The Personality of American CitiesHungerford, Edward
History
The Personality of American Cities
Hungerford, Edward
Cities and towns -- United States; United States -- Description and travel; United States -- Social life and customs -- 1865-1918
To attend high mass in Notre Dame is to make a memory well-nigh
ineffaceable. It is to bring back in future years recollections of a
great church, lifted from its week-day shadows by a wealth of dazzling
incandescents, to be ushered past silent, kneeling figures to a stout
pew, by a stout _Suisse_ in gaudy uniform; to look to a high altar that
stands afar and ablaze with candles, while priests and acolytes, by the
hundreds, pass before it chanting, and the Cardinal sits aloft on his
throne silent and in adoration; to hear not a word of English from that
high place or the folk who sit upon the great floor or in the two
encircling galleries, but to catch the refrain of chant and of "Te
Deum;" these are the things that seem to make religion common to every
man, no matter what his professed faith. And then, after it is all over,
to come out of the shadows of the parish church into the brilliant
sunshine of the Place d'Armes, the place where they once executed
murderers under the old French law by breaking their backs and then
their lesser bones, and to hear Gros Bourdon sing his chant over the
city from the belfry of Notre Dame--this is the old Montreal living in
the heart of the new. They do not swing the great bell any more--for
even Notre Dame grows old and its aged stones must be respected--but
they toll it rapidly, in a sort of sing-song chant. We have stood in the
west end of the town, three miles distant from the Place d'Armes, and
heard the rich, sweet tones of his deep throat come booming over the
crowded city--a warning to a half a million folk to turn from worldier
things to the thought of mighty God.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account