Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-23

labyrinths and solitary cells and tiny
walled-up gardens. the raft Of the tourist
world up from Grenoble on an Alpine
holiday.
They come in Alpine cars and auto
mobile omnibuses. shaky four-horse dill
genceS. farmers carryallS. hired traps,
high-perched Italian landaus. short
bodied mountain autos, racing gear and
city limousines-all packed with women.
Lady tourists revel in the Grande Char
treuse. Grenoble has no financial regret
for the diSpOsSessed monks. For every
ten melancholy. abstemious man visitors
logged by pouting wives of the old days,
there are now a hundred giggling cou-
pies, caravans of mothers. daughters and
girl cousins dragging in their wake
footsore escort. guide-conducted bevies
bubbiing with the joy of life. honeymoon
pairs. engaged girls with their lovers,
daughters-to- marry-all the jodling razzle
of present-hour dauphiny in summertime,
profaning the hushed halls.
only. perhaps. when they get to the
lone cells. do they hush their gay babble
to evoke the tragic routine of their
former inhabitants.
The special curiosity of women for the
Grande Chartreuse depends of course.
upon their innate opposition to the arbi
trary and unusual prohibitions of the
past. which barred them from the entire
territory of the desert: but men and
women alike have always been awe
struck by the excessive severity of the
CarthuSian rule.
The learned fathers-Latin and bellies
lettres are essential-never spoke. HUI
man conversation existed no longer for
them. Each passed his life in a two
rocmed cell and hiSh-walled tiny garden
attached to it. In his cold Stone-vauted
vestibule The father might have turn
ing lathe or carpenters bench. or merely
chop his firewOod. for physical exercise.
In his solitary garden he raised vege-
tables. In his study room he read and
wrote.
His meals were handed in to him. He
never ate meat His usual food was
bread and beans. If he wanted a book
from the magnificent library he wrote
the title on a bit of paper for the serving
brother.
His life passed solitary silent-in a
great and rich community. He rose at
80 am. He glided through the corri-
doris to church at Il I'm. for prime at
= am. for fierce at 10 am. for
"sexte.' at II am. for Thanksgiving after
his solitary dinner. at 12:13 for none,
and at 2:4o pm for vespers. At 6 pm.
il was complies in his cell, and he went
to bed at $50 pm.
At II o'clock at night he rose for
mathis and at midnight he wen, to
the church again for mathis and lauds.'
They lasted until > am, when he went
back to bed.
The only breaks i'm this routine were
Sunday meals in common. without con-
verSatiOn. and a walk in procession
through the mountains once a week.
The visitors who used to get up at
midnight to tremble at the weird process
sion through the black cloister to the I'M
lit church never got over the impression.
1t was like seeing dead men rise from
mathis and lauds,' al! whitegarbed in
the silent darkness. each monk carrying
Pickering iron lantern. The church had
no organ. Only plain chant-a dead
grooming of the middle ages-echoed over
those dancing will-ofthewisp lights
in the black void.
Whenever women heard about the awful
sight they wanted much to see it. When
they learned the very outdoors of tbs
mountain were forbidden to them. their
desire augmented. So, from earliest days
there are tales of daring DISCUSSES by
which fair ones sought to slip in upper
ceived beside hen-pecked or merely
amused husbands, brothers, fathers,
uncles or cousins.
There is the instance of princess
of Piedmont who practiced diligently
during three months the obstructive
movement by which she would fool a
particularly keen-eyed Frere Hospitalier,