I30 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



WANSUECK ■■ AS IT IS TO-DAT. 



It may be of interest to observe that upon his arrival in New Haven 

 his father presented his name to various tradesmen of the city, direct- 

 ing them to supply his son's demands upon them, and as these included 

 the opportunity to order all that livery stables or wine cellars could 

 provide, it is greatly to young Hyatt's credit that he was a sober, serious- 

 minded, hard-working student from the moment of his ariival in New 

 Haven. 



He remained only one year at Yale, and then his mother withdrew 

 him from college and took him to Italy, where he came under the influ- 

 ence of certain catliolic friends of the family who sought to convert 

 him to the service of the church. In his journal he gives a graphic 

 description of the magnificence of the papal court, but is distressed that 

 " the Swiss guards in their harlequin uniforms stand fencing off the 

 high altar from the approach of common people." He might still have 

 acceded to the counsels of his mother's catholic friends had he not one 

 day seen the pope's dragoons charge wantonly and witliout warning 

 upon a crowd of merrymakers on the Corso, crusliing four of them to 

 death. The horror of this scene, and the filth and misgovernment of 

 Rome under Pius IX., turned him with loathing from all thought of 

 serving such a heartless regime as that of the papacy of those days, and 

 in his journal he exclaims : 



How much do I love my own country after witncssinj!; that disgraceful 

 scene on the Corso. How I prize her free, glorious institutions where a man's 

 life, will and speech are his own and not the property of emperor, king, or 

 potentate. God bless my native land and preserve her as a livin-; light ^o 

 these poor downtrodden, though fine people. 



