The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-06-01
70
Milan.

| remember on one sultry afternoon in
the month OF May, 1879, just before started
fol Europe, and when my mind was full of
the journey, of lying down upon the sofa in
the entry and falling asleep, and while |
slept dreamed a dream. ! thought | was
taking a journey. | remember leaving
New York and sailing across large body
of water, travelling through England, Ire
land and Scotland, and then crossing the
English Channel into France, and then to
Italy, and finally | got into some dark place,
and then woke up. My imaginary wander
inss occupied the small space OF half an
hour, but l saw many places of interest in
dream-land, and when | came to visit them
in reality, l discovered that they, in no
respect, resembled what my dream pictured
them, except the cathedral at Milan. |
would recommend this manner of travel
ing, because it gives almost as much salts
faction to travel in this way as in any other,
and besides you save a great deal of time
and you are in no danger of losing your
baggage, and the best of all is, that it will
not cost you a cent. 1t took me about one
half hour to make this journey over the
ocean, through Europe and the continent,
and if had not afterwards visited Europe
and been convinced what a wild goose chase
my dream had led me, would have been
perfectly satisfied. However, l am now
fully convinced that the saying, "that
dreams always go by contraries, you KNOW"
is perfectly and literally true.
l remember seeing in my dream the cathe-
dral at Milan. l had read description of
it in Mark Twain's excellent book, {" The
Innocents Abroad" and I remember hav
ing seen a representation of it, inlaid with
pearl upon the top of a small round table
by some old Fiorentine artist, but no de-
scription or representation of it, either in
mosaics, or upon canvas, or in writings,
can portray the marvellous beauty of that
grand old marble cathedral, with its icicle
pinnacles, with its deep Gothic windows
with it's perfect proportions, and its snowy
wilderness shimmering in the moon light.
Without any irreverence, it appeared to
me that this cathedral had been made by
other than human hands, that it had been
formed by some divine agency, fitted up,
perfected and finished in some other and
more beautiful world than this, and after
it had been finished, was set down in the
principal street of Milan. 1t looks so airy,
so light, so grand and beautiful. l dislike
to go into minute details of length, height
and breadth. because they are always copied
from other writer's, and readers do not re-
member them longer than the eye is on the
figures; but think will be pardoned if |
give some idea of the size of this wonder
full cathedral. It's length is 400 feet, it's
breadth is 290 feet, and its extreme height
is 400 feet. When you journey on toward
Milan, either by cars or stage, come in what
ever direction you choose, the first object
that strikes your attention, when about
twenty miles distant, is the lofty, snowy,
creamy cathedral of Milan, towering far
above the surrounding buildings aud i'm
pinged against the clear blue Italian skies,
its LOG pinnacles standing up clear and dis
tinct, like forest of masts covered with
ice-it looks like temple fit for the gods;
and we see it all the way on our journey,
twenty miles to Milan; it is the first object
that tells the traveller of his approach to
the city. | have dreamed about this cathe-
dral, | have thought about it in the silent
watches of the night, and no building, in
al ..1,
my mird-no not even St. Peters, at
Rome. | can see even now the tall glisten-
ing spires pointing heavenward. ltappears
to me as though some genii had built the
cathedral, and that it's pure white crystal
line walls were never polluted by human
hands in its construction. Come with me,
and let us linger around this building; let
US view it externally, and then enter the
wide, spreading portal, and examine the
wonders within. | wish | had the power
to describe the building accurately, but |
now feel my utter inability to do so. 1t
requires no stretch of imagination or strain
ing for effect to give the proper description.
A writer has used some where these words,
90 We now come to the most beautiful build
ing ever constructed by the hand of man
in this world-the cathedral of Milan, and
believe him. The city of Milan is I'M
doubtedly one of the very finest, if not tile
finest, aud most clearly city in Italy, and
| presume that the stately, clean cut mar
BILE in the very center of the town compels
the people to keep the surroundings in keep
ing with it, and to put on an air of respecta
blity differing, am sorry to say, with
many of the towns in Italy.
Now in the city of Naples, every even
ing at and after six o'clock, every person
who can procure horse and carriage, q
donkey and cart, starts out to air them
selves on the street which runs along the
bay of Naples, and there you can see chill
dren from six to ten years of age naked as
the day they were born, running along the
streets, perfectly oblsious to the gaze of a
faded princess riding along the street, who
has come out of her miserably poor room
in the sixth story of some boarding house,
and who perhaps has denied herself the
luxury of warm supper, in order to take
her ride with the other aristocracy, and
who puts on airs and has upon her counte
nance supreme indifference, and seems to
say to the world now look at me-" But
the ways of people of Milan are different.
Every person appears to be happy and have
a suticency of this worlds goods There
is no faded aristocracy there. l have no.
ticed peculiarites in every city in Italy.
Now at Genoa the ladies invariably dress
in white, with long white gossamer veil
extending backward from the forehead to
the ground, with small black bows Of vel
vet upon each shoulder and at the throat
and they walk along the streets of Genoa
proud and stately as Cleopatra, and will
not speak to or notice their own husband,
father, or brother, or any of the opposite
sex, nor have any intercourse with them,
for it is considered very improper in them
to address any gentleman on the streets of