POPE LEO XIII.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2061, 6 August 1885, Page 2

POPE LEO XIII.

The correspondent of ti, Belgian a&fer says that the present Pope is vrell ksßn to be tlie antithesis of' Pius IX,, who was a jovial, good-humored PontitE His successor is undeniably hard-working, ,ki( very ascetic; he speaks little, and laugfis never. He rises early, and is probably the only European Sovereign who does not take a matutinal bath, Then ho celebrates mass in his private chapel—a duty which occupies barely twenty minutes. During the next hour or two the Pope arranges the.correspondence of the previous day, and from nine to ten' gives out work to his private secretaries. While thus occupied he drinks, a cup of black ciiffee, andat ten o'clock he breakfasts, thealmost invariable dishes being eggs, and fruit, and the beverage white Frascati wine.From eleven tp twelve Cardinal Jacobin&is with HisHoliness,aiidfroin noonuntiltwo audiences aregiven, The Pope spends an hour or two every afternoon iii preparing the material for a monumental history of the Papacy. He has ' had a study fitted up adjoining the Vatican library for convenience of access to the archives—for the papal prison is vast, and the distances are ! great, The gigantic task will , not be finished in the lifetime of Pope Leo ; but even a mere fragment of it would be .of the utmost value to students of modern history, since it must in the main be based upon unpublished documents. Theufelic life of the pontiff concludes for tlpfay with a walk in the Vatican gardens, in which he is accompanied bphis domestic prelates. The conversation turns upon the most austere subjects, and loquacity is systemtematically frowned upon—so much so, says the Chronicler, that these little promenades resemble nothing so much as funeral processions, "Home 1 News."