USA > Indiana > St Joseph County > A history of St. Joseph County, Indiana, Volume 2 > Part 10
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"This destruction was accomplished in about three hours. Soon after, at three o'clock, Father Corby called a meeting of his wisest assistants and advisers about him, and it was here determined that nothing could be done but bring the college year to an abrupt close. It was not without a pang of sorrow that this conclusion was arrived at, but, on looking around them, the council saw that this course was inevitable. An hour later the students were assembled in the church, the only build- ing where they could be received, and the decision was communicated to them by Very Rev. President Corby. To all, it was a sor- rowful intelligence. Almost to a man, they protested their willingness to remain and en- dure all the inconveniences to which they knew they must be subjected. It was only when the Very Reverend President had shown the utter impossibility of any accommodations, and when he promised them that a new col- lege, more excellent than the one burned down that day, would be ready to receive them on the first Tuesday of September, that they could bring themselves to bid adieu to Notre Dame. Another meeting was held at two o'clock Thursday afternoon, at which degrees were conferred in the collegiate, law and med- ical classes. On Friday morning, at eight o'clock, the commercial faculty met for a like
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purpose. On Monday, at eight o'clock, a gen- eral council will be held to shape the future action of the university.
"Visitors are flocking to the ruins from every side; all, without exception, bearing words of condolence, which are most sincerely appreciated. Mr. Bonney has taken several · educational institutions of America, and its photographic views of the scene of destruc- loss is a genuine catastrophe, but one, we are glad to say, which will be promptly repaired. The loss sustained is estimated at $200,000, and the insurance about $45,000; but there will be no lack of funds to make up the dif- ference, and enable the prompt rebuilding of the university. Notre Dame will be herself again within a few months.' Such sentiments of sympathy, and those which we here re- ceived from the press and citizens of our own city, are most grateful at an hour like this. tion. Even the greatest calamity has its hu- morous features. Mr. Bonney has tried for years to get a photograph of the aged Father Neyron, who was a surgeon with Napoleon at Waterloo; but Father Neyron always laugh- ingly refused. Yesterday Mr. Bonney got his eye upon the good-natured veteran when taking a view of the ruins, and soon shouted his success, which was the first intimation Father Neyron had of what had been done. Prof. Stace being asked if he had saved any- thing, pointed in silence, with a comical smile, to the shirt he had on him.
"Wednesday night was a time of toil and trouble. The secretary, by order of Very Rev. President Corby, telegraphed to the parents of all the students, while the latter were gathered into Washington Hall, where they slept upon the ticks and bed clothes that had been saved. The fire engine had been taken back to the city in the evening, but the wind veering towards the south in the night, threatened a new fire in the kitchen, and the engine was hastily sent for. No further dam- age was done, however.
"The fire, as might be anticipated, created intense interest among the thousand of friends of Notre Dame in Chicago and throughout the country. An account of the disaster ap- peared at three o'clock in the 'Evening Jour- nal' of Wednesday. An associated press dis- patch was sent to all the papers in the United States entitled to receive it. Thursday morn- ing's Chicago 'Times' gave over a column of specials, the 'Tribune' and 'Inter Ocean' nearly as many. Long specials were also sent by request to the New York 'Herald,' Cin- cinnati 'Enquirer,' Indianapolis 'Journal' and other papers, showing how widespread is
the interest taken in Notre Dame's disaster. "The Chicago 'Tribune' says editorially : 'General regret and sympathy will be felt for the destruction by fire of the University of Notre Dame, at South Bend, Ind. The insti- tution has held a high position among the
"Yes, Notre Dame will be herself again in a few months, with God's help; and with the untiring toil of her children, and the aid of her generous friends who have never failed her in her hour of need. If there ever was a time when assistance was needed, it is now. Notre Dame has so grown into the life of the country that it cannot but live and flourish, notwithstanding the fire. Like a vigorous tree which has been burned to the ground, the life is yet strong in the heart beneath, and a new growth will spring from the ashes more beau- tiful and more glorious than ever. A new building better suited to its purposes, and equally substantial, elegant and commodious, will be immediately erected, well out front of the old site, giving more room and separa- tion from surrounding structures. This build- ing will be ready before the first of Septem- ber.
