The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-08-27

world, and these words his lips
IL when he breathed his last.
III From Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, the
Ill son of poor, humble postman, he rose
Ill by his goodness, fairness and eoquence
Ill to be the pope, and a whose
heart bled for the sorrows of the world;
and his death is felt by all men and
women. whether Catholics or not
We recall to mind when he was eleva-
ted to the pOntifcate, the words of Catholic
priest who knew him and knew him we'll, when he
remarked to us: ''You will see one of the kindest,
broad-minded and far-seeing popes have ever
had, +" and we now he knew whereof he
spoke, and it was fitting ascent to this good
old man that his last official act should have
been the utterance of exhortation to the world,
calling for prayers for peace, and is appeal that
will not only reach Catholics alone, but to all who
believe in the wickedness of In ancient
times" the dying pontif sighed, the pope by
word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he
is impotent, and it is the belief of ALL that worry
ing the present war situation hurried the
certificates death, for he realized that the nations
wanted war;
The pOpes views peace, embodied in an
allOcutiOn delivered at the consistory at which he
created thirteen cardinals last May, constituted
peace union, founded in February by Andrew
Carnagie with endowment of So, 600, 900, decid-
ed to begin among the clergy of the Roman Catho-
lie church its educational activities in behalf of
disarmament and arbitration by sending to each of
the 90 900 priests of the United States and Canada
a copy of the allocution. In it the pope referred
to men of distinction and FORCE planning schemes
for the preventing the caamities of revolutions
cv,l %loo lo oe
blessing of peace" which, coupled with the fact
that he spoke at length with the three American
cardinals Gibbons, Farley and OConnel = was in
terpreted as referring to the efforts of President
Wilson and Secretary of State Bryan in behalf of
universal peace.
Today" he said, peace war in society and
the state does not depend so much on the rulers as
on the multtudes. Deprived of the light of truth
revealed by God unused to the discipline of
Christ what wonder if the multitudes, the prey of
blind passions, rush to the common ruin instigat-
ed by the clever agitators who seek nothing but
their own advantage"
Pope Plus X was great friend of the United
States, and his frequent audiences to Americans,
both Catholics and nonC Catholics and his interest
in American affairs kept him in closer touch with
this side of the Atlantic than perhaps any pontiff
that had preceded him, and the following message
of coincidence sent by Secretary Bryan at the re-
quest of President Wilson, shows how he was ap-
preciated by our United States:
The president desires me to express
his sense of the great loss which the
Christian world has sustained in the death
of his holiness, Plus x. By his pure and
gentle nature, his unaffected piety, and
his broad and thoughtful sympathy with
his feowmen, he adorned his exalted
station and attracted to himself the affec-
tionate regard of all who felt his world
wide influence"
The pontif died practically poor man and in
his will was clause which read: Il was born poor
and lived poor and wish to die poor"
Such was the life of the poor boy who had to
walk barefooted to school, educated himself and
cared for his mother and sisters, and finally rose
to the high position of Pope Plus X, bishop of
Rome and vicar of Jesus Christ, successor of St.
Peter, prince of the apostles; supreme pontiff of
the universal church, patriarch of the West pri-
mate of Italy, archbishop and metropolitan of the
Roman province and sovereign of the temporal
dominions of the Holy Roman church.