Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-07-14
Venerable Figures in Crimson
and Uniformed Guards Sur
round the Bed.
After Reciting The Confession of Faith
the Pontiff Hears Words Of Alb
solution Spoken
Vatican in State of Continual Elk.
element and Unrest as
End Nears.

deaths door all day Monday. The last
sacrament was administered Sunday
night, and the aged pontif, after recit-
ing the confession, heard the words of
dissolution spoken.
Gods will be done. Who would have
believed it, when only ten days ago |
was presiding over public consistoryY y
murmured feebly Pope Leo as he felt
himself sinking into a sleep which lasted
about three hours until excruciating pain
brought the dying pontiff back 90 con
seriousness.
Though lowering on the brink of
death, the life of the pontiff was pro-
longed Monday by means of strong stimu-
lants and concentrated nourishment Late
Sunday evening after the excitement of
the ceremony of the last sacrament was
over the Pope seemed less restless, partly
soothed by the religious service and part
ly by a dose of choral, which was given
to him in considerab Bile quantity.
The pontiff lay on a small bed drawn
up to window overlooking the piazza
of st. Peters. The only picture in the
room was an antique Madonna and the
sole ornament a great ivory crucifix.
The Pope's serious illness began Sat
urday afternoon with a severe chill, re-
ceived while driving in the Vatican gar
dens. Although the temperature was 96
degrees Fahrenheit, the pontiff com
planned of sudden pain in his right side
and sharp shooting spasms. He also
suddenly felt violently cold, and the
horses were driven homewards at full
gallop IN the blazing sun, the sufferer
lying back on his cushions, unable to
secure any sensation of warmth.
Within an hour the cold settled in his
head, producing diffuse bronchial catarrh,
with a sensation of extreme lassitude. A
slight cough also was felt, with slight
fever and great thirst. His condition
grew worse rapidly and all the efforts
of DR.. Lapponi were directed to prevent
ing bronchitis or Inflammation of the
lungs BY midnight the pulse was weak
and injecstions of caffeine were resorted
to. This treatment proved efficacious
and by morning his condition was slight
ly improved.
The amelioration in the Pope's condi-
ton during Monday morning was so I'M
natural, considering the gravity of his
illness, that it was feared that possibly
it was only the last Pickering of the
vital fame. During this brighter inter-
val the Pope resumed his habits of COM
mand and insisted on giving orders for
the preparation of the brief appointing
Mgr. Volponi, actually secretary of let
tiers to princes, as secretary of the con-
sistorial congregation, a post vacant ow-
ing to the promotion of Mgr. Nocella to
the cardinalate.
The only persons allowed in the Pope's
bedroom Monday morning besides the
doctors and attendants were Cardinal
Rampolla, Monsignore Bisleti, the mas
ter of the pontifcal chambers, and Brig.
Gen. Count Camille Pecci of the noble
guard, nephew of the Pope. The pom
tiff conversed for a long time with Count
Pecci even rising and walking about the
room for a few minutes, leaning on his
arm. The pontiff on this occasion re
marked:
Now / am ready to depart, having
uettled all my affairs. | feel | have done
MI in my power for the good of the
church and of humanity
Leo Kill was born as the bells of
Paris were Ginning with the choir of
Notre Dame, in whose precincts his pred
ecessor, Plus VII, was blessing the union
of Napoleon and Marie Louise. In the
ninety-three years that have passed since
then the world has changed as it has
never changed before within ten times
ninetv-three years The day in 1897,
when Napoleon ordered that no successor
To Plus VI. was to be elected, and de-
creed that the papacy was to be abolish
cd is further away from our world of
electricity and steam than it was remov-
Cd from the days when the Borgias ruled
Rome. Yet the life of Joachim Pecci
has spanned that immense space in the
progress of mankind. and for more than
one-ouarter of that time he has exerted
an influence greater, perhaps, than that
of any other man upon the civilized
world.
The diplomacy of Leo XIII. brought
about a mitigation of the anti-Roman
"Mav laws" in Germany, he acceptably
srbitrated the German-Spanish dispute
over the Caroline Islands; he offered to
orhitrate the Cuban troubles with Spain;
he notified the Roman Catholic bishops
of ireland that boycotting and what was
known as the ''plan of campaign" were
immoral. and his encyelical of 1891 on
the relations between capital and labor
won deserved respect.
But it is none of these things that will
preserve the fame of Leo XIII. Rather
it is his personal character that has es-
tablished it by earning the reverence of
aven those who would be the first 70
dispute his claims 10 spiritual authority.
And thus Leo XIII. passes gently from
the world in which ne has played so large
and fine a part. beloved by millions Of
his fellow creatures and universally re-
vered.
POPE TAKES LAST SACRAMENT.