0
visu.n of a subjeel having a room to itself, with
not only stacks for books, but tables and chairs
for the juniors and seniors, who will have ac
c.*s to these rooms by special written order.
At present the whole of this system of smaller
rooms la the library building 's unavailable, at
least after dark, awaiting the installation of
the ttectrw Plant. The lighting of the mam
leading room by night, as well as by day, will
be from above, by means of a circle of Incan
descent lamps arrange* above the upper cornice.
Lastly, not to MCOt a detail which will be
appreciated by those who know to their suf
fering the often asphyxiating and gom
soporific atmospheres of great libraries, .«e
whole building is ventilated by a system of
flues communicating with the rooms through
wall lattices near the floors. Into these flues
and through the lattices warm fresh air in win
ter and cool fresh air in summer is constantly
forced by fans operated in the basement— a
highly important aid contributed to mind In its
struggles by matter already subjected to mind.
.4 MBW DEPARTURE AT THE LOUVRE.
ORGANIZATION OF A FURNITURE . MUSEUM.
Paris letter to Tlu Pall Mall Gazette.
It has been decided to enrich the Louvre by
transferring to it the cream of the treasures
hitherto preserved, and very ill preserved, at
the Gaide-Meuble, This latter institution is the
repository in which the State stores the old fur
niture, the Gobelin tapestries, the Sevres ware
and other kindred objects of which it is the
possessor. The Garde-Meuble is not open to the
public, so that its most Interesting contents,
which, of course, are national property, are in
some sort sequestrated. • What is worse, they
are exposed to grave dangers. It has been
proved again and again that the treasures of
the Garde-Meuhle are in very careless cus
toJy. They are looked after In happy-go-lucky
fashion, receiving little better treatment than if
they wore worthless odds and ends relegated to
a lumber room. A well known art critic discov
ered a scries of Gobelins which the ignorant
end indifferent employes had rolled up with no
more care than if they had been second hand
larpets. "Et tout est a ravenant." But, besides
being housed in deplorable conditions, the con-
nts of the Garde-Mcuble are the prey of privi
leged pillagers and pilferers. The Ministers have
the right to draw on the Garde-Meuble for the
adornment of their official residences, with the
result that a bureau by RJesener may be ex
posed to th n ".¦ r.r and tear of some temporary
great man . . . ..»¦, while his wife may debase a
table by.ltoulle or Cressent to domestic uses and
his children ruin a Savonnerie carpet. The
Oarde-Meuble has even been rifled for the bene
tit of colonial functionaries anxious to impress
the barbarian mind at the expense of the art
treasures of the metropolis. The natural conse
quence of these many borrowings Is consider
able "leakige"; not everything that leaves the
Gcrde-MeuLle returns to it in due course.
There is to be an end to this state of things,
Ind none too soon. All the finest sreci. ns in
peril of their existence in the Carde-.V üble are
to find a safe refuge in the Louvre. stand
ing prejudices have had to be overcome before
this change could be decided on. It has been
stoutly contended in certain quarters that it
would demean the Louvre to make it the shelter
of such comparatively minor works of art as
pieces of old furniture, even though signed by
in Orben or a Jacob, a Riesener or a Boulle.
The immense success of th< retrospective furni
ture exhibition in the Petit Palais has been the
iei isive argument th.it has enabled the innova
tors to carry the day. Five spacious rooms on
the first Root of the Louvre arc to be reserved
for the new department. They have already
been emptied of the drawings they contained
previously and are- now in the hands of the
painters and decorators, of whose food offices
they stood in sad need, as they had never been
repaired since the Restoration. The work Is be
ing pushed forward, and the furniture museum
will be ready to receive visitors very shortly.
The periods represented, to begin with, will be
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
NEW- YORK ¦ nH3£3B TLTiUSTRATF.D SUPPLEMENT.''
Dominican ki;i.\i;-.
WHY THE MKMIJKRK OF THK ORDER
FROM BALMY PROVENCE FOUND WIN
TER IN NEW- YORK TOO RIGOROUS.
To many people accustomed to associate the
idea of conventual life with that of superiority
to physical hardship U may have been surpris
ing to learn last week that a community of
A DOMINICAN FRIAR IN THE DRESS OF THE ORDER.
Dominican Friars, established in Westchester
County five or six years ago, had been driven
by the rigors of a New-York winter back to
their former home at Lyons. France. The ex
planation is to be found not only in the physical
unfit p.eFs of natives of balmy Provence for this
Climate, but also in the special conditions of
the Di—lnlf rule. It is well known that a
cold climate demands a meat diet, and this is
just what is forbidden to Dominicans who ful
li.w the strict conventual life of their order.
The organization commonly spoken of as the
Dominican Order is officially known as the Order
of Preacheri o; Friar Preachers. Although, in
everyday language 'monk" and "friar" are
understood to mean much the same thing, there
is an important difference between the two.
The vocation of monks is to live In communities
AUDITORIUM, NEW-lURK INIVKKSiTY LIBRARY BI'ILDIX*:
withdrawn from intercourse with the world.
saendteg their time in church services, study
and manual lab< r. The performance of cere
monial worship is the most important of a
monk's duties. As a monk, he is not at all con
c--rncl with preaching or any other ministrations
to the spiritual needs of the faithful out3ide his
own community.
THE FO1 T NDING OF THE ORDER.
These monastic, or cenobitic, orders wer» th#
only religious orders in existence at the begln-
nlng of the thirteenth century, when Francis of
Assisi appeared in Italy, and Dominic de Guz
man in France. The two reformers began their
work in ilie same generation, the former aiming
chiefly at the subduing of luxury and "the
pride of life," the latter at the extirpation of
heresy. It is only fair to say that in the inten
tion of Dominie himself the extirpation of
heresy did not mean the extirpation of heretics.
