Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1862-12-04
Foreign Correspondence.


connected with the spienulu anu intereSt-
ing objects in this city which gave you
sketch of in my last, that | failed to
present to you, and which, | must con-
fess, diminishes their effect in my eyes to
wonderful degree. 1t is the extroeme
filth and dirt that surrounds them. Reg
ular streets of lofty we'll built houses are
not all that is necessary in order to give
a city wholesome and healthy appearance.
But cleanliness and neatmess are quite in
dispensable. In Dublin you search in
vain for any of these blessings. Poverty
and dirt pursue you to the gates of every
mansion and monument, either ancient.
public, or private. You never saw any
place 50 nasty nor SO beggardly, nor have
|, except one. Rome is worse than Dub
lin. That ancient city once the mistress
of the world" with its inhabitants, is a
disgrace to the civilized world Dirt is
one of the most prominent features in
every catholic country in which it has
been my fortune to travel. its descrip-
ton is not very pleasant thing, there
fore | will not make one. If you or any
of your readers ever come to Dublin or
Rome, you must prepare yourselves for
having your senses outrageously offended
wherever you go. The dignity of pal
ace, the sincerity of church, the venera-
ticn that is due to the remains of ancient
greatness-nothing, commands the small
est attention to decency or cleanliness.
One of my earliest and most natural as
sociations was that of the purity of
fountain. SO hours in Rome destroyed
that in my mind forever The city con-
tains large numbers of beautiful fount-
aims, with an unlimited supply of pure
water but they are surrounded by every
object that is calculated to excite disgust;
and in FACT in no Europen city have |
found that neatness and attention which
gives so much additional beauty to our
New England towns. l have, indeed,
witnessed much to interest me since left
America but have, on the other hand,
found much to grieve and disgust me and
nothing in the least that has tended to
weaken the attachment to my native land,
but much to strengthen it. | trust that
| am not so censurably cngrossed in the
love of my own country that | cannot do
justice to others; but certainly | have
seen no people more happy; no towns and
cities more prosperous aud beautiful than
those of New England, l have passed ed
iiices by far more magnificent viewed the
interior of cathedrals whose alters were
lined with gold, and beheld richer scenery;
yet. as / said before, nowhere have | be-
held such neatness and comfort as mark
the dwellings of my native state no such
noble institutions for the instruction of
the youth, and the relief of the distressed
Let Europe provide for her poor as our
poor are provided for, in the Poor House,
at Morristown, and the working classes
would envy their situation, and | should
not blame them for all turning paupers.
All of our American travellers have had
their minds so engrossed in the history
and grandeur of ancient ruins. that they
have ever failed to give to their country
men true idea of the present condition
of the people of Europe. They have
dined too much in the halls of counts and
mobiles; visited lords without even MOTTO
ing the mud huts of their peasants sip
ped their wine from the golden cup # the
Pope with no thought of the poor crea-
lures from whom it was robbed viewed
the banks of the Rhine from the decks of
excursion steamers, and passed over their
classic waters with no other thought, but
that of some ancient writer who sat upon
its banks and portrayed, in language that
they have not improved, its varied beau
ties as it wanders from its seven heads.
Had they taken the trouble to have STEP
ped on shore, and travelled few miles in
to the interior, from the banks of that far
famed stream, we should have had, instead
of hash of poetry and prose upon the
beauties connected with the Rhine, sad
history Of poverty. misery and crime,
which my health will not permit me to