The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-22
IVbvr Ch,zstmas Massy Arc Said Lu OM s. AngNstlne
 7be Catheaya/ Chuych 4 ReAc of Spauuh Flor1da

enlarged. The walls of the main edifiee
 were uninjured, and in the tower is one
 of the original bells bearing the inscrip-
 ton, "Sancte Joseph. Ora Pro Nobis D.
 1882"
 The walls of coquina stone. a native
 shell formation, are of rich creamy tint like marble mellowed with age. This material, like a monolith, characterizes the old Spanish buildings. but its plastic quality was not turned into decorative uses in the old cathedral. It's facade IS of great simplicity, unembelshed with carvings, the cathedral entrance being marked with two pillars on either side, and which, with the exception of statue in a niche above them and the silent bells suspended Just below the cross, form It's only ornamentation. You as | cend two or three low steps and enter the l small vestibule The greater part of the | interior Is necessarily mere restoration. | but the windows. three on each side, were ! evidently part of the original build <, ing, for fin the two wings that have been added to the cathedral the arrangement of the windows is wholly different. Little
 attempt at interior decoration has been | attempted. Below the windows, which are placed high enough to admit of sucn an arrangement, are square paintings set at intervals along the walls. The onk ceiling is lighted In an ornate manner. The one or two celebrated paintings that the cathedral boasted were burned. Early records of Spanish Florida refer to the covered pews in St. Joseph's. But you kneel in a modern pew, and glance furtively at the names. unmistakably
 Spanish, that are inscribed upon many
 of them. Your one regret Is that they are too legible, and cannot therefore be
 so slowly deciphered as would seem most
 suited to the most ancient church edifce in America. But even with modern pews and the addition of the two wings built
 in the shape of a cross there is a sense of antiquity, and as the incense rises
 from the censers you reconcile all dis- crepancies in the way of modern ar
 engagement, only wishing that the red
 velvet curtains which were hung in the
 seventeenth century about the pew of
 the Spanish governor could have re-
 mained. It is rather remarkable that
 there Is even a fragment of the old ca-
 thedral. few days after a Christmas mass I knocked at the bishops residence, which is separated from the church by a little garden path bordered with tall rose trees. The door of the bishops resi- dence Is almost line with the street.
 A fanciful wall of Coquina closes 1t r. together with the pink roses in the sun nlest part of the little garden which fills
 in the space between the cathedral The
 other side of the house oIens It's shut ters on St. George street. once blood red with a massacre.
 Father Croly," I asked of the young
 priest who came to the door. have any
 celebrations commemorating it's ceuten-
 nias ever taken place In the cathedral?'
 Nothing" said Father corly solemnly
 and rather sadly as if he wished 1t had
 been otherwise. There had been spe-
 cial mass in the old Spanish fort, but
 In the cathedral church-well-only the
 established feasts of the saints, only tho
 masses for the dead-and yes-there had
 been a pontiicial mass to his recollec-
 tion-but Father Croly remembered noth-
 ing more.
 Entering the dim recesses of the cathe-
 dral today, It's doorways swinging into
 the narrow little street. instantly floods
 the mind with thoughts of the varied
 fortunes through which it has passed
 and of what it has withstood, war, pil- lage, fire. and of the strange throngs that
 have gathered for the Christmas masses
 of the holy orders that were early es-
 tabllshed in Spanish Florida, of the mas sacre of the friars.
 And now passing T. -f ,7ish the doors. after q lapse of ceT Les. are the gather
 ing .throngs that. as Pierre Lott, un- believer that he was, described in the Church of the Holy Sepuehre, crowds : that gather and weep in their human veneration of places and memories. And what he said of the kneeling throng be- side him. 70, Christ, for whom all thess crowds gather and weep-Christ; for whom this poor old woman, prostrated near me. leaning against the flags her miserable heart. while weeping delicious tears of hope--Christ who holds me. me also. in this place. like her, in vague. yet very sweet meditation.