The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1882-04-19
THE POPE AT ROME.

HOW lie 1aSs6b HIS Time.
Boston Journal.
Now that there is so much talk concerning
the possible, not to say probable, departure of
the pope from the vatican and from that Rome
in which he is no longer master, it may be
interesting to know something of the way in
which he lives, and how his time is divided in
what he is pleased to call his prison. The
present pope is rather of austere habits, and
his elevation to the highest office in the church
has not led him in any way to relax the rather
rigid character of his personal conduct. He
always rises between and half-past 6 in the
morning, which, in the soft Italian climate, is
not SO great a sacrifice as in harsher Chimes;
and at halt-past he is dressed by
named Contra, who has long been with
him. He then says a mass in his private
chapel, and shortly afterward hears a second
said by one of the almoners who is on duty.
He next leaves the chapel and takes a very
light breakfast, after which he looks over the
morning papers, and awaits the arrival OF Car
dinal Jacoqini, who is his secretary of state,
and who never fails to appear in Leo NILS
rooms at half past nine exactly. His visit
lasts long time. The two confer together on
all the foreign affairs which have any refer
ence to the Holy See, and in the intervals of
their conversation the Pope gives audiences
to the secretaries of congregations, to men,
bers ofth diplomatic corps, and to such distin-
guished strangers as he pleases to receive
Toward noon, by the formal order of his
physicians, but somewhat against his will, Il
Pope goes down into the reserve gardens Of
the Vatican, borne in sedan chair He
gets into carriage, and escorted by
| tWn IF 10
horseback, takes a long ride if the
weather is pleasant, after which returning to
the palace. AT O'Clock he dimes, as all
Romans do at that hour. His favorite dish is
boiled beef. Only a few privileged persons
are admitted to this repast, none of them TAX
ing part in it, as according to the tradition no
one is even allowed to take seat at the holy
fathers table. All that the etiquette of the
pontihcal court allows is for the invited guest
to sit at table just below that at which the
pope has his place. One of the pope's
nephews, the Count Camille Pecci, is Leo
NILS especial favorite, and lives in an
apartment gracously placed at his disposition
in the Vatican. 1t is said that when the
Count Camille was doing his volunteer duty
of year, as obliged to do by the civil laws
of his country, he used frequently visit the
Vatican in his uniform of simple soldier of
~
the corridors were not little surprised
to see the pontifcal guards bowling
low with respect, and before a
young man whose uniform represented
the supposed tyranny over the temporal power.
After dinner the pope usually retires to his
private apartments to work, to give audiences
and to pray. About an hour before the
Angelus he takes little nap and then short
walk in the Reggie of Raphael. About
O'Clock in the evening, like all the rest of the
Romans, he sups, takes nothing between
dinner and supper except a small glass of
wine, in which he dips a biscuit. At II
o'clock he goes to bed. 1t is after dinner
that most of his real work is done, either with
one of his private secretaries or alone. He
sometimes greatly surprises the ecclesiastics
who surround him by bringing out in the
morning some document that he has written
in the previous afternoon, quite independent
of the traditions or the advic by which pcpes
are usually supposed to be guided. In fact,
he is highly intellectual, spirited and origi-
nal man, and sorely feels the oppression of
the papal crown. Perhaps if he had remained
in a lower place his originality would have
won for him greater reputation than he now
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