The Parish Church At ST. Ulrich.

ST. Ulrich In The GrÖDner Thal.

The Interior Of The Parish Church.

A Dining Room In St. Ulrich.

But this is the poorer side of the Grodner industry. As we go higher, we find that there is scarcely any limit to the expression that can be given to the forms and faces of the statues which the more skillful artists carve. The material is the soft white pine that grows in the vicinity; fine-grained and firm, yet not too hard to work. I watched a number of these sculptors in their ateliers. None of them had a model, or even a picture before him, save a mental one. Each carved according to his own ideal, made more or less conventional by tradition. The entire statue, with the exception of the arms, is carved from a single block of wood, which is suspended lengthwise, horizontally, on a kind of spit between two posts, so that the sculptor can at any moment turn it over, as he likes. First a rough sphere, intended for the head, emerges from the formless log. This, as we watch it, gradually acquires features and expression. Afterwards come the torso, limbs, and garments. Then, last of all, the painter plays his part - and not an unimportant one - in coloring, or gilding, face and robe. Thus from a section of a tree, which you yourself may have seen darting down the mountain side in one of the long gullies leading to the river bank, has been evolved a form which, when completed, seems to lack nothing but the breath of life to make of it a living soul. In this way are produced the celebrated statues of St. Ulrich - Christs of all sizes, from the infant in the cradle to the pathetic figure on the cross; Madonnas, crowned with stars, and treading under foot the serpent coiled above the globe on which she stands; a Mater Dolorosa, with an upturned look of anguish, clasping the sword which the appalling scene of Calvary has driven through her heart; St. Peter, with the keys; a St. Paul, leaning on the sword; St. John, with tender face and flowing hair; and great St. Christophers, with infant Christs upon their shoulders - all designated thus by emblems universally associated with their lives or deaths. Thousands of these productions now go forth from this small mountain village to churches not alone in Europe, but also in North and South America, Africa, and Australia.

An Old Carver.

Visitors to the Paris Exposition in 1900 will recollect the beautiful specimens of St. Ulrich sculpture there displayed. The most remarkable of these was a marvelously executed group, by young Moroder, a nephew of the sculptor of the Mater Dolorosa, already mentioned. This masterpiece of wood-carving represents St. Elizabeth of Thuringia and the beggar in the charming legend, which tells us how this angel of benevolence, having been forbidden by her husband to give alms to the needy, was caught in the act of disobeying him by giving food and money to a wretched mendicant. To his suspicious query as to the contents of her basket, St. Elizabeth answered falteringly, "Only flowers"; and when, at his command, she opened it, lo! by a miracle her gifts had been transformed to roses.

Where The Material For The Statues Comes From.

Some Of ST. Ulrich's Sacred Figures.

Moroder's Group Of ST. Elizabeth And The Beggar.

The Studio Of The Sculptor Moroder, At St. Ulrich.

The creator of this admirable work, to which was awarded the first gold medal at the Exposition, is a young man living at St. Ulrich, and his masterpiece still stands unpurchased in his house. An interesting feature in its history is the fact that the youthful artist was obliged to get excused from a portion of his three years' term of military service due the State in order to complete the group before the opening of the Exposition.