The Portland daily press., 1867-02-09
A Yankee i'm IlaIy.
The Rome correspondent of the Boston Post
is responsible for the following:

The Rome correspondent of the Boston Post
is responsible for the following: -
On my way to Rome stopped at Terni for
couple OF days. This town is quaint, old
and dirty The houses are black and the peo-
pie squalid. The streets are as black as mud
can make them, and not much wider than the
passages through good-sized brick-kiln. Al
together, the place gives one the impression
OF large number OF houses that have driited
into the same locality, perhaps as the result
OF flood, and have stuck there hard and fast.
There is hotel with stupendous and over
powering name On the outside, and general
misery and annoyance inside u
No one should ever stay in Terni any long
er Than is necessary to see its famous water
tall. This is about four miles from its centre
and well repays visit. Byron (who, by the
way, In his progress towards Rome did up in
apoetlcal way every prominent and attractive
0bJecr or the road just as he accused Scott OF
starting from Edinburgh to London with the
design OF doing" in verse all the gentlemen's
country seats he met With Byron speaks of
Terni with great admiration, and in fact rath-
er oVerdoes the cataract But still it is worth
days detention, even When one is at the
gates OF Rome, and is certainly very beautiful,
Oa my arrival L found one solitary stranger
at the inn, and he was Yankee. He was
travelling with a small carpet bag and COPY
OF Harper's guide book, winch latter, by the
way, is about as profitable for a European
tourist as the. Constitution OF the United
States or The Westminster Assembly's Short
er Catechism would be. He spoke not word
OF any language but his own and could not
even order bread and butter, except by signs.
lie had happy faculty for numbering the
simplest expressions, and could not call for a
beeisteak, though this is the same in every
tongue in the world His first salutation to
me was peculiar, and might be called unique,
Much acquainted here in the city stranger?
In spite of their oddity these words bore a
certain appearance of familiarity that remind
ed me of home. L Informed him that my ac-
quaintance in that elegant and refined me.
tropolis was quite limited, and in fact, |
should not have stopped there at all except to
see the waterfall. "Wal, Ibid see suthIn' in
the guide-book abont a fall" was the reply,
''but thought wouIdn't foot it out there
l asked him why he had remained so long in
such an uncomfortable and disagreeable place.
wal, saw large dot against it On the map.
and thought there might be suthin' worth
lookm' at"
1t appeared that this unsophisticated coun-
tryman OF NINE, this model of man quite
flesh from natures world, this true born
Child ia free hemisphere ,verdant as the noun
talns OF our country Ito use the language Of
Mr.. Pogram) had started from Florence to
home with the deliberate design of stopping
at every town that had a larger circle than
the rest against its name on the map and thus
tar had done so, and for no other reason than
that. lie bad spent some time at Arezzo and
other good-sized towns, where there was but
big dot to see, and had seen it. 1t was quite
entertaining to watch his management with
the waiter at the inn. iszdI4. -9f5.l.
knowing perfectly well that the latter did
not understand a word he was saying, he
would nevertheless go to the head of the |
STAIRS and call very loudIy,i Waiter! want |
you TO clean them boots of mine Just as quick |
as you can and bring them up to my room, |
Tor want to put EN- ON right away The
waiter would look up in helpless sort of way |
ana Uncle Sans repr, sentative finally COM
pretending the real state of the case. wouid
thrust out one OF his feet aud tap il three or
four times with his hand, each time excIaim-
ing, Boots, boots, boots! DO yon understand /
want them boots" And SO it went IN to /
the intense aggravation of all parties except
myself, whom it greatly amused.