Evening star., 1903-12-16
Like a Gilded Prison.


After he was elected pope he sent for
them to join him at Rome. They bought
third-class tickets as usual when they made
their little journeys, and were quite over
come when the officials Of the railway at
tached saloon car to the train for their
exclusive use. They had never ridden in
one before. The pope intended that they
should occupy a villa in the Vatican park,
which was erected about twenty years ago
for the comfort of Leo XIII who was ac-
customed to occupy it during the summer
months, when the walls of the Vatican be-
came saturated with the summer heat, but
the sisters did not like the arrangement.
The villa was too much like gilded
prison: they would be compelled to observe
formaliiies to which they were unaccus-
toned: they could not enter or leave the
Vatican park without attracting great
deal of attention: they would be shut away
from all the world, and in their solitude
could make no friends and would have no
body to gossip with.
They wanted to live with their brother
in the Vatican and take care of him and do
his cooking, as they have done for twenty
five years, and he would have been glad II
such an arrangement could have been
made, but the officials persuaded him that
such a thing could not be. So he had his
secretary secure them comfortable but
modest fiat in the third story of new
apartment house on the Corso Victor En-
manuel one of the busiest streets OF new
Rome where they can live as quietly as
they like go and come without at
tracing observation and can see what is
going on around them.
This street leads to the Tiber and the old
Castle of ST. Angelo, which was originally
built by the Emperor Hadrian for his
tomb but has been fortress for sixteen
centuries and Is one Of the first sights OF
the city It is only four blocks from the
Vatican, with which 1t was formerly con-
nected by an underground passage.
Thus the sisters are within ten minutes
walk of the papal palace but they find it
very difficult to see their brother as often
as they would like, and complain of the
formalities by which he is surrounded. He
has done away with much ceremony and
the restrictions that surrounded his prede-
cessor, but the pope of Rome is very busy
man. and has little time to spare for visit
ing with his family. His sisters and nieces
have been in the habit Of going to his apart
ments about twice week in the early even
ing hours when his receptions are over, and
have dined with him several times.
Sensible and Practical.
Nobody knows what they think of all the
grandeur and glory by which he Is sur
rounded and the magnifcence and magni-
tude of the palace in which he lives. They
are sensible enough to keep their thoughts
to themselves, and no newspaper reporter
has ever been able to coax them or entrap
them In an interview. Remarks that they
Many Of their former neighbors have been
here. Almost every Catholic in Venice has
come to Rome to see how Don Giuseppe
looks on the pontifcal throne and the
Misses Sarto have naturally received a
great deal of attention. and their rooms
have been beseged by friends, to whom
they have talked freely. Portions of their
conversation have been repeated at home
and printed in the Venetian papers. but
thus far they have said nothing foolish and
have spoken like the sensible. practical wo-
men that they are.
A question agitating the mind OF many
silly people concerns their reception by Ro-
man society," which is not yet back from
it's summer vacation. Rome is divided into
two great sets, between which an impass-
able gulf Is fixed. One set, which adheres
to the civil authority and worships at the
palace of the king, is called the wh1tes;
the other set or blacks as they are cali
ed regard the king and the royal court as
wicked intruders, and VIII not recognihe a1s NE
old precedents and traditions and regard
the pope as their temporal as well as splriI-
ual sovereign.
Many of them are so rigid in their notions
that they will not even vote at a civil cleo
ton. for that would be recognition OF the
authority of the king. To this class peiong
most Of the famous old Roman famlnes,
those who trace their ancestry back beyond
the middle ages and occupy the cold. gloomy
and musty smelling old palaces along the
banks of the Tiber and in the ancient parts
OF the city. lDey are tcIy hNCAJ VI
cheerful companions and their lives and
habits are restricted by their piety. their
poverty and their pride. They are exceed
ingly formal and ceremonsous, and the red
handed peasant women who have come
down from Venice have no place or part
with them. and would be miserable in their
company.
In order that his sisters may be well
looked after the pope has provided them
capable chaperone in the person of an ex-
perienced Roman woman of the middle class
who is wise in the ways of the world and
can look out for their happiness and protect
them from the adventurers who swarm in
Rome as In the other European capitals
His holiness has purchased two new car
riages for them, brougham and landau,
so that they need not be riding in the street
cars and expose themselves to the no:oriety
that their relationship will attract. The
purchase of these carriages caused consid-
erable excitement and furnished founda-
tion for a widely published story that the
pope himself was going to violate the policy
OF his predecessors and leave the Vatican
The papal coat of arms was painted upon