The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-10-12
HALL CAME VISITS ROME
WILL HIS NEXT NOVEL DEAL
WITH CATHOLIC CHURsHP
Some of His Impressions of Italian
Life and the Problems That Dis
tort Italy.

,
interrupted them in the springtime, 1t
may be interesting to say something
about his devotion Rome. Whatever
else Mr.. Game may be- he is pre-emn-
nently popular novelist, one who mas
!, swayed first and quickly thousands
and then millions of minds and lmaSl-
nations by each of his novels Ana
there has been no decline in TINS popu-
larity; quite the reverse in tact, Tor
the sale of The Christian, his latest
work, has been equal to or greater thaIl
the sale of its prerunners among the
novels of the author.
His coming ROmeWards, therefore,
his assiduous study of Rome, the en-
thusiasm with which he prosecutes TINS
study-for study his investigation real
ly deserves to be called-and his con-
fessed inclination to write novel, the
scene of which would be Rome and the
informing spirit Roman, all mean that
Rome holds its old spell for the intel
lectual and all the cultured, its olQ
charm for the legion of novel readers,
its old place in the world as the city
wonderful, the city of fascination and
the city of Imagination. The movement
of progress does not seem to have left 1t
stranded behind.
Mr.. Hall Game has endeavOred to
study it from every aspect which it
/ presented to him. It has been difficult,
not to say impossible, to go anywhere
or to do anything during his sojourn
without coming upon his traces. He
has seen a good deal of the Vatican;
indeed he has seen Of the Vatican in
time, under the guidance, first and
| foremost, of one of the Pope'S lmmedl-
! ate attendants. He has visited fire.
quently and has also seen from within,
! all the representative monasteries, col
/ leges, converts and other religious
| houses of the Eternal City. His friends
among the clergy have been men of
! almost every shade of Catholic opinion,
and it should be his own objectionable
! fault if he We're not fully abreast of the
! feelings and views of the Catholic or
Black party But he has not neglect
ed the whites" (Quirinal party and
! "Greys' (Moderate party in social life).
! Under the guidance of Signor Maggie
rino Ferraris, formerly a member of the
/ Crispi cabinet still deputy and now
! the editor of La NuOva Antologia, he
has seen and touched all the contracts
to the Blacks which the following
of the Quirinal holds At the house of
that famous lady, the learned Countess
LoVatelli, a sister of the Duke of Ser
moneta, he has had the best of all de-
sirable opportunities for judging of the
attitude of the Italian state towards
the Catholic Church. Add to all this,
that during his first visit to Rome there
was succession of jubilees; the jubilee
of the Pope and the jubilee of the Ital-
ian court not to speak of the Socialist
and Red" (anarchisD jubilee which
characterized the funeral of Cavallotti.
and that he has seen almost all their
successive developments The begin
ming of that stay synchropised with the
bread riots. It's end conceded with the
hungarian and American national pill
grimages. 1t is impossible that he
should have witnessed all this phartas-
magoria without receiving due impress
sions, and would have been a miracle
of blindness or stOicism if he had not
been tempted to find in them the most
striking materials for dramatic pre-
ser1tation of the Third Rome
Naturally, he abounded in stories /,
which he had picked up in many quar-
tiers. Some of them were very human
and remarkable. He had created His |
own opportunities. II was easily ap- |
parent that he had gone about among
the people. There were few of the |
music halls which he had not frequent
ed Thinking that he could take adj |
vantage of the privileges of a stranger. |
he had visited during the carnival some |
of the Veglioni in the early hours of |
the morning. and he had at least at
tanned the distinction of speedy identi- /
ficatiOn in the Roman papers next day. |
Hence 1T is interesting to know that |
his impressions of-the~ Italian c5arac-
ter are friendly. A certain childlikeness
in the peasant character touched him
deeply. He said that he had seen
surprisingly little drunkenness very
little crime and astonishingly few of
the vices which degrade great cities
On the other hand, he confessed it to be
hi NiT1fN {l,o III,
ter was being Slapped by the spirit of
gambling which state fostered with
its recognition
On the Italian social question Hall
Caine does not speak confidently, burt
he has been deeply touched by the
condition of the poor in Italy, They
seemed to him ito be poorer than the
poor of any other European country
except Poland. Frightfully Overtaxed,
for the most part badly housed yet so
patient, SO religious in their simple
way, so cheerful in their awful DOv
erty, so fond Of a laugh, such children
whether young or old, whether grave
or gay--it is impossible not to love
them" He was told that in Naples
more persons died of dest! tuition than
in anW other city IN Europe. Per
/ leave Italy is deep pity of the poor
of this lovely and beloved country
At Sorrento, at Amalfi. and all through
that marvellous peninsula, | was al
ways asking myself what there was in
the future of Italy for the battalions
of half naked little ones who were be-
ing brought up to beg. The condition
of the poor in this country is a greater
problem than the vexed question of
the temporal power of the Pope
OF course he found religious problems
paramount in Rome but he protested
always that they are now paramount
Europe No political ques-
tionS hold their own with them. The
general feeling appears to be d feeling
of unrest. In Italy the churches are
often crowded; in Poland they. are
crowded; in Spain they are crowded;
in France they are often empty; in
often empty; in parts of
Russia often empty, and moaasteries
and converts either in ruins or con-
verted to secular uses are to be found
everywhere. But the gospel is a mighty
young gospel still. and in nearly every
country of Europe, even in Italy the
strongest current of religious feeling,
whether within or without the
churches, appears to be that which is !
going back to the gospel as it was in ,
The beginning" =
Such are some OF his experiences and ,
IMPRESSIONS When this letter shall !
nave been printed he will be here to :
'enew them. I for one do not doubt :
hat his stay in Rome during this :
coming winter 80 be. the fruitful }
iced time of a great novel. If I could .
conjecture from the data of my close
ind familiar acquaintance with the :
lovelist's movement, l should say ;
hat the church-the one true church, I
# course-will have the lions part in :
he promised work
1t has been decided that the Pope 7
rom this day forward to the end of =