The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-03

| Yesterday was the-ninefy-frst birthday of
| Joachim Pecci. Leo XIII, supreme Pontiff,
Prisoner of the Vatican the oldest, as
he is the last. of that small group OF per-
sons who have been p~re-eminent In the
worlds history for the last sixty years.; the
others being. of course, Bismarck. Glad
stone and Queen Victoria. He was born
on March 2, 1910. the son of Count Ludovico
Pecci, a poor Piedmontese nobloman or
Carpineto. His father served in the Ma
polecnic wars. The Pope has much of the
mountain simplicity in his character. There
was a marked physical resemblance De-
tween Leo. Bismarck and Gladstone. All
had high cheek bones, massive jaws, elo-
quence and a gently melancholy tempera-
ment, but here the likeness ended. Leo was
educated under the domination of spiritual
ideas. His boyhood was spent in the simple
surroundings of the country, and In MS
youth he was a great climber and very
fond of sport. He is one of the most schol-
arly men of the age and possessed of ex-
traordinary breadth of view. His speech is
deliberate. but without hesitation. His
voice is not very full. nor very loud, but 1t
has an incisive carrying power. Always
a hard worker, Leo retains much of his
physical energy, if not his strength, and a
fine example of his mental virility is found
I'm the sonorous periods Of his Ode TO the
Twentieth Century," Always an advocate
of peace, 1t is noteworthy that Leo has
been at unending war with the Quirinal.
Peace has been an external form, while all
the phases of diplomatic conflict have gone
on constantly between the Italian govern
ment and the papal household. This is due
TO the fact that Leo has never become
reconciled to the enforced relinQuishment
of temporal power, while Italy would not
for a moment consent that such power be
restored. The phrase Prisoner of the
Vatican" which often is applied to the
Pope. is more than a verbal fiction. There
is no doubt that the most violent cliques
of the Italian Left would connive at his
death If Leo appeared on the streets of
Rome. Therefore he has immured himself
in the confines of the Vatican.
Xxx
With the lilac buds swelling under the
growing power of the vernal sun, it is in
teresting to note that the lilac is one of
the many things for which we are indebted
to Persia. The common lilac belongs to
the olive family-the Oleaceae. 1t is the
Syringa Vulgaris of the botanist. Heuffel
ascribed its origin to Hungary, but he is
alone in the belief, among the great bot
anist. Gerard-1597-said ii was introduced
from Persia TO Europe i'm the early part of
the sixteenth century. He defined two va
rites, which he called the white and blue
privits. The former. however, is the ash.
indigenous to Great Britain; the latter is
the true lilac. Botanists recognize about
twelve species of lilacs found in a wild
state, and these are scattered from south
western Europe through Central Asia and
the Himalayas to Mongolia, northern
China and Japan. None of the species is
native of the American continent. In the
seventeenth century the lilac was brought
by colonists to America, and it has -four
ished here as we'll as if in its native cline.
A curiosity of the language furnishes an
other probable example Of our indebted
ness to the land of the Shah. 1t is that
much-abused word, beloved of the peace
at-any-price pe~ople-jingo. The Persian
form from which it probably was derived
is ''jang-jo'," pronounced ~"jung-jo'," the
apostrophe indicating the aspirate. 1t is
from "jang," meaning war or strife. and
10 one who follows after; whence, by
gradations, the meanings aggressive, often
sive, belligerent, and. colloquially, one who
is these things. The word '~'jang-jo',"
pronounced ''jung-jo'," probably received
its first foreign touch in having "g" sub
stituted for the final 81" and 'jung-go'
would then glide readily into the easier
lingo of the vernacular, with it's mean
ing still unchanged; filling a void in the
language and furnishing a fine example of
its assimilative powers.
XXX
Friends of a well known Indianapolis
knight Of the grip are having considerable
quiet fun at his expense, and incidentally
disseminating a slight degree of informa-
ton i'm therapeutics. While out on a weekly
trip during the recent heavy snowstorm,
the traveller was so unfortunate as to be
tipped from a sleigh, slightly spraining
his back. After his return home the pain
still fingered and his other half decided to
rub him with liniment. 1t did not soak in
readily, so she heated an iron. and, laying a
cloth over the afflicted part. proceeded TO
iron him. 1t was one of those rickety
patented irons with a detachable handle,
made chiefly as an incentive to objurgation,
and at the most critical part of the opera
ton the handle came out. The hot iron
caromed down his anatomy and stopped
in the small of his back long enough TO
burn therein a deep and symmetrical cres-
cent. What he said would have melted
the types, but the story leaked out and the
| other travellers are passing the word along
TO ''see the branded maverick"
XXX
1 suppose Porto Rico" is in the lam
guage to stay. just as the island of which
it is a misnomer is under the flag to stay.
Yet Porto Rico is wellnigh a crime; to
say the least, an error of great bulk philo-
logically, geographically, historically,
dramatically. Porto Rico is & hybrid
phrase made out of a Portuguese sub
s~tantive and a Spanish adjective, and is as
absurd as 'Newporto' would be for New
port" From the historical standpoint, be
it that in 1909 Ponce de Leon
sailed into the harbor of what is now the
capital city and named it San Juan de
Puerto Rico'-the Rich Harbor of St. John.
This name afterward was applied to the
whole island, and later it was shortened to
Puerto Rico" while "San Juan remained
as the title of the city. The great geog-
raphers of the world have abided with
Puerto Rico and the people themselves