The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 17, 1902, Page 11

Everp=Day ) % + £ ) el o EERNRRE e ] YOU can’t find a man who is more fitted to talk about the Pope’s every-day life and the inside of that life than is Baron de Mathies. This is because he is the Pope’s pri- vate chamberlain. Day in and day out he is with the Pope, closely in touch with his Holi- ness in private as well as public life. He knows all his little habits, the ways of the man as well as the pre- late. He can talk about him in so ready a manner as to make him seem something more than a vague name, as he is to most of us. The Baron has lately been in San Francisco and he chatted about the dafly routine of the great prelate’s life in a way that brings a very vivid picture of him before our eyes. 1S Holiness arises every morn- ing et 6 o'clock,” says the Baro; “and immediately ears mass. He oecasionally says mass himself, but this is g rare. Up to two ed to say mass every ivate chapel, which ad- room, and this service of pilgrims were allow- ow he hears mass said e and some of the house- ent. e e commences to receive ts until about 1 ce usually is with nal Rampolla, corresponding to s in the Vatican one of the audiences last while others take as , C i like to explain this: kinds of audi- private audience, s meets the visitor in the second where he vate anteroom, and holds in his throne- to give you a description is e s P he liness desires an audience al privately in his te person is mnotified at such and such a rs the library he n this private apart- ed under a canopy. The visitor ¥ s on one knee, and the s closed after him. After recelving n from the Pope he starts to ss the room, but in Vatican court eti- $ECRET CODE OF TRAMES ETER SANDS of Castle Valley has 3 mysterious power over tramps. te makes a mark upon a wall—a cle, & diamond, a triangle—and svery tramp who happens along re- gards this mark and does straightway Mr. Bands requires of him, taking to his heels in terror or advancing with manifestations of joy. Castle Valley is a hamlet near Doyles- town and Mr. Sands is a wealthy widower. He has given & part of his leisure dur- ing the last two years to a study of the tramp end he has found that there really is (26 has 80 often been declared) a tramp cipher, & kind of hieroglyphic language, which these wanderers write upon the walls of houses for the guidance of those who follow after them. Mr. Sands has learned this cipher and there are repro- duced here some of its characters. A few of them—the circle or the square— would be useful to any man. For he who should write in chalk upon his wall either of wouid not be troubled by g as they remained. tramp language, 0 far as I know Sands said recently, “is a very hing and a very ~crude, direct It can express itself forcibly upon satters. It can say: ‘This is ‘This is rotten,’ but it is quite t btle or spiritual things or ‘The sunset’s no need, indeed. al or subtle, for a spirit- mp does not exist. 2 only with animal— women, food, dogs, n And in own which is unintelligible to he treats of these sub- 1e writes are criticisms rials, flattering or un- ks upon_the walls of visited. These edi- the tramp who comes him the houses to seek sign of the tramp’'s ond, in tramp language, Its appearance on a s that/within there is is the opposite of the dia- gnifies zero, or mothing. It the hungry tramp would e begging in the house it is There i& a circle on my own * Mr. Sands said with a smile. X is as unfavorable a criti- the circle. The cri put you to wor its ated out of its likeness to awing wood is about the that tramps may be trusted to therefore a saw horse, or X, ry good symbol of means this symbol has slang of the day. 1 2 the double cross is to do worst thing possible to —to set to work—according to the tramp's t of view n for 2 man is an up-and-down ne. That for a woman is a kind lass. These signs undoubt- from the difference in the male appearance. Man is more or nd down, and woman is d In at the waist, like A sign frequently to be s hostile to tramps is a 0, the ‘' whereof means ¥ ‘Nothing to be T makes for ork,’ e in the quette he is supposed to sink to knee three times; once when entering, once in the middle of the room and again when at the feet of the Pope. However the Pope is a very kind man and generally attempts to stop the person from these three bows and beckons for him to ap- proach at once. The Pope when in pri- vate conversation generally takes both hands of the person he is interviewing and holds them throughout the entire conversation. He has a small beady black eye and during the conversation he will keep his eyes fixed on the countenance of his visitor as if he would read his thoughts through and through. ““The second reception s usually re- stricted to about six or elght distinguished pligrims. This reception is known as the