"We will now sing a hymn."
The voice was that of the Rev. Christopher McKenna, one of the directors of the Lourdes pilgrimage, and he mounted a motor car drawn up near the platform at Victoria Station and maga phoned the opening sentences of! the hymn to hundreds of pil+ grims and their friends, Two special pilgrim trains were about to leave for Folkestone with nearly 900 Roman Catholics Two or three thousand people surrounded the motor car '"'pulpit," and many opened their prayer books. Men bared their) heads, and the saloon doors and windows of the train were opened so that the sick could join int the singing.
While porters and taxi-cabs were running about with luggage labelled for Lourdes and other trains were steaming in and out of the station the keynote was shouted through the megaphone and the hymn was sung very rever ently Look down, O Mother Mary, From Thy bright throne above.
Cast down upon Thy children One only glance of love.
One could not but be impressed' by the spectacle of these pilgrims setting out on a long journey in search of a cure for their ills ai the holy shrine. It was an object' lesson in hope and faith, They came from all parts of the country, and every one of' those men, women, and children' bore countenances of wistful expectation.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.