The record-union., 1898-04-08
Leo XIII. AND THE VATICAN.
LECTURE BY j. MARION CRAW-
FORD LAST NIGHT.
He Sketches the Life of the Present
Pope and Contrasts Him
With Pope Plus TX.

A very sparse house greeted +. Ma
rion Crawford, the well-known novel
list, last night at the Metropolitan Ihe-
ater, to listen to his lecture on Leo
XIII. in the Vatican"
Those who came, however, listened
to a most interesting lecture, delivered
in a most attractive style by man
who has a thorough command OF IAN
guage and has studied his subject. Mr..
Crawford has a fine presence, his ges-
lures are unstudied, but those that ne
uses are impressive; he has exceileht
control over a good voice, and while
cool deliberate speaker and not a mag
netic one. his polished, well-rounded
sentences and the faculty or terse,
vivid description keeps him in touch
with his audience
He began by saying that, in speaking
to his audience of Pope Leo AIlI., ne
would in the first place give them
sketch of the circumstances that eie-
waited him to the Pontificate and would
touch on the career of Pope Plus IA,
for the reign of the predecessor OF Leo
XIII was a contrast to the reign OF the
latter at every point. Under the for
mer the political power of the Vatican
steadily lost strength, while under Leo
XIII it has steadily gained in power
and influence. After giving this brief
sketch, he would try to show them the
present Pope as he lives and moves
and does his hard work, in his great
old age, in the Vatican, and lastly, he
would touch upon one or two questions
that intimately concern him, and IN
measure concern the whole world.
When the College of Cardinals elected
Pope Plus X to succeed Gregory ANl.,
the first thing he did was to declare
amnesty to all political offenders lie
was still young and full of lofty Ideals
and enthusiasm. Gentle in character
and beloved by all who knew him, he
was weak and vacillating poll,lcaily'
The great wave of unrest and cnahSe
broke out all over Europe almost slmuI-
taneously in the first part of his reign
and the very men whom he had par
doned turned against him. France
brought him back and kept him on his
throne until. in her death struggle with
Germany. she had to call back every
man she could muster to fight her own
battles and give up fighting those OF
others. 4 change came, and Victor
Fnmnuel and Garibaldi broke the
temporal power of the Pope; Plus iA.
died and Victor Emmanuel had pre-
ceded him only a month.
Then came a change. The tide OF
misfortune had reached its lowest ebb
and began to rise again. Joachim Vim
cente Pache. born in Carpinato, about
thirty miles south of Rome, had grown
up in the country. rugged and strong,
with the fine constitution that now
stands him in good stead. He had,
ever since his entry into the priesthood
steadily advanced in standing and pow
er. been Nuncio to Brussels and Arch
bishop of Perugia, and was now CHOSEN
by the College Of Cardinals to succeed
Plus TX under the title Of Leo Kill
He resembles both his father and his
mother. whose portraits hang IN the
residence of his family, having the
bony frame high cheek bones and large
head of the former, with the piercing
black eyes of his mother, that seize
and hold your attention as soon as
you see him. His complexion is pecu-
liar. being absolutely cOlorleas, but
is luminously pale.
There; is a strong resemblance II
characteristics between Leo Kill, Glad
stone and Abraham Lincoln, all three
being, in their prime, tall, slneWy ara
with bony frames and heads, hlSh
cheek bones and prominent jaws. They
all possessed great physical strength,
were capable of profound study ana
concentration, eloquent men on occ2-
sion. but different in their training. Lin
coin was sef-educated, being brought
up under hard circumstances; Gladstone
was an eminent scholar before ne was d
statesman and Leo XIII. was brought
up under the domination OF spiritual
ideas at a time when they had just sur
vived the shock of the French reVolu-
ton When the eyes of the world were
fixed on the struggle between The
Roman Catholic Church and Prince SIS
marck, Leo XIII. came on the scene.
He is one of those characters that come
to the front when the pendulum of the
world is swinging the full stroke OF .ES-
tory and it is glory or death to grasp
it. He is a man of courage and lndt-
pendence and showed it when he was
Archbishop by opening his house daily
to receive the officers of the Italian
Government and talking freely with
them of the events of the day.
He loves to talk with strangers now,
and few persons of note come to Rome
without going to see him. He has a
wonderful voice and the speaker once
heard him in St. Peters speak to 6000O
people ana all heard him distinctly
People think it is tigurative to speak OF
him as a prisoner in the Vatican. but
it is an absolute fact. The reason IS
that it would not be safe for him TO go
outside into the city, the danger of his
being assassinated by anarchists is so
great. Even the King of Italy, beloved
as he is by his subjects, has twice been
in danger from such attempts, and the
Pope is the worst hated man by an
archists of any one in Europe, for lIe
has done more against them than any
other man. This is the reason why he
remains in the seclusion and safety oI
the Vatican. Even there two men Jb-
tanned entrance in some way with a
dynamite bomb that would probably,
If thez had not been captured. have
blown up and destroyed him. The racI