The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1909-07-17
On the Worlds HIGHWAY.

Trastevere means across the Tiber'
and is one of the most interesting por-
| tons of old Rome. Its famous church
to which a writer in the New York Sun
alludes in the following paragraphs, has
a special interest for American Cath
oils because it is the titular church of
the American primate, Cardinal Glib
bons:
There is no dearer church in Rome
than Santa Maria in Trastevere. 1t is
old and worn; but its pavement is still
glorious, its unequal columns grand and
| impressive, its moSaics simple and de-
! lightful in feeling. / love the Madonna
! laying her hand so gently on the shoul-
| der Of our Lord her son. I love the
| sheep grazing below her on the borders
Of the stream, love every che of them.
That the church is not dirty and shah
| by is to the credit of my friend the sa-
grestano. 1 often go there when have
finished my work, which happens to be
| just when he has finished his, when he
has swept out the church after morning
service, busted the affairs and put up
fresh candles. We talk and have got
to know one another we'll We do not
always agree in our views. / do not
admire as much as he and many others
do the sermons of the 'ignorantelli' for
which Santa Maria is famous. In sum-
mer platform is built in the nave, and
on Sunday afternoons, two hours before
Ave Maria, two priests seated in arm
! chairs make the predica. One of Them
talking in dialect, pretends to be ig-
norant and asks simple questions about
good and evil, right and wrong, in con-
nection, generally, with some striking
event that has recently happened in the
neighborhood. The other replies in sim
MI lon
stand. So far so good; but the sagres-
tano likes, and I do not much like the
Jokes and funny things which they
sprinkle in their dialogue to keep the
people awake or to set them laughing.
He explains my dislike to this by say
ing that ! am not a real Catholic.
1--WE Trasteverini," he has told me.
I'VE are the real genuine Romans-we
are not Buzzurri There are Sc, 900 of
US, men, women and children, between
Porta Portese and Porta Settimiana. We
don't care for books, SO that we have
not q single bookseller; the Messaggero
is more reading than we can manage.
We don't bother about politics or about
inventions, and as to our writing it is
done for us by our 'scrivano pubblico'
He writes for few sous letter to any
forestiere who is rich and may give us
money; and he writes on paper that we
find at the drogheria, so that the sta
toner would be useless. STILL we have
good schools, they say. We have, too,
the best wine in Rome at the Cisterna,
right off our Piazza di Santa Maria
Many a Tedesco comes there of an even
ing bringing his friends with him, and
there they sit for hours, drinking as
only the Tedeschi can, smoking and
talking in such a funny way that you
scarcely know whether they are speak
ing their own language or what they
think to be ours. Our women are beau
tiful when they are young and pious
when they get old, and they are cour-
ageous as few men are. / was d mere
STRIPPING in AS when the French came
and the bombs were flying everywhere.
Our women of Trastevere saved our
homes-they took up bombs in their
petticoats and threw them into the
fountains before they had time to ex-
plode. Some were killed in doing it,
and mamma mia was one of them. |
just recollect seeing her throw up her
arms and fall down dead. Poveretta, she
went up straight to Paradise. They are
good mothers, too. A few years ago the
wife of the este there to the right
brought her husband three babies at
once They were taken in a landau to
San Pietrn TO be ehristened: Romulus,
Remus and Roma. they called them, and
they are all three fine and healthy with
hair uneombed and dirty noses. When