The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-08-26

alteration" by which he was chosen
when Plus TX died. But even the Church
Lord is bound to get a breath of fresh
air, and under his role of prisoner to the
house of Savoy he is forced to resort to
methods the mere statement of which
fires the Catholic heart in the countries
still faithful to the papacy. II was with
devout delight that the Romans who
are still faithful to the temporarily of the
pope, learned the other day that he had
succeeded in finding what the Italians
call miraculous temperate corner Of the
vast gardens of his prison palace. The
single fear that the Roman Catholics
have is that the pope might shrink away
and fade into coma under the Dlighting
air of the Theirs fevered purlieu-where
the vatican spreads its ungalnly walls.
Chance. or, as the faithful claim, mira
Gle, re -ea!ed to Leo XIII. a high forbid
ding tower raised on the edge of the
southern margin OF the hill-far from the
clamor of the city and hidden from the
neigh boring quarters by walls and vast
spaces Of river and Meadow tower IA
nous in the bloody annals of the papacy,
where Borgias and Medicis perpetrated
the crimes that have made their names
the despair OF the papacy. These walls,
originally calculated TO conceal crime,
perform in these days the more useful
office of excluding heat. Into their
gloomy recesses no ray of sunshine has
ever penetrat ted here the GOODNESS with
out the dampness of subterranean each
OTIS" holds sway in the hot
test blasts of summer In this
grewsOme retreat the pope immures
himself during the torrid morning and
afternoon of the Roman day. He may be
seen by those who are permitted to
frequent the halls of the vatican or wan
der through the large gardens, carried on
the ShOntnprc Of his
through the wide doors of tine library,
and when sufficiently at large You may
surprise him taking TO his aged lin BIS,
supported by a stout stick and walking
with surprising vigOr toward what the
pious encourage graphically describes as
his holiness spa. Here he receives the
venerable cardinals; here he transacts
the still multifarious business of the
head of the greatest church of the known
world
The tower has three windows, but it is
not necessary to say that the thickness
OF the walls prevents more than bird S
eye view in any direction through the
enormous embrasures. Arrived at the
head of a narrow circular stair, the
pope's chosen cell affords just room
enough for narrow divan, a writing ia
BILE and chair. He can only receive one
or two officials at time AS darkness
falls and the air grows cooler, he is car
rled down the stairs, takes his cane again
and walks feebly back toward the svati-
can. He makes it part of his mission
every time he passes through the garden
to visit vine which he planted himself
more than ten years ago. about which he
seems very solicitous and always holds an
amusing conversation with his gardener
Monsignor Caesari, who cherishes this
same vine as he would a graft of the holy
cross itself.
The papacy has undergone harder trials
than those that Leo X I is enduring with
the subtle adrOitness OF the most polite
dynasty tia ever ruled he world Ma
poleon, the darling and delight o. Plus
VII, dealt harLer and more scientific
blows than all the present anti Ca Cholic
rulers know how to launch. He haQ skep-
tic and degenerate Europe with him; he
had servile continent to applaud his
rigors; he had eEen the hierarchy of the
church to formulate the spiritual benefits
to flow from the confscation of papal
wealth, and Napoleon, the mightiest
personal force known since civil
lzatlOn revealed the superiority of mind
to matter, was brought low by the patient
endurance of pope feebler in power, less
in intellect than the clerical Richelieu-
Leo XIII. The wool witted Humbsrt
holds the papacy leash, but the spiritual
increment of Europe, of the world, Joins
the meek prisoner of the vatican" The
papacy may never again rule the temporal
destines of Middle Italy, but, when the
house of Savoy is among the things of the
almost incomprehensiblep past, the sover-
eign of the vatican will rule the spiritua
world. and his movements will be free. as
his sway be1aiicient-for whatsoever
creed a ma. t,ioIe, anS, there can be only
veneratio' for consistency, devotion,
breadth al.d genius, such as Leo XIII.
typities JUNoT.