The Osceola times., 1886-05-01
room through the tunnel Of oe.en door.

| nv lliiON ltttlNtu us NtlN v.
He was short old man with shrewd
business face and very plainly dressed.
He conversed with us in three Ian
guages. He spoke TO Mrs. Whitney in
French, spoke Italian TO the Clergyman.
and soon found he had 10 come down to
plain, unadorned English if he wanted
any opinion from me. His English, he
| said with comical smile, was pain to
him, and although we assured him that
he spoke English very well, indeed, for
1t hardly does to tell Prince that there
is any thing that he can not do welk
yet he had evident difficulty in express.
ing himself in that language. He spoke
very enthusiastically about America
and about its being the great granary
OF the world. No country, he said,
could ever compete with it in agricul.
ture. He had done something, he add.
ed, for poor italy in that matter, but
he could never hope to see it rival
even the poorest of the Amori-
can States. One of the party spoke
TO him about coming to America, but he
shook his head and said that his day
for that had gone by-he was too
old. After this short talk we were
taken through the palace of the Prince
1t is palace that is not shown to the
general public. After going up a great
stairway of marble, we went through
room after room, until we had entirely
gone round the palace. The rooms
excelled in splend + any royal palace
/ have ever seen. Tho floors are made
of polished marble of different colors,
and form a series of brilliant mosaics
that, when looked at from distance,
seemed transparent, and which reflect
like mirror the objects above them.
The rooms, in the usual Roman fashion,
opened one into another, and we had in
an enlarged room long succession Of
open doors in line, similar to that down
stairs. At the end was splendid mar
bic work of heroic size, representing
Hercules, after putting on the fatal gar
ment of Nessus, hurling the unfortunate
Llchas who brought it into the sea. The
bent figure of Lichas was arched like
bow over the head of Hercules, who had
graSped him by the hair of the head
and the ankles. This work is by Canova.
Adjoining the walls of the palace
were hundreds of paintings by the old
masters, of priceless value. In large
central audience room on raised dais
was a large gilded chair, or rather q
throne, turned toward the wall. 1t was
protected by golden ropes round the
outside edge of the dais, so that nobody
could touch it. In that chair had set
Pope Plus lX., and the Prince had re-
solved that after that it was sacred and
that no other person should ever again
use it.
II was after our visit to the palace
that the reverend gentleman told me
the story of the American plow, as we
sat at supper one evening in his room
on the fourth story, whose thrsc win
dows looked out across the Tibor to the
Castle of st. Angelo, with the dome OF
st. Peters farther on and the purple
mountains far beyond dim in the golden
evening air. The next day met the
Prince near his palace, and strange to
say he recognized me. was interest
ed in his agricultural works, and asked
him il he would have any objections to
giving me some particulars about them
that | could lay before American and
English readers. He said he would be
glad to do so, and asked me to come
with him to the palace. Unfortunately
his lack of knowledge of English pre-
vented me from getting all the particu-
lars wanted, but promised to return
with the Rev Mr. Van Meter as trans
lator. But the return visit was never
made. learned from the Prince that
the great effort of his life was the drain
ing of Lake Funico, which was a work
that several of the Roman Emperors
had attempted to do but had always
failed. a subject, however, succeeded
in doing what even the Emperors could
not do, and for this enormous work
King Victor Emmanuel gave to the
Prince a gold medal which | had the
pleasure of seeing in its rich case. The
Prince had had struck off number of
fac SMILES of this medal in bronze,
and one of them he was so kind as to
give me in red morocco and purple
velvet case. with the arms of the house
of Torlonia on the lid. Desparing
Of being able to tell me the
cost of this great drainage achieve
ment. which had converted a useless
waste into prosperous farming coun-
try. he finally wrote it down on slip OF
paper which | have now before me.
Strange to say am now at a loss to
know what the cost of the work really
was, even after having documentary
evidence. Written on the slip is 30,
00O,000 pounds The sign for the
Italian Ira is the same when written as
THAI of the English pound, and whether
the sum written represents Sl74.OOO.O 600,
as il would if the writing is pounds, or
81 900, 900 as it would be if it is Ira, !
do not know The chances are that
the latter is the correct figure. The
Prince owned a large number of the
churches of Rome. which he held to
prevent their coniiscation by the Italian
Government, and for the sacred uses of
which | believe he charged no fec.
The Prince was n man of the greatest
liberaluy. In the Cathedral at Bolognc
can be seen a splendid high altar, pre-
sented TO an ancient church by the Far
mer-Trincc of Rome. Luke Sharp, IN
Detroit Free Press.
rtIr uOIISE