The Wheeling Daily Register

A Day in the Vatican,
Pius the Ninth rises at six in the morning, alone and without aid from a chamberlain, in spite of his extreme old age. Having performed his meditation, he rings for his chamberlain, who watches in a room adjoining his, and proceeds to read his mass in the pontifical chapel, assisted by his Grand Almoner, Mgr. de Merode, Archbishop of Mitylene, and his sacristan; Mgr. Marienelle, Archbishop of Porphiry. A quarter of an hour later he takes a light meal, receives Cardinal Antonelli, opens his letters, gives audiences. At half past eleven or at mid-day his promenade begins. At two o'clock he dines, eating little and drinking Bordeaux wine, which the sisterhood of St. Joseph of Bordeaux sends him. He rests himself until about four on an extension chair. Then he receives the cardinals, and religious orders; studies the matters submitted to him. At seven, the official receptions are opened until nine o'clock; he goes to bed at half past ten or eleven o'clock. He no longer leaves the Vatican; this impressionable pontiff, who used to love the acclamations of the populace: At Rome, there are no longer either religious fetes or pontifical.
The Pope is said to be kind and tender, but a man of impressions. Rarely does he turn back from a first emotion; men and things please him and displease him at first sight, and preserve in his eyes their agreeable or disagreeable physiognomy. This spontaneity of resolve, which proceeds from a great delicacy of the perceptive faculties, renders him a person moulded with difficulty. In truth, the great art of Cardinal Antonelli, by which he has preserved the favor of the sovereign through a long reign of twenty-seven years, has been to discover his faintest thoughts and to conform himself to them. - Scribner's for June.