Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-08
l0Ortestrr Daily spp.
From the Roman Question, by Edmund About.
CARDINAL AETONELLI.

IIr was born in a den of thieves. His ma
tive place, Sonnno, is more celebrated in the
history Of crime than all Arcadia in the annals
OF virtue. This nest of vultures was hidden
| n the southern mountains towards the Neapo-
Titan frontier. Roads, impracticabe to mount
ed dragons, winding through brakes and
thckets forests, impenetrable to the stranger
deep rayines and gloomy caverns-all combin-
ed to form most desirable landscape, for the
convenience of crime. The houses Of Sonni-
no, old, i'll built, flung pell-mell one upon the
other, and almost uninhabitable by human be-
ings were in point of fact, little else than de-
pots of pillage and magazines of rapine. The
population, alert and vigorous, had for many
centuries practiced armed robbery and depre-
daton and gained its livelihood at the point of
the carbine New born infants inhaled con
tempt of the law with the mountain air, and
drew in the love Of others goods with their
mothers milk Almost as soon as they could
walk they assumed the cioccie, or moccasins of
Unframed leather, with which they learned to
run tearlessy along the edge of the giddiest
mountain precipices. When they had acquir-
ed the art of pursuing and escaping, Of taking
without being taken, the knowledge of the val
ue of the different coins, the arithmetic Of the
distribution of booty and the principles of the
rights Of nations as they were practiced among
the Apaches or Camanches, their education
was deemed complete. They required no
teaching to learn how to apply the spoil, and
to satisfy their passions in the hour of victory.
In the year Of grace 1906, this sensual, bru-
tai, impious, superstitious, ignorant, and cum
Ling race endowed Italy with little noun
taineer, known as Giacomo Antonelli.
Hawks do not hatch doves. This is an axi-
ON in natural history which has no need of
demonstration. Had Giacomo Antoneli been
gifted at his birth with the simple virtues of an
Arcadian shepherd, his village would have in
stantly disowned him. But the influence of
certain events modified his conduct, although
they failed to modify his nature. His infancy
and his childhood were subjected to two op-
posing influences. If he received his earliest
lessons from successful brigandage, his next
teachers were the gendarmerie. When he was
hardly four years old, the discharge OF high
moral lesson shook his ears it was the French
troops who were shooting brigands in the out
skirts of Sonnno After the return of Plus
VII, he witnessed the decapitation Of a few
neighboring relatives who had often handled
him on their knees. Under Leo XII. it was
still worse. Those wholesome correctives, the
wooden horse and the supple jack, were per-
manently established in the village square,
About once a fortnight the authorities RACED
the house of some brigand, after sending his
family to the galleys, and paying a reward to
the informer who had denounced him. st.
L
AntOnes, was ornamented with garland of
human heads, which eloquent relics grinned
dogmatically enough in their iron cages. If
the stage be a school of life, surely such a
stage as this is a rare teacher Young Giaco-
mo was enabled to. reflect upon the inconven-
fences of brigandage, even before he had tast-
ed its sweets. About lin some men of pro
gress had already engaged in industrial pur-
suits of a less hazardous nature than robbery.
His own father, who, it was whispered, had in
him the stuff of Gasparone or PasSatore, in
stead of exposing himself upon the highways,
took to keeping bullocks he then became an
Intendant and subsequently was made Mu-
nicipal Receiver; by which occupations he
acquired more money at considerable less risk.
The young Antonelli hesitated for some
time as to the choice ola calling. His natural
vocation was that of the inhabitants of Son
nino in general, to live in plenty, to enjoy eve
ny sort of pleasure, to make himself at home
everywhere, to be dependent upon nobody, to
rule others and to frighten them if necessary,
but, above all, to violate the laws with impun-
ity With the view of attaining so lofty an
end without exposing his life, for which he
ever had a most particular regard, he entered
the great seminary Of Rome.
Antonelli so distinguished himself that
with heavens help he escaped the sacrament
of ordination. He has never said mass he
has never confessed penitent; | wont swear
he has even confessed himself. He gained
what was gilmore value than all the Christian
virtues-the friendship Of Gregory XVI. He
became a prelate, a magistrate, a project, Be-
cretary General of the Interior, and Minister Of
Finance. No one can say he has not chosen
fine right path. A finance minister if he knows
anything Of his business, can lay by more mon
ey in six months than all the brigands in Son
nino in twenty years.
In this year Of grace 1859, he is fifty three
years of age He presents the appearance of
well-preserved man. His frame is slight and
robust, and his constitution is that of Noun
taineer. The breadth of his forehead the
brilliancy of his eyes, his beak-like nose, and
all the upper part Of his forehead inspire a
certain awe. His countenance, of almost
Moorish hue, is at times Lit up by flashes of
intellect. But his heavy jaw, his long tang-like
teeth, and his thick lips express the grossest
appetites. He gives you the idea of a minis
ter grated on a savage. But when at an
evening party he engages i'll close CONVERSE
ton with handsome woman, the play of his
countenance shows the direction of his
thoughts, and those Of the imaginative OBJ
server are imperceptibly carried to a roadside
in lonely forest, in which the principal OBJ
iects are PROSTATE Positions, an overturned
carriage, trembling females, and select party
of the inhabitants of Sonnino!
All classes of society hate him equally. He
is the only living man concerning whom an
entire people is agreed. All who know him
intimately both men and women, agree that
he leads pleasant life. If it were not for the
bore of making head against the diplomatists
and giving audience every morning, he would
be the happiest of mountaineers. His tastes
are simple scarlet silk robe, unlimited pow
er, an enormous fortune, European reputa-
ton, and with all the pleasures within mans
reach-this trife satisfies the simple tastes of
the Cardinal Minister.
THE STOLEN SEcRET-Iron and Steel
There lived in Atterciffe near Sheffield,
about t. e year 1860, matchmaker, named
Huntsman. He was very much dissatisfied
with the quality of steel of which watch
springs were made in his day, and he set him
self to the task of thinking out the cause of in
ferority. Mr.. IL. consequently inferred that
the imperfection of such springs as came in
his way wss reterabe TO the fact of the irregu-
lar conversion or Specification of the metal of
their manufacture "If" thought he, 81 can
melt piece of steel and cast it into an ingot,
the composition of the latter should be regular
and homogeneous. He tried, and succeeded.
The fame of Huntsman steel became widely
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