The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1883-04-19
TIE ETERNAL CITY.
Rome's Exterior Ugliness and Interior
LoVeliness---HOly Week.
Special correspondence National Tribune.

beauty appear in narrow streets closely crowded
with irregular buildings of brownish-yellow
stone. Not only are the streets narrow; they
are crooked beyond description, wanting in
sidewalks and crowded with rushing vehicles
To add to the bizarre appearance of the city,
the ruins of the ancient buildings of the En-
pire are scattered about among modern sur
r0undings not at all as if these had grown up
more recently, but as if the ruins had dropped
crashing from the sky, breaking in their fall
and jostling the plan of the city out of all
symmetry Then, too, it is difficult to accus-
tom the imagination to so many sorts and
degrees of antiquity. For instance, the jump
from the walls of Romulus to the Palace of
julius Caesar is tremendous, and one has
mental indigestion on finding that the traces
of the two are within a stones throw of each
other. The historic interval of seven hundred
aud fifty years vanishes, and the traces seem
equally old. This is no sooner done and one
begins to feel composed than the Basilica of
Constantine comes IN sight, and another mem
tai jump must be made and historic interval
of three hundred years disposed of; and all the
time the Basilica of Constantine looks as old as
the Palace of Caesar or the hill of Romulus.
After some days pr0wling among the Roman
relics this sort of mental exercise grows easier,
and the imagination begins to be occupied with
the ecclesiastical features of Rome. But these
have an absurd trick of seeming more old
fashioned than the ruins or than Rome itself.
/ saw a fat, comfortable priest driving around
the Coliseum late one sunny afternoon and he
seemed to belong to an order of human affairs
far older than the ruin. And another priest,
thoroughly spiritual looking, who was peace
fully studying his red guide-book in the Nati-
can, seemed hardly more to belong to the stir
ring world of to-day than the Greek marble he
had turned his back to in his enthusiasm TO
know what Baedeker said of it. From the
BasiTfca of Constantine, which carries the be-
holder back to the fourth century and arouses
a faint wish to see Constantinople, there seems
to be long break in the monumental history
of Rome; and from the first Christian Emperor
to the art-loying Popes who gave to Raphael
and Michael Angelo the opportunity of the Yati-
can, Rome seems to have lived without building
And it is as hard TO keep st. Peters and the
Vatican back in the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries as it is to keep Romulus on his hill
seven hundred and fifty years before Christ.
THE ORDER OF SIGHTSEEING.
To add to this confusion of mind, there is
the impossibiIity of visiting the remains of
different epochs in any order. On rainy
morning you must go to a gallery of paint
ing or sculpture, lest it should be closed on
other days, or because sunny weather must
be saved for excursions. In the afternoon
a ruined bath of some ancient emperor, or a
modern villa crowded with Greek statues and
wearied by morning of eager looking at high
hung paintings And SO Rome comes to present
itself as a wonderful mosaic of some incompre-
hensible pattern, in which every little frag
ment is individually beautiful and satisfying.
The wealth of beauty stored within walls is IN
overwhelming contrast with the lack of ex-
ternal grandeur and symmetry, and, after a
few days of feasting upon this interior richness,
the unobtrusive ugliness OF the outer city comes
to have certain restful quality. This is the
more agreeable because the ugiineSS is pictur-
esque aud the air and sunshine are exquisitely
soft and reposeful. While Rome is far from
seeming a city of three thousand years growth,
it is not iarringly modern, and but for the
tourists, who swarm everywhere in Holy Week,
in travelling coats and panoply of guide-book
and umbrella, it would be hard to tell in what
epoch of the worlds history this year might be.
Certain streets, the Corso especially, are modern
also, and have charming modern shops; but a
short walk to the right or the left, leaves the
modern streets far away and plunges the proSi-
ing tourist lar back III the past One curious
little feature of the Roman streets is always
striking the imagination afresn This is the
sudden appearance in some uninteresting wall
of scrap of ancient sculpture, a corner post or
small relief, lions head or the Roman wolf,
built in and left, as a matter of course. This
adds to the scrappy effect of the present Rome,
and falls in with ones impressions received on
seeing in the midnight drive from the railroad
station to the hotel the sign Telegraph Office
of the Baths Of Diocletian." The same slight
shock, in a less degree, comes from finding the
design Of Romulus and the wolf used as let
ter-stamp.
yEsPERs AT ST. PETERS.
During Holy Week the usual wealth of inter-
est is increased by the sacred music which
forms large part of the church ceremonies.
Nv, InIx iY1cfa Of fba
galleries are closed and all Rome goes to vespers
at st. John Lateran's or st. Peters. The inn
preston of the service at st. Peters is one to
last lifetime. Driving from the Strangers
Quarter towards six o'clock, you meet throngs
of Italians, in every costume, erowding through
alley-like streets from the cathedral, clinging
close to the house walls to escape q stream of
carriages pouring towards the cathedral. Here
are priests, soldiers, mileTs in white close
clinging suits, peasant women in many-eolored
petticoats, models in ingeniously picturesque
rags, Popes guardsInen III shiny hats burdened
with cock feathers, and weary tourists return
ing home too tired TO wait for the finest part of
the service. There seems no end to the crowd
of foot passengers; they stream over the bridge
under the castle of st. Angelo, and are still
croWding out of the great doors as you drive
near the fountain and around the obelisk and
stop at the foot of the broad stone stairs. You
are almost persuaded that the service has been
shortened, and console yourself for the loss
of the music by thinking that the cathedral
is always fine, and that on this night
of all the year it must be most beautiful; for,
all night long, candles viii burn in front of
every shrine and prayers will be said until
dawn. But when you enter, here is all Rome
still, and the crowds you met on the way you
scarcely miss. The Tenehre service has been
sung, and the pyramid of candles extinguished
one by one, and the lofty arches of the cathe-
dral are dim and vague in the pale light of a
single candle before every altar. The crowd is
almost wholly italian. Holy Thursday, unlike
Easter Sunday, is given over to worshipers at
st. Peters, and the mass of human beings
crowd compactly about the choir-chapel, rever-
ent to the extent of standing quiet, but not
too absorbed to talk together from time to time.
The great arches grow more and more dusky,
and the wailing music more appealing, until
there is almost an overstrain on the feelings of
listeners hearing the service for the first time
and it is a sudden, great relief when the Mis-
erere ends and the crowd relaxes, pouring in
stantly out of the choir-ehapel and gathering
about the dignitaries in front of the high altar.
THE PoPE's ABSENCE KEENLY FELT.
Since 1870 the Pope has declined to celebrate
mass publicly, and his place this year is occu-
pied by Cardinal Howard. In the absence Of
the Pope the ceremonies are much abbreviated
and the high altar is not used. The musical
service is performed in the choir-chapel; the
Tenebr;e are chanted at a side altar; and the
sepuchre is prepared in front of the high altar,
but in curious editice supported by bronze