The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-07-21
CRAWFORD TELLS
Of THE EARLY LIFE
OF POPE LEO XIII.
Says Childhood Training and
Heredity Aided in Producing
a Brilliant Mind-EarIy Show
ed Ability as a Governor.

".It is the tendency of the modern
world to reject the claims or blood. 1t
is not the tendency of modern science
to do so, however. and those who study
the development and degeneration of
man will not underrate the manifest
qualities of family that has traversed
six centuries of Italian history with
considerable distinction and without
faint of crime, disease or insanity"
says F. Marion Crawford in an article
written on Pope Leo" Saints have
been the children of sinners; madmen's
fathers have been men of genius, and
genius itself has often sprung out of
mediocrity, but enduring strength has
never issued from an Inheritance of
weakness. nor wide and we'll bal
anced intelligence from the capricious
gifts that sometimes lend brilliancy to
a degenerate stock"
IF We knew as much about the
childhood of other distinguished men
in our own times we should come to
the conclusion that very few were so
rigidly and hardly brought up, phys
ically and mentally as Joachim Pecci,
nor under the immediate influence of
sterner examples, nor in more careful
practice of daily and hourly frugal
ity. The Pecci were gentlefolks, but
far from rich; they were numerous
and their numbers are increasing; they
had the legitimate pride of people who
had occupied a good position in life
for centuries. and they possessed small
means of increasing their fortune and
none Of the opportunities necessary for
engaging in commerce. At that time
hundreds Of families in Italy were in
the same circumstances, and many are
precisely SO situated today.
!. Reason for Love of Workingmen.
eff Leo XIII. has felt and shown a
profound interest in the state of work
ingmen, and has labored to the best of
his ability to help them. it is largely be-
cause he was born among the people
who titled his fathers ground for a liv-
ing; that Is to say, among the only
workingmen without whom mankind
would starve-the laborers of the soil.
This intimate connection, involving I'M
broken intercourse with farmers, and
consequent acquaintance with the
changes in the agricultural state of
Italy was not interrupted by Cardinal
Pecci's elevation to the pontifcate.
Throughout his life, on the con-
trary he kept possession Of a certain
farm at Maenza, which was his portion
of the paternal property, and long
after he was prevented from visiting
| the place, his interest in it remained
undated, and he himself examined the
accounts he received from his tenant.
| There is, perhaps, no hereditary in
| stinct in man after the great passions
so strong as that we call attachment
| to the soil.
Overtaxed His Strength.
Joachim Vincent Pecci seems to
| have been boy Of reticent appearance,
| but of a wiry and enduring constitu-
| ton and great nervous energy. Like
all very strong men, he afterwards
| overtaxed his strength to degree that
would have killed most people, and ex-
posed his health somewhat recklessly.
Yet in life that extended far beyond
| the ordinary limits of longevity he was
rarely i'll. He probably owes this in
| part to the really magnifcently sound
| stock from which he came, and partly,
also, to the love of an open air life
| which he acquired as a child in the
| Volsican hills. Lean and active as a
! boy, he loved walking and climbing,
| and preferred a days shooting in the
| mountains to any other sort Of a holi-
| day, for he was a good shot, and his
! gun is still preserved at Carpineto;
| moreover, in country and at time
| which made riding a necessity of life,
! he was good rider.
when he was only seven and one
| half years old Joachim and his brother,
/! Joseph, were taken to Rome in order
| to be further prepared for school, and
| yet at that age the boy had already
| learned his Latin grammar, as is
| proved by the affectionate messages he
used to send to his teacher. The only
| possible conclusion is that Joachim
| intelligence was precocious.
| Loss of Mother Made Pecci Churchman
| Both he and his brother won many
| prizes and were constantly praised for
| their good behavior, and, so far as any
| evidence goes. there was nothing in
| little Joachim's bearing to fofeshadow