THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



281 



brief sketch of the history 

 of his life. In the year 1223 St. 

 Francis was granted permission by 

 the Pope to celebrate the Christ- 

 mas time according to his own fan- 

 cies. He therefore constructed fig- 

 ures to represent the birth scene of 

 the Christ child. All this was done 

 in wood and decorated in paint and 

 appropriate robes. Mary and 

 Joseph and the Christ child are the 

 central figures and in the back- 

 ground are the sheppards with their 

 sheep. 



The Christ child, or Bambino as 

 the Italians call Him, is a painted 

 wooden doll dressed in white and 

 crusted over with magnificant dia- 

 monds, emeralds and rubies. The 

 Bambino rests in the inner Sacristy 

 where it is daily visited by crowds 

 of pilgrims who have come to pay 

 homage to the miraculous child in 

 which is endowed the power to cure 

 all ills. Every morning the Bam- 

 bino is taken in a carriage to the 

 hospitals and to the homes of the 

 sick. It has its own attendents and 

 a private carriage. Devout peas- 

 ants kneel as this blessed infant 

 passes. Formerly it was left for 

 some hours in the homes of the 

 sick: but this has not been permit- 

 ted since an attempt was made to 

 abduct the child. A women de- 

 signed to appropriate to herself the 

 holy image and its benefits. Ac- 

 cordingly she feigned illness sent 

 for the Bambino, dressed another 

 doll of similar size and figure in the 

 dress and ornaments of the Bam- 

 bino and sent it back to the Sacris- 

 ty. The fraud was not discovered 

 till night when the Franciscan 

 monks were awakened from their 

 sleep by loud knocking at the west 



door and furious ringing of bells. 

 Going to the door they saw the 

 Bambino standing alone on the 

 steps shivering in the wind and the 

 rain. So the false baby was sent 

 back, and the real baby restored to 

 its place never again to be trusted 

 out of the Sacristy without an at- 

 tendant 



The natives verily believe that 

 the blessed child can heal all dis- 

 eases and to this end they daily of- 

 fer a prayer to the child in behalf 

 of their sick ones. Letters are ad- 

 dressed to the Bambino from inva- 

 lids who are unable to visit the 

 Sacristy or to have the child 

 brought to them. 



On the 18th of January, 1894, His 

 Holiness Leo XIII granted an in- 

 dulgence of a hundred days, appli- 

 cable to the souls in purgatory, to 

 ail that recite a prayer to the 

 blessed child with devotion and 

 contrition; the indulgence may be 

 granted once a day. 



"Jlnrder Will Out" 



The family of the Medici's, who 

 ruled and ruined Florence in the 

 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, lie 

 buried in the magnificant Medician 

 chapel of the church of San Lor- 

 enzo of Florence. It was rumored 

 that the coffins had been rifled and 

 accordingly an investigation was 

 made in 1^57. It was then found 

 that the rumor was well founded. 

 A sad state of affairs was exposed. 

 Some of them had been broken into 

 and robbed, others were the hiding 

 place of rats and vermin of every 

 sort. All save two of the forty 

 nine bodies were ina frightful state 

 of decay or had been reduced to 



