The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-11-26
is MEMORY OF FACES
A TRAIT OF PRIESTS?
New York SUM

tNeN 1OIh Cull.J
Reading a few days ago some stories
of Pope Pius's remarka BILE memory fol
faces ! was reminded of couple OF
priests who had marvellous memories
remarked a member Of the Catholic
club. 1t set me TO wondering if the
possession Of first-rate memories is not
one of the characteristics of men OF
the cloth.
From my tenth to my fourteenth
year | was an altar boy and acolyte in
Catholic cathedral situated in small
city on the west bank of the Missouri
river. About Il quarter of a century
ago there drifted to this city noted
and eloquent mission priest Il member
Of one of the great orders. He con
Quoted Il mission at the cathedral, and
| was in attendance upon him as AGO
! lyte at most of his services for nearly
! three weeks al that time
Two or three days after ] began as
ssting him noticed that he seemed TO
| be somewhat annoyed over the noise
which l undoubtedly made by clomping
/ about the altar in my fTost-hardened,
cOpper-toed boots-I was mighty proud
of those boots, by the way. because
/ they were the first copper-toed pair l
! had ever worn.
l caught the mission priest exam
! ing these scoppeF-toed boots of mine
rather curiOusly two or three times,
and | felt that they were getting on his
nerves. | trod as lightly as l could aft
er that, but. try as / would, couldn't
seem to lessen the noise made by the
boots.
so I asked my mother to get me a
pair of carpet slippers to wear at the
altar told her that the mission priest
appeared to be bothered by those noisy
boots of mine. She got me d pair of
carpet slippers, and ] carried them
with me to the sacristy and put them
on in place of my boots the next time
l went to serve the mission priest
He quickly noticed the change. He
looked down with an approving smile
at my feet and nodded his head ami
ably. After the service he patted me
on the head as l was helping him to
remove his Vestments in the Sacristy,
and told me that / was a quick lad to
have noticed that the boots were dis
turbing him.
That was praise enough for me. l
became so attached TO that mission
priest before he departed for other
fields that l hated to see him go.
About two years ago it was an
nounCed al the church which | attend
here in New York that this same priest
was to hold mission at the church. |
was delighted to hear that, and l de-
termtned to go and have a, little talk
with him as soon as 1 learned that he
had arrived in New York
When l got the word that he had
arrived 1 Went over to the priests resi-
dence at which he was stopping. | gave
my card to the housekeeper and told
her l wanted to see the mission priest
Presently he came down the stairs
holding my card in one of his hands
and shading his eyes with the other
he had Tot aged a great deal. although
his hair had turned from iron gray TO
snow white; but he was still the same
elect, rosy-faced. handsome MA whom
L had served OH the altar as a boy,
Twenty-Five years before.
He had a puzzled look on his face
as he continued TO gaze at my card on
his way down the stairs. But when
he reached the bottom OF the stairs he
looked up at me with q smile, and it
wasn't ten seconds before his smile ae-
yeloped into a smile of recognition.
hadn't said a word, but was Just talk
ing his proffered hand, when he amazed
me by saying:
All, here is my little altar lad with
the noiseless carpet slippers grown into
a mani
II think that was an urexampled and
almost incredible feat of memory. [
was only a small shaver a quarter of
a century ago, you'll remember, and
there was never anything Characters
tic about me- I'm just one among a
billion in looks,
But this kindly old priest with the
clear mind had me charted before had
a chance to say word to him The
fact that have never worn any hair i
ic a,to iY,1x-
account for his marvellous feat in plac-
ing me.
Just six months after that | was !
crossing the Atlantic bound for Lon
don, on one of The ten-day steamers. |
When / looked over the. passenger list |
on the first day out saw that one of !
my fellow voyagers was the bishop of
the cathedral in the little western town |
whom / had frequently served on the |
altar when an acolyte
Il waited to get look at him at the |
dinner table, anu found him not great !
~ changed-a tall, strapring, fine look |
ing, urbane Bavarian, with the same |
heavy gold cross attached TO his watch |
chain that / remembered SO we'll and !
with the same habit OF taking snuff
now well | recall the benign raps he |
used to bestow upon my head with his |
snuff box in the sacrlsty:
Il didn't get an opportunity TO pre- |
sent myself to the bishop Immediately |
after dinner, as ! had intended. and 80
decided to wait until evening before
myself ITO him. After
Inner | got into one of those old-time
ship amusements, still carried on on the |
slow liners, quot pitching. with a num-
Der of fellows on the for'ard deck
Il made a sad hash of it. | seemed
% have no judgment whatever of dis
lance. and | was way at the bottom
IF the tally very soon after the game
began
After twenty minutes of the exer-
Use 1 gave it UP in disgust and some
what sheepishly Joined the group Of
people watching the pitching. l had
10 sooner done so thar l heard d quiet
voice. i'm my ear.
You had d better eye than that, my
;on. the voice said, "a quarter Of a
century or more ago. when you used
o bat the ball around the lot near the
cathedral before vespers.'
Il looked up, and there was the bish-
,p of my acolyte days smiling in my
ace