The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1883-06-14
FIRST IMPRESSION OF ROME.
The Curious Contrasts Presented by
the Eternal City.

The first great surprise on reaching
Rome is finding the city ugly. There ie
scarcely an externally beautiful building
TO be seen in traversing Rome from any
one of it's many gates to any other. Even
the beautiful sky and warm delicious
air cannot make beauty appear in mar
row streets closely crowded with irrega-
lar 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 appear
ance of the city, the ruins of the ancient
buildings OF the Empire are scattered
about among modern surroundings not
at all as if these had grown up more re-
Gently 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 diff
cult to accustom 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 lndi-
gestion on fnding that the traces of the
other. The historical interval of 75)
wears vanishes, and the traces seem
equally old.
This is no sooner done and one begins
to feel composed than the Basilica OF
of Constantine comes in sight, and an
other mental Jump must be made and
historic interval of 300 years disposed
of: and all the time the Basilica of Con-
stantine looks as the old palace of Cesar
or the hill Of ROmNlus. After some days
prowling among the Roman relics this
sort of mental exercise grows easier,
and the imagination begins to be occu-
pied with the eccle siastical features OF
Rome. But these have an absurd trick
of seeming more old-fashioned than the
ruins or than Rome itself, ] saw q fat,
comfortable priest driving around the
coliseumtlate one sunny afternoon, and
he seemed to belong to an order Of hui
man affairs far older than the ruin. An
other priest, thoroughly spiritual look
ing. who was peacefully studying his red
guide-book in the vatican; seemed
hardly more to belong to the stirriug
world Of to-day than the Greek marble
he had turned his back to in his en-
thusiasm to know what Baedeker said Of
it.
The wealth of beauty stored within these
walls is in overwhelming contrast with
the lack of external grandeur and SYM
metry, and, after few days of Teasing
upon this interior richness, the un0btru-
sive ugliness of the onter city comes to
have certain restful quality. This is
the more agreeable because the uglinesg
is picturesque and the air and sunshine
are expuisitely soft and reposeful:
While Rome is far from seeing . city of
1900 years growth, it is not only singly
modern, and but for the tourists, was
warm every where 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 =
short walk, to the right or the left,
leaves the modern streets far away and
plunges the prowling tourist far back in
the past.
One curious little feature of the Ro-
man streets is always striking the imag-
ination fresh. This is the sudden aP-
pearancs in some uninteresting wall ola
scrap of ancient sculpture, q corner.post
or small relief, lions head or the
Roman wolf, built in and left, as mat
ter of course. This adds to the screppy
effect of the present Rome, and falls in
in the midnight drive from the railroad
station to the hotel the sign Telegraph
Office of the baths of Dioeletian." The
same slight shock, in less degree, comes
from finding the design of Romu1us and
the wolf used as letter-stamp.
Tho RillicnlOnslv Solemn Mari.