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.”