Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1874-08-18

plain, is the grave OF Shelley. 1t is set
4 about with roses and shadowed by tall
dark trees, that l see even now as write.
A rife shot away and further within the
wall. in lower and far less lovely spot
is the grave of Keats, with its strange
little tombstone, lifting up meekly from
among the flowers its strange and sad
| inscription.
"Barefooted peasant girls, and beauti-
full too as red May roses, are going into
town, in Indian file, with bundles OF
wood and cane on their heads. A shoe
maker sits in his cottage door as we pass,
with half dozen children at his knees;
and he stops work to look at Johnny,
who has set his thumb against his nose
and is wriggling his fingers in the air in
the direction of his mother.
you never saw so many shoemakers
in your life as there are in Rome. At
the door of almost every house you en-.
ter there sits little dried-up, wrinkled
old shoemaker. Is it not possible now,
after all, that this is why Rome is called
the City of the SoulY
"At last we are on the most famous
highway of all history, and rafting away
toward Naples.
"The Appian Way is dreadfully disap-
pointing 1t is not more than twenty or
twenty-five feet wide, and there is not
a shade tree to be seen along the way.
"On either hand lift great walls, that
hide the gardens and the peasants at
their labor; and but for the interesting
relics which compose these walls in part
you weuld find but little to amuse you.
"These walls in many places have
been repaired. or we're originally built OF
broken marble plundered from heaven
knows what ruined city or place, for
these Romans seem to have had no re-
spect whatever for antiquity. The great
St. Peters church, for example, is built,
for the most part, out of stones taken
from their most picturesque ruins.
"You will notice broken arm reach
ing helplessly out of this wall on the
Appian Way in one place, as you pass,
and in another you will see a pretty
cluster of flowers. A part of a giant
serpent is also to be seen, along with
hundred other like fragments OF art,
where the storms of time have laid bare
the rough masonry of the wall.
"Latterly however, these gentle Ro-
mans have come to preserve all these
things and stick them up in the stucco
walls of the houses all along the roads.
This, of course, spoils the effect, and
you take less interest in the broken
marbles when you find they are posted
up for exhibition.
Capuchin monks, in brown gowns
and sandals, 90 by, indolent looking, and
filthy, though they are said to be about
the best of their kind and very attentive
to the sick in times of the plague.
"Now we meet family of peasants
going into town. They all have loads
on their heads, and chat and sing and
seem very happy. have never yet
seen a moak carry anything heavier
then his little basket. wherein to put
whatever may be given him in charity.
/ may add, however, that that is just
one basket more than | have seen any
clergyman here carry.
Virgins and holy families look down
at us from inches in the walls, and now
and then we pass Madonna, with a
burning lamp.
"An English party, returning in car
riages. meet us here; and a lot of carts
bearing fruit aud wheat for town. ana
we find the great Appian road so narrow
that it is with difficulty that we can pass.
Here is a little church to the left, in
which the guide book says are the two
footprints of our Savior in the stone.
We step in, and find two monks at the
door stringing beads.
"This is the story Of the footprints:
"St. Peter had been condemned in
Rome to be cruci6ed, but his heart had
failed him, and having met with an op-
portunity to escape, he was now making
his way at night on the Appian Way to-
ward the sea. But suddenly here, on
the site of this church, which is built
over the old road, so that the new road
has to pass around, he came face to face
with his master.
"Peter said: Master, whittier goest
thou2'
a. / 90 to Rome to be crueifed.'
cat this Peter returned to Rome aud
died at the hands of the Romans, on the
site of st. Peters church.
The very paving stones OF the old
road are still here and form the floor OF
the church. But the good priest tells
ms that this is only a copy of the stone
ON which the feet of the Savior pressed
as he smoke to Peter; and we pass on
toward the church Of St. Sebastian,
where we hope to see the original foot
prints.
Manners of the Amazon.