ad, however, a striking
effect, well calculated to work upon the minds of a people whose
religion consists so largely in outward show. [From "A Narrative of
Three Years in Italy."]

[Illustration: CALABRIAN SHEPHERDS PLAYING IN ROME AT CHRISTMAS.
(_From Hone's "Every-day Book_," 1826)]

As at the beginning, so in the latter part of the nineteenth century,
the church celebrations of Christmas continue to be great Christmas
attractions in the Eternal City.

From the description of one who was present at the Christmas
celebration of 1883, we quote the following extracts:--

"On Christmas morning, at ten o'clock, when all the world was not only
awake, but up and doing, mass was being said and sung in the principal
churches, but the great string of visitors to the Imperial City bent
their steps towards St. Peter's to witness the celebration of this the
greatest feast in the greatest Christian Church.

"As the heavy leather curtain which hangs before the door fell behind
one, this sacred building seemed indeed the world's cathedral; for
here were various crowds from various nations, and men and women
followers of all forms of faiths, and men and women of no faith at
all. The great church was full of light and colour--of light that came
in broad yellow beams through the great dome and the high eastern
windows, making the candles on the side altars and the hundred
ever-burning lamps around the St. Peter's shrine look dim and yellow
in the fulness of its radiance; and of colour combined of friezes of
burnished gold, and brilliant frescoes, and rich altar pieces, and
bronze statues, and slabs of oriental alabaster, and blocks of red
porphyry and lapis lazuli, and guilded vaulted ceiling, and walls of
inlaid marbles.

"In the large choir chapel, containing the tomb of Clement IX., three
successive High Masses were celebrated, the full choir of St. Peter's
attending. In the handsomely carved old oak stalls sat bishops in
purple and rich lace, canons in white, and minor canons in grey fur
capes, priests and deacons, and a hundred acolytes wearing
silver-buckled shoes and surplices. This chapel, with its life-size
marble figures resting on the cornices, has two organs, and here the
choicest music is frequently heard.

"Of course the choir chapel was much too small to hold the great
crowd, which, therefore, overflowed into the aisles and nave of the
vast church, where the music could be heard likewise. This crowd broke
up in