THE POPE AND 'BUSTER BROWN'

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 42, 17 October 1907, Page 37

THE POPE AND ' BUSTER BROWN'

We heard this week (says an American exchange) a - pretty anecdote of his Holiness and a little boy. The Holy Father, as is well known, has a great love for the little ones, especially little boys, and they with a child's unerring instinct ' know at " once that they are dear to him. Marchese Francesco Jt'atrizi, whose wife is. an American lady, has a dear little son of live years old, whose many scrapes have earned him the nickname of ' Buster Brown.' The other day several children with their parents had a private audience with his Holiness. Little Bernard knelt down and kissed the foot of the Sovereign Pontiff, as he had been told he should do, and then with a sudden impulse he jumped on to the Holy Father's Knees, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him on both- cheeks, and Pius X. folded him close in his embrace. ' Why did you do that, Bernard ? ' he was asked afterwards, and he looked up with -big innocent eyes. ' Because the Holy Father looked like mother does when we are good.' V