from our descendants life works about the same in all times only exterior aspects change in the particular period in which and all italy for that matter was so remarkable italy was alive with ambitious men � strong remarkable capable characters they made the wonder of the life it was not the architecture that did it and not the routine movements of the people has much the same architecture to day better in fact but not the men great men make great times � and only struggling ambitious men make the existence of the artist possible however much he may despise them they are the only ones who in their and power can readily call upon him to do great things and supply the means witness and in italy in holland and in spain chapter of to day it was while i was in that a light was thrown on an industry of which i had previously known little and which impressed me much brooding over the almost endless treasures of the city i into the palace one afternoon that perfect example of architecture then occupied by an of objects of art and to be the work of an association of italian artists after i had seen most of the treasures in the i encountered a thing which i had long heard of but never seen � an organization for the the of all the wonders of art and too the place was full of of the loveliest character of famous statues in the the the and elsewhere and in many instances also copies of the great pictures there was beautiful furniture even as to age from many of the italian palaces the and others and as for garden � fountains benches metal and the like they were all present they were from some of the with the of age upon them and i thought at first that they were original i was soon for i had not been there long strolling about when an attendant brought and introduced to me a certain a small dark man with clear black eyes who made clear the whole situation a at forty the of the world according to mr a jew were being with cheap of every truly worthy object of art from italian stone benches to by or portraits by � as and it had been resolved by this association of italian artists that this was unfair not only to the and the art loving public generally but also to the honest who could make an excellent living frankly copies of ancient works of merit at a price if only they were permitted to copy them most in fact all of them could make interesting but in many cases they would lack that trait of personality which makes all the difference between success and failure whereas they could perfectly the of others and that too for prices with which no foreigner could so they had themselves together determined to do better work and sell more than the fly by night who were and degrading all good art and to say frankly to each and all here is a perfect of a very lovely thing do you want it at a very low cost or we will make for you an exact copy of anything that you see and admire and wish to have and we will it so that you cannot afford to with doubtful who sell you as and charge you outrageous prices i have knocked about sufficiently in my time in the chambers of american and elsewhere to know that there is entirely too much in what was told me the wonder of grew a little under the professor s quiet commercial analysis for after this matter of so we proceeded to a discussion of the present conditions of the city of to day it s very different from anything in america or the north of europe he said or even the north of italy for as yet we have scarcely anything in the way of commerce here we still build in the fashion they used five hundred years ago � narrow streets and big in order to keep up the atmosphere of the city for we are not strong enough yet to go it alone and besides i don t think the will ever be different they are an easy going race they don t need the american two dollars a day to live on fifty will do for one thousand dollars five thousand you can rent a palace here for a year and i can show you whole floors overlooking gardens that you can rent for seventeen dollars a month we have a garden farther out that we use as a here in in the heart of the city which we rent for four hundred dollars a year what about the italian s idea of progress isn t he naturally i asked mr rarely the italian not at this date we have many jews and here who are doing well and foreign capital is building street i think the will have to be with another nation to experience a new birth the are mixing with them if they ever get as far south as italy will be made over the themselves will be made over i notice that the and get along well together i thought of the age long wars between the and the from the fifth to the twelfth century but those days are over they can apparently mingle in peace now as i saw here and farther north it was also while i was in that i first became definitely and in an irritated way conscious of a certain aspect of travel which no doubt thousands of other a at forty have noted for themselves but of which nevertheless i feel called upon to speak i could never in to the breakfast table either there or at rome or in or without a large 