"Now, will our friends help us? Will those who have drawn from the fountains of Notre Dame for the past twenty-five, thirty, thirty- five years, now show how well they love the mother who has done so much for them? Will those who love the young, and who desire to see them brought up in the fear and love of God, help us in the great work we have to do this summer? Will those who seize every
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opportunity to do that which is most pleasing to Almighty God, see in this disaster a call to them for help? Will the friends of Very Rev. Father Sorin, who has not even yet, per- haps, at the hour at which we write, heard of the destruction of this labor of his life- for he left last Monday morning, in the bright- est spirits, for Europe-will those who have seen him build up this institution in the wil- derness, now come to aid him and his chil- dren in its restoration ? We have the utmost confidence in the goodness of God, and believe that with His help, our own hard work, and the aid of our friends, we shall have as fine a college building, full of students, next Sep- tember, as that which we lost on this terrible 23rd of April."
Words of sympathy and offers of assist- ance poured in on every side. The people of Notre Dame did not know before that the in- stitution had so endeared itself to the im- mediate community, and indeed to multitudes in the country at large.
On the very evening when the article above was printed in the "Scholastic," a public meeting was held in the city of South Bend, in which the people, without regard to creed, gave warmest expression of sorrow for the loss sustained by Notre Dame.
At this meeting Judge T. G. Turner read with much feeling the following beautiful lines, written by Thomas A. Daily, a former graduate and professor of the university, but then editor of the "Daily Herald" of South Bend. The poem has been much admired. It is said to have been written only on the day of its delivery, a burst of poetic fervor by the young poet, who felt his genius stirred by his warm sympathy with his Alma Mater: A cloudless sky, a sultry day; A wealth of sunshine in the air. Young spring was blooming soft and fair, And o'er the Earth held sovereign sway.
A morning bathed in dewey tears, Upon the gently swelling hills Where nature once again fulfills The promise of consistent years.
A cry, a brief electric flash,- A burst of awful fear leaped out; A moment of suspense and doubt- Ere thousands from the city dash,
And to the college force their way; For "fire! fire!" was the cry. Fair Notre Dame was doomed to lie Prone in the dust, for naught can stay.
The fiendish progress of the flames, That roll above her stately dome- O'er sacred relic, ancient tome- The treasured love of deathless names.
O God, it was a thrilling sight, Where rolled the fierce flames to the sky, And great, brave men stood helpless by; Crushed 'neath the monster's withering blight.
The sculptured Virgin mutely blessed The lurid tongues that scorched her brow, As holy martyrs erst did bow Beneath the torture's final test.
The crash of walls, the hissing stream, Commingled flames and blistering heat, Wrought out a picture all replete With mad destruction's lurid gleam.
Can nothing quell this demon's power? Can naught appease his fiery wrath? Can strength of man impede his path, Or stay the flames that madly lower?
No arm was potent there to save; From tower and dome the flames rolled down, While noble firemen from the town Fought bravely as becomes the brave.
Sorin, thy life work lies a glow Of crumbled clay and shapeless dross, Thy brethren of the Holy Cross Behold their labor worthless grow.
Doomed, doomed, O beauteous Notre Dame! Thy massive walls are crushed and low; Thy stricken children here bestow Their tears to consecrate thy fame.
The stranger turns heartsick to see That holocaust's destructive might; Thy friends are gathered here tonight In sympathy and love for thee.
Lo! crushed to thy foundation stone; From out those ruins comes a voice That bids thee rise, in grief rejoice,- In woe thou weepest not alone.
We feel thy loss, we saw thy birth; Thy classic halls once more shall rise; Thy dome again shall pierce the skies, The grandest monument of earth.
O hospitable Notre Dame! Thy walls that never turned away Unfed the poor-appeal to-day To Christian hearts of every name.
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Gold cannot buy all thou hast lost! It can do much-we promise more; We pledge thee freely of our store And sympathy of priceless cost.
Thy children who are filling now In every land the ranks of trade, Will reach to thee their proffered aid And laurels weave around thy brow.
