II.
The tower still remains the key of the Pyrenees, but in a very different way from what it was formerly. Lourdes is at the junction of the roads to the various watering-places. In going to Barèges, to Saint-Sauveur, to Cauterets, to Bagnères-de-Bigorre, or from Cauterets or Pau to Luchon, in any case, one must pass through Lourdes. During the fashionable season, countless diligences, employed in the service of the baths, stop at the Hotel de la Poste. Generally they allow the travellers sufficient time to dine, to visit the castle, and to admire the country, before passing on.
Thus from the constant visits of bathers and tourists from all parts of Europe, this little town has been brought to quite an advanced state of civilization.
In 1858, the earliest date of our story, the Parisian journals were regularly received at Lourdes. The Revue des Deux-Mondes counted there many subscribers. The inns and cafés presented their guests with three numbers of the Siècle, that of the latest date and the two preceding ones. The bourgeoisie and clergy divided their patronage between the Journal des Débats, the Presse, Moniteur, Univers and Union.
Lourdes had a club, a printing-house, and a journal. The sous préfet was at Argelès; but the sorrow which the inhabitants of Lourdes showed for the absence of this functionary was tempered by the joy of possessing the Tribunal de première instance, that is, three judges, a president, a procureur impérial, and a deputy. Around this brilliant centre revolved as inferior satellites, a justice of the peace, a commissary of police, six constables, and seven gendarmes, one of whom was invested with the rank of corporal. Inside of the town we find a hospital and a prison; and circumstances sometimes come to pass, as we shall have occasion to state, in which independent spirits, nourished with the sound and humane doctrines of the Siècle, think that criminals should be put into the hospital and the sick into the jail. But these gentlemen of such extraordinary reasoning powers are not in exclusive possession at the bar of Lourdes and in the medical profession; men of great learning and high distinction are to be met—remarkable minds and impartial observers of facts—such as are not always to be found in more important cities.
Mountaineers are generally endowed with strong and practical good sense; and the people of this neighborhood, almost unmixed with foreign blood, excel in this respect. Scarcely one place in France could be cited where the schools are better attended than at Lourdes. There is hardly a boy who does not for several years go to lay-teachers or to the institution of the "Brothers;" hardly a little girl who does not complete the course of instruction at the school of the Sisters of Nevers. Far better taught than the mechanics of most of our cities, the people of Lourdes still preserve the simplicity of rural life. They have warm veins and southern heads, but upright hearts and a perfect morality. They are honest, religious, and not over-inclined to novelties.
Certain local institutions, dating back to forgotten times, contribute toward maintaining this happy state of things. The people of these regions, long before the pretended discoveries of modern progress, had learned and practised, under the shadow of the church, those ideas of union and prudence which have given rise to our mutual aid societies. Such associations have for centuries existed and worked at Lourdes. They date from the middle ages; they have survived the revolution, and philanthropists would long since have made them famous, if they had not drawn their vitality from religion, and if they were not called to-day, as in the fifteenth century, "confraternities."
"Nearly all the people," says M. de Lagrèze, "enter these pious and benevolent associations. The mechanics, whom the title of brotherhood thus unites, place their labor under heavenly patronage, and exchange with one another assistance in work and the succors of Christian charity. The common alms-box receives a weekly offering from the stout and healthy artisan, to return it at some future day when the charitable hands can no longer earn wages."
On the death of a laborer the association pays the funeral expenses and accompanies the body to its resting-place.
"Each confraternity except two, who share the high altar between them, has a particular chapel, whose name it takes, and which it supports by the collection made every Sunday. The confraternity of Notre Dames des Grâces is made up of farmers, tillers of the soil; that of Notre Dame de Monsarrat, of masons; that of Notre Dame du Mont Carmel, of slaters; that of St. Anne, of carpenters; that of St. Lucy, of tailors and dress-makers; that of the Ascension, of quarry-workers; that of the Blessed Sacrament, of church-wardens; that of St. James and St. John, of all who have received either of these names in holy baptism."
The women are likewise divided Into similar religious associations. One of them, "the Congregation of Children of Mary," has a special character. It is also a society for mutual aid and encouragement, but in relation to spiritual things. To enter this congregation, although it is merely an association of persons living in the secular state, and not a religious society, a young person must give evidence that she possesses a well-tried steadiness of character. The young girls look forward to it for a long time before they reach the proper age for admission. The members of the congregation are bound never to put themselves in danger by frequenting worldly festivities where the religious spirit is lost, nor to adopt eccentric fashions, but to be exact in attending the meetings and instructions on Sunday. It is an honor to belong to this association, a disgrace to be excluded from it. And the amount of good which it has done in maintaining public morality and preparing good mothers of families, is truly incalculable. In many dioceses, confraternities have been founded on the same plan and after this model.
This part of the country has ever shown great devotion to the Blessed Virgin. Her sanctuaries are numerous throughout the Pyrenees from Piétat or Garaison to Bétharram. All the altars of the church of Lourdes have been dedicated under the invocation of the Mother of God.