Evening star., 1924-07-06
by STERLING HEILIG.

" HERE are three French town
ships around which a dead
line may be drawn next year
to exclude all women.
Women, seeking to pass into that
large territory at any spot of that
great dead-line, will receive this
answer:
am a woman. Let me in"
You are a woman You stay OUT"
1t is the desert" territory of the
highlands above Grenoble. held and
administered for 1000 years by the
aristocratic fathers of the Grande
Chartreuse community.
For 1000 years no woman crossed
the dead-line of the Grande Char
treuse on the side of the palace. For
500 years the entire desert territory
the entire three townships) was for
hidden even the approach of women
epltomes of the vanities of the
world which the great men inhabiting
the Palace of the Alps had fed.
They were-and are-great men.
Among them, in all ages. could be
found illustrious names of Europe
princes, statesmen. warriors, admins
trators-living the changed lives of
cenobites and anchorites, dead to all
human conversation.
They were waited on by humber
women-f1eeing brothers from the
cities and stern mountaineers with
who knows what grief in their
hearts?
Such brothers served the Alpine
domain as wood choppers, charcoal
burners, farmers, tailors, weavers,
cooks. distillers, carpenters, masons,
bookbinders, carriers and shep-
herds. And if a peasant girl seek
ing mushrooms or berries inad-
vertently crossed the dead-line of the
silent townships she found her way
barred by the silent figure of one,
perhaps, whom she had known and who
had since become a denizen of one
of the silent farm dependencies flung
round the boundaries of the palace
above the clouds.
The particular curiosity of women
IN all ages was thus stirred by the
Grand Chartreuse. quite different
from other monasteries
The French revolution by confis-
eating the desert and surrounding
forests as state domain technically
opened up the lost townships to
women. But when men tourists
passed a night amid the white-clad
figures (gliding through the c1oister
to sing lauds at midnight) they left
their wives and daughters at a
ladies inn" tolerated at a distance
down the mountain road. AS for ma
tives, they respected the taboo, law
or no law. No peeking petticoats got
within sight of the great walls outer
DOORS
60, life passed for 1000 years on the
heights of the Grande Cartreuse
The palace, covering twelve acres
rose above the clouds It's pointed
towers swan in a silent sky
Since 1903 the palace has been de-
serted and the townships have
been neglected. The French govern
ment expelled the owners (who had
been there, you might say, through
all French history in the law Of the
congregations. Since 1903 the desert
has become, indeed, a desert, and the
deserted palace is classed as a his
toric monument" with state-appoint-
ed guardians to lead through it's
labyrinths the crowds of tourist men
and women who come up from Greno-
BILE in summer.
Lady tourists revel in the place.
Their intense curiosity is touched up
by triumph at getting into something
from which they had been excluded
for 1000 years!
But. little by little, a thrill comes
over the gay parties. Chatter turns
to awe in the lone cell" rooms and
empty cloisters. which evoke the
tragic routine Of the departed inhab-
itants.
Tourists know that the departed
ones continue to exist. In 1903, the
entire community of the Grande
Chartreuse moved bodily to Tara
sona, Spain. Thence. it is well known,
too. that all Grenoble and the country
round about cries for the return Of
the Grande Chartreuse!
The aristocratic fathers were silent
and standoff. having no truck with
the world. But to the humble peas
ants of the remote highlands they
were like the providence of God! In
sickness, they were doctors; in
trouble, they were helpers; in pow
erty, they were bankers; in doubt
and worry, comforters and advisers!
1t is a lost land, up there. In win
ter and long parts of spring and au-
tumn it is snow-bound. Yet never
did a highland family break a leg,
have a baby. get pneumonia, lose a
child or parent, or run out of provi-
sions. but a white-robed father or
brown-garbed brother turned up with
the needful.
Since 1908. the highlands have been
sadly neglected. Grenoble cannot go
up there and do the right thing over
. vast scattered territory.
So Grenoble cries aloud for the
return of the Grande Chartreuse
THE aristocratic and learned IA
L theirs U4atin and bellies lettres are
essentially never speak. Human con-
versation no longer exists for them!
In the empty palace we see how
the life of each passed, in a two-room
"celr' and high-walled tiny garden
attached to it. In his vestibule the
lone man might have a turning lathe
and carpenter bench or else merely
chop his firewood, for physical exer-
else.
In his solitary garden he raised
vegetables. In his rooms he read and
wrote. (They were considerable reli-
gious publishers). HIS meals Except
On Sunday were handed in to him.
II he wanted books from the magnifi-