The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-09-09
Rome In 4Os, London In 1875.

The question of the populousness of
Rome in A. ID. 40S is one which, notwith-
standing the immense amount of specu-
latiOn and research that 1t has excited,
has not been settled. Whether we fix
the number rofitsinhabitants at l, ,200, 900,
or at little more than half that number,
it is at least certain that in the dense
crowding Ofits dwellings, in its close and
vivid contrasts between pauperism and
opulence, in the local proximity of the
dens of squalor and misery to the pal
aces of profigatc aristocracy, Rome re-
sembled London more nearly than any
other city has ever done before or since.
Then, as now, ST. James and st. Giles
were next-doOr neighbors; and had some
social question, he might have found
abundant material for measure analO-
gous to Mr.. Cross Rookeries bill. Into
such matters as these the great world Of
Pagano- Christian Rome did not care to
inquire; and the languid ladies who wore
all kinds of devotional and religious de-
vices embroidered on their dainty robes
even as our own "girls of the period"
burden their bosoms with crosses, and
show penchdnt for Brummagen rosaries-
bestowed not thought upon the ragged,
wretched specimens of humanity whom
they encountered in the course of their
afternoon drive.
Yet these high-born danes and demoi-
selles prided themselves above all things
on the orthodoxy of their theological
18th. The religion of Christianity had
aiready become highly fashionable at
Rome. Six years before the Gothic
siege, st. Melania returned to the Italian
capital after an absence of some duration
for purposes of piety. On this occasion,
as we learn from Paulinus Nolanus, the
Appian way was one uninterrupted
blaze of splendid carriages, containing
the wives and daughters of the chief SEN
ators and mobiles of the city, magnifcently
dressed in the most elaborate toilets
which the costumers of the age could
manufacture. Rome had, in truth, come
out to meet and greet the fashionable
saint in much the same way that London
debouches into Hyde Park when the
Princess of Wales, for the first time in
the season, cones forth to gladden. with
her presence the eyes of the motley con-
course Of the West End. A motley
group, too, it was which welcomed, A. ID.
402, the divine Melania to the city of her
adoption. There, in the midst of
thrOng, habited in a multitude of fash
ions, and resplendent with all the colors
of the rainbow, were sprinkling of men
and women whose garments and whose
mien struck the eye as a protest against
the levity and ostentation of the crowd
women in serge dresses and with covered
faces; men who, as they hurried onward
to catch a glimpse of her whom heaven
was supposed to have visited with such
exceptional marks of favor, muttered a
prayer under their breath, described upon
their breast the sign of the cross, made
gesture, as who would say Apage,
Sdtanas! while their togas of coarsest
cloth or untanned skin trailed behind.
1t was these latter who constituted the
Roman clergy, and who were the spirit
ual guides, pastors and confessors of the
feminine rank and fashion of the Eternal
City. The resemblance presented by the
interior of fashionable church at Rome
to what is to be witnessed any Sunday at
any one of the ritualistic establishments
in London must have been curiously
close.
an church that is furnished with mullion and
gable
With nave and with chancel, with reredos and
,gr0D
The odor Of sanctity's Eau de Cologne.
But only could Lucifer flying from Hades
Gaze down on this crowd with its panniers and
He would say, as he looked at the lords and the
ladies,