The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1903-12-18


only by crossing the desert supposed to
be included within the new states geo
graphical limits, through which ran the
trail to faroff Santa Fe and Chihuahua.
There arrived one morning in the
busy little hamlet of Council Grove
during the month of May strange,
mysterious person. He attracted much
attention, for he was to the denizens
of that remote frontier town as curious
a parsonage as the Man in the Iron
Mask or the awkward Casper Hauser,
Z whose appearance at the gates of MI
remberg once startled the good people
of that staid and quiet town hoary
with the conservatism of centuries.
The stranger who came so uneXpect-
eddy to Council Grove in the. spring of
1861, evidently a priest, talked but lit
tle 1t was an exceedingly difficult task
to engage him in conversation, so pro-
foundry did he seem impressed with
the idea of some impending danger
He acted like startled deer, ever on
the alert for an expected enemy, and
weeks rolled by before two or three of
the towns most reputable citizens
could gain his confidence sufficiently
to learn from him something of his
varied and romantic history. In a
simple sketch, as this is intended to be
only, nothing but a mere outline of
his checkered life previous to his adj
vent in America can be presented, as
it was gathered, very reluctantly on
his part, in detached fragments at odd
moments in his cratic moods of COM
municativeness. 1t certainly contains
enough of pathos, suffering and TRACE
dy to form the web of thrilling novel.
Matteo Boccalini at the date of his
appearance in Council Grove was about
fifty-five years old. He possessed the
eye of an artist, head that was beau
tifully symmetrical, with a classically
nodded face, and, NOTWITHSTANDING his
age, his hair, of which he had profu-
sion, was long, black and lustrous as
ravens wing. Yet the heart sorrows
he had experienced were indelibly i'm
pressed upon his benevolent counte-
nance in deeply marked lines. He was
q lineal descendant of Trajane Bocca-
lini, the witty Italian satirist author
of the celebrated "Ragguagli di Par
naso," who died in Venice in 1913. Mat
teo was born about the beginning of
the nineteenth century in Capri, that
charming and most romantic island of
Italy situated in the Mediterranean at
the entrance to the bay of Naples, TWEEN
ty miles south of the beautiful city
whose name the bright waters bear.
His youth was passed on the island
in the city of Capri, the seat of bish-
opric. There he received his early edu
cation, devoting himself to the church
and commencing his theological studies.
The island of his birth, which has so
often been sung by the muse, is histor-
ic as well as picturesquely beautiful.
1t was there that the Roman Emperor
Tiberius passed the closing decade of
his life, and the ruins of the twelve
gorgeous palaces he erected during
that period are still visible. Capri,
too, as tourists well remember, is ia
nous for a cavern called the Grotto of
the Nymphs, or the blue grotto. Mat
teo declared it was there that during
his youth, in the calm recesses and Sc
questered hooks Of that delightful u"
derground retreat, he first learned to
love the companionship of his own
thoughts, desire for solitude and that,
to him, indescribable peace which a
life apart from the "madding crowd"
assures. 1t was this strange charac-
teristic, absence of that love of gre
gariousness common to man, which
earned for him in Council Grove half a
century later the sobriquet Of 'The Her
NIT Priest Of the Santa Fe Trail' and
year after his departure from that
place, among bis devoted adherents in
the mountains Of New Mexico, the
more applicable one Gel Solitaire" Ghe
solitary NAM, in contradistinction to
Gel Hermito" (the hermit), which he
never was in the strict Interpretation
of the term.
When but eighteen, the youthful
Matteo left his native island under the
patronage of the good bishop, who
loved him, to perfect his education in
Rome beneath the very shadow of st.
Peters, where he took holy orders at
the early age of tWenty-one. Then, ac-
cording to his sad story, began a life
of stormy passions and sorrowful pill
grimages.
He was called by the church Father
francesca and, although so young, was
noted for his eloquence, subtle philoso-
ply and the boldness of his political
utterances; but, Notwithstanding his
pronounced views, the pope named him
as one of his secretaries. The college
of the propaganda, however, refused
to confirm him and placed him under
Interrogation and discipline. He elo-
quently defended himself, and the
charges were not sustained. The Sc
we're discipline ended to which he had
been subjected, he was assigned to
duty in the purlieus of the Eternal
City.
In short time Matteo Boccalini's
sunny nature and warm passions caus-
ed his disgrace. He became enamored
of fair devotee, one of his charge,
dark haired, lustrous eyed, bewitohing
creature of the "land of the vine"
Alas, the too susceptible young man
1uccumbed to the wiles of the radiant
maiden" and he fell. Poor Boccalini
was Immediately and openly charged
with the enormity of his crime, prose
cuted and denounced. He was despoil-
ed of his sacerdotal functions and COM
| PEELED to flee, became wanderer upon
the face of the earth, supping with
sorrow and daSnair for oomnoDianS