Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1884-07-18
Roman Cardinals

Cardinals r still princes of the
church and wear the purple, Saws q
Rome letter to the New York Herald,
but the terms which once meant so
much have lost most of their signiti-
canoe The pomp and circumstance,
the splendor and the power of the Sa-
cred College have been almost de-
stroyed, so far as externals are con-
cerned. The cardinals dignity grows
daily less mundane and more ecclesias-
tical. Those who lived in Rome twen-
ty years ago will not have forgotten the
magniticence which then surrounded
their eminences. The streets were
filled with the splendor Of their pres
ence.
The red and purple seemed every
wherein the narrow lanes. the pal
aces, and the churches. Rome bowed
down before them as they rumbled past
I'm their crimson coaches, and their very
servants had a certain majesty attach
ing TO them, such as the best powdered
tlunky in King Hulnbert's palace will
never attain. All this has changed by
the breach in the Porta Pia. The Grim
son coaches roll by n o longer; the car.
dinals have been shorn of their gran
deur, and their retainers have ex-
changed their scarlet and goldfor plain
BLACK broadcloth.
In their home life the cardinals of
this generation are simpler than many
shopkeepers. The higher you 90 in the
Roman hierarchy the less is the osten-
tation. Pope Leo himself sets the ex-
ample, and with few exceptions his
venerable brothers, and ..beloved
sons" all initiate him. Cardinal Jacob
I'M, Papal Secretary of State, lives in an
apartment at which a New York mer-
chant would scof-were it not in the
Vatican. Cardinal Billo's rooms and
cardinal Lucas, in the palace of the
that they would have called
most indulgent of our modern
.,esthetes. The tawdriness of the late
Cardinal Hassoun's furniture passes de-
lscription. 1t was worthy OF a cheap
!Coney Island clearinghouse. Cardi-
nal Howard, as becomes a scion OF his
house, does affect some luxury. Yet
even here it is seen in the form of cost
Ely books and pictures. His eminence's
table is more liberal than some others,
his wines are older, his linen is finer,
and there IS stately comfort in the
heavy drapery and well-stutfed arm
chairs which adorn his apartment. But
compared with the homes of most
wealtbv Americans that of the aristo-
cratic archpriest Of St. Peters appears
very unpretending. MIR. Vanderbilt,
no doubt, would think such an interior
a poor place to 'cntertain" in, Nor
:~oald it inspire much respect in the
minds of many well-to-do English
squires-
$ Even more striking than the poorest
of most residences of the Roman cardi-
nails is the bad taste and indi. erence to
beauty which stare you in the face in
nearly all Of them. The Wallpapers,
the chairs. the tables, the curtains, and
the carpets would make a very pork
butcher weep. Mr.. Matthew Arnold's
hair would grow prematurely white if
he had to live in such an art ambiente
as Cardinal simeoni's for Il single fort
night. The tiger pattern rugs and mats
of our grandfathers are still in favor in
the re option rooms of the ecclesiastical
princes. The furniture pictures of
the Hotel Drouot are interesting beside
some of the portraits and sanity ale
,gorics at his eminence So-and-so's.