The Savannah morning news., 1902-02-09

approach, multitudes have been hook- |
ing into the church for the high mass |
OF Christmas day; but mutitudes, un-
less they run up to $4,000, are only |
drop in the bucket in that magnificent |
building. Open the central entrance by |
the great brazen doors-there can be |
no disappointment in what you see
within; size, harmony, simplicity, |
splendor. are all there; gold, silver |
marble of every color flash upon the |
eye. The central aisle sweeps down |
through marble columns, past the
bronze Baldacchino, which towers 100
rect towards the dome, until it is lost
in the far away apse; the two side
alsles, glittering with chapels, affairs,
monuments sweep on till arrested by
the transepts and pause that one may
look up into Michael Angeles dome,
borne upward by huge piers, and ris-
ing 4So feet from the pavement of the
church. But 1t is no time to wander
over nave, aisles and transepts and to
inspect their separate wonders, for the
elaborate ceremonial of the Roman
Catholic Church for Christmas is
about to begin in one of the side chap
els. In almost every one of it's chapels
and at almost every altar masses have
been going on since daybreak, and all
have been attended by what in a
church of ours would be called num-
erous Worshippers; but now the great
rehglous ceremony of the day is about
to begin, The high altar under the
canopy over the tomb of st. Peter is
not to be the place of this high .func-
ton, for only the Pope celebrates mass
at that sacred spot, and he is now 81
years old and may never appear in ST.
refers again, but deputed represent
ative Cardinal Rampolli, understood)
is to officiate at the service. The hands
of the clock point to II a. m. A warn
ing bell rings, and from the sacristy
comes forth long procession; light
bearers, mace-bearers, a host of AGO.
lytes, canons of the church in the shag-
gy rough cape, bishops in purple and
the officiating priests in white They
have hardly taken their seats in the
chapel of the choir and begun the early
part of the service, when a second bell
rings, and second procession comes in,
this time from the other side of the
church from the door leading into the
Vatican palace; it, also is preceded by
acoiytes and mace bearers, and bears
as its central figure a Cardinal, in his
red cap and gown, with ermine cloak,
his trailing robe borne by priests, and
attended by laymen of noble families
with their badges of office. The off,
GERS utter polite "Permesso" (by your
opens a lane through which this pro-
cession makes it's way into the same
chapel where the members of the first
rise to receive it. 1t is not my inten-
ton to describe the service, for / am
incompetent to do so, but only to note
its effect and the attitude of the wor-
shippers. The larger part of the wor-
shippers We're, of course, strangers, who
stood through the entire service of
naarIU fxVn HrSIIrS. f1eSr4 ID 90 f5t.s
gredient of the crowd were the poor
the very poor, with babes in arms and
little children hanging to their skirts.
One is compelled to remark upon the
extreme devotion and reverence of the
lower classes. All during Christmas
week this class f1ocked to the
ing place. The scenes we wit
messed were touching in the ex-
treme. Here a mother kneeling before
an altar was teaching her lit
tie babe to cross herself with
tiny hands; again, before the
shrine of st. Sebastian, a mother
while she knelt was telling her young
boy the story of that noble martyr;
here, a rough dressed peasant, with
hob-nailed shoes, was lost to his sur
roundings in the earnestness of his
prayers; young girl kneeling was
sobbing out the story of some sin be-
fore the relics of a saint. Everywhere
the story was the same. The church
belonged to the poor. When asking
for the reason of the absence of the
better classes, l was told they had
private chapels in their palaces. 1t
may be so but certainly the poor and
the middle classes constituted large
proportion of the church goers. Nor
did they seem disturbed in their devo-
tions by the intrusion of Sightseers
with red guide books IN their hands,
breaking in upon their services in a
way that to us would have been intol-
erable In that rich and princely
church, on that day which commem-
GRATED a Holy Child and Humble
Manger. these poor people and these
little children seemed to be more in
harmony with the memories of the day
than the jewelled priests and encrust-
ed marbles. We secured two camp
stools and placing them at some dis
tance from the crowd, listened TO the
music. 1t was the Pope's choir of per-
fectly trained voices who sang the
mass. We could not see the ceremo-
nies at the altar which are so mean
ingless to the outsider, but music IS
universal; 1t belongs to no race and to
no man, but to our common humanity.
AS 1t rose and fell according to the
sentiment OF lHe hldSSs ~ ~
carry humanity's burden OF sin ana It's
burst of triumph. not to Mary, but to
Him whom Mary bore and who Is the
Lord of Mary as He Is OF every child
of man. For a moment the great
church was forgotten, IT'S rich altars
and chly-vested priests; we saw not
the surging crowd nor the kneeling
Uorshiuers: we were back again at
Rethlehem, and heard the angels sing,
and II was birth song OF great JOY
and peace to all men. 1t was of little
moment that Ii was for
eign church and cult abnormal
10 our Anglo-Saxon race; the soul that
win can worship everywhere. Finally
the great organ broke into the swell
that betokens the end; the lane was
again formed between the walls OF
neople. the Cardinal in red with all
the acolytes and attendants came forth
again went to a side altar In the
transent and stripped of his priestly
Garments and clothed in his cardinals
Pad his devotions, and then the long
lire of choir boys knelt before him
Tor his Christmas greeting, and only |
accomna MED now by his bishops and |
nriests slipped through chapel on |
ne other side of the church into the |
Vatican-the last seen of him was the /
s.ratching forth OF his cardinal ring |
for the priests TO kiss as he parted
from them. The crowd dispensing, we
siowlv wandered through the monu-
ments OF st. Peters, paintings were
ont OF place and have been removed