The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1903-09-28
LAST OF CRANE cHARTREusE.

Passing of the Great Monastery
Founded Nine Hundred Years Ago.
I went the other day into the depart
ment of the Dauphine in order to form
an opinion for myself as to the proba-
BILE effect upon the population of the
suppression of the Grande Chartreuse
and of the disposal of the monks. who.
during so many years, have been the
providence of the country. 1t is cal
cuIated that they have spent all told in
the last fifty years in works of benevo-
lence not less than twenty million dol
lars. @.
Out of one hundred and fifty monks
and friars who occupied, until recently,
the great monastery, which was found
ed by st. Bruno nine centuries ago, only
ten or fifteen remained, and these
harmless and benevolent men We're to
be expelled before the end of the month
without the least profit to the govern
ment The buildings, which We're rent
ed from the state by. the Carthusians
for about six hundred dollars per an
mum, are of no value whatever to any
one but the monks. When, in 1897, an
inquiry was made by the government
as to their intrinsic value, the report
closed with these words: The isola-
ted situations of these buildings and es-
tates at great height in the noun
tains and their vast size and extent
esctE 10
1t had been proposed that in case Of the
suppression of the monastery the build
ings should be turned into a sanatoriun1,
but even this is rendered impractical
BILE, in the first place by the humidity
of the buildings, and in the second by
climatic conditions. The thermometer
often marks fall of between fifteen or
twenty degrees in single day. 1t is.
therefore, more than probable that
these admirable buildings. once aban-
doned, will soon fall to ruin. However,
most people thereabout believe that 1t
will not be long before the monks are
invited to return and reoccupy them.
The Carthusians never troubled them-
selves about politics. Their order re-
mains unchanged since 1t was first in
stituted by st. Bruno, being purely
contemplative, and its members are,
therefore, Indifferent to what is going
on beyond the walls of their monastery,
which Is really refuge for those'who
have suffered the slings and arrows Of
outrageous fortune" and who have
sought within It's wallis that peace Of
mind and hope In God which they have
looked for in vain elsewhere. The holy
men who have dwelt here so long have
left their home without a, murmur of
regret or complaint; their only trouble
is that their altered circumstances will
prevent them continuing their benefac-
| lions as heretofore. And those benefac-
lions were on a prodiglous scale, for
their purse strings were always open
whenever an appeal was made in their
patriotism or their charity. After the
war Of 1870 they sent a donation Of
thirty thousand dollars toward the in
demnity. Quite recently they setn ten
thousand dollars to the victims Of the
catastrophe at Marge-a-Vo and
only few weeks ago two thousand dol
lars to the Bretons. They contributed
two years back not less than twelve
thousand dollars to the construction Of
secular (not clerical1 schools in the de-
partment. The magnificent hospital.
which they have recently built at st.
Laurient-d -Pont six miles from the
monastery, contained eighty beds, and
was supported by the monks with an
annual subsidy of twenty thousand
dollars. Among their other innumera-
BILE benefactions may be cited amagni-
ficent school for deaf m,ites under the
direction. of the brothers of st. Gabriel.
1t contained Until quite recently eighty
children, and cost the monks fourteen
thousand dollars q year. Unfortunate
~ 1t is now closed, and the poor chill
dren have been sent home to their pa
rents, who will find them a terrible
burden, and 1t must, moreover, be re-
membered that they are the offspring
of peasants, whose pursuits, especially
in the summer months, necessarily pre-
vent their looking after them properly.
Pail Mall Gazette.
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