New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-06-20

Drop the curtain round my bed,
Draw the white shroud softly DER me,
Simply tell the world he's dead.
oShut the window" but tomorrow
Fling the easement open wide;
Child of Hope and not of SORROW
Tell them all have not died.
Ancient and Modern wealth.
Some OF the Big stories that
History Tells.
Some one having been telling of NJ. Loder,
in London, who died lately, leaving the
enormous fortune of s75, COO, 900, and of the
gorgeous monument of the Rhode Island
Spragues, which is to cost sl00, 900, and OF
the wondrous wealth and profusion OF Tweed
and Stewart. the Richmond Inquirer tells us
how people had big fortunes and built fine
houses, and gave dinners and drank fine
wines, and spent in other ways in the old
times, ere Loder was, or Stewart named.
Thus il is that the Inquirer takes the shine
out of the nineteenth century:
Why, what is Tweed, or Stewart, or Mr..
Loder. or Belmont, or the Rothschild, or the
Marquis of Westminster, to Ptolemy Phila-
delphus, Of Egypt, who amassed little
property Of 1885,, 900, 900? And which of our
extrayagant young ladies' of these boosted
times ever gave her lover, as Cleopatra did,
pear dissolved in vinegar Tor undissOlved)
worth s4O0, 900? That's half the expenses
of Miss Tweed's wedding at dash, and
would dress one of our Baltimore and WASH
ington bellies for forty years. Then there
was Paulina, one of the ton in Rome, who
used to wear jewels, when she returned her
visits, worth 100000. Well, they boast of
Mr.. Stewards "marble palace" in Thirty
pr~h CTR VNo dn anf
suppose this house, which is about the best
they have in New York, cost more than half
a million dollars. Well, Cicero, who was a
poor man, gave sl50,O0 for his house, and
Clodius paid $3.50, 900 for his establishment
on the Palation; while Messiah gave g., 900, :
600 for the house Of Anthony. Seneca, who
was Just plain philosopher like Mr.. Gree
ley, was worth 500, 100000. Tiberius left a
property of nearly $40, 900, 900. Why, they
talk about mans failing in New York for a
million as if it was a big thing. Cesar, be-
fore he entered on any ofiice-when he was
a young gentleman i'll private life-owed
$14 900, 900, and he purchased the friendship
of Qu@sor for $500, GOO. Mark Anthony
owed 90 SOC, 900 on the Idcs of March, and
he paid it before the Kalends of March. This
was nothing-he squandered $40, 000, 900 of
the public money-Maj. Hodges defalcation
being for the contemptuous sum of S450, 900.
And these fellows lived well. Esopus,
who was a play actor, paid 10000 for a
single dish. Caligula spent s40O, 900 on a
supper. Their wines were often kept for two
ages, and some of them sold for $40 an ounce.
They roasted hogs while ut their banquets.
They were fond of rams head pie. and pastry
stuffed with raisins and nuts. Dishes were
made of gold and silver, set with precious
stones. The beds of Heliogabulus were of
solid silver, his table and plates were of pure
gold, and his mattresses, covered with carpets
of cloth of gold, were stuffed with down from
under the wing of the partridge.
1t took $50, 600 a year to keep up the Dig
nifty OF Roman Senator, and some of them
spent s5, 0OO, 900 year.
Cicero and Pompey dropped in' one day
on Lucullus-nobody at home but the family
and that family dinner cost "a 900.
But we talk Of population. We boast OF
London and New York. Rome had a pop,l-
lation of between three and four millions.
The wooden theatre Of Scararls contained
eighty thousand seats; the Coliseum, built OF
stone would seat eighty-seven thousand, and
afforded standing space for twenty-five thou
sand more. The Circus Maximus (think Of
it, Old John Robinson y would hold three
hundred and eighly-five thousand spectators.
There were in the city 1900 public baths,
those Of Diocletian alone accommodating
$500 hathers. Even the sixth century, after
Rome had been sacked and plundered by the
Cloths and Vandals, Zachariah, traveller,
asserts that there were 1874 spacious streets,
80 golden statutes of the gods, Al, 097 palaces,
1852 fountains, 3, 7S5 bronze statutes of the
Emperors and generals, % great horses in
bronze, collossi, spiritual columns, 81
theatres, IL amphitheatres, 9,026 baths, 2, 800
shops of perfume, 2,O9I prisons.-
As set of to MIR. Sprague's monuments
al tembstones," We may merely mention the
Mausolcum OF Augustus in the northern part
of the Campus Martius, consisting of a large
tunulous of earth raised ON a lofty basement
OF white marble, and covered on the summit
with eyergreens, as in the manner of a hang
ing garden, the whole surnlounted by bronze
figure OF Augustus. At the entrance was
two Egyptian Obelisks, fifty feet high, and
all around was an extensive grove divided
into walks and terraces.
We have not space to speak of the Forum
Roman,m, the Forum Julium, the Theatre of
Pompey, the Pantheon, the Palace of Nero,
(entirely Overlaid with Jewels and mother-of.
pear, ~ the Caudian Aqueduct, the Flayin
Amphifheatre, the Coliseum, the Arch of
Titus, the Villa of Hadrian. the baths of Car
cula, nor the great Roman roads, straight as
an arrow, paved like the streets of city, di-
vided by mile-stOnes, and having houses for
uaNeiefs every i've or SIX miles, afOrding I'M
interrupted communication from the Wall of
Antonious,. through York, London, Sand
witch, Boulogne, Rheims, Lyons, Milan,
Rome, Brunsdusium, Dyrrachium, Byzan-
tium, Ancyra, Tarsus, Antioch, Tyre. Jeru-
salem-a distance of $40 miles.
Nor have we space TO refer to Thebes, i'm
Egypt, (Which had a population Of, 500, O0O.)
and that noble palace within its ground
columns, whose cornices were inlaid with
ivory mountings, or shcathed with beaten
gold, nor Alexandria, whose annual port dues
were $4,000, 900, and library :, in an age when
books were rare, contained 70O, 900 volumes
nor to Capua, the second city of Itaiy--nor
Rhodes and its 5000 statues, and LOG colossi
Zone Of them one OF the seven wonders of the
world, costing $4,000, OO0)-nor to Antioch,
with street four miles long, perfectly level,
and double colonnades through its whole
length-nor to Athens, and fhe Parthenon,
and the Theatre of Bacchus, the most beau
tiful In the world, which seated 10000 per-
sons--nor to Syracuse and its fortress one
mile long by half mile in breadth-nor to
Tyre and Carthage, and Babylon, and Bag
dad, and Memphis, and Ephesus, and Byzan-
tium, and hundred more.