Bardstown Believers

In little Bardstown, Ky. (pop.: 1,767) last week a local legend was proudly celebrated as a national fact. Kentucky's rotund Senator Logan made a speech and ladies dressed in crinolines tittered and played hostess in "Federal Hill," the old home of Judge John Rowan. Bardstown believers were commemorating the birthday of a Rowan relation, Songwriter Stephen Collins Foster.

Bardstown believes that Stephen Foster drew inspiration for famed "My Old Kentucky Home" from "Federal Hill." Some Kentuckians further claim he actually composed it on the spot, during a visit in 1852. John Tasker Howard, Foster's latest, most authoritative biographer (Stephen Foster, America's Troubadour: TIME, Jan. 22, 1933) doubts the story. He thinks it unlikely that Stephen Foster visited Bardstown later than the 1840's, points out that the original title of the song was "Poor Uncle Tom, Good Night," that "Uncle Tom" was the song's hero, not ''My Old Kentucky Home." But such historical skepticism in no wise dampened Bardstown's celebration of Stephen Foster as a local hero.

Bardstown loves its legends and of these the Foster story is by no means the dearest. That story concerns Louis Philippe, King of France and his gifts to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Proto-Cathedral in Bardstown. Rich indeed were Louis Philippe's gifts, if indeed he gave Bardstown a Murillo Virgin, three van Dycks, two van Eycks, a Rubens. If the collection is authentic, it would easily fetch $1,000,000.

Louis Philippe was born 16 years before the Revolution in which his godparents, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, lost their heads. The guillotining of his father made Louis Philippe the Orleanist pretender to the throne. When the Government promised to release his imprisoned mother and two brothers if he would go to the U. S. he sailed for Philadelphia in 1796.

He may once have visited Bardstown where it is reported he spent one colic-racked day in bed. But his first meeting with Father Joseph Flaget probably took place in 1799 in Havana where Louis Philippe was raising money to return to France. Havana's French colony got together 14,000 francs and Father Flaget made the presentation; Louis Philippe thanked him and sailed away in 1800.

A few years later Bardstown became the seat of a Catholic diocese which included Kentucky and Tennessee. Father Flaget, as Bishop, consecrated there the first Catholic Cathedral west of the Alleghenies. Corinthian columns were hewn from nearby forests and the interior was done in rich walnut.

Shortly after the Cathedral was dedicated (1819), Bishop Flaget sent three young priests to Europe to buy "church furniture." Father Nerinck bought 100 pictures. Father Badin bought 40. There are no records to show whether their purchases reached Kentucky.

In 1830 Louis Philippe became "citizen king" of France. Some time between his marriage in 1807 and his flight in 1848. so Bardstown believes, Louis Philippe sent to St. Joseph's Cathedral a Murillo, three van Dycks, two van Eycks, a Rubens.

Reason for this lavish gift, it is locally explained, is that Louis Philippe was grateful to Bishop Flaget for presenting the Havana purse of 14,000 francs. Most convincing proof of the gift is a bill introduced in Congress in 1824 and again in 1832 asking that Bishop Flaget be exempt from paying duties on "certain paintings and church furniture presented by the then Duke of Orleans, now King of the French, to the Bishop of Bairdstown."

Most prominent doubter of Bardstown's favorite story was the late Young E. Allison of Louisville's historical society, the Filson Club. Historian Allison's points: 1) Louis Philippe was notoriously stingy; it is doubtful whether he would so generously remember Bishop Flaget who presented a purse of other people's money. 2) Bishop Flaget called on Louis Philippe in France between 1835 and 1839, was received coldly. 3) The Congressmen who introduced the tariff-exemption bills may unwittingly have been quoting rumor; besides a report of the Congressmen's speeches there are no governmental records of Louis Philippe's sending the pictures; the customs' invoice for the articles consigned to Bishop Flaget does not enumerate the articles, name the shipper. 4) It is likely that the St. Joseph's pictures are part of the 140 bought by Fathers Badin and Nerinck. Nowhere in the history of art is there any record of any of the masters painting any of the pictures at Bardstown. But whether the story is fact or fiction, Bardstown proudly exhibits its Cathedral with the pictures, gift of Louis Philippe, King of France, hanging too high for close inspection, cracking slowly against the rich walnut interior.

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