Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1907-05-12

men to descend upon the Austrians
and mile farther along his engi
neers cut down and followed out the
hardy pines as castings for artillery Il
be hauled over the pass.
AT last the diligence rattles up Ia
the Cantlne de PROF., and here Is q
telephone up to the hospice; for svel
the monks In this remote spot ART
moving with the times, and have even
supplemented their stable of forty.flve
horses, that transport fuel and pro
visions. with II garage containing two
fast and powerful automobiles. w.
are already eight thousand feet above
J sea level. and suddenly turn OF the
/ road shows the gray, bare buildings
o! the worlds loftlest home of chart
|ty.
But as we had prosaically 'phoned
up from below, our coming is ex
nected, and deep, hoarse bayings
burst startlingly upon the tomblIk
silence. Twelve or fourteen power.
ful ST. Bernards run to greet MS.
A new building has recently been
pnt up to accommodate visitors. 1t
is the reverend prior, Professor Lu.
gor, and the almoner. Dr. Jules Oar
bcllay, who receive vlsitors.-men of
sweet. simple manners, with unnffect-
ed welcome shining in their faces.
They and all their colleagues are IN
the long black robe of the ST. Angus.
tine order. with narrow white band
at the neck, and black conical cap.
How Guests Are Treated.
"You shall have some not soup i'm
mediately." they say, leading the way
tc the reception room. past the post
and telegraph office, whose wires arc
often completely buried in drifts of
fifty feet. In the reception room Is
n piano. sadly ont Of tune. which King
Edward, when Prince OF Wales. GA, @
to- HE monks nearly hal' n century
ago in memory Of his visit The walls
are covered with charming paintings
ard nigihvines. most ~ them pres
onts from admirers. Ones lid room
Is Immediately assigned. and cvurv.
thing in It. while perfectly simple, Is
Immediately clean and III sltin% WITT
snowy linen. dainty cur ans. rI5.nv-
ings after the old masters, and snow
white rugs There is hardly Al DIS
tinguishcd person @! modern times
who has not spent the night here:
and many of these have left signed
portraits.
After Il hot supper. with copious
iibations OF good wine. ynu 80 cut
into the valley of Death" To recon
hotter. Here Is M environment of
fantastic and tormented mountains,
set In the climate Of Arctic SpitZber.
gen. For nearly Il thousand years Il
band of twenty monks and ten or
twelve minor attendants have been
stationed here to aid travellers cross
ing one of the worlds most important
and most dangerous mountain passes.
DR.. Darbellay says they have enter
tanned as many as five hundred guests
In single day. But their most an
Xious season is when the poor Italian
| laborers begin to cross the pass into
Switzerland and Germany looking for
work. These almost invariably arrive
! greatly exhausted from hunger anu
| fatigue. and sometimes badly frozen,
| and We're 1t not for the dogs the NOR
tality among them would he terrible
during the long nine months of win
ter. As 1t Is. there Is work In plenty
| for the fatherly old monk known as
| the infirmier, who has charge of the
sick and comforts the dying In their
last extremity.
They do their shopping mostly In
Aostn, the nearest town, which is
on the Italian side of the Alps, about
eight hours down Day by day one
will see mules bringing up provisions.
vegetables, Tread. meat, fruit, wine
! and other necessares, these an
imals are met by another file of
horses bringing up firewood from the
Val Ferret, where the monastery
| ,f IL, Il
The library of the hospice contains
priceless collection OF coins almost
exclusively Roman, dating back to the
time when Mount Jovls, as the Great
st. Bernard was called in Roman
days, was an important military sta.
ton on the way over into Gaul. There
are several yotive tablets of the Ro.
man period, and In one of them poor
"tabellarius" thanks Jupiter for hav-
Ing brought him safely on his diff
cult way over the dread snow peaks
into the Province of Gaul. which is
| modern France. The monks occupy
themselves with the study of natural
science. history, astronomy, and me-
teorology. The present Abbot, Mon
seiSneur Bourgeois. has made Il con-
siderable name for himself In the
world Of science, and has established
other hospices near the summit of
the newly tunneed Simplon and the
| Little st. Bernard.
Each monk has his own particular
office; and considering the utter
loneliness of The life, the sense of
alnifness from the world, has the
| frightful rigors of the climate, it Is
no wonder their health of service, and
that most of them are forced to re-
tire to milder climates at the age of
thirty The curious thing is that
German and French monks, and even
all Swiss except those from the one
Canton of Valais, find the climate In.