The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1915, Page 83

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_ Wise
Catholic church on’ the corner of

The Lutheran Pioneer. 83

Ne aN we

Wil ee

St. Paul’s Church.

sion were more or less demolished, St. Paul’s Church
and School suffered no further damage than a partial
unroofing, the breaking of plaster and window-panes,
and a wrenching of the entire school-building. The
“old chapel,” however, now being occupied by the
janitor as a dwelling, was com-
pletely unroofed. Missionary Ed.
H. Schmidt writes: “On my way to
St. Paul’s on Thursday morning
I found all the church-steeples down
but one, and almost all the churches
either demolished or their sides
caved in. It was with fear and
trembling that I drew near to dear
old St. Paul’s. The Presbyterian
church near our mission had its
steeple torn down, and was other-
much damaged; the large

Claiborne and Annette Streets, only
half a block from our property, was
one mass of ruins. In what con-
dition would I find our church and
school? When yet-at the corner,
I saw that the steeple was still
there, and even the cross on its
tip was pointing heavenward. En-

couraged by what I saw, I drew nearer and found
that all the buildings were intact.” Pastor Schmidt
estimates that several hundred dollars will repair
all damages done to the property.

Luther College, which is near St. Paul’s Mis-
sion, also almost miraculously escaped very serious
damage. Resting as it does on a number of seven-
foot, brick pillars, and occupying quite an exposed
site, one cannot but consider it a wonder that the
fury of the storm did not tear it off its supports,
and demolish it completely. As it is, Director
Wilde reports the following minor damage to the
College property: About 300 square feet of slate
torn from the roof, one door blown in, some plas-
tering torn down, and two side-fences blown over.

Rev. Schmidt relates the following incident,
which illustrates the intense bigotry of some Ro-
manists: “When some Catholics living near our
Mission saw how their: own large church at the
corner had been completely demolished, while our
chapel had been so little damaged, they said to
our janitor, “That surely is a shame; this’ (mean-
ing our chapel) ‘is the church that should have
been blown down.’ I told our janitor to advise

‘their priest to throw a little more holy water on

their church in the future!”

As far as we have been able to learn, our Mount
Zion Mission sustained practically no damage aside
from a partial unroofing of the church.

The damage, however, which our Bethlehem Mis-

Old St.

Paul’s Chapel and School.