The Anaconda standard., 1898-03-07
FROM MAYOR THOMPSON
Sends a Letter to the Standard
From Rome.
SIGHTS IN THE HOLY CITY
A Flying Trip Through Italy-The Lean
ing Tower of Pisa-The Ex- Mayors
Offer to Straighten It Declined.
A.Chat With the Pope.

Ex-Mayor William Thompson is still
/ engaged in his cruise of the Mediter-
ranean and his many Butte friends will
be glad to learn that he is still in good
health and having many interesting
experiences. The following letter from
/ him, da ted Pension Costa %, via del
Babuino, Rome, Italy, Feb. 90 should
prove of interest:
ITO the Editor of the Standard:
There is so much to write about
| that l hardly know where TO begin or
4 where to stop. Every day / have ex-
periences enough to fill a column of the
/ Standard and all is very interesting to
me, although l don't know that much
of it would prove interesting to your
readers.
I'VE are all well and after seeing
/ Gibraltar, A1giers and Marseilles, we
I left the good ship .Aller' at Genoa to
/ take flying trip down through Italy
! to Naples, where we will board the
steamer again and resume our cruise
of the Mediterranean. l am sorry |
could not spend a whole winter in
/ Italy but l am glad to have even a
| flying trip.
"At Genoa we saw the great monu
ment to Christopher Columbus, with
/ great statue of him in white marble.
| The motto on it is A Christoforo Co
/ lombo La Patria.' The statue sur
mounting the monument has the right
hand in the attitude of disclosing
| America, who is represented by a wo-
man kneeling at his feet. We only
stayed an hour or two in Genoa, but
we walked through some of the streets
| and they are the narrowest and crook
edest l ever saw. ] can't see why the
city was ever styled the superb
The railroad ride from Genoa to
| Pisa is about eight hours. Most of the
| ride is by the sea, but the splendid
view is somewhat spoiled by the so
tunnels and 80 cuttings that the road
passes through This is in distance
| of 105 miles
The thing of most interest in Pisa
| is the famous leaning tower. 1t seems
| incredible that this great tower should
/ be allowed to lean SO. | went to the
city council of Pisa and through an in
1 terpreter | offered for $4,000 to set the
/ old tower up straight again, but they
wouldn't listen to the proposition. They
| said it had been leaning for hundreds
of years and they wanted to let it lean.
| That shows how slow the people are in
/ this country. In our country 1T would
have been fixed up straight years ago.
1t is 179 feet high and leans 13 feet
from a perpendicular line.
After a brief stay in Florence, we
/ came on to Rome and were very for
4 tunate in being here on the occasion of
/ the 6Oth anniversary of the first mass
of Pope Leo XIII. This was celebrated
| in ST. Peters church, which is not
named after the present mayor of
| Butte, but after the apostle Peter, who
died number of years ago. This is
mighty big church. 1t covers $4,000
square yards and cost s5o,ooo,0oo 1t
/ costs 1915 900 a year to keep it up
/ There are las columns in 1t and 29 al
tars besides the high altar, where the
| pope only reads mass. / went to the
church the day the pope celebrated
| mass there in celebration of the 60th
anniversary of his first mass. There
/ were $4,000 people there including
many Catholic clubs with their ban
| ners The pope was attired in red and
1 wore a gold chain around his neck. /
can state positively that he has no
horns. I looked very close and am
sure I couldn't be mistaken. / can't
swear as to the tail, for it might have
been folded up under his robes. But
| it is only fair for me to say that /
didn't see any tall
! 1.-THE pope was borne the whole
length of the church in the sedia ges-
tatoria on the shoulders of six foot
/ men while all the time the ringing
notes of silver trumpeters filled the
| vast basilica. After the mass he was
again carried through the church,
wearing his tiara
1T was not until yesterday that l
| succeeded in getting personal inter-
view with the pope, and then it was
| only for few moments and so many
| attendants were standing around that
l couldn't talk with him as confiden-
| TALLY as | wanted to. / thought he and
/ might sit down together and have a
| confidential chat in regard to number
L .,,,BT .
| even invited to sit down. / was treat
ed courteously, however. I had to go
| in full evening dress, which is required
of all visitors. / didn't practice any
deception whatever, but told the pope
| that | was elected mayor of Butte on
the A. P. A. wave of righteousness, but
| | admitted to him that | had had
enough of all kinds of waves. He said
he was sorry to hear it, but didn't say
| whether he was sorry for the wave or
sorry / had had enough of it. | ques-
| toned him on this point and he said
| that il was only movements like the
| A. p. A. which keep the Catholic
| church growing in America. that if it
| wasn't for such things the church
would decline. This surprised me a
| good deal for / had felt quite guilty
to think of the sledge hammer blows
used to deal at the pope
when 1 was thousands of miles
| away. The pope went on to tell
me that there are scores of thousands
| of people in America who We're born
and brought up Catholics but had be-
| come lukewarm and were no longer
active supporters of the church. They
| gradually drifted away from the
church and their support would be en-
tirely lost were it not for the move
ments similar to that of the A F. A.
| which spring UP once in a while and
which get every Catholic back into the
ranks. The pope shook me very COR
daily by the hand and said he was
glad 10 welcome any man who had
| been concerned in a movement which
had been instrumental in getting scores
| of thousands of lukewarm Catholics
| back into active support of the church.
| He asked me If / would thank for him