Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-08-24

ness, peopled by bears and wolves,
a wool merchant, on a wharf in
Florence, named De Medici, began
to attract notice by the enormous
sums which he made and spent as
rapidly. He built magnificent
ships-gondolas, to float upon the
blue Arno princely palaces in
which he held a royal state. He
built palaces for the city too, es.
tablished schools in them where the
sons Of the mobiles learned philoso-
ply; furnished great libraries of
rare manuscript. The greatest ar
chitects, sculptOrs, painters and
philosophers Of the world worked
for this wool merchant gladly, he
was so generous and friendly pat
ron. They gave him the name of
father Of his country, and under
his rule Florence became the most
beautiful city in the world. But
Ooslmo de Medici was the father
only Of the rich and noble. The
poor he trampled under foot !; they
were of no more value to him than
the swine in the stalls of Fiesole.
If we could keep these unfortu-
nate wretches out of sight, the
story Of Cosimo, his sons and
grandsonS, would be splendid as a
dream Of enchantment. They
wakened all Italy to new, wonder
ful industries. The great magi-
clans in art, science and song
worked attheir bidding. Gardens,
churches, marvellous work in gold
and silver, more marvellous pictures
spraug into being; great poems
were written, scholars from all
countries thronged to Florence, and
in the shadows Of vast palaces were
given place to pursue their studies
in peace; the whole known world,
in a word, flushed into glory OF
beauty and grace under the rule OF
the Medici, as tropical forest into
flower beneath the summer sun.
But the poor, remember, shared the
fate Of the creeping things in the
forest. The only men who took
any account of them were few
good, .sensed Christians,
headed by a monk named Savon-
arola, who went about with such
gloomy foreboding faces in this
sunshiny, beautiful city, that they
were called weepers."
Lorenzo, the grandson of Cosimo,
was known as the Magnificent; the
poor were almost willing to be
crushed to death by such a genial,
superb master. There was a little
boy Of eight, employed as a page in
the palace, of noble blood we may
be sure, or the great Lorenzo would
not have noticed, as he did, his
fancy for molding figures in clay.
Walking, one day in the garden,
the prince found the little fellow
copying the figure of an old faun.
He had altered the mouth to make
itlaugh. "Well done, Michael An
gelo," he said; "but old men do
not have such teeth as thou hast
given thy faun. Close his mouth"
The boy bowed, but said nothing,
The next day, Lorenzo, passing
that way found the laun still laugh
ing, but with his teeth broken and
decayed with age. The prince
placed the boy at once in a gallery
Of sculpture, and employed the first
masters of the age To teach him.
Now Lorenzo is chiefly known in
history as the patron of Michael
Angelo. Lorenzo's son, who was
made Cardinal at thirteen, and Pope
at thirty~seven, was of the same
age as the young sculptor, and had
known him as a boy; he was so
anxious that he should finish the
Church of st. Peters at Rome, that
be raised the money necessary by
means which Luther protested
against as unlawful and out Of
this small dissension began and
widened the great breach Of the
Reformation,
Another Of this family was the
Catharine of France who laughed
and joked while seventy thousand
of her subjects were slaughtered in
one night-Brom "FerrNeci and
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