The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1874-03-27

mighty Deeds-Communism the Cancer
that Destroyed the Grand Empire-The
Paradise Of Dead-Beats-Free Lunch
ing Reduced TO n Science-WOnders of
the Seven-HlIled city.
[Joseph Medill in Chicago Tribune.l
But, with all its drawbacks, its bad
winter climate, its disagreeabilities in
life. and it's expensiveness in death,
there is something wonderfully and ir-
resistiblv attractive and fascinating in
this CAPITAL of the ancient world. One
is drawn here by influences that cannot
be resisted, and kept here for months,
in despite of climate and sickness.
One is bewildered by the vastness of
interest before him I; by an endless laby-
rinth of objects of absorbing interest.
Here is the city that ruled the political
world for thousand years and, when
that rule persisted, it was to commence
another, and domineer the spiritual
world for another thousand years as alb
solutely as it had the political. The
scholar, the philosopher, the statesman,
the iurist, the general, the pietist, the
artist. the antiquarian, the-everybody
finds here an engrossing field of con-
temptation. A large part of the school
boy education of eve y youth relates to
the history of ancient Rome, and a
study of her mighty deeds and mighty
men.
One begins with the marvellous story
of Romulus, Remus, and the female
wolf who nurtured and protected them
and passes for a period of more than
700 years through history of the most
astonishing and captivating character.
At every page he meets new surprise,
a new actor performing an extraordinary
part, a new scene of most dramatic and
thrilling interest until the whole cul-
inmates in the bloody murder of the
mighty julius Caesar, who gathered his
mantle about him and lay down in
death, covered with wounds, at the foot
of great Pompey's statue, which iran
blood" at witnessing the shocking event.
With this tragic termination OF the re-
public the play opens with the empire,
and for another 700 years the student is
conducted through the most wonderful
transformations and, when the curtain
drops and the drama is ended, all
around is darkness, ruins, and desola-
ton. The mighty polity is extinct.
That organization with ribs OF steel and
feet of brass is dissolved. The Rome
of the Scipios and the Caesars is dead,
and henceforth only a sepulchre. And
yet how much of it lives How much
is deathless while man exists The
memory of her deeds survives her
works live after her. Her mythology,
her philosophy, her code of law, her
plan of government, her politics, her
literature, her language, her arts and
sciences, are not lost to subsequent
generations and nations they have not
crumbled into shapeless debris, like her
marble and granite palaces, temples,
and forums but are fresh and vivid,
and are incorporated into the education
of every man and woman in the civil
lied world.
We hardly realize how much of oul
education and thoughts is derived from
the acts and ideas of old Rome. We
feed on them in our youth, digest then
in our maturity, and solace our old age
in their contemplation. The Romar
code of law is the basis and foundation
OF all civil and criminal Jurisprudence
in the civilized world. The Roman
forms of governments during the re
public aud empire are followed anC
copied, and but little improved on, by
the nations of Europe and America o
the present times. And that which
most distinguishes the modern from TIN
dark ages is the readoption of the OLE
Roman forms and systems OF law ant
political organization. When the grea
light of the Seven Killed City went out
1T left mankind to grope i'll darkness TO
thousand years. Men endured tn
tyranny of feudalism and the gloom o
superstition, and lived in the darkness
OF Ignorance, among bats, and owls
and crawling vermin, for long, Ions
ages. 1t is only since the sixteenth
century that they are beginning t.
emerge into the light of day, and en-
Joy liberty of conscience, politica
rights, and such social position as tn
merit OF each warrant; and these yer,
privileges old Rome not only enjoyed
but created and taught, enforced ant
protected, and at her death transmittet
10 posterity.
How Rome, having enjoyed so lon,
the blessings of freedom and stabl
government, and a highly -develope,
civilization, could mt last descend s.
low into anarchy and ignorance, an