Bacaio della Mano, or in English, ‘The Kiss of the Hand." Those who are to be allowed to attend this audience are a sembled In the private anteroom adjoin- ing the throne room. His Holiness comes into the room carried in a -litter, very much what our great-grandparents used and what we now call a sedan chair. The chair is placed in the middle of the room and usually some high officlal who has the names of those who are to be pre- sented calls out the names and one by one they approach the chair. They kiss his Holiness’ hand, or, more properly, his pontifical ring, and hold a short conversa- tion with him. If perchance any of them wish to make his Holiness a gift they then present it, or perhaps one of them may want to have a certain matter brought before the Pope, and it is done in this way. “The third reception is be'd in the Lhatest Photcbrzph of uBanr(dq Maihiés, PrWa’:e' @mfieflain %0 “That is an unlucky dwelling which has upon its wadl an hourglass and a diamond side by side. No house so decorated is ever passed by a tramp. He goes in with an assured ‘front,’ and he gets without surprise a sumptuoug meal or a gift of money. These things are no more than he had expected, for the sign upon the wall had told him that a woman, not a man, occupied the house, and that this woman was both rich and generous. “It is important for a tramp to know whether or not there is a dog about the place that he proposes to visit, for if he did not know this he might through care- lessness be bitten. Hence there is in his lznguage a sign for a dog. It is a hori- zontal line supported at either end by two vertical lines. It looks to the lay- man like a crude drawing of a bench, but to the tramp it looks like a dog. The horizontal line is the back of that animal, end the four vertical ones are its four legs. A tramp on entering the yard of a house marked with the dog Sign goes very cautiously, his pockets filled with stones and a club in his hand. rhere is a2 sign much rarer than tramps would like to see, and a rectangle surmounted by a semicircle makes it. This sign means ‘Booze here,’ and when a tramp beholds it on a house wall he hastens forward light-heartedly. It is a érude drawing of a beer can, or growler, the rectangle representing a' pail proper, Life and; the semicircle its handle. Few houses are éver decorated with this sign. “‘On a stone wall or a gate on the out- skirts of a town there is sometimes to be seen a square filled with parallel vertical lines. When a tramp comes to such a town’s outskirts and reads this sign he POWER OF THE RRAIN TO SUSTRIN The idea that the human brain is an organ so extremely delicate in structure that it cannot bear the slightest physical hurt sometimes appears to receive a con- tradiction in the experience of people who have met with pecullar Injurles to the head. The history of brain surgery pre- sents some remarkable facts in regard to the extent to which the thinking organ will sometimes resist the effects of ex- ternal injury. It has been shown that in some cases quantities of its substance may be removed without appreciably diminishing the normal intelligence of the patient; while some have been known to carry the most extraordinary foreign sub- stances imbedded in‘their skulls for years. In one case it was the blade of a pen- THE SUNDAY CALL. 11 of the Pope of IRome Tnteresting Blecount by THis Private Chamberlain, Baron de (Matbies. utters a loud oath and turns backward, for the meaning of the symbol is ‘They ut tramps in jail here. The upright fine! within the square bear a consider- able resemblance to prison bars, and that is why the sign came to haveits present meaning.” knife that was carried about in the brain for half a lifetime without the patient being in the least aware of it} in another it was a penholder that had somehow found its way there and re- mained in its living hiding place with- out apparently interfering with the thinking power of the organ; while only a week or so ago a piece of slate pencil was recovered from a boy's brain after it had been hidden there for several years. A French soldier who received a bullet in his head during the Franco-German war of 1570 carried it there for twenty- seven years, and was sald to have felt no {ll-effects till 1897, when it one day worked its way downward into the mouth and so rid him of its presence. In the case of a German soldier who was shot In the head during the Son- derbund war, he lived to carry the leaden souvenir in his braln for forty-three Mr. Sands says that tramps have some kind of a secret order among themselves, with a number of strange ways of com- municating one with another. Their only means of communication which he has solved thus far is this sign language.