The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-01-28
ROME.
A SKETCH OF IT'S PRESENT BEAU
TIES AND GRAND EN- NIRONS-
THE CATACOMBS.
ROME, December .

in Rome in preference to any other place
in the peninsula. Around every foot If
the grand old city clusters classical his
tory even the butter dealers stamp the
oily product with representation of the
infant founders of Roma drawing nutri
ment from Mother Lupa's breast. Turn
where one may evidences of antiquity pre-
sent themselves on every side. Every eX-
cavation for modern building purposes
lays bare hidden wonders of the bygone
age How grand is Rome-grand not
alone because of what it has been,
but for its modern beauties. Not
only is it adorned with the memen-
toes of triumphal age, but
it is to-day one of the most beautiful
of European capitals. Monumental taste
and grandeur confronts one upon the
streets and upon the plazas, upon the
house-tops and in thousands of courts.
At almost every turn fountains play. and
the gurgling waters creep out from amid
groups of statuary and from beneath
terraces and towers. Here is city, not
a remnant alone of that one which was
built upon seven hills, but one of refined
tastes and elegancles with a people sur
passing almost all others in education and
profound learning. Here is the head and
centre of the greatest Christian faiths
welding a power inferior to none on
earth. Here, too, has lately been centered
the power of kingdom which gives prom
iae to shape for Italy a destiny among
modern nations not belittling its grand
traditions. The present advancement of
Italy and its capital marks distinctive
as well as preservative era in its rela-
ton to things ancient While
ancients buildings are thIown
down to give place to new structures there
is a fostering care of all that can be pre-
served, and the monumental age of Rome
is being zealously preserved in Rome.
This afternoon we took a long drive out
of the city along the via Appia and the
via Sacra passed out from among the
homes of the living to those of the
ancient dead, and away beyond the field
of Mars, where victorious generals awaited
the decree of the Roman senate before
entering the city in triumph. The via
! Appia and the via Sacra were lined with
magnificent tombs, and many of them
still remain. Among these is the colossal
tomb of Cacelia Mitella, erected as a
token of devotion by her husband, the
emperor. 1t is in the shape of great
fortress, and not in a bad state of ruin
for the great length of time it has stood.
Not far away are the tombs of Seneca and
of the Horatii. At a little distance
from the via is seen the tomb
of Romulus. 1t is away out upon this
road that one is permitted to take III
grand view of the enyirons of Rome. The
Campagna is source OF unfailing de-
light. Roads that have stood the wear
and tear of twenty centuries intersect it
in various directions. Here and there and
somewhere are colossal mines, and away
off towards the mountains, often stretches
for hundreds of yards unbroken, are the
huge ruins of acqueducts that once con-
veyed to Rome and adjoining cities boun-
tiful supplies of pure water. In the dis
lance are the Sabins mountains, and in
the intersecting Campagna are Ostio and
Tusculum and Veil and Gabili, and there
are still evidences of Fidenae and Callstia
Crustumerium and Antemual. AS 1 re.
marked when locking out upon the undu'
lating region towards the noun
tains, here was the beginning as
well as the end of Latium; here the
first tribes were reduced and here the de-
caying empire finally gave way to Vanal
Hexes. But 1 was telling you of these
homes of the dead-so long dead that the
hundred of thousands buried there have be-
come but component part of mother
earth. We descended deep down into the
cities of the dead-the catacombs-fo
lowed the excavated passages for long
distances and amid the moist inches.
which l examined closely. saw but the
slightest evidences of human remains.
Here and there bare piece of bone,
which when handled, crumbled into the
lightest powder. The catacombs OF st.
Calixtus and Sebastian underlle great
deal of surface ground. You descend IN
to them down long flights of marble
tairs, and then follow passage after
passage, the walls of which
ON either side are honeycombed
with opened sepulchres. Of course there
is decay in the ornamentation that cover
ed the faces of these walls. In many
places they were lined with marbles and
adorned with statuary; in others with &C.
ment, upon which are still visible the
tracings in colors of the old time artists
Despoilers have been through them and
robbed these sepulchral artists of every
thing WOruu uTcdSurlnP. marbles are gone
and if curiosities or treasure were there
they are gone to. here is nothing but
earth and broken Marbles and brick
where in time innumerable bodies were
laid away. One passes through these vast
1 chambers of human decay without seeing
anything to elicit an "Alas, poor Yorick,
forgetful of death in crazy desire to find
the slightest semblance of it. The earth
that has been removed in excavating
the passages of the catacombs has
been removed to the vegetable gardens,
above them, and modern Romans are
feasting off the ancient Romans. In a
garden above the catacombs l observed a
plowman, with his pair of oxen, turning
over the rich earch with an implement
very much like the pillow Cincinnatus aban-
doned to take charge of the state, and it
was drawn by pair of beautiful blue
oxen, the very picture of those represent
ed in neurological days, as being led to the
altar for the satisfaction of the gods.
These richly growing fields show that