The Albigensians had almost triumphed in
Provence in the year 1207, when Dominic, a
Castillian canon of the Order of St. Augustine.
arrived from Spain in the company of a bishop
charged with a political mission. The zealous
Spaniard at once perceived that the heresy which
he detested with all his heart could not be suc
cessfully combated by a clergy whose lives bore
no witness to the divine origin of their faith.
Of his own motion he set to work to assi.'fffin
the war against the Albigensian beliefs both ny
preaching and by the example of an austere life.
The next step was to associate himself with
eight other Spaniards, seven Frenchmen and on«
Englishman. They co-operated enthusiastically
with Simon de Montfort. the leader of the English
barons in their struggle for constitutional rights
against the early Plantagenets, who was then
the Church's "arm of the flesh" in Aquitaine.
Before many years Pope Honorius was brought
to recognize the value of this new and novel
order, and. consistently with Roman precedent.
he stamped the Order of Preachers with his
approval by giving its members a constitution
and a code of rules for the regulation of their
lives. The latter was the code of the Augus
ttnian Order, of which Dominic had been a mem
ber, which nile has been modified In the suc
ceeding six hundred years only to adapt it to
the needs of men whose first duty is to preach
to the people. In contrast with the more con
templative life of the monks. As to diet and
regimen, the Dominican rule was made extreme
ly severe, the use of flesh meat being forbid
den except on Sundays, feast days and during
the season between Easter and Whitsunday. At
the same time the Friar Preachers were obliged
to the performance of the divine office, both by
day and by night. This, combined with a diet of
fish and vegetables and the obligation of con
stant preaching, made the life of a Domlniras
convent— not monastery— an exceedingly hard
one.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME BLACK FRIARS.
With Dominic, and Francis also, began tan
new institution of religious mendicancy in th*
Church. The monasteries had until then beta
property holding corporations. the revenues of
their lands- supply ing their members with food
and clothing. The Dominican vow of poverty
precluded such financial arrangements. They
could own nothing, and were obliged by their
constitution to support their convents by asking
alms of those to whom, they spiritually min
istered. Another variation from the original
Augustinian rule was made in the lifetime of
the founder, when the Sowing black robe was
abandoned fur the white am! Uack which have
ever since bf\ the insignia of the Dominicans.
In obedience to a command of the Blessed Virgin. .
Mary, made to him in a vision. Dominic ordained ?
that his spiritual subjects should wear within |
their convents a white woollen tunic reaching to
the heels, girded with a cord, and- a garment
of the same color and material covering the
shoulders and falling to the feet before and be
hind, but open at the sides, called a scapular.
For preaching, and whenever they go out. their
rule is to wear the ample black cloak and hood
which procured for them in mediaeval England
the name of Black Friars.
At the time when the order of Preachers
formed its nucleus at Lyons, a wide divergence
in ritual was recognized in different countries
within the Catholic Church. The Sarum Rite,
much more elaborate than that now practised
in Roman Catholic churches, was observed
through the southern half of England. York
and Paris had each its own strongly marked
ceremonial peculiarities. The ceremonial, es
pecially the liturgy, of the Dominican order fol
lowed the usage of Lyons When after tbe
Protestant Reformation Pius V and other Su
preme Pontiffs abolished thesv "'local rites.*" as
they were called, the Dominicans were allowed
to retain much that was peculiar to their order.
Hence to this .lay the attendants at high masa.
in a Dominican church find many practices).]
which are not to be seen elsewhere. Nrtably;:
there is the primitive way of wearing th- amice.,!
or linen hood, drawn over the head of the cele-*
brant, and the once universal custom of separat
ing the sanctuary from the body ot the t-hurch
by a curtain during a part of the liturgy.
WITBOi T BAUDS >>>: FEET.
From The Washington Star.
Some time ago Secretary Root sent a man f>
the Philippines to make hrk t-ontul.-ini.il ob
servations. Hi- made the investigations, re
turned to- this country, prepared and submitted
his reports. These reports >.> pleased the Secre
tary that he wrote a personal letter of consradv
lation to the confidential agent, The roan who
made these reports was M. J. fowling, of Minne
sota. So far there is nothing remarkable about
this storjr, but there is about ix>wling. He lias
neither hands nor feet. Some twenty-five years
ago he was a boy, and was caught in one of the
great blizzards which occasionally sweep over
the Northwestern country. He was badly froz
en. and though be battled bravely to save
himself, both feet and hands ha 1 to be ampu
tated. This was pretty hard for a boy. but
ihe was full of true grit. As soon as the stumps
healed he determined to as to Milwaukee
to secure artificial limbs. Th.' only way he
could travel was by being lard upon the seat of
a, car. where he did not move during th- entire
Journey. The conductor punched the ticket
which was tied to him. thinking what hard luck
the boy was in. Then he forgot the boy. and the
train Journeyed on lor miles and miles, stopped
at a station for dinner, and again went on. Late
in the afternoon the conductor felt full «>f re
morse because he had gives, no further thought
to the boy without hands or legs. He went back
to him. "Do you want anything ta ••at " " he
asked. "Yes." said the boy. Why didn't you
ask some one to get you something? I have
been longer than this without eating, and I
won't trouble anybody with my misfortunes,'*
he replied. But the conductor got him some
thing, and also saw him taken care of to th*
end of his run. The same self-reliance has sus
tained Dowling throughout his life, lie got his
artificial limbs, educated himself, taught school,
ran a newspaper, became a politician of prom
inence and has been secretary of the National
League of Republican Clubs. He gets along
without cane or crutches, writes with his arti
ficial hand, makes no complaint on the score
of being crippled and asks no favor because he
is short the average allotment of hands and
feet. "Mike" Dowling is on this account nan of
the most interesting men in this country.