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About Southern Oregon miner. (Ashland, Or.) 1935-1946 | View Entire Issue (June 7, 1935)
SOUTHERN OREGON MINER PAGE OF READING FOR THE FAMILY 9 I for modern pilgrims who come by motor, iiaa an age old air of per manence. The archway emerges Into a sun lit plaza or market place, filled with lowland peasants hawking their wares, ami groups of pilgrims of all classes actively and noisily bar gaining for food. Among city Span- lards dressed In modern garb, one sees farmer« In red caps, or gorroa, and sandal«; working men In velvet knee breeches and faded scarlet Hashes; wives with mantillas and shawls drawn closely over their lieuds; pairs of somatenes, the typi cal Catalan slate police; monks In sable cloaks and children of all ages. A few pannier-laden donkeys nibble nt the grass under the stunt ed trees. Except that the setting Is undoubtedly S|>aln, it Is all very much like a page out of "Canter bury Tales." A traveler directed to n terraced arcade at the fur side of the court, within which Is the office, was given somewhat of a surprise. Over the desk of the father In charge of pil grim registration was a shining electric light, and at his right hand was a telephone! He bad not ex pected such Innovations In a Bene dictine monastery. Th« Blick Virgin of Montserrat Had he been better acquainted Prapare-1 by National n»..rr»phle SocUtr One way Is ns picturesque as the with the rule of St. Benedict he Wuhlngtun. t>. <’.— WN’U Harvlc* other; for. while the highway would have known that the manner ARDI.Y out of Kight of the climbs to the monastery In a series of life among Benedictine monks smoking factory chimney* and scarcely out of hearing of hairpin turns and horseshoe has never t>een austere. curves, the Inst few miles of the The father takes your name and of the noise and bustle of Barce 35-mlle railway journey may be place of abode and informs you lona, busiest and most restless city of Spain, a medieval Benedictine made on a nurrow-gauge rack and- that you may remain for three days. pinion line or In the bobbing cage You are then awlgned to a room, monastery cling» to the face of a of a new aerial cableway. given an armful of linen, nnd turned fantastic atone peak that rises bold Trip Ther« 1« Interesting. over to a lay brother. Solemnly the ly from the brown foothill« of ('ata- Many, who are In no hurry, choose latter lends the way through the luna (Catalonia). It la Montserrat, the nation'« holiest «brine, to which the railway and the rack-and-plnlon sepulchral corridors of one of the thousand« of the Spanish faithful route. Once clear of the spreading large dormitories, fitfully lighted make pilgrimage each year to pay suburbs of Barcelona, the main-line here and there by a dim electric homage to what 1» called the Black railroad strikes boldly out into the light bulb, to a «mall, plainly fur beautiful plain of Sardnnola. The Virgin. Montserrat 1« the name of the countryside here resembles southern strange mountain, and alao of the California! There are green fields monastery, which cling« like a with angular Irrigation ditches; ■wallow's neat halfway up Its pre rocky river bottoms, rising at first cipitous cliffs. The Black Virgin, gently and then abruptly. Into a wooden Image darkened by age, brush-covered foothills; and scrag- 1« not the only reason why It Is a gly and unkempt clumps of eucalyp place of pilgrimage. Montserrat, tus and pepper trees around the In Catalan tradition, la the Mon water holes. Gradually the scenery changes, as NANNY MEADOW MOUSE IS •alvatsh or Monsalvat of the Mid WORRIED dle ages, site of the castle of the It enters a region of Irregular hills Holy Grail. The Arabs called It and rocky valleys, sparsely cov anny meadow mouse wns Glstaua, or the atono watchmnn. ered with vegetation. The line worried. Y'es, sir. Nanny Mead Here Ignatius of Loyola, a wound twists and turns, now hurdling a ed soldier, knelt In prayer, and went deep ravine on a stone viaduct, now ow Mouse was worried. Nanny Is In the first place, away to found the Society of Jesus. plunging Into a short tunnel. The a home body. In more recent years the Montserrat cars sway drtinkenly from side to most of the time she has a family to think about nnd care for. There choir school has l>ecome celebrated. side as they climb to the plateau. “Ah, but senor,” a hotel man Not until one Is very close to are babies In Nanny’s snug little ager asked a traveler, "have you Montserrat does the mountain come home most of the time. What with seen Montserrat? It Is Spain's most Into view. The train emerges from helpless babies nnd headstrong, ■acred shrine. It Is very quaint and a tunnel and suddenly a giant mass half-grown children eager to get out old, and the Benedictine monks will of rock seems to spring from the in the Great World and show how- let you live with them In the mon foothills, flinging a thousand ca smart they are, and fully grown astery for three days! It Is not far thedral pinnacles skyward! As the children already setting up homes from Barcelona. Yon should ace train swings closer, so that only a the Black Virgin, and the view from deep river valley separates It from the Brobdlngnnglan mass, a fan the monastery Is magnificent I" Monserrat Is accessible to Bar tastic stone forest of smoothly celona by both rallwny and road. weathered domes, sugar loaves, minarets and organ pipes Is sil houetted against the sky. Of the monastery nothing Is vis NOT IN CIRCULATION ible at first. Then, one catches a glimpse of tiny buildings which seem to be carved from the rocky cliffs themselves. The little build ings are rather extensive; but ngalnst the vast bulk of the moun tain they seem no larger than wren houses. The group of buildings snugly dlls a notch or narrow ravine cut deep Into the mountain side. A Sometlm«« Danny Meadow Mouse Laughs at Her and Tell« H«r That thousand feet above It, the topmost th« Older She Grow« the Mor« pinnacles of the mountains rise mennclngly, but the notch is safe Timid Sh« Becomes. enough. of their own, Nanny hns renl cause Thousand Years Old. for worry. You see, no one knows While most of the present build Ings are comparatively new, the better than she what a lot of dan monastery Itself dates from A. D. gers surround n Meadow Mouse nnd 076; and legend reports that a nun how necessary It Is that a young Old Tightwad—You know, my nery that preceded It was founded Meadow Mouse who