Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-01
The Handsome Monsignor CapeI.


 The other day, in the lower gallery of the Chamber, before M. Brisson took the chair I was studying the aspect of the tribunes, I when espied Monsignor Capel He was in l the journalists box and appeared to watch the scene before him with keen interest Handing my lorgnette to lady who was with me, whispered to her to cast her eyes where I had been looking, and tell me what she thought of monsignor. ''Le bel homme ,', But why doss he not, " she asked, wear the violet Tobs ?'' I was not sufficiently TerEed in ecclesiastical etiquette to answer her '"The dress, '" continued my interloentor, '-is almost the same as that of the English par son whom one meets at Swiss table d'hote. with 8 wife and 2 quiver full of olive branches. Where one sees that mon. signor is not an Anglican clergyman is in the freedom from domestic cares that is announced in his fine face. There is a look of self-complacency which indicates bachelor hood under the happIest conditions" Then holding again the lorgnette to her eyes, she repeated ''Mais c'est un bel, un tres bel homme." 4 fair neighbol here bent over to us and said 'Oh, yes, and that Is the req. son that Cardinal Manning is So harsh toward him. His eminence likes the steep and tn -rny way to heaven He Is ascetic, and imagines that flies are to be trapped with vinegar. Monsignor Capel, who has had eY perience as a convertisse1r of fashionable
 
 the power of honey to attract and hold Monsignor Manning went to Rome about the difference of opinion. His holiness listened to him attentively, and cross-q questioned him The cardinal finally a7owed that he did not like to hear it said that Mon siguor Capel WAS so handsome Per dio' cried his holiness, that may be his misf;Jr tune, or bis good fortune, but it surely is not his fault. Indeed, the canon law is on the side of well-favored ecclesiastics. The lamb without blemish was the type of the Catholic priest. Beauty, in our Italian tongue. and virtue are synonymous. Let us treat Mon signor Capel as 'un object de yirtu.' which is not without its use in the sacerdotal ediiee' The entrance of II. Brisson put a stop to the chit chat. was very sorry, for I wanted to ascertain whether my fair neighbor had any serious ground for telling what Cardinal Manning and the Pope said to each other about Monsignor Capers good looks Subsequent inquiry made in another direction, led ms to understand that there WAS some truth in zha I had heard at the Palais Bourbon More over, was told that the brilliant suceesssst of Capel at the vatican under the late pope, at Pau and at the Pro-cathedral were a cause of jealousy to his brother eccleSiastics. They carp at his showy mode of engaging in the Christian war. He ought to wait until he is asked by his superiors to break lances on behalf of St. Peters see, but he does not QO sO- 4u6 d4I or EL5 flock is also brought against him. Why he should be blamed for this if he does not reject the unfashionable passes my com prehersion. I know a plain, deformed and poor old maid, and her grandmother to whom he was very kind in Paris the winter of the siege, and whom he visits when he comes to Paris. Indeed. he made use of his influence with fashionable penitents to ob- tain as pupils for them the children of opu- lent families. This good action of Mousig- nor Capel may well be set oil in heavens chancery against such venial offence aA that of sending the advance sheets Of his last brochure to the Gaulois, where they appeared in the same page with Zola's Pot BouiIIe"