The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1902-11-16

Darkness finds them still k~neel;ng VII,
bowed heads.
of Mount Carmel and are followers of the
Church Of Rome.
Despite the fact that this strange order
Of women is a relic of the medieval age,
and that the daily routine of their lives is
entirely contrary to the dictates OF modern
civilization. they are gaining a strong foot
hold in this country.
Their converts and NUMBERS OF inmates
are steadily increasing.
In a gloomy looking little old house in
Philadelphia they have opened. or. mora
properly speaking, have entered and closed,
another convent of Mount Carmel.
| In 1t are clustered six young nuns.
There are also two lay sisters, who at
tend to the business OF the Institution.
| These six choir nuns. as those taking the
perpetual vows are called, have never since
the day OF their profession entered the
world.
They have not come In contact with the
casion. when they travelled from their
mother house. near Baltimore. to their new
| convent, in Philadelphia
No life known to modern times is, to the
average healthy mind. so absolutely epul-
sive and unnatural as that of the Carmente
nuns.
All the narrowing. abstemious details Of
their existence are Lot known except to u
few who have studied the religious orders
OF the Roman Catholic Church.
If their lives be unhappy or distasteful
in any way their secret is never known to
the world.
From the hour when they take their
final vows their faces are never seen
Neither father. mother nor sister may
ever look upon them again, and even their
yelled forms may not be seen.
SISTERS SPEAK FROM
BEHIND CURTAINED BARS.
When business or some other important
matter demands converse with the world
they speak from behind curtained bars.
Their voices are low and and musical. but
unnaturaily timii. as though they were
strangers to the language of the world,
and knew only the chant OF maths. the
lisping Of the rosary. the mysteries of the
stations. the 'Ora pro Nobis" and GLORIA
in Excelsis Dec" Of the vesper hymns.
And yet their lives are said to be filed
With ecstasy and content.
The daily life of q Carmelite nun is as
barren OF beauty and luxury, even Of what
are deemed by the very poorest as absolute
necessities. as Is the existence OF a doomed
convict.
Their bed Is q plain. hard board, their
clothes. winter AMI summer, are OF the
coarsest wooden. ever spotlessly clean. but
harsh, and in warm weather exceedingly
uncomfortable. srtHIHS
Their food Is ~scantier and less appetizing
than that OF the veriest wretch. The office
of their prayer is longer and more exact
ing than that of the most devout minister
on his most solemn fast day.
OF recreation and amusement they have
absolutely none. not even OF the most
childish and harmless kind.
Their day is begun at the first hour when
the chapel chimes toll IL.
Then they arise from their hard beds.
and In silence enter their sanctuary, where
an hour is spent in prayer to the God who
they believe created the beautiful world
which they have turned away from forever.
Their hour of midnight alteration ended,
they return to their board couches and rest
until the stars begin to pale, when a day
of work and fast and prayer is begun.
There is another hour before the altar,
and then what they very inappropriately
call breakfast.
BREAKFAST OF DRY BREAD
AND BLACK COFFEE.
Always the first meal of the day consists
of dry bread and black coffee. except that
in case of extreme illness an egg is given.
With this scant nourishment they start
the work and exacting prayer of the day.
After the tolling Of the midday Anselus
another repast, ironically called dinner, is
served.
DTy UTtdu- pialn btilcu poidlOcSs eOtiic
other ordinary vegetable and perhaps cod
fish balls or some other inexpensive fish
constitute the full menu of their midday
meal.
No butter. no sugar. no coffee. no tea,
never a beverage of any kind nor n relish
or dessert, and the taste of flesh of any
description is absolutely strange to them.
The Christmas and Thanksgiving turkeys,
the Easter hams and spring chickens and
every delight of gourmand and gourmet
are things of the past to these women. who
have consecrated-and one might almost
nav sacrihced-their lives to their God.
But probably the strangest and most re-
pulsive of all the customs Of the Carmelites
IL that Of placing on the dining table before
them a real skull as a reminder that death
must finally claim them all.
It is said that young noyices frequently
give up their scant meals for days before
they can accustom themselves TO the grew
somely nauseating object before them.
That ever grinning fieshless face is al
vays there. with its eyeless sockets, its,
brainless temples, its hollow checks and
set jaws that reveal every tooth Of the lip
less mouth.
But the young girls who enter the Car
melite converts must become Injured to this
sight.
they soon come to recognize the fact
that ere long their own living, warm-biood-
ed beauty must fade into just such an un-
slightly object as that before them.
There Is nothing Of the ever new. ever