne ssed
 My heart went out to them. I wanted to sing with them. It seemed ike an old fashioned revival meeting at it's height of interest. Similar pilgrimaees are continually occurring. Another scene recall. One afternoon we noticed that a large number of children had assembled
 in front of the church, and we proceeded
 to follow their movements. They were the children of the parish schools, going in with their teachers, to some service. The boys marched up one aisle, the girls up another, and came together before the choir, two or three hundred strong. The service was responsive, and the children and youths knew it perfectly. First the