uries of progress, a combination of political maneuver, bigotry,
and weakness committed the young Jose, tender, sensitive, receptive,
and pure, to be trained as an agent to further its world-embracing
policies.

The retreat upon which the boy at once entered on his arrival at
the seminary extended over ten days. During this time there were
periods of solitary meditation--hours when his lonely heart cried out
in anguish for his beloved mother--visits to the blessed sacrament,
recitations of the office, and consultations with his spiritual
advisers, at which times his promises to his parents and the
Archbishop, coupled with his natural reticence and the embarrassment
occasioned by his strange environment, sealed his lips and prevented
the voicing of his honest questions and doubts. It was sought
through this retreat to so bring the lad under the influence of the
great religious teachings as to most deeply impress his heart and
mind with the importance of the seminary training upon which he had
entered. His day began with the dreaded meditation at five in the
morning, followed by hearing the Mass and receiving Communion. It
closed, after study and class work, with another visit to the blessed
sacrament, recital of the Rosary, spiritual reading, and prayer. On
Sundays he assisted at solemn High Mass in the church of the
_Seminario Pio_. One day a week was a holiday; but only in the
sense that it was devoted to visiting hospitals and charitable
institutions, in order to acquire practical experience and a
foretaste of his future work among the sick and needy. Clad in his
little violet cassock, low-crowned, three-cornered hat, and
_soprana_, he might be seen on these holidays trotting along with
his fellow-students in the wake of their superior, his brow
generally contracted, and his childish face seldom lighted by a happy
smile.

The first year passed without special incident. The boy, filled with
that quenchless ambition to know, which characterizes the finest
minds, entered eagerly upon his studies and faithfully observed his
promises. If his tender soul warped and his fresh, receptive mind
shriveled under the religious tutelage he received, no one but himself
knew it, not even his fond mother, as she clasped him again in her
arms when he returned home for the first summer vacation. With the
second year there began studies of absorbing interest to the boy, and
the youthful mind fed hungrily. This seemed to have the effec