Rome. Fifty days indulgence are granted to those who piously
kiss this image. Under one altar rest the bones of St. Felix, which were
taken from the Catacombs at Rome, and on another is a picture of the
Madonna, said to be a copy of one painted by St. Luke. On all the
shrines are candlesticks, votive offerings and many other articles of
great age, value and veneration.

The main altar is exceedingly rich in artistic ornamentation,
representing in its design the religious history of the world, and is
the only one of the kind in existence. Although the foundation stones of
this great pile were laid seventy years ago, this grand anthem in stone
has not yet reached its "amen," many additions to it being yet in
contemplation.

Like many others of earth masterpieces in architecture, it is at once
the monument to and the mausoleum of its builder, whose body, according
to his dying request, although a Protestant, lies in the vaults beneath
his greatest life-work.

Through some halls and corridors back of the grand altar is the chapel
of "Our Lady of the Sacred Heart," which is one of the most beautiful
sanctuaries in the city, and remarkable for the harmony of its lines and
proportions. It is in the form of a cross, ninety feet in length,
eighty-five feet in the transept with an altitude of fifty-five feet.
The splendour of its ornamentation, carving, sculpture, elegant
galleries, panels in mosaic, original paintings by Canadian artists, and
a beautiful reproduction of Raphael's celebrated frieze of "The Dispute
of the Blessed Sacrament," unite to constitute this piece of
ecclesiastical architecture a _chef d'oeuvre_.

An iconoclast might marvel at the absorption in prayer of some of the
devotees, among accessories bewildering to eyes accustomed to the
plainer surroundings of other forms of ritual, but the worship of those
in attendance seems sincere and complete.

Following the footsteps of Cartier to where, near the foot of Mount
Royal, he found the Indian village of Hochelaga, is now to be seen the
St. James' Cathedral, which is a reduced copy of St. Peter's at Rome,
the great centre from which radiates the Catholicism of Christendom. It
is somewhat less than half the dimensions of its model, with certain
modifications necessary in the differences of climate. The work was
entrusted to M. Victor Bourgeau, who, to gain the information necessary
to carry out successfully a repetition of the great master, Michael
Angelo's