Muzzle-Loaders

Gossipist Walter Winchell reported last week: "Mussolini's soldiers hope to retreat to Rome where they can be protected by the Vatican's Swiss Guards." Swiss Guards carry halberds. By an order of the peace-minded Supreme Pontiff last week the effective modern rifles of His Holiness' fur-helmeted Palatine Guards were replaced by 1840 muzzle-loaders which have been stored away in the Vatican for over half a century. If the Papal troops were ever military, they are now wholly demilitarized. Each muzzle-loader, now so rusty it would be hazardous to fire it, requires two Palatine Guards to work it, one to fire it, the other to load.

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