Julia Ward Howe Part 72

"_December 21._ Feeling much better in health, I determined to take up my 'Reminiscences' again. Mme. Rose pa.s.sed the evening with me. She told me that Pio Nono had endorsed the Rosminian philosophy, which had had quite a following in the Church, Cardinal Hohenlohe having been very prominent in this. When Leo XIII was elected, the Jesuits came to him and promised that he should have a Jubilee if he would take part against the Rosminian ideas, and put the books on the Index Expurgatorius, the which he promptly did. Hohenlohe is supposed to have been the real hero of the poisoning described in Zola's 'Rome'--his servant died after having eaten of something which had been sent from the Vatican."

"_December 25._ Blessed Christmas Day! Maud and I went to St. Peter's to get, as she said, a whiff of the ma.s.s. We did not profit much by this, but met Edward Jackson, of Boston, and Monsignor Stanley, whom I had not seen in many years. We had a pleasant foregathering with him.

"In St. Peter's my mind became impressed with the immense intellectual force pledged to the upbuilding and upholding of the Church of Rome. As this thought almost overpowered me, I remembered our dear Christ visiting the superb temple at Jerusalem and foretelling its destruction and the indestructibility of his own doctrine."

On fair days she took her walk on the terrace, feasting her eyes on the splendid view. In the distance the Alban and the Sabine Hills, Mount Soracte and the Leonessa; close at hand the Tiber, Rome's towers and domes, St. Peter's with the colonnade, the Piazza, and the sparkling fountains. She delighted in the flowers of the terrace, which she called her "hanging garden"; she had her own little watering-pot, and faithfully tended the white rose which she claimed as her special charge. From the terrace she looked across to the windows of the Pope's private apartment. Opposed as she was to the Pontiff's policy, she still felt a sympathy with the old man, whose splendid prison she often pa.s.sed on her way to St. Peter's, where in bad weather she always took her walk.

"_December 31._ I am sorry to take leave of this year, which has given me many good things, some blessings in disguise, as my lameness proved, compelling me to pa.s.s many quiet days, good for study and for my 'Reminiscences,' which I only began in earnest after Wesselhoeft condemned me to remain on one floor for a month."

"_January 3, 1898._ I feel that my 'Reminiscences' will be disappointing to the world in general, if it ever troubles itself to read them,--I feel quite sure that it has neglected some good writing of mine, in verse and in prose. I cannot help antic.i.p.ating for this book the same neglect, and this discourages me somewhat.

"In the afternoon drove to Monte Janiculo and saw the wonderful view of Rome, and the equestrian statue of Garibaldi crowning the height. We also drove through the Villa Pamfili Doria, which is very beautiful."

"_January 6._ To visit Countess Catucci at Villino Catucci. She was a Miss Mary Stearns, of Springfield, Ma.s.sachusetts. Her husband has been an officer of the King's bersaglieri. Before the unification of Italy, he was sent to Perugia to reclaim deserters from among the recruits for the Italian army. Cardinal Pecci was then living near Perugia. Count Catucci called to a.s.sure him with great politeness that he would take his word and not search his premises. The Cardinal treated him with equal politeness, but declined to continue the acquaintance after his removal to Rome, when he became Pope in 1878."

"_January 12._ The first meeting of our little circle--at Miss Leigh Smith's, 17 Trinita dei Monti. I presided and introduced Richard Norton, who gave an interesting account of the American School of Archaeology at Athens, and of the excavations at Athens.... Anderson to dine. He took a paper outline of my profile, wis.h.i.+ng to model a bust of me."

The Winthrop Chanlers were pa.s.sing the winter in Rome; this added much to her pleasure. The depression gradually disappeared, and she found herself once more at home there. She met many people who interested her: Hall Caine, Bjornstjerne Bjornson, many artists too. Don Jose Villegas, the great Spanish painter (now Director of the Prado Museum at Madrid), who was living in his famous Moorish villa on the Monte Parioli, made a brilliant, realistic portrait of her, and Hendrik Anderson, the Norwegian-American sculptor, modelled an interesting terra-cotta bust.

While the sittings for these portraits were going on, her niece said to her:--

"My aunt, I can expect almost anything of you, but I had hardly expected a _succes de beaute_."

