THE POPE'S "AT HOME" DAY.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVI, Issue 50, 3 December 1909, Page 1

THE POPE'S "AT HOME" DAY.

AN IMPULSIVE SCENE. flic accessibility of the present Pontiff as compared with his predecessor is a byword, but bywords about the Pope need not be infallible, 'therefore (writes a correspondent in the 'Pall Mall Gazette'; you may say with more truth that he is accessible in reason, when he is well. Pio Deeuno has not improved in health since he..exchanged ins beloved Venice for the lower latitudes of Rome and the cares of the vatican, and his condition varies from day to day in a way that interferes with the grant of that much-sought privilege, a special audience. As you outer by the great bronze gates and ascend the spacious stairways they close you in with a senco of cool seclusion, you in with a sense of cool seclusion, frescoed colonnades are marked off at intervals by the Swiss tiuard. These, in their uniform of black and red and yellow and their Holbein bats, give place as you enter the reception rooms to hatless servitors in knee-breeches, and crimson brocade. These are tho "sediatore," whose office is to shoulder the satn-M chair at processional functions, and their build strikes you as qualifying in. in for harder tasks than this. A mas'.er jf ceremonies in evening dress examines your credentials, you leave hats and cloaks unassorted on a sideboard, and the way to the groat reception room is clear. If is the hall of consistory, where the college of cardinals holds its sessions, and there is a gilt throne at either end with a massive crucifix above it. You find the hall lined with a single file of peopleperhaps 120 in all—and there is no attempt at grouping. In the medley of rank and order, race and sex, you note the white robes of a Dominican, or the starched coif of a Sister of Charity, bub black is the dominant note. The suppressed hush, too, is more impressive, if anything, than silence. There is a stir in the anteroom, followed by a momentary hush, and a venerable figure in white stands in the doorway. For a moment everybody kneels. The startling thought at first is that Pius IX. has risen from the dead, for Pius X. is of the sumo height, or thereabouts, the same sturdy build, and wears on his massive face the same faint pink complexion. He credits everybody else with his own simplicity of spirit. He is robed in plain white cape and cassock, with tho pale gold Papal cross and chain round his neck; his whitening hair is crowned by the whiter "zucchetto," a tiny skull 'cap of silk. On the third finger of the right hand—and beautiful hands they are—is the great Pontifical ring, consisting of a great sapphire in a frame of diamonds. It is the cynosure of the devout souls present, for as he passes slowly round tho room it is the ring that they are permitted to kiss. Leo XITI. would have had an escort, and everything handsome about him, but Pio Deeimo is content with a chaplain, a youthful figure in purple, and the ceremony is of the simplest. As he approaches, the faithful kneel, and each in turn kisses tho ring, tho emblem of his office. As his figure dwindles in the long perspective of the room, tho white that/invests it gains by contrast with the crimson shadows. Having done the circuit and greeted all in turn, he repairs to tho head of the room, with his back to tho throne, and raises his hands while he bestows a last collective benediction, wheeling slowlv as he utters it. His movements are slow and full of ease and dignity for a man so broad in Hie shoulder and so firm in his step. He strikes you as an ascetic by reason and conviction, and not as one intended by nature for tho liarfc. He was born, you imagine, to be a man of action, and not of contemplation. He glances at one or two familiars as he passes out—the Roman citizen among the rest—and the reception is over. A moment more and we are, back in the rain, and rattling over tho cobbled streets. AN ENCOURAGING~STORY. Those womon who ar<> sometimes conscious that their knowledge of bookkeeping i« not all that it might be, and that their household accounts occasionally present a rather perplexing appearance, may be cheered by the following little story published recently in one of the university waggons at Home. It comes from' Oxford and proves that even men very learned in classic lore cannot add up. The same thing, by the way, is true of men distinguished in other directions, and one New Zealand girl at least finds comfort in the thought that tho late Lord Salisbury could not do long division, as she does in the fact that 11. L. Stevenson could not spell. Here is tho story: A certain bursar on making up his account showed that it found a deficiency of over £I9OO. Confident that it was merely some obvious error in the preparation of the statement, ho proceeded to check it, but with the same result. Over and over again he went through the accounts without discovering the reason for the deficit; every item appeared to be strictly in order. Finally he confided his trouble to the other members of the Senior Common Room, who, collectively and in turns, checked the acocunt without shaking its integrity in the slightest particular. Convinced that there was some black mystery, one of them invited a friend, who was an accountant in London to spend the week-end with him. After dinner on the following Saturday the incomprehensible account was put be~ . fore tho acocuntant. After a few minutes' perusal ho turned to the members of the Senior Common Room j who were anxiously awaiting the result of the investigation and asked: "Do you always include the year of our I Lord in the addition?"