Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-05-12
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ldR@uND The ClES|
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In the heart of the business section
| there is a church with ever-open doors
| Passing men and women enter through
| out the day, so that always there are
| figures kneeling in prayer or following
with slow reverence the sculptured way
| Of the cross. And always there is the
| dim radiance of stained glass, and silence
| and remoteness and rest.
Yesterday a sanctuary light glowed
| crimson before an altar. it's splendid
white baroness accented by the blossom
| powered shrine nearby. May flowers from
| dollhouse and garden mingled their colors
and fragrance as if in floral prayer, and
from their bloom rose statue of the
| Virgin Mother, whom her children are
| honering this month as their spiritual
queen of May.
| People tiptoed in and out of the church
| to say a prayer at the shrine of the Vir-
| gin, and many other people of all creeds
| and none came to view the new chapel
| in the baptistry of the church. There
| is the spendor of sculpture and frescoes;
| the CLEAN of snowy marble and of soft
| shaded lights. And there is thA COM
polling awe Of that Mother of sorrow
who holds on her knees the dead Son
whom men had called the Nazarene
There are no flowers before this shrine
1t is a place of thorns.
A woman entered and knelt at the mar
bic railing that guards the sculptured
mother and son and three frescoed fol-
lowers who had stood by the cross until
the end.
This woman was noticeable among
the women who had knelt and gone
| their way. because. poor soul, she was
SO obviously down and out! Her black
clothes had the shiny brown that is
poverty's national color: her hat had for
gotten its original shape and her shoes
oh. never mind about the shoes. She
did not seem to belong to the fold of
lost sheep that had strayed and whom
the shepherd had not found. And she
was crying.
Another woman. seeing her there alone
before the Mother and her. Son, stepped
back into the shadows and waited Per-
haps she did it because she felt the kim
ship of tears
Presently, the kneeling woman laid a
sprig of faded lilac almost within touch
of a nail-pierced hand wiped her ewes
pulled down her veil and went away
AS the woman in the shadows knelt in
the vacated place she saw that the w1lted
leaves and shriveled blossoms were
splashed with tears. And she wondered
If they were noticed by that Other
whom men once called the Nazarene?
There are long bronze pins with knobs
The label that goes with the exhibit ex
plains that bronze belongs to the pre-
historic age young man read all about
1t to his obvious bride and then added
with the surprise OF sudden revelation;
Now 1 know why you dear things in
sist upon your long hatpns. 1t isn't a
fashion that will change, but a tribal in
stinct that makes you cling to ii as the
weapon used by your oldest grandmoth-
err.
The obvious hrido hridIod.
We'll, / must say it isn't very nice OF
you to mention grandma's age like that
| when you know how perfectly dear she
has always been to you-and besides II
isn't SO. Grandma never used a hat pin
in her life. All her bonnets tie under
her chin"
The young man chuckled and pinched
her ear as they browsed over to the next
case. so it was all right. But think OF
having to live with a dull soul like that
after the gilt wears off her youth and
good looks. And to keep on living with
her for years-and-years-an
A woman stepped out of her gate
and went to the corner to drop let
ter in the box. An auto hearse stood
at the curb. and the woman stopped
stock still to stare at 1T as another
woman came along. The second wom-
an also stood stock still and stared at
the auto hearse. 1t was a new thing
on both Of them.
I've been reading about them. but
never realized they would actually
COME
''Horrid thing. isn't it?" That horn
looks as if it could rouse the dead
There's something about horses
that add solemn dignity to a funeral,
no matter how plain 1t is, but this