Thy deeds of love have made thee great; Have won thee friends in distant lands, Who'll reach, to thy distress, full hands, And bounteous gifts from every state.
Arise! O peerless Notre Dame! Forth from the gloom of thy despond, To meet the coming years beyond, And dedicate anew thy aim.
Thy fame is ours; our strength we give; Sorin, thy Patriarch, shall not Go to his grave and be forgot; His name through ages yet shall live.
To realize what Notre Dame had become, and how great was the loss suffered by the fire, we reproduce, with a few minor modi- fications, from the "Catholic Review" of May 3, 1879, the following picture of what he saw two days before the catastrophe, by the accomplished and lamented editor of that journal, Patrick V. Hickey :
"'Under God, it is all the work of one man, with no help but a sublime and un- bounded confidence in the Mother of God, who in every trial, and under every affliction, has sustained him. Sometimes human aid would seem promised to him; he would re- ceive the assistance, or the hope of the as- sistance, of some brilliant and strong man, and almost at once death or some other cause would withdraw this support, and leave him nothing but his mainstay, faith in our Blessed Mother. Her work in the success of this institution is of marvelous record.
" 'Forty years ago, when Father General and his companions succeeded the saintly old missionaries who on these camping grounds of the red men had evangelized the poor In- dians, Father Sorin and his assistant priest were so poor as to have but one hat between them, so that when one was seen abroad it was known that the other must be at home.'
"The speaker was the Rev. Daniel E. Hud-
son, editor of the 'Ave Maria,' who on last Monday afternoon was of three that kindly undertook to make the visit of a passing trav- eler from New York full of pleasant mem- ories of Notre Dame. We were standing on the roof of the university building, under the statue of Our Lady. We had reached it by noble corridors and spacious staircases, through magnificent halls, which contained, in books, in manuscripts, in pictures, in sci- entific and artistic collections, treasures which no money could replace. We were looking out over the beautiful plains of Indiana, that American Lombardy which recalls the lines of Shelley :
Beneath is spread, like a green sea, The waveless plains of Lombardy, Bounded by the vaporous air, Islanded by cities fair.
"Far as the eye could reach, the work of Christian civilization could be traced; flour- ishing cities and villages, the iron roads which knit together east and west, factories and farms, everything that denotes a prosperous and happy people; but, in all, nothing more striking, nothing more beautiful, nothing more suggestive, than this Catholic city of Notre Dame; for it is not less than a city from whose center we surveyed this marvel- ous growth, the source of whose prosperity and strength Father Hudson summed up in the sentences we have quoted.
"Notre Dame, St. Joseph county, Indiana, brought to our own time and to our very doors, a chapter of the history of the church in its most glorious age. If any reader had never heard it before, the lecture of Arch- bishop Vaughan which we published a week or two since must have familiarized all the readers of the 'Catholic Review' with the growth of great cities of Europe around the monastery of the Catholic monk and the ca- thedral of the Catholic bishop. Spending the first night of their foundation under the trees of a pathless and unknown forest, the middle- age founder often saw before his death, and his children surely saw, the mustard-seed de-
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veloped, as the gospel promised, into a mighty tree which filled all the earth.
"On the prairies of Indiana, this Ameri- can age has seen repeated the work of me- diæval Europe, by a congregation of priests almost the most modern in the church-whose growth, however, has been such in America that we retain here their chief, the only case, we believe, where the superior general of a great religious order resides at this side of the Atlantic. From a few poor French priests, there has sprung an order, whose dead on the field of honor are already not few, and who besides have been able to enrich Ohio, Kentucky, Texas, Wisconsin, Canada and re- moter regions with learned teachers, zealous missionaries, and practical business men, whose work in making good citizens and de- voted lovers of our American institutions, Catholics and Protestants, the highest no less than the humblest in the United States, thor- oughly appreciate. In this single establish- ment, the original two (Father Sorin and Father Cointet), of whom one survives, have been multiplied to thirty fathers, twelve schol- astics, one hundred and forty-one professed lay brothers, sixty novices, and twelve postulants.
