, 1885-06-06
cRAwllNe up lee srAIRwAy.


IA1uAt Aul- AlHflNuAA EuNhNftlsI
Counting churches and chapels together
Rome has not far from $40 Of these
edifices. A person Of sufficient industry
and willingness could go to church
every day in the year and not visit the
same ono a second time.
''St. Peters Is a marble graveyard
rather than a church. Deep set in its
solid walls, like human mosaics, are the
bodies Of popes long gono from life.
Beneath in the Crypt are others. Ny
guide, a wondrously active man Of 50,
born and raised in Homeland no
looked like an intelligent man-made a
statement that Is worth repeating. IL
was that "one-half Of the bodies OF st.
1 eter and It. Paul are buried here, the
other halves in st. Panl's, outside the
walls and their skulls are in the
crypt Of II. John Lateran, where
popes arc consecrafed. 1 believe it.
.othing IS incredible in Rome, whose
excavations discover inscriptions that
tell stories ?. 500 years old. The guido
had two Of rs In tow, the other being a
fellow-tourist from Buffalo. Together
we made the ascent OF the dome. En-
tering a door on the ground floor near
one Of the affairs, we began an intermin-
able climb, and at last reached the roof,
where we took a powerful rest. We
were not fairly started yet, for the dome
and its cylindrical base were still ahead
Of us. Nesting as If on the top Of q
headless barrel, the dome springs up
ward and inward over dizzy space until
its approaching edges form a ring about
fifty feet across. Up again into air YER
tically goes the structure and it is called
the lantern. This, thank Heaven,
has u fiat roof and some chairs. \
spiral stairway then leads on up into a
dark place where Is an upright ladder,
and ascending this Tor twenty feet the
tired climber fnds himself in the gilded
copper ball, where there is room for a
dozen persons to sit around on the
slant. Above this again is the cross,
towering still further ~heavenward.
IL was very hot in that metal ball,
and a guido told us that a beefsteak put
in there in July or August would be
done in ten minutes. This was the
only story during the day hat we did
not make him take oath to. Laying
against the slippery sides, and looking
through n of the narrow openings and
seeing the frightful height to which we
had come, made mo feel sick at the
stomach. There was seemingly nothing
underneath, and as the wind came rush
ing IN, the thought occurred, what il
the ball weakened with age and over
weighted should leave its pinnacle,
and 60 down in giant bounds,
each larger than the last.
to the street, 500 feet below. IL caused
the blood to run cold, and cautiously,
for fear of starting the thing, we
reached for the ladder, and in the little
room below sat down to give our knees
n chance. IL was a sensation even
worse than going around the narrow
balcony which ornaments the inside of
the dome, and of which we started to
make the circuit.
To the right wa n thin iron railing
on the bare edge of the gulf of an enor-
nous abyss. To the left rose the solid
wall, slowly aurving over our heads to a
height that made one feel faint 10 look
upon and grasp in vain at the smooth
sides of the wall for a hold. A third of
the distance accomplished, we gingerly
looked over the railing down into the
depths. Men and women were seen
moving about, but they were no longer
men or women. They were tiny
II arionottes, worked by ingeni9usly con
cealed machinery, or else insects having
the shape Of humanity. The awful
dimensions OF the opening into which
we were looking anne upon us stimuli
~taneously. We abandoned the rest of
the trip, and, l think, crawlcd back.