Among the diplomats who play so prominent a part in Roman society, the Jonkheer John Loudon, Secretary of the Netherlands Legation, was one of her favorite visitors; there are frequent mentions of his singing, which she took pleasure in accompanying.

"_January 15._ We had a pleasant drive to Villa Madama where we bought fresh eggs from a peasant. Cola cut much greenery for us with which Maud had our rooms decorated. Attended Mrs. Heywood's reception, where met some pleasant people--the Scudder party; an English Catholic named Christmas, who visits the poor, and reports the misery among them as very great; a young priest from Boston, Monsignor O'Connell;[123] a Mr.

and Mrs. Mulhorn, Irish,--he strong on statistics, she a writer on Celtic antiquities,--has published a paper on the Celtic origin of the 'Divina Commedia,' and has written one on the discovery of America by Irish Danes, five hundred years before Columbus."

[123] Now Cardinal O'Connell.

Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Heywood lived a few doors from the Rusticucci in the Palazzo Giraud Torlonia, one of the finest Roman palaces. Mr. Heywood held an office in the Papal Court, and had a papal t.i.tle which he was wise enough not to use in general society. He was an American, a Harvard graduate of the cla.s.s of 1855. His chief occupation, outside of his duties at the Vatican, was the collection of a fine library. His house was a rendezvous of Black[124] society. He lived in much state and entertained with brilliant formality. Among the great social events of that winter was his reception given for Cardinal Satolli, who arrived dressed in splendid vestments, escorted by his suite. The hostess courtesied to the ground and kissed the ring on his finger. All the other Catholic ladies followed suit. Sitting very straight in her chair, our mother bided her time; finally the Cardinal was brought to her. He was a genial, courteous man and very soon they were deep in friendly talk. Though she disliked the Roman hierarchy as an inst.i.tution, she counted many friends among the priests of Rome.

[124] _I.e._, Clerical.

"_January 18._ To St. Peter's. The Festival of St. Peter's Chair.

Vespers in the usual side chapel. Music on the whole good, some sopranos rather ragged, but parts beautifully sung. Was impressed as usual by the heterogeneous attendance--tourists with campstools and without, ecclesiastics of various grades, students, friars; one splendid working-man in his corduroys stood like a statue, in an att.i.tude of fixed attention. Lowly fathers and mothers carrying small children. One lady, seated high at the base of a column, put her feet on the seat of my stool behind me. Saw the gorgeous ring on the finger of the statue of St. Peter."

"_January 19._ Have composed a letter to Professor Lanciani, asking for a talk on the afternoon of February 9, proposing 'Houses and Housekeeping in Ancient Rome,' and 'The Sibyls of Italy.' Mr. Baddeley came in, and we had an interesting talk, mostly about the ancient Caesars, Mrs. Hollins asking, 'Why did the Romans put up with the bad Caesars?' He thought the increase of wealth under Augustus was the beginning of a great deterioration of the people and the officials."

"_January 21._ Went in the afternoon to call upon Baroness Giacchetti.

Had a pleasant talk with her husband, an enlightened man. He recognizes the present status of Rome as greatly superior to the ancient order of things--but laments the ignorance and superst.i.tion of the common people in general, and the peasantry in particular. A sick woman, restored to health by much trouble taken at his instance, instead of thanking him for his benefactions, told him that she intended to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of a certain Madonna, feeling sure that it was to her that she owed her cure."

"_January 26._ The day of my reading before the Club, at Jessie Cochrane's rooms. I read my lecture over very carefully in the forenoon and got into the spirit of it. The gathering was a large one, very attentive, and mostly very appreciative. The paper was 'Woman in the Greek Drama.'"

"_January 31._ Have made a special prayer that my mind may be less occupied with my own shortcomings, and more with all that keeps our best hope alive. Felt little able to write, but produced a good page on the principle '_nulla dies sine linea_.'"

"_February 4._ Hard sledding for words to-day--made out something about Theodore Parker."

