The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-07-23
Ro1TE.

1 kOME.
Charles Warren Stoddard gives ven
to some reflections on Rome as a whole
He says think of it as a city of tan
/ gled, dirty, and very ugly streets; of the
/ people as q mass of cheerful, Quarrel
some, superficial souls, who work ha-G
for iving-it Is hard work loafing Il
this climate-znd who have no home
life according to our creed. The Ro
man houses are great barns, Rs ugly and
as inconvenient as possible. The pal
aees-any large house that has ones
been occupied by dignitary is palace
forevermcre-the palaces are q LITTLE
larger, a little less ugly, and little
more convenient than the rest of the
buildings, and this is the only differ
ence. You occupy a room or a suite
OF rooms on q fiat, and it is by no means
necessary TO be on speaking tezms with
the rest of the house. Yoa have youl
servants who provide for your table Il
the house, or you 60 cut to cafe, a
furnished with cheap sud gaudy trim
mings, a quantity Of very bad paintings,
and a tOlerable proportion of useless,
ugly. and antiquated furniture. You
receive yOur guests, who are directed to
your door through a dark or badly lit
hall by a porter or porteress sitting at
the hall door, which is nearly always
suggestive of a stable. You 60 out of
an evening (or by day., walk in the mid
die of the street, or ride If you prefer
it; haunt the three or four villas that
are thrown open to us, overrun by
the very mixed public. There is no Sc
clusion, no rest for the spirit, no COM
fort for the body. It is almost fatal TO
bathe IN Rome; you may moisten your
self occasionally, but there is an ever
lasting fear of fever, and the fever is
almost as serio1s as death itself. The
hotels are like all hotels, kind of con-
ventud life without any of the gracious
benefits of a convent. There are innu-
merable petty cliques in this poor old
city-modern innovations. The young
Protestants, who here spring up like
mushrooms and flourish like them; the
Catholic party, having a grand con
tempt for the outsiders; the Court
party, chiefly represented by young
officers, Respondent in gold lace and
with the slim legs so common in Italy
most of them disappear mysteriously
at night, but reappear in the morning
as gorgeous and slender as ever. /
know some one who has trapped several
of these dashng young men and found
them in exceedingly close quarters
but, rest their souls, they have no salary
to speak Of, and most of it goes to their
ia ailor. The artists are by themselves
a house of many mansions, of course,
but one that excludes the inartistic.
Then come the resident foreigners, who
have almost forgotten where they orig
inated-a very common form of insanity
L.
or her reception, drumming up some
floating celebrity for an attraction, and
so they manage to rival one another.
making and losing friends with aston
ishing facility. Yet let me not forget
certain dear friends I have made and
must leave here. Poor old Rome /
wonder if the Romans of old we're any
smaller than these moderns 1t seems
almost impossible that any one could
have been; yet how they blew hot and
co3d IN ne cause OF Rienzi, and all these
modern champions are later Rienzis,
who pretend to be doing wonders for
the old city that is past redemption. It
is common for a certain class of Ameri-
cans, after having been abroad for q
limited period, to ignore their race.
This is, perhaps, nowhere more no
than IN Rome. They affect
foreign manners and foreign friends
even find it hard to express themselves
in good English Of they ever possessed
that rare aecomplishment)- and take
pains to avoid their countrymen, some
times speaking scornfully of the land of
their birth. Well, 1t is all right, I
warrant you. Whenever you find an
American who ignores his kind you may
be pretty sure he has good private
for being ashamed OF his i'm
ancestors. Blood Will tell, es-
pecially if it is a little tainted. As for
poor Italy, she sleeps in the streets
these warm days; she mends shoes at
every street door; she sleeps in the sun,
begs of the fOriSteri, sells matches st an
figure, poses on the Span !
sh steps, torments you with infinitely
small bouquets for your button-hole, !
and will never take no for an answer. |
She is a rather pretty, a very healthy, |
and a somewhat dishonest bore. All |
hat is honestly social in Rome can be |
shut up in one room. You and your |
friend aIe the best specimens; without |
IS envy, jealousy, malice, defamation, 4
les, sorrow (skin deep, suffering $50 /
we'll advertised that it becomes q posi- /
i've luxury to be born a cripPle); and, /
N the whole, Rome is g1eat, splendid, /
disappointment, and when I I
get away from (which hope to at 4
1nce-I will fall to worshiping its /
memory and dreaming of it as kind of /
ihadow of CITY. grand. eternal holy