Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1910-07-02

N / just closing and the wealth OF
@A knowledge and art so long
boarded In monasteries and
castles, barred from the flow Of human life
was about to burst forth like food to refer
tilze European civilization. Crumbling archi
tectlhe was being restored. churches and pal
aces,were being founded great engineering
works undertaken. In many respects, Indeed
the wonderful activities and achievements o.
that time may be compared with those Of oul
own in spite of the differences in methods
materials and purpose. When Columbus lef
Palos in 1892 St. Peters at Rome was In the
hands OF builders filed with the new ideas. but
waiting for the genius Of Bramante and Michel
Angelo: the cathedral 81 his native Genoa was
being greatly enlarged and embellished;
that OF Seville was nearing completion;
that Of Toledo was just finished. For
500 years the Gothic beauty OF Burgos
had been growing to Its perfection In
1921 the year in which Cortez took the
City of Mexico; and in the same year
the beautiful cathedral at Granada,
which enshriries the tombs OF the Cath
Ollie kings and commentaries the de- II
liyerance of Spain from the Moors, was II
begun. Ill
This passion for building crossed iii
the ocean In the breasts of the Spanish III
discoveries and first colonists, who al. iii
though they celebrated their earliest re- iii
Iigious services in tents by the sea- IIl|
shore or beneath the branches of un. I|||
familiar foliage we're impelled to erect II||
as soon as possible temples big and IIIf
splendid enough to express the master IIIE
motives OF their age-relgon and art #
AS Hispaniola or the island of San
Domingo, was the first land perma-
nently settled. Isabella. the capital. ~
now the city OF Santo Domingo. found
ed in 1896. contains what is probably the old
est cathedral church in the new world begur
in 1914. Within it rested the body OF Colum
bus until this part of the island was ceded I,
the French In 1855, when the Spaniards car
ried what they supposed to be his remains
with them to Cuba. Since that time other re
mains have been found here which the peopl,
OF Santo Domingo, with justice, claim to b,
the true relics of the discoverer, and as sucl
they are revered and jealously guarded within
a handsome modern monument.
At Port au Prince. Haiti there is a cathe
dral, long under construction and yet unfn
isheh of mixed French Gothic and Roman
esqu9 style. The French cathedral at st
Pierre. Martinique, was destroyed by the erup
ton of Mount Pelee, and the bishops seat wal
removed to Fort de France. Owing to the fac
that the government Of Cuba rested for nearl,
40 years at Santiago, from 151S-15S2, It hap
pens that this town boasts a cathedral which
antedates that OF Havana, but II is not remark
able as compared with many of the Spanish
colonial edifces The cathedral at Havana
and indeed that at Santo Domingo, has mucl
TO inspire enthusiasm from the artistic stand
point, but Havana has been interesting as tn,
temporary sepulcher of what we're called tn
bones Of the great admiral His sarcophagu
and the memorable inscription were set int
the wall of the chancel at the left Of the higl
altar until after the war Of 1898, when his de
scendant. the Duke of Veraguas, removed tn
much-disputed bones to the family mausoleun
in Seville.
krtez landed and burned his ships on tn
beach rear Veracruz In 1919, determined upo
the conquest Of Mexico in the name Of Spai
and of the Catholic church. He marked hi
subjugation of every town and province b
founding substantial works Of engineering an
architecture wonderful. indeed. when one cor
siders his slight acquaintance with the mate
rails, the labor and the climate that confronte
him and the magnitude and beauty Of the r.
suits. On entering the City Of Mexico Corte
destroyed the teocali, or Aztec temple, an,
erected on its site small chapel for the II
dams. traces Of which still remain. In 1t wa
installed the seat Of the first bishop Of Mexico
who came out In 1928 as suffragan Of tn
bishop of Seville but the cornerstone Of tn
present cathedral was not laid until 1878. Thi
is the most stupendous Of all the Spanish CT
loniE cathedrals the largest In all the Amer
cas- and said to be outranked only by St. P'
ter's in Rome and St Paul's In London. It ha
cost at the time of Its completion about $4,000
/ 600, q sum Is colossal In those days as tn