The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-12-18
! COUNTY. MD, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1s 1908 No. Is

Mediterranean. The phosphorescent
bay of Naples, the sky, sunshine and
vine clad hills of dear old Italy were
nevermore to stir his once impulsive
nature or quicken into life his now
deadened heart.
Years rolled On youth passed by, and
middle age was upon the homeless
man, when, after having roamed wea-
rily from place to place, visiting one In
dian tribe here and another there in the
vain hope of discovering some clan or
people near unto natures heart whose
souls were attuned to his own who
would receive him in the simplicity of
his severe and pious penance, he ar
rived among the Kaws Of Kansas,
whose. reservation was in the lovely
valley of the Neosho, a few miles be-
low Council Grove. But that tribe, a
dirty, despicable race, very suspicious
and withal not remarkable. for their
reverence of any religion, did not take
kindly to the weary old man, who
had entered their midst with the purest
intentions. His pious zeal, his absti-
hence and self denial made them fear
to approach him. They did not under
stand that
When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads tbs hard to draw them
thence
So sweet is Jealous contemplation.
The miserable savages looked upon
him, the meek and humble pilgrim, as
nv, I'M l,o
cine;' so Father francesca was no
more at ease with them in their skin
lodges than he would have been in the
gilded halls of the Vatican.
He then came to Council Grove, as
stated-came as the tramp has since
come-unheralded and unlimited, but
not to beg bread at the doors of it's
residents, as the latter now does, nor
did he come to tell off his beads in the
presence of the vulgar curious, but
went upon the hillside beyond the
town to seek the solitude and retire
ment of natural cave in the lime
stone rock of the region, troubling no
one-an enigma to the world and a
subject for idle gossip.
There for five months he lived, access
ible to but few, with whom, when he
felt and recognized in them the quick
ened glow of Il soul that believed in
the fatherhood of God and the broth
erhood of man, he would talk in ten
derest strains of everything that was
good, true and beautiful.
The hermit priest, as he was now
called, had of earthly possessions so
little that he could have We'd with the
lowly NaZarene in the splendor of his
poverty. OF crucifixes, devotional me-
mentos and other religious trinkets
sweetly suggestive of better and hap
pier days he had preserved a few.
His greatest solace was in half dozen
well thumbed small Volumes between
whose covers none peered but himself.
He was ever regular at his devotions,
for Notwithstanding he had grievously
sinned, as he declared, he was con-
stantly striving to outlive it's horrid
memory and to repair the injury he
had done his Masters cause,
He possessed one article of property
that tinges his sojourn at Council
Grove with delightfully."- romantic
remembrance among the very limited
number now living there who knew of
the vagaries of the remarkably strange
man; these were sometimes his con-
fidants and friends within a limited de-
gree. 1t was rudely constructed
mandolin, which during all the years