The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-11-09

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ported by four rows OF pillars immense
in circumference and seventy feet high,
sweeping off to the right and left in q
bold and imposing semi-circle.
In the center Of the ground inclosed
by tire colonnades is an Egyptian obe-
lisk, $50 feet high, Il solid piece Of
granite, and two fountains, one on each
side of the obelisk, play perpetually, the
water falling into immense basins Of
porphyry. This obelisk has a history,
as has everything in Rome. 1t had
stood for 1900 years on the ground now
occupied by the church. Pope Sixtus
V. required its removal and the architect
Fontana was selected to do the work.
The stone weighed 1,OO0,0 600 pounds.
Fontana took 900 men and $50 horses,
he rugged ropes to it and raised it clear
from its foundations, and with forty-six
windlasses lowered it to horizontal
position. Then it was moved on rollers
to the new foundation that had been
built tor it, and the more dangerous
work of raising and placing it was COM
menced. But an unexpected accident
occurred. Just as it was being got in
to place the ropes stretched by the
great weight upon them, and the pillar
hung motionless suspended in the air.
The ropes could not be shortened and
the work was liable to fail just as it was
being completed. Fortunately for
Fontana there was sailor in the
throng who knew something of ropes.
"Wet the ropesr' he yelled, and Fontana
and the obelisk were saved. The
ropes were wet, they shrunk to the
required length, and the work was
done. The obelisk was in its place to
stand there forever, which is to say as
long as anything earthly can stand.
From this wonderful colonnade in
closed and obelisk and fountain-studded
square, St. Peters is before you. At
first you are disappointed, for you OBJ
serve something wrong about it. 1t is
not the imposing structure that the
dome gave you an idea of. 1t looks
somehow dwarfed and Insignificant A
great mistake was made in building the
great facade so high, for from the point
of view it cuts off the proportions of the
dome, hiding its base and robbing it Of
half its glory.
The facade is 357 feet long and IA
feet high. Above is balustrade with
statues of Christ and the Apostles,
which from the piazza are life size on
ly, but when you get up to them you
find them eighteen feet in height.
The approach to the entrance is by
three flights of marble steps, after which
you enter the vestibule which is really a
grand structure in and of itself, being
46S feet long, &c feet high and so feet
wide, which is large enough for mag
nificent church, but it is only the en-
trance to the church itself.
You push aside heavy leathern
screen on which is the accumulated dirt
and grease of the thousands of filthy
hands that have pushed it aside. This
leathern barrier passed you are inside
the greatest religious structure in the
world. You are in wilderness of archi-
lecture that is bewildering not only be-
cause of its magniticence, but of its ex.
tent. You stand on a polished marble
pavement, 80 feet wide, 500 feet in
length and so feet high. On either
hand are massive Corinthian pillars
crowned with beautiful capitals, the
arch-ways leading into lofty side-chap-
els not less magnificent than the main
body of the church, all ornamented with
paintings, mosaics. statuary and every
form of artistic decoration.
Your breath taken away by the very
vastness of the interior. You see at
the farther end of the great hall people
moving about who are dwarfed by the
distance into pigmies. You 60 up to in.
spect the fluting of pillar and you find
it deep enough to hold statue. Every
thing is dwarfed by the enormous size
of everything else. Some idea of the
extent of st. Peters as compared with
other churches may be formed from
these figures: st. Peters is GLIB feet in
length, st. Paul's London, 500, the Ca
thedral at Milan 443.-D. r. Locke, in
Toledo Blade.