Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-07-13
OF LEO XIII.
Incidents of the Famous Pom
tiff Boyhood.
FOND oFDARINe FEATs IN HUNTING

Pope Used to Jump Chasms and
Scale Precipices None Others OAR
ed Attcmpt--HOw He Arrested n
Band of SmuEgIers-His Kindness
to an American Girl.
Pope Leo XIII. was at one time one
Of the most stout limbed and daring
hunters in Italy, says Tt-Bits.
A companion of those days, now
known as Father Selvagni, the aged
priest of Carpineto, referring to the
friend of his boyhood, once said:
what hunts we had together! We
were up bright and early, securing the
forest; but Sir Nino was ever more
fearless than 1. He climbed to the
very top of Melaina and the Fageta,
jumping chasms and scaling precipices
none others dared attempt"
1t was just midway between Traf-
alCar and Waterloo that 'Nino" first
opened his eyes on the hills of Carpi-
neto, the eighth child of Ludovico
Pecci, q colonel in the Italian army.
1t was through his mother, however,
that he derived his strength of charac-
ter and brain, and she in turn was a
true daughter of Cola di Rienzi, the
great tribune" whose dream 1t was to
give a new birth to the Roman re-
public.
His mother always regarded Nino as
special gift from heaven, and even
when he was in his cradle she used to
prophesy that one day he would sit on
the throne of st. Peter" Her letters
are full of the wonders of this new
child, whom she named after her hero,
Vincenzo Ferrer, and when his age
was measured by months she wrote:
my little Vincenzo walks alone al
ready and goes everywhere. He is pas
sionately fond of horses. Although he
is so small that you can hardly see him
he jumps up and rides oil the furniture
without waiting for help from any
one. You may we'll imagine that this
child is not the cause of much melan-
choly Titta. an older brother, does
nothing but make affairs. The church
has great attraction for him." And
yet, how strange it is, Titta was the
only one of the family of nine children
to marry. and Nino, who had all the
early instincts of n soldier, was to be-
come pope.
An interesting story is told of these
very early days. One day a peasant
woman brought a basket of cheeses to
the Pecci home, and the little Nino,
STOPPING in curiosity to look at the
cheeses. fell into the basket.
"What do you want. brotherP the
peasant asked laughingly.
"I am not a brotherr' the child an
swered. with pout.
"What then, cardinalP
mo" answered the child's mother,
taking him up proudly In her arms,
''he is my little pope" And so 1t was
to be, more than sixty years later.
| AS a boy Nino was the ringleader IN
everything that was mischievous or
risky, and IL there was bully to COW
or a daring feat to be done it was al
ways Nino Pecci who was In demand.
And yet. through all these boyish
pranks, the boys great future might
have been seen by discerning eye. AT
school his beautiful face earned for
him the nickname of 1.-The little angel
and mother of piety," and If there
was an act of kindness to be done he
was always the first to think of and to
do 1t.
One day on his way home he found a
peasant boy lying hurt by the roadside.
He had been knocked down by cart
and feared that his leg was broken.
Nino ran to neighboring spring, filled
his cap with water, gave the boy some
to drink and with the rest bathed his
leg. When he was sufficiently rec0v-
cred he raised the boy and, half sup
porting, half carrying him, started on
the long journey home.
At this point Nino's tutor overlook
him and gave him lecture on his I'M
prudence.
"What will your parents say" the
teacher asked, when you take this
dirty ragamufin homer"
'grhey will say that have done
right" Nino proudly answered. as ii
so unusual, then, to help hurt child
Wouldn't every one do as 1 am trying
to do?"
The Rome correspondent of the Pail
L. .I,Ho Al,f 1nr-in IF