The San Francisco call., 1909-09-26

Nj "
N try against spelling evolution
wv with an r? France seems al
ways to have preferred the
initial consonant. and-sad result
in destroying objects which In her
mind stood in the way OF ma
tional happiness she has destroyed
her blessings as well as her
banes. So 1 thought when learned In
Paris that Marmoutier was doomed
Marmoutier, where Madge and I had
gone to school. to learn the pure French
of Touraine and the gentleness Of the
nuns Of Sacre-Coeur, and to love an
tiouity and sanity legend and unQues-
tioning faith. Marmoutier doomedl One
OF the most remarkable historic monu-
ments in France. one of the oldest ab-
beys in Christendom, to be RACED. SO we
read; the old stone buildings to be torn
down and the fine, fertile land. looking
south across the Noire valley. to be sold
as town lots. No matter that at Mar
moutier were the sacred caves where
the first humble evangelists preached
the gospel TO those Gauls whom Caesar
had conquered; no matter that st. Mar
tan had prayed into conversion 100
years later the Teutons who were new
masters of the land; no matter that
after three more centuries Christianity
rose in sufficient strength at this place
10 stop the rise of Mohammedanism and
- To hammer back TO a thin crescent the
wa king moon of Saracen power Mar
moutier. that for IS centuries had been
pliory. monastery. convent and school,
was to be desecrated, destroyed and for
gotten.
7 showed Madge the notice, and al
though it was the very day beyond
which the government commanded that
no churchran be found at Marmoutier,
she agreed with me that we should
take 2 run down TO Tours and try to
pay a visit Of devotion to our old school
even il we found the gate locked
against us. So we went
The ancient abbey of Marmoutier,
the Majus monasterium of the middle
ages, lies a mile and a half up the
right bank of the Noire, northeast Of
the stone bridge at Tours. A charm
ing walk it is from st. Martins city,
not half long enough. we used to think
in the days when permit from the
mother superior was necessary to take
st. even under impregnab1e chaperon-
age. and a walk which should be
missed by no tourist today in the
chateau country. 1t was with heavy
heart, but with alert memories and
senses alive to the delicious sunshine
and pleasant landscape. that We neared
the old familiar place.
There were the high stone walls that
had protected the sacred inclosure from
secular assault for unnumbered years.
True enough, many Of the water towers
had fallen before enemies, barbaric and
sarsstian, but there were still four,
peak rooted, cylindrical, moss grown
sentinels stalwart and firm as when
they were built in the warning four
teenth century. Over the wall we could
see the strange groups of buildings,
young. middle aged and old. dominated
by the most ancient of them all, the
abbey itself, grim like a fortress, spired
like a church And then Madge pointed
Sut in a tiny niche in the wall the
tiny stone mother of God, blessing the
passersby with her smile of unsuspect-
ing trust. Poor little shrine, so soon
10 follow grander ones to a heap of
common dust, Above, on the hiil,
dominating the abbey grounds. lowered
stiif the mansion of the abbot, the
austere chateau de Rougemont, relic
or grander days for the church than
the little hill chapels below.
And here is the spiked iron gate.
locked as Of yore yet scarcely so hope
lessIy steel jawedhas when it closed for
the first time on the two little Ameri-
can girls-never mind how many years
ago. Who shall open for us when we
ring today? AS we live-Jeanette!
Sweet old Jeanette, in the same prim
peasant cap. Jeanette, little more
wrfnkled little more bent. but the
most pious and most courteous con-
cierge in France Under< the dark yews
and expresses we passed To- the open
court, and then she knew us. She had