5 NOVEMBER 1887, Page 16

A CARTHUSIAN MONASTERY IN TYROL.

The writer of the interesting letter on the Monastery at Carthans, near Meran, which we published is the Spectator of September 10th, has received the following acknowledgment of the help which English friends have enabled her to send to the good priest who writes it [Copy.] "GRACIOUS LADT,—Exense the delay in my reply to your most kind letter, which came whilst I was out on a begging tour in Bozen and Meran. At Dozen many local necessities made it impossible for either priest or people to help me, all their energies being called on to assist an outlying village,—two-thirds of which had been destroyed by fire first, and floods later on. Therefore, as my success was so scant, you may readily believe with what a grateful heart I received your unexpected letter and gifts from your countrymen. The good God has evidently helped us.

"On October 2nd, 1885, when for the first time I set off with staff and begging-scrip to ask bounty for my poor village, we had neither house, money, nor convenience of any kind to carry out a scheme for the improvement of the poverty-stricken villagers of Carthame. To-day we possess a good dwelling—the Hospice, with washhouse, public kitchen, and school attached,— and all this we have received through the charity of English ladies !

"The Sisters of Charity who came to our assistance some time since are now able to carry out some of their benevolent plane, and without them little indeed would have been achieved. Their mode of teaching is so attractive to the young, that they— especially the girls—flock gladly to school, where they are taught good manners and pious habits. The poor apathetic mothers, who are all bad managers, and whose gross ignorance in times of illness only added misery to misery, are gradually being taught to cook and wash properly. Besides teaching, the Sisters keep our church clean and orderly, and both night and day they are ready to attend to the sick. Their value is felt here perhaps even more than in many other places, where the gentry or a few well-to•do neighbours give an occasional helping hand; but where the whole community is poor, as is the case here, the Sisters are quite a blessing,—what you in England call a god- send. It is to be hoped we may be enabled to keep them among us, to carry on and perfect their excellent work.

" Before closing my letter, may I tell you that at breakfast, at mid-day meal-time, and at supper, each day in the Hospice, heartfelt prayere are offered by the good Sisters and their pensioners for all our kind English benefactors,—to whom I would recall to mind the words of our Lord Jesus, ' Whatsoever you did unto one of any brethren, you did it unto myself.'

"And the Vicar, too, daily thanks God and the friendly donors; his only wish now is that he were forty years younger, so that he might see the happy results of the good teaching thus begun amongst his poor people—And be signs himself, yours in deep. respect,