Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1859-03-11

they could no longer understand, and be-
cause they saw me continue to speak, they
naturally supposed / said something quite
satisfactory. As fer the man who pretend
cd to understand French, / found he knew
very little of it, but from the same error as
the others, he supposed | knew a great
deal. He declared he understood me per-
fectly, which he was bound 10 do, for Others
wise his reputation for a knowledge Of the
French would suffer, and he was bound to
make his companions believe that my cause
was both just and honorable. Although
doubt whether his translation of my speech
into Italian was very literal, it was, however,
quite as good--it was effectual. was con-
Quoted with every mark of respect to a nice
room, and enjoyed a quiet repose; but |
mentally promised, when I found my pass
port once more in my hands, to keep a per-
petual ''string round my finger" lest a worse
thing come upon me.
The valley of the Pc is like a garden
Even in winter flowers spring up by the
roadside, and the harder vegetables are Gull
tivated. | saw many persons spading the
ground, ruking and sowing rs we do in early
Spring. Tn one place they were trans
planting their cabbages and beets from the
nursery bed and sitting them in rows upon the
open field. l suppose in sunny situations
they will grow all winter and thus afford q
continual harvest. They told me snow Of
ten fell but seldom lay for t%wenty-four hours
upon the ground. They live in sight of
snow, however, for the whole year. There
are few places where the Alps are not visi~
Bile, md | often turned, or paused, to gaze
upon these sublime glaciers which overlook,
like icy sentinels, the perpetual vercure Of
the valley. Not unfrequently both the Alps
and Apprentices are to be seen at the same
time. The latter retain their snow during
the winter, and the two form a beautiful
border of white to the lovely green of the
landsc ,pe. The winds from these noun
tains must mitigate the summer heat very
much; but they are Proportionally unwel-
come in winter.
met with a very laxative, good-nntured
lady in the hostess, at a roadside inn, where |
dined. She learned pretty soon that I was
an American. Her neighbors were called in
and / soon found myself rather uncomfort-
ably lionized, only that it afforded me an OPP
portunity to become acquainted with the sub
jects of their thought, and the extent of
their ihformation--the two keys to character.
They had all heard Of America, but some
of them confounded it with Africa, and | was
about as often called an African as an Amer
lean. They were not in the present in
stance impressed with the superiority OF our
race. One of their most earnest enquiries
was in regard to religion. The rude look
ing men whom we might deem assassins
would brighten up to learn that the name of
Jesus has been proclaimed in such remote
countries as ours. OF course they always
connected with it that of the virgin as an
equal. In this feature their spiritual ideas
the line of demarkation between the
French, the Germans and the Italians cun
be drawn with something like mathematical
precision. The Germans are intellectual
the Italians Of faith. The latter believe the
mysterious at once, and lets his mind
rest in its wonder, its glory and its connec-
ton with himself. But the former boldly
questions the hidden things Of the spirit as
he does those of nature, and as i result al
ways finds himself without a basis for his
reason, and without II bVttoTn 10 the ocean Of
his thought. The French have looked upon
the future of the Germ ,ns aud the folly OF
the IIal ans and adopted the conclusion that
l. is best not to think ut all. | speak, Of
course, now in regard to the masses of each
country. AS we rise above these, we find
education and intercourse, which always
tend to assimilate mankin !, but even here, |
think evident traces Of the Q features are
clearly d'scernablc.
In return for much information Of their
neighborhood, and chiefly OF themselves, |
communicated 10 my rural ucquain;ances
many startling facts in history and geogra.
ply. There was nothing beyond their be-
lief. Ihe most wonderful was that | had
actually travelled five thousand miles from
home, giving enlarged ideas of the vast size
of our globe. As | went away, my hostess
remarked to q %neighbor that she believed |
was u pilgrim, and was going 10 to see the
Pope--reiigion being to her mind the only
OBJECT which could induce one to perform
So long u journey.
arrived at Cremona near sunset, and
FASTENED to the Top OF its noted tower
in order to behold the grand panorama which
it Commanded. Il is near four hundred feet
in heigth, and the country round has no en-
inences nearer than the Alps and Apprentices.
The view is almost always, as in this case,
INSTRUCTED by misis. Indeed, | found none
of those fue Italian skies in the north.-
The tower itself is interesting, as the high
est in this part OF Italy, and it has a history
of 500 years, with sumo pleasant and and
mourn.ul episodes. The Emperor Sigis-
mund and the Pope met in Cremona to de-
termine the place FOR holding n general coun-
Gil. GabrinO, u rather reckless character,
was then ruler Of Cremona, and by his ad-
vice, Constance was made the point. But,
according to his confession ON the scaffold
Mt Milan, he had determined to defeat the
design. He invited the Emperor and Pope
to take q view from the tower, and would
have pushed them over its battlements but
his heart failed him, and they lived to enact
the bloody drama of burning Huss, OIL the
shores of Constance's beautiful lake.
Cremonu has a warlike history, but a very
peaceful one at present. She is likely to
remain an inferior city, as no external or
internal resources will, from present indica-
lions, lead toeher enlargement. She must
live upon the past, and boast of her one
great work--the over, which is likely to
remain, for all ages, the lion of the city.
However inferior to the great ST. Peters,
which is the unrivaled architectural wonder
Of Rome, yet with respect to Cremona, the
simple Latin doggrel may strictly be true,
"Unus PNtrus est in Roma,
Una ur S n Crrmona."
Yours truly,
P. C. WILSON.