"_February 7._ Wrote some pages of introduction for the Symposium--played a rubber of whist with L. Terry; then to afternoon tea with Mrs. Thorndike, where I met the first Monsignor [Dennis] O'Connell, with whom I had a long talk on the woman question, in which he seems much interested. He tells me of a friend, Zahm by name, now gone to a place in Indiana, who has biographies of the historical women of Bologna."

"_February 9._ Club at Mrs. Broadwood's. I read my 'Plea for Humor,'

which seemed to please the audience very much, especially Princess Talleyrand and Princess Poggia-Suasa."

"_February 11._ Read over my paper on 'Optimism and Pessimism' and have got into the spirit of it. Maud's friends came at 3 P.M., among them Christian Ross, the painter, with Bjornstjerne Bjornson."

"_February 16._ To Mrs. Hurlburt's reception.--Talked with Countess Blank, an American married to a Pole. She had much to say of the piety of her Arab servant, who, she says, swallows fire, cuts himself with sharp things, etc., as acts of devotion!! Met Mr. Trench, son of the late Archbishop, Rev. Chevenix Trench. He has been Tennyson's publisher.

Did not like T. personally--said he was often rude--read his own poems aloud constantly and very badly; said, 'No man is a hero to his publisher.' Told about his sale of Henry George's book, a cheap edition, one hundred and fifty thousand copies sold in England."

"_February 18._ Have done a good morning's work and read in the 'Nineteenth Century' an article on Nelson, and one on the new astronomy.

St. Thomas Aquinas's advice regarding the election of an abbot from three candidates:--

"'What manner of man is the first?'

"'_Doctissimus._'

"'_Doceat_,' says St. Thomas. 'And the second?'

"'_Sanctissimus._'

"'_Oret!_ and the third?'

"'_Prudentissimus!_'

"'_Regat!_ Let him rule!' says the Saint."

"_February 20._ To Methodist Church of Rev. Mr. Burt. A sensible short discourse--seems a very sincere man: has an earlier service for Italians, well attended. On my way home, stopped at Gargiulo's and bought a ragged but very good copy of the 'Divina Commedia,' unbound, with Dore's ill.u.s.trations."

"_February 26._ To tea at Mrs. Hazeltine's where met William Allen Butler, author of 'Nothing to Wear'--a bright-eyed, conversable man.

Have a sitting to Anderson. When I returned from Mrs. Hazeltine's I found Hall Caine.... He told much about Gabriel Rossetti, with whom he had much to do. Rossetti was a victim of chloral, and Caine was set to keep him from it, except in discreet doses."

"_March 4._ Went to see the King and Queen, returning from the review of troops. They were coldly received. She wore crimson velvet--he was on horseback and in uniform...."

"_March 9._ Club at Jessie Cochrane's; young Loyson, son of Pere Hyacinthe, gave an interesting lecture on the religion of Ancient Rome, which he traced back to its rude Latin beginning; the Sabines, he thought, introduced into it one element of spirituality. Its mythology was borrowed from Greece and from the Etruscans--later from Egypt and the East. The Primitive Aryan religion was the wors.h.i.+p of ancestors.

This also we see in Rome. A belief in immortality appears in the true Aryan faith. Man, finding himself human, and related to the divine, felt that he could not die."

"_March 15_.... Mme. Helbig gave us an account of the Russian pilgrimage which came here lately. Many of the pilgrims were peasants. They travelled from Russia on foot, wearing bark shoes, which are very yielding and soft. These Russian ladies deprecated the action of Peter the Great in building St. Petersburg, and in forcing European civilization upon his nation, when still unprepared for it."

"_March 18_.... Drove with Maud, to get white thorn from Villa Madama.

Went afterwards to Mrs. Waldo Story's reception, where met Mrs.

McTavish, youngest daughter of General Winfield Scott. I was at school with one of her older sisters, Virginia, who became a nun."

As the winter wore away and the early Roman spring broke, the last vestige of the discomfort of the first weeks vanished. The daily drives to the country in search of wild flowers were an endless delight, as well as the trips to the older quarters of the city. She found that, while during the first weeks she had lost the habit of looking keenly about at the sights, the old joy soon came back to her, and now she was quick to see every picturesque figure in the crowd, every cla.s.sic fragment in the architecture. "The power of seeing beautiful things, like all other powers, must be exercised to be preserved," she once said.