— Philadelphia Times. INJURY- ears, and it was not extracted till after is death. These two remarkable cases, however, seem to be beaten by another that hds quite recently been brought to light, the case being that of an old soldier ~still living at —, who for over half a cen- tury has carried in his head the bullet received during the Austrian rebellion in 1848. ‘Would-be suicides have occasionally put bullets into théir brain to no pur- pose; and perhaps one of the most astounding cases of recent yars was that dealt with at the Richmond Hospital only a year Or SO ago. The patient had in vain-tried to take his life by shooting himself in the head, and after thus placing two bullets in his brain he was immediately conveved in a cab to°the hospital. But he was so lit- tle affected at the time by the presence throne room. His Holiness is seated on his throne and is surrounded by his high officlals. These receptions are usually in vogue for the reception of diplomats and embassadors sent from the different sov- ereigns of Europe. “You would like some stories about the Pope? Well, I can remember one that I think is very good. A certain very rich and devout Catholic woman was once at one of the receptions to the Pope. After kissing his ring, she said, ‘I hope your Holiness will live to be a hundred.” You must understand that the Pope is 92 and that he carries his years well. With a merry twinkle in his eye he replied, ‘Mad- am, would you restrict me to a hundred years? Another story which is true—I was present at the incident—is this: A lady who had been in Rome for two months was admitted to an audience. His Holiness asked the lady how she had enjoyed her visit and asked her if there was anything that she had not seen which he could show her. ‘I have seen everything, your Holiness,’ replied the lady, ‘except-a conclave of Cardinals.” This, you know, is only assembled to se- lect a new Pope. His Holiness seemed to think this a great joke and laughingly re- plied: ‘My dear madam, I am sorry I can- not help you out on this, but I am in ex- cellent health.’ “The Pope is a great snuff taker and seems to derive immense comfort from the habit. He eats very little; in fact, his own actual living expenses would not amount to a dollar a day. His chief diet is of eggs cooked in all sorts of different dainty dishes. He drinks a few glasses of claret every day anu is a great coffee- drinker. All of the valuable and rare wines that are sent to him find their way to the hospitals at Rome. He has dinner every day at 2 o'clock and a light supper about 6. He hears the rosary every even- Ing in his private chapel and then retires for the night. He is still, however, a very His Roliness the Porpe. of the bullets in his head that he actual- ly alighted from the vehicle, walked along the garden path and up the steps of the hospital, and was able then to give an intelligent account of what had taken place. In a similar case of self-inflicted in- jury that came before the doctors at Guy’s Hospital a few months later the would-be suicide, after firing a revolver bullet into his head, was discovered smoking his pipe. as if nothing very seri- ous had happened; and though the bul- let had penetrated the skull to the depth of three and a half inches he was able to walk part of the way to the hogpital and there undress himself witho: as- sistance previous to undergoing exam- ination. The effects of removing bullets from the brain are sometimes as remarkable as any of the foregoing, and perhaps in this connection mention may be made of a case of a military cadet operated on by a doctor of Vienna ijust recently. On removlni the bullet a small quan- tity of brain had also to be taken away, the péculiar result being that, though unaltered in any other respect, the pa- tient irretrievably lost all his good man- ners, for which he was noted. The emi- nent surgeon therefore suggests that the portion of brain removed with the bullet corrésponds to what he describes as the “bump of good manners.”—Titbits. 7 & / e | e n [ oy 1) — 0 e g - el hard worker and often gets up in the night and studies over documents pertain- ing to important matters. “This year he was not allowed by his private physician to go up to his private casino, where he usually spends the sum- mer months. His doctor thought that it would be cooler for him in the Vatican, s0 he has remained there. “There are twenty-seven Cardinals that reside in Rome. Some of them are poor and have a hard time maintaining their positions as princes of the church. His Holiness, I believe, assists them finan~ cially, for like other titled people without a private. income it is a hard task making both ends mieet. Every Cardinal residing in Rome has a throne room like the Pope, and a peculiar thing is that they must be prepared at all times to receive his Holi- ness. In the throne rooms of the Cardi- nals is a large chair raised on a dals with & canopy hanging overhead. This chair