The Daily Bulletin

KING HUMBERT AND THE DENTIST.

Padre Orfenigo is renowned for his dexterity in extracting teeth without causing pain. His patients are numerous, for he makes no charge. Even Pope Leo XII once called him in to pull out a molar which had severely tried his patience. Some time afterward King Humbert, whose teeth are none of the best, went out for a day's shooting near Castel Porziano, had a violent attack of toothache and was advised to consult Padre Orfenigo. But they reckoned without their host. The worthy friar remembered that the Quirinal palace still lay under the papal interdict and refused to cross its threshold before settling the point with his conscience. He therefore consulted the Cardinal Vicar, who referred the matter to the Pope as urgent. Leo XIII sent word to Orfenigo that he was in duty bound to obey the dictates of humanity, and the monk performed the operation with the same forceps that he had used when he had attended the Pope. Afterward, when showing the instrument to his friends, he used to remark: "This is the missing link between the temporal and spiritual powers." -[Independence Belge.