The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-05
EASTER WHERE
POPE RESIDES
Thousands of Travellers Be-
seiged Place for Relics.
S0NE VALUABLE POINTERS
How to Make the Most of the
Time.

w tl6l4S " liz view 1Olk E4AA44S O~t
ID &c Branson says:
Rome is annually besieged with thou
sands of travellers in search of the pic
turesGue or the impressive in the great
,cerenonials OF Holy Week and Easter.
and. as rule. these people have their
journey for their pains Certainly there
are the much-advertised functions at ST.
Peters and st. John Lutheran, with pass
able music which you cannot hear. a
cardinal up at the altar whom you can
not see, and some thirty thousand peo-
pie, in great part moving about and talk
:. ing. One may observe devotions going
on here and there. but often enough
Of q nature scarcely contemplated in the
ritual The washing Of the high altar in
ct. Peters. which takes place after The
Tenebrae and Miserere on Holy Thurs
day evening. with the vast bascilica In
semi-darkness, used, indeed, to be weird
ly impressive. but the effect even Of
that has been rendered cheap and garish-
ruined, ia fact. by the new electric lights
There are no longer any street process
sions and in general one feels disrnaI'y
that the Italian element of it all is
swamped in the move of shouldering,
trampling tourists.
The better part, then is tn escape all
this, and spend ones easter in some lit
tie Italian town or village, where the
church IS visibiy a power and the quaint
ness Of local custom survives The lit
tie island of Capri is such q place, anu
Easter over and above what the church
has to show, an ideal season to be there
AS in most remote Italian villages, Tho
religious. spirit is still deeply persuasive
and the parish priest parsonage of
much more direct consequence than the
gendearnerie or the civil authorities; and
1t must be said for the clergy. that. in
the main they use their great influence
30 excellent purpose. II, for instance, you
miss something. and suspect it has been
stolen, you 90 to the sacristy rather than
to the police Office And Don Antonio
who knows his fock-wiH quietly convene
the suspects for a very plain, fatheriy
talking over, with the result usually, that
your property comes back. without public
ity. and. above all without the soul har?
assing red tape Of the Italian police sys-
TEN I have known several just such
cases during my stay in Capri
The little parish church. with its queer
Saracen-looking roof. was once a cathed-
raj. and its bishop, whose salary was paid
IN birds was locally known as the "Bish-
Cd of Quaiis'' IN the old time his people
yearly did SAVAGE battle with the folk Of
Anacapri, whose church is paved with 4
wondrous thing. setting forth the crea-
ton. with all the beasts that the artist
could ever possibly have seen, and some
that surely he must have dreamed OF.
believe the fight was for the claims CO
their respective patron saints; anyhow,
broken heads, ad majorem Del gloriam.
were plenty But those days are gone,
and with the them the Bishop of Quails-
The island has been merged in the archi-
ocese of Sorrento.
The serious business-I had almost said
1.-THE tragic business''-of the sacred sea-
con begins with Good Friday On N,
morning of that day a large space Is
cleared in the nave OF the church, and
table is set with very substantial meal
bread and butter, cheese. fruit, and Dig
faschi of wine. Twelve battered old fish
errnen and peasants are gravely led ou-
and seated around the table. The priests.
with many genuflexiOns. serve at this bar
necide feast-for such II IS, as little or
nothing is eaten at the time But l no
ticed that the illustrfous twelve carried
of everything portable. using their white
robes as aprons; and l make no doubt
that twelve square meals were eaten thai
day in Capri
A. the end of the supposed supper
bowls of water and towels are produced.
and the feet Of the Apostles are washed
II seemed to me rather odd TO see the
good old natives Who had rowed me into
the Blue Grotto or tried 10 sell me corals
at the marina. sitting there as the Twelve
Apostles l thought of a day when l h2d
come out Of the passion theatre at Ohev'
emmergau. and had seen St John dashiIs
off down the street OF the village on 4 b.
cvcle. clatter OF beer stems and heavy
stratum Of smoke 10 find the Christus and
have him sign his autograph. But this
lttle service was neither trivial nor in any
way amusing. Il was lifted above all that
ny the genuine interest which all con-
cerned took in what they were doing and
nv their evident seriousness Mentally
abolishing the curious bystanders and the
tawdry. fiimsy hansings Of red and silt
an The piers Of the church. il was no:
difficult to imagine that the Last Supper
was rather like that. Certainly it wa
composed Of very much the same sort OF
people.
The afternoon brought a stream Of visit
tors to the -sepulchre' is one che sd
chapels. where. amid innumcrabie candles
varicolored liehis flowers and punches =
grass. the dead body Of Christ lay in
state. WAS especially Interested II
watching the children who stood will syed
gazing n the sepUlchre-not more than
four or FIVE years old. some OF them. luS-
sing vet timer tots IN their arms ana
telling them N ave-struck whispers thA,
Christ was dead. In the farmhouses Of
the Black Forest one very often sees. no
side the entrance door. 4 great gaunt
orucifx. the dead figure surrounded by ii
the implements Of the passion. I have
often fanc5od that the children who grow
m amid these th.nEs must have IN thsil
thinking Of the sacred tragedy. a sens
of the nearnes s. Of & all that IS wholly
foreign 10 cur iraaginicgs. They must 10
caiize g. not as something which hap
penee IN distant quarter of the earth
they are hy 10 means ever likely q visit
hut rather as an occurrence in their oW,
village. which they themselves seem 4
have seca. and. Il may he, even takcI
part in.
SO with the Capri children who cre7
tirnldly Up 10 peep AT the sepulchre. an
who marched that nizht in the process
sion which bore the dead body throsly.
. the narrow. twisting vilsre streets. IN
figure was life size ana OF a startlin;
realism, lying on a bier. stin crowns'
with thorns. blood streaming from all tn