is turned toward the wall so that no one else but the Pope shall.sit in it. Of course the Pope does not go out and will not call on the Cardinal, yet in etiquette this seat is always prepared for his ar- rival. “His Holiness Is fond of newspaper men and Hkes nothing better than to receive them. Any newspaper man, however, who i3 fortunate enough to secure an inter- view may be assured that he will receive a long lecture from the Pope. His Holl- ness will first explain to him what a re- sponsible duty he has to perform in the world. Then he dwells on the fact that the successful journalist is the one that speaks the truth, and he generally winds up by saying that he knows that neWs- paper men must be under great tempta- tions, but that they should be strong and try their very best to live good lives. “Every Bishop, you know, must once in every two years go to Rome and visit the Pope. In this way his Holiness interviews men from all points of the globe, and he gets wonderful knowledge of what is go- ing on in the world. He usually receives a Bishop once when he arrives and then again just before he leaves. “A bit of useful information I would like to give you before I close is that it is not hard to have an audience with the Pope. His Holiness will just as soon re- ceive a Protestant as a Catholic. The way to secure an interview is by calling on Cardinal Rampolla, the Pope's pri- vate secretary. He can be seen by any one every evening at 7 o’clock. Affer pre- senting your credentials—cards are not recognized—he will arrange for you to have an audience, and it is bound to be a talk that you will remember all your life.” THE USE oF BOTH HANDS UING from the fact that thers is_no sound reason why the left héind should not sbe developed equally with the right hand, and from the further fact that many physi- clans who have given the matter some study see in the use of both hands to the same extent very satisfactory results on the general health, school authorities in Germany have made left-hand work dur- ing a part of the time compulsory on the student. Much of the mechanical work that is now done with the right hand could be done as well with the left Rand, if that member were sufficiently traijed, and the division of labor thus made podsible would not only result in more efficient work, but in an increased quantity of it. It is, of course, very evident that when both hands are equally dexterous théy may be used alternately, and the worker need never stop for rest; for as soon as one hand gets tired he can use the other. Accordingly, the German authorities have given considerable attention to left- hand work In their mechanical schools. The students are taught to saw, plane and hammer as_well with the left hand as with the rigfit, and the importanee of am- bidexterity is impressed upon the minds of the young men and women. In Japan the children are taught to write and draw witn both hands at an early age. It is to that method, Indeed, that many attribute the superiority in certain classes of Japanese art. The en- tire arm is employed in drawing, and no supporting device whatever is used. In a similar manner the German scholars are made to draw large circles and other fig- ures on the blackboard, first with one hand, then with the other, andywithout any brace on which to rest wrist or el= bow, the whole arf thus being brought into action. Just why one employs the right arm in so many things in preference to the left is a question which has not as yet received a conclusive answer. The more common- ly accepted iuea is that the habit is di- rectly due to the fact that a mother in- variably carries a child on her left arm, so that she, the carrier, may have the free use of her right arm. Then, again, there are those who say that the physiological construction of the nerves and veins that enter the right arm is different to that of those which enter the left one; the nerves and veins of the right arm being more prominent. But, de- spite the fact that an examination of the arms of a left-handed person reveals the fact that his left arm contains mo: prominent veins and nerves than his rigl it 1is, nevertheless, impossible to say whether the phenomenon noticed is_the effect of the habit or-the habit the effect of the phenomenon. The art of writing equally well with both hands is one that should be culti- vated and acquired by every one. Even a slight aacident to the right hand inea- pacitates one nowadays from all manner of work, whereas, if the, use of the left hand were cultivated as it should be, such misfortunes would lose much of their inconvenience. Slight practice will work wonders. ‘Write the alphabet through five times a day with your left hand for a month, and at the end of that time you will be sur- prised to find that you can write as well with your left hand as with your right.