The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-09-29
A CARDINALS LIFE.
How a Prince of the Church Lives
Aside From the Public Gaze.
Cardinal Gibbons an Ascetic and a
Great Walker.
baltimore Letter. !

Since the glamor preceding and attending
the cardinate investiture has passed away,
Cardinal Gibbons, has resumed his quiet
mode of living, and great is the contrast in
deed between his public and private llte
While presiding at ceremonies in the cathe-
dral he is a typical prince of the church,
dignifed. pomp0us and careful that all the
ceremonies should be performed with a
splender becoming cardinalate see In
private life, however. he is one of the SIM
plest of men, His residence has wide-open
doors for all corners, be they rich or poor
Catholic or Protestant, and he never refuses
an audience when it is possible to grant it.
The poorest parishioners of the cathedral
are treated with the same courtesy as the
owners of millions. He will have no formal
reception. In fact, anything like form outside
of the cathedral is hateful to him. He has
a warm shake of the hand for everybody and
one of the most winning smiles in the world.
His parlor is furnished with notable simple
ity being devoid of anything like ornament
beyond a few pictures Of Catholic prelates
and scenes in Rome, The cardinals favor
is leaning back in an easy char, with feet
crossed and arms folded. He is an excel
lent conversational. having the happy talent
of saying the right thing to, the right person
church talk in which some prelates like to
indulge on all occasions. To visitors he ap-
pears to be benevolent, retired little man,
with disposition to take things easy.
with him however, say that he is anything
but an easy liver He is as ascetic, they de-
clgre, as the late Cardinal Guibert of Paris.
While genial and all smiles to callers, he OBJ
serves in private all the little penances of
asceticism. His bedroom is the most poorly
furnished in the house. The floor is oaken
and polished, and covered in the centre with
rug which is much the worse for wear A
common wash stand bureau with a very
small glass, and two cane seat straight-back
u. I1ka 81 IS
niture in the room The cardinal believes in
the maxim, early to RISE" etc. He cele-
brates mass every morning at clock, some
times at the central alter in the cathedral,
and sometimes at his private alter. His days
are passed in the recitation of his breviary, in
studies, in receiving visitors. and in recrea-
ton, of which he takes good deal. He is
an indefatigable walker. His daily office is
recited while walking up and down the brick
pavement in the rear of the archiepiscopal
residence, and he is frequently seen porting
over some theological work while trampiDg
in the library, Moreover, he takes a daily
walk through the streets with one of his
priests. This walk is usually taken about
to the city suburbs. AS he tramps.along he
seldom speaks to his companion, but seems
intent on getting as much exercise as posi-
BILE out of his walk. 1t is said that the young
priests of the city are not particularly glad
when the cardinal invites one of them out
may be to the prelate, it is tedious to his
companion. The cardinal always selects
young man as his associate in tramplng AS
in the case of the confederate general j. Il.
B, Stuart, who used to take one of his young
officers along on his wildcat excursions into
the enemys lines as special mark OF favor
so the cardinal means it to be a distinction
for the young priest whom re asks to trudge
along for miles these hot days.
In these walks he frequently makes calls
on his flock. He does not stand on cere-
mony. Sometimes he walks into house and
finds the ladies of the family altogether I'M
prepared for such distinguished visit. Still
he smiles benignly, unconscious of the havoc
he has played with the ladies' sense of pro-
priety. While he was bishop of Richmond
the members of his flock were in constant
state of apprehensio n about his inopportune
calls, for, somehow or other, it seemed to the
good housewife that he always selected
washing day for visiting. The cardinal is
one of the fastest walkers in Baltimore.
Though small man his steps are astonish-
ingly long and he never seems to get tired
He is always dressed while on the street in a
black Prince Albert suit. generally ill-ftting
as to the coat, and wears hat which is
never quite as well brushed as it might be
His extra broad shoes show that he goes in
for comfort rather than for elegance. Gen
eralIy fine cardinal so manages his walks so
as to step in at ST. Mary's seminary on North
Paca street. He has a great love for the old
institution at which he was educated and for
the professors who trained him Tor the
priesthood. During the summer monthS ne