Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1868-05-15

But the year is not half through, and
what next?
Italy--Its Wretchedness.
Rev. Mr.. Lord of Montpelier, writes
from Naples, as follows:
~ have now travelled in Italy two
weeks, more than six hundred miles,
and half of it and more by carriage.
Have been in towns (more than forty
varying from three hundred to five
thousand inhabitants. The country is
composed of the debris of limestone
mountains, Roman ruins, and scorie
of extinct volcanoes. The hills are
rock, bare and sterile. The valleys
are narrow and they are cultivated
to the orange, the lemon, the fig and
the grape. Not an acre in FIVE but is
wrested from the rocky hill by terra
ces of masonry. Gardens are about
fifty feet square to ten, and fields and
VINEYARDS fun nfty W Thousand.
have seen fields of wheat not as large
as my barn floor. The amount of
production would not keep one half as
many of our people from starvation.
Society is divided. first, into priests,
friars and monks; second, princes,
aristocrats and soldiers: and third,
beggars, and robbers. The first live
in monasteries, converts, fine houses
and villas; the second in palaces and
marble residences, and the third in
novels of stone and mud, or in dens
and caves in the mountains. The last
class do all the farming and producing.
The other two classes eat up all the
corn and wine. In Naples the King
has five palaces, either one OF which
is ten times as costly and magnifi-
cent as our Presidents house. The
princes in their palaces, the ecclesl-
astics in their churches, and the SOL
diers in their barracks, make Italy
splendid and miserable. Side by side
glory and shame meet you at every
turn. You are followed to the doors
of palaces by the piteous appeals of
ragged and filthy lazzaroni. You
cannot take step but your ears are
saluted 4For the love of God. and the
love of the Virgin, Signor, charity.
And the tone is no more piteous tc
hear than is the suppliant to behold
| The palaces and the scenery would be
beautiful, if | could shut out of my
ears the clammors of beggars, ready
at any moment to turn into robbers
or out of my nOstrils, stenches tina
vie with those of Cologne.
The cities all have narrow streets
so that the hot sun cannot get into
from three to eight feet wide for the
most part. In the suburbs, who'll
: families live in single rooms, with thu
donkey and goat often keeping then
company. The squalor is intense
Ma , ;s t;e IL an sa Fin
: equipages, gay officers, elegant ladies
5 beautiful music, and fountains play
i ing. The paintings in the gallerie
: and palaces are beyond anything W
4 know. They would often, however
. shock the modesty OF Il pure minde
n woman. The churches land | hav
visited fifty of them,) are mostly yer
5 splendid, not outwardly, but in tn
l. interior Notwithstanding, nc
5 sales, statuary and paintings. TIL
S church of Martinez in Naples has twent
( columns of marble and FIorentin
r, mosaic. Each column must have co..
o halt the price of our church, and o
( each column is porphyry rosett,
e whose leaves are tuned to harmon,
e that cost 10000 francs, or two thou
IS and dollars each. One painting O
!. the walls cost $4,000. The foe
n and the walls and the columns are a
{, deliberately sculptured in marble, an
D. brilliant decorations in Floreutir
E. mosaic. One end of it is filled I
" with the bones Of saints, in glass case
r and labelled with name, &c. I'll
le church, as our guide said, cost, ''m'
ID lads, not millions, of francs" Al
ID withal, it is rarely ever used. The
id is not a seat in it, and it is no more
D. to preach the Gospel in than an .
as temple of Hercules.
DC The churches make the Peep
m poor, and then give them no brea
1t They are simply for display.
m The more | see of Italy, of
IN ruins of former greatness, of t
a poverty of it's present splendor, al
at Of the exuberance of its present pc
in erty, and see to what it has be-
be brought by a denial of God, and
A perversion of the Gospel of His Sc
en- the more long to preach that GosE
:" again among the hills OF Vermont.
u | tell you Mr.. Taft, 1.-THE Gospel
its the wisdom and power of God I'm
k salvation" The ruins of Paganis
OF are all about me now. The tempt
Ia and amphitheatres and prisons a.
as villas of old Roman Emperors a
er- patricians fill all these hills and vale
D" with ruins, through which the liar
ow are creeping, and over which the b.
I'll CARS are rowing.
en- -
ar More economical rpma rkahla n