would live to a In 880. So faithfully have the monks good old age be carefully trained. dear, X Is nn unknown quantity. One of the first things to be Young Wife—I certainly do. I followed the lines of the older parts learned Is the foolishness of taking of the monastery in making addi haven't seen one since I married tions that even the new garage, unnecessary risks. The most pre you. N nished room overlooking one of the courts. It Is clean and neat, with two Iron beds, a table, a chair, a busln, an empty waterpot, and a candlestick without a candle. The lay brother hands you a key. In forms you that meals can be taken In the restaurant of the monastery, accepts a small tip under protest, and withdraws. Th« Black Virgin. As the monk's echoing footsteps recede down the corridor, Homething of the blissful peace and quiet of the place steals over you. The clear sun t>ours through tiie window, daz zling bright against the white washed walls. The keen mountain air Is Invigorating, conducive to meditation. The workaday world seems far awny. hi order to see the sacred image which Is shown at the 10 o'clock mass one hurries down to the court yard. A steady stream of worship ers files through the curved door way of the basilica. According to legend. La Moreneta. as the Black Virgin Is called, was carved by St. Luke himself and brought to Bar celona A. D. SO by St. !'• '<-r. Dur ing the Moorish Invasion and occu pation it was hidden by Christian monks in one of the caves of Mont serrat near the site of the present monastery. Years later shepherds discovered it and told Btories of strange music heard In the vicinity. An effort was made to bring It down from the mountain, but, al though the statue is not quite life size, It could not be moved beyond the ledge where the monastery now stands. The basilica, accordingly, was erected to protect it, and the monastery built to care for the throngs of pilgrims who climbed the mountain to worship nt the Vir gin's shrine. Especially do young couples come to Montserrat, for the cious thing anybody possesses Is life. To risk this for something which at best is nothing more than pleasure Is the most foolish thing in the world. Nanny will risk her own life for her babies any time, but she Is far too wise to risk It for any other reason. blessing of I-a Moreneta 1« said to Insure a happy union. Tl>e dinginess of the Interior of the basilica serves only to accentu ate the brilliance of the altar, with Its Jewels, silver plate and bright vestments. It was on this altar in the Sixteenth century that Loyola laid his sword when he abandoned Ills military life to devote hlrnself to the service of Christ Above the high altar, surrounded by lighted candles. Is a small stage concealed by two velvet curtains. You keep your eye on those curtains for you know the Image must be back of them. Presently the chanting of the priests increases In volume, and tbe curtains are drawn slowly aside. You gasp! Even though you have been told that the image Is black ened from age, you had not expect ed anything like this. White vest ments nnd a light background make tbe face and the hands gleam like jet! For a silent moment every- ope gazes, and then the curtains drop together. Only so long Is the sacred Image exposed to view. Quietly you make your way to a door leading upon a paved terrace. “El Carol dels Dehotalls” (The Road of the Drops), a sign reads. The “drops" do not refer, as they well might, to the breath-taking abysses along the side of the path, but to a kind of grotto, moistened by trickling water, which Is reached after a few minutes' walk. Here Is one of the finest pano ramas in Montserrat. Almost half W Cataluna is spread below. Sur prisingly near Is the sparkling blue water of the Mediterranean, while the white peaks of the Pyrenees seem but a good stone's throw away. The river, which was a silver rib bon from the cog railway. Is only a thread from this dizzy height. It is a view to stir tiie imagination and to make the head swim. he was going or that he expected to be gone long. Tiie half-grown chil dren had been very trying that day, for they had persisted in taking foolish rtsks whenever Nanny’s back was turned. They kept her so wor ried that she didn't have time to think of Danny. But when the Black Shadows began to creep out over the Green Meadows and Dan ny had not returned. It popped into her head that something dreadful must have happened to him. She began to worry. The later it grew the more she worried. © T. W. Burress.—WNU Service. So Are You “If you lose your life you’ve lost Next time you meet some one who everything," Is a favorite saying of Nanny's, and when you come to tells you he Is descended from Wil think of it, it Is exactly so. Some liam the Conqueror you will be times Danny Meadow Mouse laughs quite justified In telling him that at her and tells her that the older you are, too. If each generation waS distinct, you had four great she grows the more timid she be grandfathers, 16 great great-great comes. That doesn't trouble Nanny grandfathers, and by the time you at all. She simply smiles and says have gone hack to the thirtieth gen nothing. She knows it is true, but eration—that Is, the time of Wil she also knows that this added liam the Conqueror, you would timidity is because of increased have piled up over 500.000,000 an knowledge of the dangers of the cestors.—Pearson's Weekly. Great World, and that the more timid she Is the less likely Is she to BY THE YARDSTICK feel careless. “A Meadow Mouse cannot be too timid,” says Nanny, and in that she is more than half right. Danny Meadow Mouse Is differ ent. He doesn't have the care of those babies all the time on his mind as does Nanny. So he has more time to think about himself and the things he wants to do. Then, too, the sharp little wits in that funny little head of his have brought him through so many tight places that he has come to think himself quite ns smart as anybody else nnd quite able to take care of himself no mntter what happens, “How is your garden coming which shows thnt he isn't ns wise along?" ns Nanny, though it wouldn't do to “Very poorly. The directions on the package say to measure the tell him so. The day that Danny took it into seeds carefully, and It has taken his head to visit the Smiling Pool me since yesterday to get the hnd been a very trying one for Nan dimensions of seven of them, they're ny. Danny hadn't told her where so darn small.”
