Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-04-25

Letter From Frank Harris.
TIE CHURCH OF ROME.
ROME, Italy, April 5. 1901. --"rhere
is not and there never was on this
earth, a work of human policy so we'll
deserving Of examination as the Ro.
man Catholic church. The history of
that church joins together the two great
ages of human civilization. No other
institution is left standing which car
ries the mind back to the time when
the smoke of sacrifice rose from the
Pantheon, end when cameoleopards
and tigers bounded in the Flavian am
phitheatre, and she may still exist in
undiminished vlgor when some trav.
eler from New Zealand shall, in the
midst of vast solitude, take his at and
on broken arch of the London bridge
to sketch the RUNS of ST. Paul. ~
Macaulay.
To me there has always been some.
thing about the Roman Catholic
church that is to be found in no other
church, and that something is to n Q
one Of the greatest things to be found
IN Christianity. have never in all
the Catholic churches | have seen
noticed we'll dressed woman nor q
we'll dressed man "move over" or if q
woman, pull her skirts so that they
would not come IN contact with the
clothes of some poor half starved,
half dressed sister or brother who may
chance to sit by their side. IL has al
ways seemed to me that it made no
difference to them. They all seem
brothers and sisters there; but really
one can't say as much of some OF our
Protestant churches. Imagine, for In
staEc', man like ! sa~ in st Peters
yesterday afternoon. He had on one
boot and one shoe. The shoe had no
strings. The boot looked like it had
done good" service in a walk around
the world. His shirt, or what was
supposed to be his shirt, was flannel
rag Ills coat was one mass of rags,
and as for his trousers, the less said
about them the better; and kneeling
with hands in prayer was woman
that looked like some millionaire's
daughter She had diamond earrings
on large enough to furnish light for
Fourth street, but they were side by
side, and l couldn't help but think of
Trinity in Boston, or some big Pro-
testant church in Chicago or New
York. 1t was something that one
would hardly see there, but that's not
the fault of the Protestant church
no church should be judged by it's
priests, or its minister's, or for that
matter its congregations, yet in that
respect Catholicism seems ahead of
our Protestant churches. Yet there
are things about the Catholic church
that seem strange not only to us but
/ suppose seem strange to some
Catholics themselves.
This is Holy week, so last evening I
went to hear "Tenebrio' sung at st.
Peters 1t is supposed to represent
the darkness that covered the earth on
the death of the Saviour. For the
three days no hymns of rejoicing are
allowed to be sung, but only those
passages of the scriptures and of the
Fathers of the churches, recited or
chanted which express sorrow for the
death of Jesus 1t was certainly q
beautiful. beautiful service and the
music did certainly seem sad. 1t
seemed so awfully sad that it really
seemed lonesome or lost. It was music
different from anything have ever
heard have heard the solo of the
mother who has lost her only child,
but it was JOY when compared to the
soul sadness of some of those haunt
ing chants.
The sun was just setting and as the
light came in upon the golden stained
glass behind the high altar it seemed
that we had left the realm of earth
The altar is all in gold and when
Aamed with the light of the dying sun
it made more than picture. 1t was
too real for sny picture, it was too
grand for any words and all one could
do was just to fold his hands, bow his
head, and even if you didn't say a
prayer it forced you to think one; and
think ] hardly that the meanest man in
all Christendom could hear that music,
see the sun bidding good bye to day
and casting its dying rays in through
the stained glass of that wonderful
High altar without filling him with 9
strange feeling such as he has never
known, causing him to bow his head
and open his heart to some unknown,
all knowing God head. From the left
of the altar is placed triangular
candlestick in which fifteen tapers are
fixed. These equal in number the
fifteen chants that are sung and one
candle is extinguished after each
chant. 1t seemed to me that each
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