The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-04
ARTILLERYNENs CELEBRATE
 TO-DAY LEN HONOR OF xs.zsH .4: SAINT BARBARA

In most Of the armies of Europe. but especially in that of France, today is the annual artillerymen'e holiday: Ever since cannon were introduced in war fare; fne fourth of December has been observed as the artillery festival owing to it's being the feast day of St. Bar bara-or St. Barbe-the patron saint of gunpoWder.. The gentle Barbara, vir- gin and martyr, whose name is now associated with one of the most ter rible Of destructive agents, lived in the third century. She was brought up in the pagan faith, but becam a con for what he considered her heresy. her father, Dioscorus, confined her in a lonely. tower which he built for that purpose. There, according to legend, she gave herself to study of the tenets of the new faith, and to prayer, and contriVed secretly to receive -instruc- tion and baptism from a Christ lhn priest
 When Dioseorus discovered that. his daughter. was determined to cling to Christianity, and that she had held cemmunica ton with it's priests, he be- came so enraged that he denounced her before the civil tribunal The un- fortunate girl was terribly tortured and finally beheaded, her own father the cruel parent delivered the fatal stroke when he was felled by a thun- derbolt- For centuries after the Christians prayed to St. Barbara for protection during thunder storms. Cannoneers selected St Barbara for their patron. probably because the cannon is the source of the thunder peal Of battle. and in memory of the bolt which struck dead her execution CT and avenged the martyr Although shorn of all religious significance the artillery holiday is still generally ob- served.
 Another memorial to Cardinal Riefe- lieu, the most scelebratetf statesman of his century,. will be unveiled. in Paris today on the 2T0tlfs arliversary of his death Armand du Pleesis was the reign of Louis XIII, was the real ru1- CT Of France Crafty, strong-minded, a soldier as we'll asa statesman and a prelate Cardinal Richeliou crushed with one hand the Huguenots at home, while with the other he humbled the house of Austria Rich elieu was the ton, springi1lg originally from the viii lage of Richelieu. The family had at it's disposal the bishopric Of Lucon, and this was for time held by an elder son. while the future tcardina al was a soldier. When his brother gave up his preferment at Lucon, Armand abandoned the profession Of war, was ordained. and became bishop in 1907 In 1922 he became a cardinal i He was thirty-nine when he entered the kings council in 1924 His first resistance against the sAustro-Spal1sh power fail ed, and for a few years he occupied himself in punishfng the Huguenots for. that failure. Gradually he rose to deSRotjsm in France, and to Successful interference in the affairs Of Europe. As prime minister the great Cardina1 1 ruled kings and nobles inperiously, and made France everywhere respected and feared. Popular with a part of the people he aroused fierce hatred in the breasts of others. and when he died on Dec. f, 1642, hundreds of thou sands Of Frenchnens expressed their joy by bonfires and other demonstra- tions. The incidents of his life have been a fruitful source of material for dramatietG and noveIists