Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-08-18
JOAQUIN ABROAD.
The Roaming Poet of the Sierras on
The Applan Way.

The Appian way.
Joaquin Miller has an article in last
weeks Independent on a drive on the
Appian Way. tbs written in an eccen-
trio, off.hand manner, and is very char
acteristic. We give some extracts be-
low
"When man from the far, far West,
from the under world, as it were, makes
his way around the globe and comes first
upon the footprints Of the apostles, he
is thrilled by a sort of awe that nothing
else can produce. He feels somehow
that he has come upon the confines Of
another world, better world and a
fairer one, and he, for the day at least,
is better man for the fact
"You get tired of Rome in month
or two, in spite of yourself-ruins and
galleries, towers and churches 1865
churches-if there had been more days
in the year there would have been more
churches in Rome)-and you want to
get outside the great brick walls some
where and sit down and rest. You are
a sort of anaconda, that has at last swal-
lowed an OK, and you want to steal away
and lie down and digest it.
i had'kept the Appian Way as some
thing sacred, sort of dessert to be
taken when all else had pailed and grown
dull.
1.-THE road by which Saint Paul first
entered Rome, and by which the Catho.
lie tradition says Saint Peter attempted
to escape cruciGxion in the Eternal City,
still lay under the mantle of imagina-
tion. and now, at last, when determined
to leave Rome for little rest, my chum
and my chum for day, a sour, one
eyed old ruffian; a reformed or perhaps
unreformed pirate; man whom l had
met in Rome, and melted into and liked
because he was so hated by all others,
and so very homely and plain with his
big forked teeth and hollow eyes-well,
this man and | had resolved to take a ear
riage and drive along the Appian Way
to the first railway station on our way to
Naples.
1--WE were cheerful over the prospect
of doing li.tle gypsy business, tum-
bling over grassy tombs OF the Caesars,
picking up few skulls by the way, and
above all seeing this road-the road of
ali the roads that led to Rome-and so
talked cheerily over the matter at
breakfast.
This spoilt half the delights of the
day. The retired leather merchant of
New York, who sat with his family at
table d'hote, and seeing no sign OF a
gathering storm, gently proposed that
they should make their way to Naples in
the same manner and at the same time.
"And so they did.
1T had not been so dreadf1lly bad
but for that dreadfully bad boy Johnny.
think | know nearly all the leading
and rising hoodlums of San Fran
ciseo but if there is one among them
that can equal this boy Johnny, from
New York, have not seen him display
his peculiar talents to advantage.
We got out of our carriage at the
gate of the Palatne Hill, and walked to
the top through rows of ruins, set well
with all kinds of plants and particularly
prickly pears.
I'VE patted the little she wolf on the
head. gave her some nuts, aud asked her
about Romulus and Remus; but she
drooped her bushy tail, scratched in the
crack of the floor for nut which she
had dropped, and pretended not to hear
Two of these wolves are kept at the
public expense-one at the Capitolint
Hill and this one on the Palatine; and
shabby, dirty, indolent-looking thing
they are, to be sure. They are just the
size, build aud color of the California
| coyote,
Now we pass under the great trium
phal arch Of Constantine, and have 8
long. leafy ride through a lane of elms
Peasants are spinning ropes OF haA
to the right, and all along they come
and 20 to and from the city with great
loads on their heads, and often leading
their little children by the hand.
The urns that lined this road have
disappeared. Atone place you can pass
through the high stone wall for a franc
and see some Of the old jars Of asher
but there is nothing to be seen from the
Carriage.
1--WE pass through the great wall oI
Rome and are now in the wide, open
Campagna-a place that looks more