The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1915-05-08
Religious


Czenstochowa, Poland, a city Of J0,-
man occupation, for the Silesians who
scrambled over the line at the crack
Of the p~istol-the declaration of war
and who came In at the front door as
the Russians were making their exit
at the back, have been there ever
since. There are also more beggars to
the square yard In C~zenstochowa than
almost any other place. They have a
failing formula for extracting
your copper money, for they all offer
to pray for your soul at the nearby
shrine Of Jasna Cora, the famous Pau
line monastery. IL
Jasna Cora Is the famous Polish
Mecca to which armies Of pious pill
grims went not only from all wei
Russian Poland, but from Silesia and
Galicia as well, while the pilgrimaging
was good, and their hundreds of thou
sands will no doubt come again as
soon as traffic conditions improve.
The attraction is the miracle work
ing image known as THE Black Ma
donna of Czenstochowa," painted, ac-
cording to the legend, by the Evangel-
list Luke and brought there in 1877 by
one Opolski, a priest. 1t is further
alleged that the face of the Madonna
was originally painted in flesh tints,
but once ~miracuIously turned black
overnight, with the result that the
miraculous cures effected by 1t have
brought fame and profit to the mon
astery through all the ensuing Gen.
turtles.
The kaiser is said to have stood for
many minutes deep in thought before
the Black Madonna, rich with gold and
precious stones, and glowing strangely
by soft candle light, and afterward to
have donated an appreciable sum of
money to the monastery.
OF more immediate interest to- an
American reporter, writes a I corre-
spondent of the New York Times, was
the human interest connected with the
beggars that lined the long approach
to the shrine, squatting on the cold
pavement when they had legs, and
propped against the stone walls when
they hadn't. The old adage, Its an
i'll wind that blows no one good" was
borne GU here, for the war had actu-
ally improved the lot of these hideous
grotesques, these poor cripples that
strewed the court like fallen gargoyles.
Before the war there were five times
as many beggars there, but In the
panic that followed the news that the
Germans We're coming most Of them
found legs and made off. The lame,
halt and blind who remained are
| thanking their stars now that they,
too, were not ~miraculously cured by
fear of the Germans, for not only has
the fierce competition for aims been re-
moved by the flight of the faint heart
ed, but the barbarians who came to
see land the many who came to pray,
are providing a stream of revenue such
as never flowed from the pockets of
poor pilgrims ven in the palmy days.
Inside the lofty dome you noted that
the place was Uttered up with high.
~scafolding, for in spite of war time,
repairs are being made and mural
paintings .retouched. There is not an
inch of kneeling room before the mir
acle working Black Madonna. In
the semigloom you slowly make out
the picturesque, mixed war congrega-
ton = Polish women wrapped in
shawls, poorest of the poor; Catholic
German soldiers, holding their spiked
helmets before them; fervent Austri-
ans, praying before starting for the
front; very few Polish men, many
German soldiers in field gray, stand
ing, forming a respectful background.
In a side chamber an impressive Po-
lish priest is celebrating mass, and
here you note many better dressed Po-
fish women, many crying.
= =
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