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Extended Work
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| The Red Devils Chapter 18 | |
| By jean.day | ||||||
| 04 March 2008 | ||||||
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We again had an early breakfast and sat in the lounge of our hotel waiting for Mr. and Mrs. Hudson to come to pick us up for Mass. Mrs Hudson had been much less talkative last night when her husband was with us. I expect he wasn’t too happy with her gossiping. When at the restaurant, Mr. Hudson asked us how we had managed our research, we had to admit that it had hit us much more personally than we expected, and that we hadn’t had time to look through all the files. I told him I particularly was sorry that we had nothing at all on Sitting Bull. So as we joined them in their carriage I was very pleased when Mr. Hudson gave us a gift of an article about Sitting Bull. He said it had only recently been released for publication, but he thought it might give us food for thought. And he also handed me a note which contained the address of Mrs. Libby Custer. “You might find this a useful resource. Mrs. Custer is currently writing up the history of her life on the plains, including her time in Bismarck, and she is willing to tell you about it, and that should add a lot to your essay. But I wouldn’t tell her that you intend to say anything positive about the Indians,” he added with a grin. I thanked him and said I would write to her straight after we got home. St. Patrick’s Cathedral is on East 51st Street and Madison Avenue. It is a splendid building. Mr. Hudson told us a bit about the history of it. “It is the largest Catholic Cathedral in America, and the architect, James Renwick, used the Gothic style and built it out of white marble. It will seat 2200 people. Its spires raise 330 ft from the ground. The most outstanding features for you to notice are the Great Rose Window, and the St Michael and St. Lewis altar which was designed by Tiffany. "In 1852, land was purchased far uptown on the relatively-uninhabited Fifth Avenue, and the cornerstone for a new cathedral was laid in 1858 by Archbishop Hughes. Then, a fire in 1866 caused great damage to the original cathedral, but it was rebuilt and rededicated in 1868. Construction on the new cathedral ground to a halt during the years of the Civil War but Archbishop John McCloskey (who in 1875 became the first American Cardinal) resumed work in 1865. The organ was built in 1879 by Geo. Jardine & Son, one of New York's finest organ builders this century. Just wait until you hear it.” The service for the Purification of Mary was wonderful, with a spectacularly talented choir, and the organ music boomed out and the whole cathedral vibrated. I cannot begin to describe the beauty of the cathedral. As for the music, the Mass sung was Missa de Angelis, and at the offertory the choir sang Te Deum Laudamus; at communion, Ecce Panic Angelorum and after Mass, Shubert’s Ave Maria. For the recessional the organist played Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring by Bach. I shall be singing the tune in my head for the rest of the day. After the service, we needed to go straight back to Grand Central Station to catch our train home, but Mr. Hudson bought us each a sandwich at a stand in the station, so at least we would not go home hungry. What a wonderful experience it was. We couldn’t wait to go back to New York again. But we also knew that I had a lot of work to do writing up our research, and I needed to write to Mrs. Custer as soon as I could to find out her point of view. The train ride home was somewhat of an anticlimax, but we spent our time wisely, discussing what we had read about the Indians’ accounts of the battle. “I really wanted to find out if anybody said anything specific about our Pa,” I said, “but all I found was one reference to his body being near Custer’s and by the river.” “I couldn’t beat to hear them tell about them all, no doubt including him, being stripped and scalped.” “Pa wasn’t either scalped or stripped,” I said. “Didn’t you read that front page from The Bismarck Tribune that we were sent after Pa died? He and General Custer were the only ones that were left alone. “But wasn’t it interesting and somewhat upsetting too, to hear that it was women who did the body stripping and scalping.” “I don’t suppose the Indians necessarily told the whole truth. And the reporters might well have made up or changed things they said to make the articles more interesting.” “Well, I think they were pretty authentic. They didn’t seem to be slanted towards making the Indians agree on things, or making Custer out to be any better than he was.” “Well, at least we know a bit more, rather than just imagining the whole thing. And the Indians seem to have lost as many men as the whites, and they seemed to be fighting between tribes as well. They were driven away afterwards, and didn’t follow through on their one battle success. It said that Crazy Horse surrendered in 1887, and Sitting Bull and his followers went to Canada, but most of the Indians involved went back to their reservations and kept the peace. “I have to read this article about Sitting Bull. I think it might tell us more about why the whole thing happened in the first place. Mr. Hudson seemed to think that Sitting Bull’s opinions should play a part in my article. I am so excited that it might get printed. If only we could have had more time and looked more thoroughly through all those files.” “Well, I for one, could not have taken much more of it. I couldn’t write all this up. It is too blood thirsty for my liking. And I keep seeing Pa there, in the midst of it all. I am glad I chose Mr. Barnum. I might not get my work published, but at least I will have had a very interesting time researching it and writing it up. We must make sure we go to the Circus when it starts up again in the spring.” “Yes, let’s do that. And we must visit the museum too and see all the rest of the exhibits that he talked so much about.” Before long our train returned to Bridgeport, and we were very pleased to see Uncle William waiting for us as we got off the train.
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