AFTER a long and weary pilgrimage in first-class cabins and palace cars, the faithful band of American Catholics has reached Rome safely and found a hearty welcome from the Pope. Being the first from the New World, it has made something of a sensation in the Eternal City. The pilgrims, of course, paid their fillial respects to His Holiness, kissed his hand, presented the gifts they had brought from this country, and received his benediction. They will return, doubtless, with new enthusiasm for their religion and encourage the Holy Father, who has lost something of his influence in Italy, by attempting to increase it over here. Since he told them that false religions prevail on a large part of this continent, they can do no less than battle mightily against them hereafter. These false religions, we presume, are those various branches of that false reform which Luther thought it desirable to attempt. As for the pilgrimage itself, it was a decided improvement on the medieval style. The hundred who went on it rather ignored the crusader-pilgrim’s staff and gown and sandal, and wore what the latest fashins prescribed ; nor, according to accounts, was there much fasting on the way. It was altogether a modern affair, a comfortable trip, such as the devout pilgrim who marched with aching limbs through Europe to the banks of the Jordan in other days would have looked upon with pious horror.