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

L
TIoNAL CAPITAL-THE STREETS AMI
THE CeRso-HOw ANCIENT STRUc
TUREs HAVE BEEN UTILIzED-LACK Oh
MANUFACTURES AND COAIMERcE-RE
LlGIOUs MATTERS.
ROME, April, 4th, 1874.
The motives and reasons which
caused the site of Rome to be select
ed as the Capital of the ancient Ro.
mans would not be sufficient nova.
days to choose this particular loca.
ton for the Capital of Italy. 1t is
only because it was the Capital Of
the ancient Empire that it is selected
now as the seat Of government fol
| the new nation.
The greatest objection to the site
of Rome has always been
ITS CLIMATE.
It is known to have been a sickly
city in olden times, especially for
strangers and persons not acclimated.
The frequent hints of the Roman
writers show that fevers were as
common in those days as in these,
and more fatal, because the use of
quinine and other remedies was not
then known. But the old Romans
may have been less sensitive to at
mospheric influences than their less
hardy successors, partly because of
their system of gymnastic training,
which strengthened the body, and
partly on account of the continual
use of the cold bath. The climate
of Rome is soft, rather damp, and
quite variable-especially in the win
ter months, when strangers flock
here BY the thousand. The whole
basin of the Tlber is ramparted on
the north and east by the Appenine
mountain-chain; to the southwest
lies the Mediterranean Sea; and the
CITY is built nearly in the middle of
the great plain known as the Cam
pagna. 1t is thus exposed by turns
to the soft, warm, enervating breezes
from the sea, called Siroco, and the
dry, chilling. northeast .s,blasts from
the snow-eoyered Appenines, called
the Tramontane winds. The one
brings the heat of Africa, and the
other the colds of the wintry peaks.
The nervous system is unstrung by
the one and chilled by the other.
Hence fever, chills, typhoids, conges-
tions and other diseases, which |
more fully described in previous
letter.
THE TIBER
has name in history which conveys
an idea of greatness altogether out
of proportion to the reality. Where
it passes through Rome, it is a swift
running, turbulent stream, about 300
to 100 feet in width, and as dirty
and yellow-looking as the Missouri.
1t has steep banks; and, when low,
it runs in a channel 80 to 40 feet be-
low its valley. At times, it rises so
feet in the course of a few days, and
then Overfowing its banks, it COM
mits immense damage. North of
the city few miles it begins to
branch out into numerous affluents,
each of which extends across the
plain to the Appenine mountains,
and gathers up the melting SHOWS
and descending rains along noun
tain frontage of so or 60 miles. The
largest or main branch penetrates a
great distance among the mountains,
and is about two hundred miles in
length. After a winter of heavy
snow-falls, such as that of year
ago, followed in the spring by CO.
pious rains, the torrents of water
overflow the banks of the main
stream, and produce
4 DISASTROUS CONSEQUENCES
in the lower parts of the city. More
than hall. the houses of Rome are
erected in the low grounds or valley
of the Tiber, and not on the "Seven
Hill" as is popularity supposed. Last
spring all these lower portions of
the city were submerged to their
second stories, and the damage in
flicted was enormous. In ancient
times the city was subject to calami-
tous overfows; and they have oc
CURED ever since, at irregular inter-
walls of time. Sometimes there will
not be a disastrous overflow for a
whole century, and then they may
be repeated every few years. This
spring the river has at no time been
half bankfull. Last spring the rise
was not more than so feet above low
water mark, within the walls.
Until the establishment of the
National Capital in Rome, little
more than three years ago, it was a
DEAD-AND-ALIvE TOWN,
lethargic, motionless. Its streets
were unclean-flthy, in fact. Ev-
erything was stagnant except the
beggars, who We're lively enough,
and too numerous and pestiferous for
the comfort of the strangers whom
they beset and tormented. The Ro-
man citizens were discontented and
poor, because the city did not pros
per, and they were obliged to obey
law 5 they had no voice in making.
They were sullen, and forever plot
ting to overthrow the political des
pot ism of the Pope and Conclave.
They contrasted the dead condition
of their city with the progress and
rising prosperity of the other Italian
cities since the union of Italy under
Victor Emanuel.
Before the removal of the Capital
hither, Rome contained 9O2, 1856 in
habitants, of whom 6,227 were oleri-
Gals, or members of religious orders
of monks and nuns. At the begin
ming of the century, Rome contained
$4,000 inhabitants-showing an in
crease of only $4,000 in seventy
years. The establishment of the
Capital here in the winter of 1901
at once
'WAKED IT OUT OF ITS LONG ToRPoR,
and brought such a change in the
business affairs of Rome as had not
been witnessed since the days of the
Caesars. In 1872 the Italian Govern
men took a census, and found the
population had swollen already to
,247,497, At this time it is estimat-
il A III. aN