The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-11
The Cardinals Life in His Home.


Special to the Indianapolis Journal.
New YORK, Oct. 10-The close of Cardinal
McCloskys career centers public attention
on the big and ornate piles of marble that
occupy block in the city's most fashionable
section. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of st.
Patrick, the costliest and finest example of
church architecture in America, is right across
corner Of Fifth avenue from the Vanderbilt
mansions, while facing in from Madison avenue
at the is the reproduction of Italian pal
ace that Henry Willard had not completed when
his downfall came, and on all sides are the resi-
dences of extreme wealth and luxury. Two
corners of the square which the Cathedral
stands are lesser, and yet big structures. in a
responding style of material and ornate shape
illness One of these is the official home of
Archbishop Corrigan and the priestly members
of his and the Cardinals establishments. The
other has for a few years been excu-
sive to the only prince of the
Roman Catholic Church that America
has mad. Within this beautiful inclosure Cardi-
nal McCioskey formed and maintained court
that had all the ceremonial formality and much
of the magnifcence Of secular ruler; for it is
an unwritten law Of Romanism that a cardinal
shall sustain a certain degree Of princeliness.
and McCloskey, despite his personal simplicity
of character and tastes, felt bound to obey the
usages of his church abroad. On rare occasions
of great ceremony when he took part in the
worship in the Cathedral. he invariably entered
with professional pageantry, wearing a crown,
robed in trailing garments whose royal gorgeous
ness has been repeatedly described, and taking
seat on a throne whose splendors of construction
were sacred to his use alone. His ageenfeebled
hos rpay tod m froyo rfiono in
the public rites, had he been disposed; but he
an ideal figure when he did show himself as the
center of the most brilliant imaginable scenes of
ecclesiastical pomp, with his ascetcally aesthetic
face noble bearing and venerable aspect. The
deep impresslveness of his disclosure to a mixed
assemblage of rich and poor. intelligent and ig-
noraut. cultured and superstitiouS, was specta
Gle to remember for lifetime
A feature of the Cardinals palace was a
chapel, of which the outer observer was made
aware by its tall. stained glass windows. occu-
plying two stories of the building The interior
had all the appointments Of Catholic worship,
except that there were no pews for a congrega-
| ton Here masses were performed daily and
| the Cardinal went to confession once a week,
| his confessor being Father Preston, the only
priest in New York who came from a family Of
wealth and social distinction. McCloskey was
devotional in the extreme, and very punctilious
! in his observances. He also exac:ed to the ut
most that Difference which was due from his
household to his rank. He lived plainly as to
| eating and drinking. however, and his likes and
desires ran altogether in the direction of litera
ture, art and religion He never went out into
society, for the presumed reason that he would,
not if ne could, demand the kind of homage
which his princeship implied. He was never
seen in the streets after his elevation to the
throne, and when compelled to go anywhere he
rode in close carriage. He was about as con-
fined the Pope i'll the Vatican, though alto
gether by choice, for he had many warm personal
friends lasting over from his humber days.
In the summer he lived quite as retired in
a convent belonging to a sisterhood on high, ru-
raj ground just north of the city proper. During
the last two years physician visited him every
day, and the same constant skiful sort of at
tendance extended down to the lowest servitor;
and among these the etiquette of a royal court
such as the use of the phrase ''your IHghness"
in addressing him, low obeisasences in entering
his presence and awaiting permission by a wave
of ne hand to speak, was sedulously enforced.
In his privacy he wore simpler robe of black,
and beretta of the same color than the exam
Piles of most European cardinals permitted and
he had no foppery but in his officials he exacted
strick compliance with the fashions as set by
foreign authority. His family relations were
chiefly with the wife of John Kelly, one of his
three nieces.
All is guesswork, of which there ia q great
deal. as to successor to McCloskey in the Amer
lean cardinalate. Opinion points to the Arch bishop
OF Baltimore. not only on account OF his fore
most position In the church. but because tho