"We cannot, in the space at our command, picture for our readers even the material beauties which can be seen from this vantage point on the roof of Notre Dame. Here is the Church of Our Lady, enriched with pic- tures, with costly frescoes, with shrines and relics of the saints, with an altar whose priv- ileges are greater, we are told, than that of any other altar, save one, in the entire world. A volume would be required to tell the beau- ties of this shrine. Its chime of bells waft music over prairies; and for miles its great bell, the largest in America, is heard distinct and beautiful.
"There is the school of manual art, where the young gentlemen who are to be the legis- lators of young communities can learn useful blacksmithing and carpentry. There are mu- sic and science halls, homes for the aged, an
infirmary, the printing office of the ‘Ave Maria,' with its devoted brothers and its mild, studious editor. Then a great boiler-house, kitchen and all the other buildings called for by nearly four hundred students and pro- fessors.
"Two lakes, surrounded by shady walks, afford opportunity of recreation and exercise, and divide the novitiate and scholasticate from the university. A week to see them, and a volume to describe them, would be needed to tell all the material glories of Notre Dame. What it has accomplished in the spiritual world, if told before the judgment day, must be recounted by other hands. Enough it is to know that in the atmosphere of Notre Dame there were peace, fervor, discipline, and piety, so that even the transient visitor could not fail to see its happiness. There was hope, too, for on this Monday morning, when Father Sorin bade farewell to his boys, on his thirty-sixth transatlantic journey, he en- gaged them all in a canvass to double their number next year.
"Whoever leaves Notre Dame hopes to see it again. Was it any wonder that we should promise to see it again when June added to it the only glory it wanted on this day, anticipating summer in its favor? Was it any wonder that, hurrying along the noisy highways of commerce, we looked back with affectionate interest to this pleasant lakeside ? What then was our sorrow barely two days later, to read in the railroad cars this ap- palling record of ruin, blotting out and dark- ening one of the brightest spots in all America ?
"The telegram must have arrested at the steamer's side the venerable Father General Sorin and brought him back unexpectedly to the scene of the disaster. His hair is whiter to-day than it was forty years ago, when he undertook to build up for the first time Notre Dame, and his beard is that of the patriarch; but his bright eye is as bright to-day as it was then, and though he might have prayed that this great affliction should be spared him,
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he will take up his cross once more, 'with a be kept from him until a messenger might sublime and unlimited confidence in Our Lady,' and long before another May comes around, there will rise from the ashes, build- ings stronger, fairer, nobler, than even those which last week passed away in a breath of flame."
Mr. Hickey's prophecy was literally ful- filled. Before another May came around there rose from the ashes even a stronger, fairer, nobler Notre Dame than that which had passed away in the flames of that April day. Nay, more, Father Corby's inspired promise to the students that the new building would be ready for them on the opening of classes in September was verified as the Sep- tember days appeared. It was indeed fortu- nate that Father Corby was then at the head of the university. He had with him the ex- perience of 1865, when, as Father Patrick's assistant, he aided in erecting, inside of the summer vacation, the superb edifice which had just fallen a victim to the flames. He felt that the feat could be repeated; and under direction of Father Sorin, and with the heroic and unselfish aid of the devoted fathers and brothers of the Holy Cross, and the noble generosity of all the friends of Notre Dame, the great work was done.
So well indeed was it done, and so mag- nificent was the response from the friends of the university all over the country, that it even appeared to some that the fire came as a blessing to prove how loyal to one another, and how brave in great deeds, were the com- munity of the Holy Cross, and also to prove how warm was the place which the old insti- tution had secured in the hearts of the peo- ple. It is worth very much suffering to learn how well one is loved by God and by his fellow men.
It was at first feared that the disaster might cause a fatal shock to the venerable Father Sorin, now in his sixty-sixth year. Accordingly a telegram was sent to friends near Montreal, where he was visiting on his way to Europe, asking that the news should
reach him. This was done, and he first learned the sad news from the messenger, with whom he at once returned to Notre Dame. Those who listened to him on his return, when he spoke to the assembled com- munity from the altar of the Church of the Sacred Heart, will never forget the holy heroism of his words and appearance. Far from yielding to the pressure of the calamity, his soul seemed to rise superior to all the af- fliction that had fallen upon him and upon the community. It was as if an inspired prophet of old stood before us; and every priest and brother went out of the sacred edifice strengthened as if with the absolute assurance of help from heaven. In God and his Blessed Mother he had trusted from the beginning, and they would not fail him and his stricken community in their hour of need ..
