Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-02-29
mo. 81
what "a Merchant Saw i'm Europe.
Pisa, ITALY,
Tuesday, April 18th.

what "A Merchant Saw i'm Europe.
Pisa, ITALY,
Tuesday, April 18th.
Dear Ones at Home AT nine o'clock
this morning we dropped anchor in the
extensive and beautiful harbor of Leg
horn, Lj0ornta they call it here. We
are soon ashore and among the 10000
Italians who for the most part are in
dustrious and well-to-dO. A cabman
demands twenty francs for drive to
Pisa ten miles away. We bid twelve
and are at once accepted Through the
broad enticing streets of Leghorn at a
very rapid pace, for our driver and his
beast have more energy than OF their
kind we have seen displayed in Southern
Europe The natives, many of whom
have moved their work benches out OF
doors and are hard at it this lovely
morning, gaze at us wOnderingly, for
our driver is determined to display the
celebrity of his horse, and the horse is as
much disposed that his master shall be
gratifed. Through an arched gateway
of the walled city, and out upon the
fertile plain and over an Italian post
road, which you may know as class
are models we American might copy
with credit Wheat fields the bearded
stalk dropping with its precious burden,
and meadows of tall green grass sway
ing to the influence of the morning
zephyrs. AS we go rapidly onward We
pass peasant women, shoeless and garb-
ed in dirty tattered gowns carrying i'm
mense bundles of fresh mown grass,
dead leaves and fagots We look in
vain for madonna's face under the
burden, for they all carry the bundles
balanced on their heads, and with sur
prising ease but little grace at a snail
pace they trudge along. Oxen of mas
sive frame and unlike any we have here
tofore seen are dragging plows to the
beck of the farmers to whom loft did
the harvest to their sickles yield, their
furrOw oft the stubborn glebe has
broke" Our driver is bent upon the
twelve francs promised him, no matter
| for the life of his horse. We observe
the oddity of Italian hay stacks which
tower thirty to fifty feet, add as desired
for use the farmer seems to- have cut
might better say Sd0g66-the stack, for
there is no raggedness about it, and al
together they look fantastical, betraying
! great care Now we have a strong re-
minder of home by yonder grove of
woodland, and the scene is truly relish
ing after the barrenness Of 50 many
rocky cliffs. Morocco offered us cult
waited valleys, as did Spain, framed by
cloud-piercing mountains, but here is a
perfectly level plain and only a vast
range of mountains in dim outline tC
the east. | well remember a drive il
the summer of 1867 from Hanover, New
Hampshire, to Rutland, Vermont, over
the Green Mountains. An Ohio valley
farmer was with me and took decided
exception to that region, because Oh
the vast amount of waste land
He had been several weeks among
the mountains. and longcd for the
broad level acres 0f growing wheat and
the noble trees of his own woodland
He assured me that 50 much mountain
scenery had with wearying monotony
made him home-sick, and | have had
much the same feeling these few week:
past. We see Shepherds guarding theil
tlocks much as that day on Judean hills
they were startled by the host of angel
praising God and announcing Jesus
birth. The orchards of apple, pear
, grape vines Chamber from tree to tree
Green lizards and some of prodigiou,
size are summing their loathsome bOdie
t on the roadside. The number of then
- was constant remark. Unbidden by IL
the driver haltS for moment at straw
= stack bar-rOom and deliberately takes
= swig with American ease and nor
grace. Off again and along pOpla
a lined avenue, we approach Pisa, witt
l. its world-famed leaning tower ant
IS Cathedral. 1t is a decayed old city AM
d now numbers but 1000 souls, but il
the eleventh century was the seat o
c great power and the capital city of
republic. Then it claimed 1870, 900 il
II habitants, and boosted of the deeds O
" daring and proWcss Of its soldiers. Her
it was that from their Florcntine HON
IS the Mcdicis lent influence and aid. Her
l., as boy Calico lived, and Byron sun
% i'll his debauchery and bare-faced crime
g and here Napoleon the Great left trace
as he swept Italy in his insatiate hunge
l. for martial renoWn. We are now cour>
|: ing the banks of the river ArnO. @
ID whose muddy bosom floats gOndola.
: and over a massive bridge of stone
lie around the sharp street corners pas
r palaces and novels, and suddenly ther
e. bursts upon us one of the worlds Wor
a. ders. My father once pointed to a pic
~ ture in my school boy atlas and told m
or OF wonderful leaning tower away oye
ID in Italy, and taxed him with many III
"a answerablc questions about that gre;
tower at Pisa Can it be? Ninetee
til years have ebbed away and here | al
facing the old tower 'Tis verify MOI