The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1912-04-12
POPE Plus ENJOYS
USUAL GOOD HEALTH
Vatican Astounded at Report
Sent Out From Madrid That
Holy Father Was Dead.
MISTAKE OF ATTACHE
Receives Telegram Announc-
ing Death of His Father and
Assumes 1t Means Pope.
MISTAKE OF ATTACHE

ROME, April 1.-THE origin of the
astounding dispatch from Madrid,
which purported to have the authority
of the papal nunciature there, announc-
ing the death of the pope, is incom-
prehe nsible to the Vatican, from which
no communication was sent that posi-
bly, could be construed into such al
erroneous report. The pope's condi-
tiou today was as physically perfect
as could be expected in one of his
years.
The pope's physician, DR.. Marchia-
fava, after ridiculing the report this
evening, authorized the statement that
the condition of the pontiff is normal
and satisfactory.
Cardinal Merry del Val, the papal
secretary of state, was more explicit.
He said the pope had been in excellent
health throughout the whole winter.
Indeed, tho pontiff had experienced
better health than at any winter Of his
later life. He had suffered no attack
of gout, nor even a cold, except An in.
significant one few weeks ago, when
audiences were not really suspended,
but postponed in order to give him a
little rest before Easter week.
AS an indication of the pope's pres
ent strength and health, the cardinal
added:
Pope's Daily Life.
every day the holy father rises
with the sun, says mass, then takes
cup Of coffee without solid food. He
deals with all the affairs Of the church,
grants private audiences, receives
sometimes thousand people, always
a few hundred, daily. continuing until
l o'clock without rest OF food, except
at times a cup of coffee.
"After light luncheon, his work
continues until late in the evening.
Chow many young men, asked the
cardinal, "could maintain such life
as does the venerable pontiff, who has
almost completed II years9'
The cardinal added that the people
should mistrust the impressions gained
by those who see the pope, as in good
faith they are deceived by his face,
which seems to show ill-health when
in reality it bears only the marks
Of care.
The pope today spent many hours
in hard work. He first received the
papal secretary. Then Cardinal Della
Volpc, prefect of the congregation
of the Index, spent considerable time
with his holiness. Later the pope re.
ceived Cardinal Billot of the Grego-
rian university, with whom ne eou-
versed for half an hour.
Senior lie Estrada, the Argentine
minister at the Vatican, and his fam
lily also, visited the pope as well as
Prince Borghese and Count and Count
ess de Jonghe. The pontiff also re-
ceived in general audience more than
one hundred persons, including several
Americans,
Mistake of Attache.
The erroneous report of the pope's
death originated through q telegram
which was sent TO an attache Mt the
papal nuDciature, announcing the
death OF his father. The word used
was papa which means either
"pope" OF "father.f
The attache assumed that it was the
pope who was dead, and he so in
formed tho Spanish government Pre-
mier Canaleias in turn communicated
the news to the reporters. They
flashed the report over the world, King
Alfonso and members of the cabinet
were informed and sent messages of
papal nuncio was absent when the
messages arrived and the mistake was
not discovered until he returned.