The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-01-14
HISTORIC EVENT In ROME
THE CLOSE OF THE LAST CENTURY
IN THE IMPERLAL CITY.

Letter From IA Resident Who Was Pres
emit at tNe Interesting Ceremony at st.
Peters Upon the Occasion of the Clos
Ing of the sacred ID oor for Twenty-Five
Years by His Holiness, the Pope.
Rome, Dec. "a, 1900.-Seldom has
Rome been found so wide-aWake at
such an early hour as this morning, for
the Queen Mother" as she Is called,
was to arrive at 1920, coming to Rome
for the first time since her terrlb q hp-
reavement and the Holy Father was
to close THE Sacred Door at st. Pc
ter's about the same time. I, was IN
deed difficult thing to choose, which
one preferred. Although the Mother
Queen Margherita was to pass my
very door, l went to st. Peters, as that
was to be a sight only seen in every
twenty-five years, though it has been
seventy-fve this time since it's hinges
have been tried. 1t was a dull, gray
morning. All hearts seemed to feel
certain solemnity. Perhaps it was be-
cause we are drawing near closing
century," a closing door and a closing
year. All seemed in keeping. Already
the streets, when / started at O'Clock
where the beloved queen was to pass,
were lined with soldiers, Carabinieri
with their fierce red plumes waving,
and artillery with their mournful look
ing cannons, while on the arms of all
the military We're bands of crepe, and,
indeed, all faces showed sad hearts as
they patiently waited. But what diff
ferent scene as I went towards st. Pc
ter's. Passing all through the narrow
streets there were vegetables hanging
out with fancy trappings of tissue pa
per, onions with cut paper plumes and
bologna sausages looking proud of their
rosettes. l crossed the Ponta Umberto
OHumbert's BRIDGE, named after the
late king, whose widow was about en-
tering Rome. All the bridges crossing
the Tiber were filled with long lines of
carriages and thousands, tens of thou
sands, of people walking, all towards
the greatest cathedral of the world,
which was surrounded by military, as
there is no place where greater order
can be found than Rome zen fet2.'
Only those who had tickets could enter
st. Peters, as different places had diff
ferent colored tickets. Mine was fer
the bronze door of the Loggia outside
st. Peters under that beautiful ceiling
and Mosaics after Giotto. Here were
tribunes set apart, the pope's diplomat
dc corps, the Roman nobility being OPP
posite the "Porta Sacra," then tri-
bune for the choir; while the other
parts of the Loggia were filled with
saints or sinners prophets, priests and
almost kings. AT 1920 the Dig bell of
st. Peters sounded it's tremendous
peals in deep bass notes. The process
sion came from the Vatican, headed by
the Swiss Guards in their marvellous
costumes of yellow and black, then the
"Nobil Guards with their gorgeous sill
yer trimmings and feathers, the Henry
VIII. costumes, with their white rufus
encircling their threats; afterwards the
prelates, bishops, archbishops, cardinals
and last the Holy Father, carried in his
traditional chair, while above his head
was carried the golden canopy sur
rounded by the huge white ostrich
feathers, banners like fans heralding
the pope He entered st. Peters by the
"Sacred Door" He was carried up the
center Of the immense cathedral, giving |
his blessing to the fifty thousand who
were inside, and going around the high |
alter where rest the remains of this be-
loved saint. He then returned down the
center aisle out of the "Porta Sacra,"
when the door was closed for another |
quarter of a century, the pope getting |
down from his chair and standing while
the Paatine Guards presented arms
and the great crowd waved their hand
kerchiefs. On a table temporary al
tar near the door, which was covered
with rich white brocade silk ornament
ed with a gold fringe, lay the sacred
relics and a gold tray with the three
gold bricks, surrounded by hundreds of
candles The pope was very pale as he
chanted the "AdIeutotorium Nostrum in
Domini," in which the choir
and the public Joined, as Cardinal Vim
cenzo Vanutelli handed the three bricks
which Were to be used for sealing the
door on which was engraved the date.
After this the "Te Deum" was sung.
Then the bell stopped ringing, while all
who were present and could find space
knelt as the pope gave his final bene-
diction; then pause, clashing of
swords, signs of the cross made by all
those present and then one tremendous
voice, "Viva II Papa, viva II Papa"
1t was indeed touching, as the pope is
now in his ninety-first year and it wo1ld
seem as if the closing of door would
soon be a reality, or the entering anoth-
ar one in another kingdom.
Now all the doors of the vast cathe-
lral were opened, while people scatter
ID hither and thither in all variety Of
ostumes-pilgrims in their native
lress, the students all in different ras-
socks, prominent among them the Ger
mans in bright scarlet, Armenians in
purple and Greeks in maroon, while
overhead the gray had disappeared, a
leep blue taking it's place, for the sun
hone in all it's glory, the big while
lock on the top of the castle in st
Angelo pointing / o'clock.
And now of the queen. | am told .
While the cortege passed with the heart
,ro,rer queen the neople almost barhe1 |
he ground with tears; groans we're {
,eard on every side. She was heavily !
eiled, though in an open carnage ]
rawn by four horses and preceded hy {
utriders on black horses who wore
rene badges. In fact, everything was
n a funereal style, while she, poor wo- ]
nan. was weeping bitterly all the way l
n her new home, Palazzo Piombino, '
where the American embassy has been {
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