The weekly Thibodaux sentinel and journal of the 8th Senatorial District. [volume] (Thibodaux, Lna. [i.e. La.]) 1875-1898, 1882-12-09
LETTER.
{From our Regular Correspondent


Rome November Is. 1882.
Publicity was recently given to the fact
that his Royal lIisllness Prince AMADEO.
Ex-king of Spain, had consented to be
come a B.oshtr Of the Venerable Comra-
gnia della Misericordia Of Florence. The
First Aide-Ie camp of the Duke. i'll announ
cling the determination of the exalted per
sona.e in question declared that Prince
AMADEO'S adhesion to the historic frater
nifty was a homage to the noble and
charitable aims to which the ~associa-
ton devoted itself and that he was
happy to become affiliated to q body
which had during SO many centuries car
ried on d purely philantrophic work.
There is something peculiarly appropriate
in a Prince whose career has been marked
by such grave vicissituGes joining IN asso-
citation whose prime object has always
been the alienation of suffering. the sue
cor OF the poor, and the consolation of the
miserable. The Duke of AOSTA, like WIN
NY BOURNE'S ''jackdaw," has seen the
hustle aid the raree show That occupy
mankind below" and he nay be sick of
of having seen EN-. He is only thirty seven
singular trials. He has been a king and
might perchance be one now but as BUCK
INGHAM said of FAIRFAX, "he under
stood How much it was a meaner thing.
To be unjnst'y great than honorahly good
Seeing the hopalassness of trying to rule
an incnrable intfactable people, who ha
ted Eel Rey Estrangero," simply and sole
ly because he was a foreigner. Prince ANA
DEO quietly abdicated his uncomfortable
crown aud as quietly resumed his former
status. 4 more bitter ordeal however was
in store for him. Three years after his re
nunciation of the SPANS Throne he lost
his accomplished and amiable consort. the
Princess MARIA P0ZZO DELLA CISTER
Ma. The widowed Prince has three sons
still fortune has used him with sufficient
u%nkindness to warrant him in musing
somewhat seriously on the various turns
of fate below and the %mutability Of mum
dane things. The Spaniard, when the
Just of sway, Had lost its quickening spell
Cast crowns for ~rosaries away An empire
for a CELL The crazy Duke of WHAR-
TON, when he had exhausted in wild profit
gacy all the fancied pleasures of life turn
ed Trappist. But the Duke of AOSTA has
taken a wiser part. CHARLES V. was.
to all seeming, not very contented in the
Monastery o fYuste and the Incompetent
sible sp%endthrift WHARTON was too short
an inmate of a religious house for history
to have been able tojudge what kind of
monk he would have been.
The C%ompagnia della Misericordia Of
of Florence dates from the middle Of
the thirteenth century. The society in
cludes persons of all ranks, and beneath
the long black monkish gown, with it's
hideous cowl, covering the head but leav-
ing apertures for the eyes, may be gentle
man in evening dress who has summoned
from a ball ora %soiree, a general in full
uniform who but an hour since was riding
among the Royal staff, a butcher in his
woollen frock or a railway porter in a fus
tianjacket: In the presence of pain and
misery, of sickness and death all the
Brethren of the Company of mercy are
equal. The city is divided into districts,
and the body of members are placed on a
roll, about forty being on duty daily but
all the brethren, whatever the occupations
may be, are bound to attend at a moments
warning on tolling of the great bell on the
Piazza del Duomo. Among their duties
they have to convey the sick to the hospi-
tai, to relieve their families if in want and
to assist in night nursing. In former
times the Company attended criminals
to the scaffold.