Word: vatican
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...find no girl to go a la bois (parking), he may sop (drink) and get sobe (drunk). But a clanked lad sometimes decides to cooperate with the Vatican (the Administration building). He turns from a crip (easy course) and throws himself into cemetery working (tough studying). After hard work, his grades should be boxed, racked or knocked. But if he is still not sure whether he can grease (just pass), he may turn rider (cribber). He finds a pony to ride or gets a cheat sheet and then, all saddled up, feels ready to face even Flunkenstein, the prof...
...world's most enduring army of admitted mercenaries is armed with broadswords and halberds and dressed in striped uniforms of blue, red and yellow. But the famed Swiss guards of Vatican City, sworn to defend the Pope to the death, are no mere ceremonial troop; the guardsmen are well trained in hand-to-hand fighting and have an arsenal of Swiss rifles in their quarters in St. Peter's. Last week a pontifical commission gave this elite corps a much-needed streamlining. Recruits were growing hard to find, and there was a rumble of discontent in the ranks...
Each guardsman must be 6 ft. tall, a practicing Catholic of "good" family. All are unmarried (except officers); all must sign up for five years of long, lonely hours patrolling Vatican corridors; only a lucky few draw outdoor posts. Fraternization with civilians is forbidden. The guards worship in their own chapel in Vatican City, have their own canteen, even their own cemetery. Pay is low, and there is a 10 p.m. curfew in summer, 9 p.m. in winter...
...last week's reorganization, the complement was cut from 133 to 100, and the Vatican introduced some morale-boosting changes. Pay will be raised from an average $70 a month to about $112. Some noncoms, as well as officers, may now marry, and officers' wives need no longer bring a dowry of 50,000 lire ($80). One surprising innovation: guards may now act as guides in their spare time, engage in other "cultural" activities, provided they are not "indecorous...
...taut with tongue-lashings, stern punishments for minor infractions. Nunlist's strictness nearly cost him his life last April, when a discharged guardsman shot him in the neck and shoulder. Before he collapsed, the bleeding colonel disarmed his attacker, who was turned over to the Italian police (the Vatican City jail has been vacant for 20 years, is now used for storage). "It was a brief but violent struggle," said Nunlist, and clamped down all the harder...