Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1857-04-10


duction Of the harmonious labors of great men for
ages, rearing temple worthy of the Living God.
When you fret see it it looks large-when you
enter it you SEQ at first sight that IL is on immense
church, but IL 10 not till you have looked |
at its parts, and carefully observed the
construction and purpose Of the details,
enthusiastically as we'll as religiously, and |
finally embraced them all for the great pur-
pose Of the whole, that you are overcome and alb
sorbed by such work of man So great in every
.ense, so beautiful in every sense And then again.
sooner you away from those details and
facts and their distribution, than you find it
quite impossible to recall the sense of its proper
and actual greatness, and your first sensations Of
diminished wonder are forced upon you in spite Of
your careful convictions | shall nevertheless,
without any attempt at description, endcavor to
give you q few ideas Of it, from which
much eau be inferred.
1t is approached by a court yard OF esplanade
of circular form, the circle being open opposit
sides of the centre at you enter, in the other
| is the church
| This yard contains about acres, and the circle
on the right and the left is magnificent covered
coonnade Of great height (6l feet supported by i'm
| mense Dorc columns OF travertine, and surnounted
by 1872 marble statues Of colossal size on the top
Of its massive entablature. When you have walk
ed up this colonnade side or the other to the
| church you have walked more than one eighth Of
a mile, and to enter the church itsclfand walk
straight through it from front to rear you walk
| other eighth of mile; inside the church, if you
look up to the ceiling it is so feet high, high
| as the topmost spire of large church or if you
wander through it you find that the walls Of the
church itself cover eight acres. On each side
within five chapels, with each its altar, each
chapel being by itself a magnificent church of
respectable size. The Dome is 1879 feet in diam
eter inside and to the top is more than q rods in
perpendicular line from the floor; the pillars
which support this immense cupola have a cir.
conference of 23i feet. Beneath this sublime
| arch in the centre is the Baldaquin and the High
Altar beneath it. 1t is IS feet high and of CORES
ponding proportions and whether you consider it in
its general effect, or in the details of its finely
wrought bronzos and rarest and finest marbles and
precious stone. and silver and gold, lighted up
day and night by more than 100 brilliant lamps,
you might almost say that it is fabric Of celestial
workmanship; portion of the New Jerusalem
sent down from Heaven.
The interior of the church abounds in monumen.
tai sculptures in honor of those whom the Roman
| Catholic church delights to honor. Fine paintings
of the greatest masters, their master pieces, are
about the affairs of the chapels and elsewhere, and
in the vauted dome 400 feet high You may here
study the old masters it seems in their finest
| originals, for you not always told by your guide
that these pictures none of them originals Nor
tbo,,
mildev, but they are all imperishable mosaics of
inconccivable workmanship; perfect. peri ect!
are the copies in both effect and detail and those
up in the yaulted roof of that dome, SO sharp and
clear in their outlines, fine in their clear-ob e
scure, so matchess in their foreshortenng SO dol
lcate in their shadows SO round in their relief
and so mysteriously life-lke in their expression,
when from the floor you look at them in their
dizzy AMI distant he ght-are found when you come
near them to lose all their occurrences and beauty
and are almost like rude walls of cyclopean stones
What triumph of art in every sense is such a
structure.
1t took $50 years to build St. Peters, and ii
had cost, $50 years ago, fifty millions of dollars;
and since that time large additions have been
made to its cost besides the thirty thousand dollars
a year it costs in repairs and superinte ndancc.
Sc rSteE'e has eVst more than all the churcnes OF
oil denominations in the United States put to.
gether.
These distances, dimensions and meas urement:
are unquestionably true, and really make thi.
great christian temple one Of the wonders of the
world Still it is quite impossible in looking at it
or passing through it, after having done so again
and again, to make the mind realize any such sp-
Ia
fully large, but not by any means SO large as il
really is. There is an inexpliclble diminuton
from the truth. in spite of you in looking at it.
vast proportions All things considered it is
vastly more interesting than any other church in
Rome, more than all the others put together; while
each OF the great Basilicas are most deeply in.
teresting. St. Peters seemed a great temple to
Christian art; st, John Lateran u great temple to
the Roman Catholic religion; and St Paul's with.
out the walls, great and worthy temple to the
living God. Yours. G.
Terrible INDIAN OuTRAGE.-A despatch
dated Pittsburgh, April 4th, says &c A
letter received here from responsible
source, dated Fort Dodge, Iowa, March 90
says that settlement of 20 families, at the
head waters Of the DesMoines river. had been
attacked by Indians, and that it was sup
posed that all were murdered Only two
houses were visited by the persons bringing
the news, in which fourteen dead bodies
were found, Some had been shot, and
othera inhumanly dubbed to death 1t is
presumed that the whole number of persons
composing the settlement, were killed, or
that they are now in captivity A meeting
OF citizens was called on the 22d ult., and a
company OF 90 to 100 men had organized to
march to take vengeance on the Indians,
and rescue any persons that might be found
with than,