Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-06-13

without the apprehension preying on
his mind that he will suffer loss OF
blood before morning; and when he
sits down to a meal, it is apt to be
cleanly and palatively cooked. In
short, the whole travelling accommo-
dations of Rome and Italy have I'M
dergone a revolution which has
brought about most gratifying i'm
provement.
THE NEW BUILDINGS
which have been erected in Rome in
the past three years equal all the
building done in the previous 200
years. A whole square mile of struc-
lures have been added to the east
side of the city, on the Quirinal
Viminal, and the Esquiline Hills.
They are not fimsy shells, but solid,
fire-proof blocks, and each large
enough to accommodate twenty to
fifty families. There are no cottages
in Rome, in the American sense, and
none of the common people own
their own residences. In the new
parts of the city, the streets are laid
out straight, and of respectable
width-4O to so feet-whereas, in
the old portions of the town, the
streets are crooked as rams horns,
and only 10 to Is feet wide, and des-
titue of sidewalks, with the excep-
ton of the Corso and one or two
others. No more gloomy or inferior
streets are to be found in any city of
Europe than in the older parts of
Rome.
l had often heard of
THE FAMOUS CoRso
of Rome, and had imagined broad,
magnificent avenue, ike one of the
bonlevards of Paris, extending from
one side to the other of the External
City," But what was my disap-
pointment to find that it was a mar
row and rather shabby-Iooking thor
oughfare, about three-quarters of a
mile long, beginning near the Wall,
at point called the Pope's Plaza,
and stopping in front of a plain, old
stucco church, of no architectural
pretensions, a short distance from
the famous Capitoline Hill of an
cient Rome. This principal street is
only % feet wide, with sidewalks of
three feet, raised few inches above
the street, which is lowest in the
centre, like nearly all the streets in
Rome.
The buildings which line the Cor
so, though many of them are termed
palaces, and are occupied by nobili-
ty, are not handsome. They are plain
brick buildings, erected from the ma
terials of the "ruins," four or five
stories high, and covered with dingy
stucco. The ''Nobles" live upstairs,
and lease the ground floor to shop
keepers; and during Carnival-week,
they rent out the balconies and win
dows to strangers, from which to
witness the fun and follies of the
crowd on the streets below. The
Corso is the great shop street of the
city, y,for the sale of dry-goods, jewel
ry, pictures, statuettes, photographs,
works of art and curiosities of all
sorts. But if it were twice as wide,
and extended to Capitoline Hill which
overlooks the principal ruins of the
ancient city, incldding the Coliseum,
the Forum and the palaces of the
Caesars, it would be ten-fold more
imposing to the eye of the stranger.
A great part of inhabited Rome is,
comparatively speaking,
A MODERN CITY,
occupying the once open spaces of
the Campus Martius, down the Val
ley of the Fiber, which flows through
the city in a circuitous course, some
what in the shape of the letter Sits
general direction being north to
south. Very few of the buildings in
Rome date beyond the year 1900, the
greatest ravages committed on the
ancient structures were between that
date and the middle of the last cen
tury. Modern Rome is, in chief part,
constructed from the ruins of the an
cient city. Thousands of ancient
walls, which had resisted the tooth
of time and the effects of fire, were
torn down and rebuilt IN palaces and
churches, of which there are 800 of
the latter and twice as many of the
former; and tens of thousands of
marble pillars and granite columns
were removed from the temples, TO-
runs, baths, theatres, amphltheatres
and palaces, to decorate and beauti-
fy the palaces, churches and cathe-
drals, which were erected in Rome
within the period stated, Even the
vast st. Peters itself, is mainly con-
structed of materials plundered from
the temples, baths and palaces of
Imperial Rome. Had it not been
for these wholesale depredations and
destruction the works of the mighty
dead would have withstood tie raw
ages of time, fire and invasion, to
degree that would now excite the
liveliest wonder and admiration OF
mankind. But they were not able
to resist the picks and crOwbars of
an army of workmen employed in
their demolition for more than two
centuries. Hence it is that the ruins
and debris of the ancient structures
create rather feeling of disappoint-
ment at first view. There are less
remains visible than the traveller ex-
pected to find, aud those found are
more ruinous and prone than can be
accounted for by the action of time
and ravages of invaders. But each
day that the visitor spends inspect
ing churches, palaces, and picture
galleries, he will perceive the missing
portions of the ancient piles.
THE COLISEUM
which would cover half dozen
squares in Chicago, and whose eXte,
rior wall was l2O feet high and 50
feet thick, is half gone. All lts
countless marble floors and stairways wa
have disappeared utterly, Iney y
have been broken up or puln' Jun. nv ,oI
lime, or built into churGhes OF par
aces The walls of the Coliseum
",ora rsod as a stone-quarry during
meie ue0 and mart of the seven