The Portland daily press., 1886-08-04

our way IN ana out OF the cTOWuS IndI nanS
| about every doorway. On one height out
| side the city walls we noticed an imposing
! mausoleum citizen is building, in an at
tempt to immortalize his family name, which
| might have competed in elegance, with the
| tombs on the Appian Way. little farther
| on, as we descended, we met eight yoke of
| milk white oxen drawing one block of stone
| from the quarry to be laid in the wall of this
monument.
We literally tore ourselves away from Ma
pies, and to offset our yielding day after day
to its SPELL we made desperate effort to
start one morning just as the city was wax
ing, and it fully paid us for the loss of our
morning. nap to mingle with the early risers
and see them wind up the machinery Of
great city. They were making their toilettes
or rugged in long blue pinafores were sweep
ing their shops, getting their breakfasts, or
going to market We met long rows of
country people, bearing baskets of vegeta-
bles on their heads, or driving donkey carts
full of wine which they peddle from door to
door, calling ''yino, vino, buono vino," as if
it were as much necessity of life as milk is
in New England town. We cannot
commend the honesty Of the Italians
in most of their dealings, and perhaps
the demand for the genuine article
among milk merchants has devised the pres
ent novel method of carrying on this BUSH
ness.
The peasants lead the cow and calf right
to the customers door, where the mess is
MIXED into pints or mugs One might sup
pose this was done for the sake of giving
Bossy supper once in while, but not
bit Of it, the italian peasant loves money too
well to coddle baby COW in this way. Both
COW and calf breakfast ON a stir-about of
bran by five in the morning, and Bossy
trudges many mile tied to old Molly's
horns. As the mother feels her rubbing her
side, it keeps her heart warm, and the good
COW gives down her milk better This prac-
tice is sometimes kept up until calves are a
year old.
We expect to meet with unnumbered forms
of extortion in travelling in all parts of the
world but the most deplorable feature in
the italian character is their ingrained dis
honesty. Of course the lower in the social
scale you descend the deeper is the dye of
this SIM 1t is absolutely unsafe to buy a
ticket at railroad office without first con-
sulting the printed rates and afterwards
counting your change. Many tourists have
testified that the officials will invariably hold
back one or two Tires if they see the slight
est hesitation on the part Of traveller in
reckoning foreign coins. Another favorite
trick is to shove on to strangers theiold coins.
After the tradesmen had refused two or
three times to allow more than sixteen cents
for q Franc VIC haOao 70 10ol at them chv1V,
but did not see through the game until a
resident warned us to be wary of taking a
franc with the Pope's head on it. When the
present government came into power these
were put at discount to replace them with
its own new coin. 1t will be far off day
before they will be called into the treasury,
while the sharpers can pass them to innocent
foreigners for twenty cents, and receive
them for sixteen. If you chance to find one
in your purse you will follow gospel teach
ings to render unto Caesar the things that
be Cesar's if you save it for fee to the
janitor of the next cathedral.
ROME.
As we rolled out of Naples and crossed its
luxuriant fields, we felt that the husband
men must be on the alert to keep pace with
the active forces of nature in this climate
1t is emphatically farm well titled to gar
ner four or five crops each year. The will
lows and poplars around each patch of
ground are trimmed to the very trunks for
firewood and withes with which to bind the
vines.
From stump to stump the branches of the
grape are stretched and interlaced while be-
meath, the soil bears often three successive
harvests of vegetables. Approaching Rome
we found the sun had been there before us,
bursting the buds and sprinkling tile CAM
pagna with daisies and anemones. Even
gayeT icsuTTr rTTuf wTTcTr-
from the sight of their cold gray stones.
The sound of cannons and the martial
| beat Of the drum walked us the next morning,
| Sunday, and quickly throwing open the sash
| to learn the cause of all this clatter, we saw
| flags waving and banners flying, Indeed
the whole city was sastir with demonstra-
tions of great hilarity 1t was the Kings
birthday, snd the walters and maids were
all eager to attend to our wants and be off to
see what they could from the housetops
On our way to church we crossed the square
where King Humbert was reviewing ten
thousand troops. 1t was regal display, as
he sat in the midst of his aides, who were
mounted upon gaily caparisoned horses
He looked majestic with his gorgeous insig-
mia, and tall white plume waving from his
helmet. Many of the troops wore old Ro-
man helmets with horsehair crests and gay
trappings, which added much to the dignity
of their physical proportions, for the italian
soldiers are generally far inferior in personal
appearance to those of the German army.
If we were to undertake to tell all about
Rene we would not know where to begin,
and when begun we should never stop. We
will only speak of few excursions, and
little scraps of interest, which seem to float
to the surface of our recollections while
writing.
We did not attempt any new ways, but
were content to fall into the footsteps of the
pilgrims Of two thousand years, and climb
the Capitoline Hill and throw crumb on
the way to the imperial wolves, which did
not look as happy pacing their artificial dens,
as their fierce, yet metherly, ancestress Lupa
probably did the day she sucked the twins
on Theirs banks, We stood before Marcus
Aurelius on horseback, and questioned if
4ulCulcl AuBSlO oCCu tlC SCOlCo VI UlOuLc
horses made since his day that we had,
whether he would be so impressed by the
life breathing through hard metal as to cry
out. every time he passed it "Cammina-get
up" We spent hours in the museums on
either hand, and scaled nearly three hun
dred stairs to the top of the Tabularum to
look down the Tarpeian Rock and out upon
the Seven Hills, where we saw mapped out
before us, if we did the thing, many weeks
of hard work and many miles of climbing in
the hot sun. Our mornings were occupied
in the churches and historic places, and our
afternoons delightfully."- spent in driving upon
the campagna, which never tired in its
strange fascination for us. The loneliness
and forsaken aspect of these fertile plains,
once parade ground of gayety and pomp,
impressed US more and more each new way
we approached them. The curse of the
Caesars has blighted them with malarious
miasmas, which the light from the Sun of
Righteousness alone has power to dispel.
M. G. P. B