Father Sorin for the time seemed to have recovered his youth again. Uninterrupted activity, and a vigilance that seized upon every source of aid, returned to him as they had been with him when he laid the old foundations in the days of his youth. But the long years of his labors were not in vain. He had, chief of all, gathered about him that brave community of priests and brothers who now took upon their willing shoulders every task. He had, besides, so conducted the uni- versity as to win the love and good will of the American people, regardless of religious belief. The community were therefore united, active and enthused in their great work; and the public offered all sympathy, accommodation and substantial assistance. The consequence was that much nobler plans were prepared for the new buildings. Here, too, the experience of the past was of great value; the new structures were much better adapted to the needs and conveniences of a university. The new Notre Dame was indeed in every respect superior to the old; and although the institution was exceedingly prosperous, as we have seen, from 1865 to 1879, yet so much has the superiority been
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since the latter date that the friends of Notre Dame begin to look upon the past fifteen years as the only period during which she has taken rank as a true university.
In 1884, Professor Arthur Joseph Stace, the genial, accomplished poet and essayist, afterwards, by appointment of the President, a scientific expert at the Paris Exposition of 1889, and who himself, from 1860 until his untimely death, in 1890, did so much for literature, science and art at Notre Dame, wrote for "Donahue's Magazine" a graphic description of the new Notre Dame. The university had then fully recovered from the destructive fire of 1879; Father Sorin, Fa- ther Granger and Father Walsh were still with us. It was, indeed, a golden age in the history of Alma Mater. So perfect a pic- ture is Professor Stace's article of what the university had become that, at the risk of some repetition, we give it entire; setting it over against the picture of the former Notre Dame, before given from the brilliant pen of Mr. Hickey :
"On the northern verge of Indiana, within five miles of the Michigan line, and just on edge of that narrow water-shed which slopes towards the Great Lakes, is situated an in- stitution of learning which is, year by year. becoming better known, not only throughout the states called distinctively 'western,' but also in the cultured east and chivalrous south, and in the adjacent lands of Mexico and Can- ada; young men from all quarters thronging here for instruction. This is the University of Notre Dame.
"Three successive edifices have already borne this title. The first, small but pictur- esque, was thought to be unsound in its foun- dations, and when a great influx of students came, instead of receiving additions, was pulled down to make room for a larger build- ing. After the work of destruction had been effected, it was discovered when too late that the maligned foundation had been per- fectly reliable. The second college was a roomy, square-built, factory-like structure,
with a mansard roof, and it took fire one warm day in April, during the prevalence of a southwest gale, here the most violent of all the sons of AEolus, coldest of all in winter, hottest of all in summer, and a dry, healthy wind at every season. Urged by the gale, a column of flame and smoke rose in the air to the height of a thousand feet, where it formed a complete arch, bending over with its freight of light combustibles, and set fire to a forest a mile distant on the northeast, which con- tinued to burn for several days after. Not only the main building was destroyed on this occasion, but also the infirmary, the music hall and several minor structures to the lee- ward.
"A calamity such as this, only partially covered by insurance, would have dismayed hearts less stout than those at Notre Dame, into which it rather seemed to infuse a new life. The venerable founder of the institu- tion, Edward Sorin, whose years might have fitly invited him to that repose which a life of energy and usefulness had earned, sprang at once into renewed vigor, and surprised his friends by his activity and self-devotion. The work of rebuilding was at once begun. The disaster only served to show how wide- spread throughout America was the venera- tion in which this young Alma Mater was already held. Substantial sympathy was ex- pressed in the most effective shape, and friendship appeared in unexpected forms and localities. A plan furnished by Edbrooke (since architect of the United States treas- ury) was selected from among thirty others, and the present structure rose rapidly from the ashes. By September enough of it was completed to accommodate satisfactorily the returning throng of students, whose increased numbers showed a generous confidence in Notre Dame, in her hour of adversity.
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