The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-07-14
OUR FOREIGN LETTER.
Especial correspondence Of the PREss.l

a DA1 WITH Ols AOi- ~ l SAi@NA<i3 <A-NO a
TRAMP WITH ENEAs.
On coming back to Naples, we concluded
t was folly to have friends, unless they
could serve us a good turn in our need, so
we presented our letter Of introduction to
resident of the city, and sought counsel how
to best improve our time in visiting the
places whose names are familiar as the
scenes of classic poetry, or memorable in the
incidents of Paul's journey. Much to our
delight the gentleman proved to be chance
acquaintance of early life, and mutual
friend to many with whom we were closely
allied in the days of auld lang syne. This
was stroke of good luck, as our friend had
made a careful study of all the localities men
toned in Virgil and Homer, and entered
with the warmest enthusiasm into our plans.
However rude and forgetful of the ameni-
ties of life American tourists may be, (the
truth of which we hold with great allow
ance,) the American residents abroad are al
ways courteous and cordial, as our highest
ideal of Christian fellowship could desire
them. We believe if the number of our own
people who travel be taken into the calcula-
ton, we should find as small an average of
Goths and Vandals as any other nation
sends forth. We do not enjoy the tell-taling
of the misdemeanors and lack of culture,
which some of our people indulge in, of their
own countrymen. There is an old proverb
of the dirty bird, that may be applicable to
such as are slow to cast veil of charity on
the members of their own household 1t is
very natural that the people of the older civ
ilizations, who esteem culture and dignity as
the blossom and fruit of the century plant,
should close their eyes to the possibility
of the growth of the graces in the New
World, and ever be ready to snatch up and
denominate the scattered cases of American
barbaism as the natural bloom of the bramble
bush and hogweed in wild soil. We have
often travelled incog, being taken for Swedes,
Irish, French and English, as well as Amer
leans, not that we care to hide our birth
marks or furl our banner. We fancy we
can look out upon the world with unpreju
diced eyes, and we are free to say we are
proud of our brothers and sisters en- masse,
wherever we have seen them. If others give
us the palm, why not accept it with humili-
ty. Only yesterday, as we were gazing at
the wondrous beauty Of the Cappucini mon
astery, a gentleman crossed the room and
claimed acquaintance, saying, Il have seen
you in Melbourne; my companions took you
for French but when heard you speak Eng
fish, felt that l could not be mistaken"
sob! no" says our Neapolitan friend, 1--WE
are all Americans" WELL" says this warm
hearted Australian, thrusting his hand into
his pocket, ''now must give you my card,
and shake hands all around, for America
stands first In the world, Australia next, or
will soon, and England third
But in clasping hands with Australia, we
have wandered a long way from Paul, and
the pious Eneas. Our friend took us to Poz-
zuoli, or the ancient Puteoli dilapidated
little village, resting upon the beach of
most enchanting bay, whose waters are just
as blue, and whose skies just as soft as
when Paul wrote, "And from thence we
fetched compass and came to Rhegium.
and after one day the south wind blew, and
the next day we came to Puteoli." The splin-
tered rocks of the old breakwater, around
which the Castor and Pollux must have cut
her way in making the landing, are peeping
above the tide. and still striving to keep the
surging pillows from the harbor. Before we
ransack the fallen temples, or study the ge-
illogical changes that have had their turn in
this neighborhood let us stand ON the pier,
and take hurried glance at the town as it
appeared to our Christian hero, when he
leaped off the ship with brave heart, ready
to face greater perils, if need be, than the
dangers of a treacherous sea. There was the
same budding and pushing as is seen today
on the busy wharves of an eastern city,
when ship from distant ports makes the
harbor. Doubtless the soldiers, who had felt
the power of Paul's life on the voyage, did
not keep him in shackleS like the other pris-
oners, but permitted him to make his own
way among the braying donkeys and bawl-
ing men and women. AS he drew near to
Rome, which he had longed to see, he must
have looked with great interest upon this
suburban daughter of the Imperial city. AS
he passed the warehouses and commercial
marts on the beach, he would see thrift and
elegance spread out on either hand, as one
ancient writer has described it, ''a continu-
GUS city from Cumae on the north to Sorren-
to on the south, distance of thirty miles
His eye would rest first upon the Fo-
rum, behind which doomed up the magnif-
cent temple of Jupiter Scraps, six of whose
massive Egyptian columns still stand in sta,
though buried some feet in the sand. Be
tween these columns he could catch glimpse
of the statue of Jupiter, the protecting god
of the place, standing in the open celia. Near
by were the temples of Neptune and Venus,
covered with marbles and adorned with
statues, and around these as centre, clus-
tered the homes of the citizens. On the edge
81 IL l, sc
nifcent ediices, containing thermal baths,
whose waters we're heated by volcanic fires
in the hazy mountains of the distance. To-
day, in the ruins of these baths, are bathing
arrangements, where the water flows at
blood heat. Higher still on the cliffs, on one
side, were sprinkled the countless villas of
the blue bloods of Rome, who have left no
deeds ON record, bequeathing their lots to
their heirs and assigns forever, to tell US the
names of the former owners. Historians tell
us that here Cicero built superb villa,
which he called his Academica, and in which
he wrote De Fdto, and that at one time Ne
70 and Agrippina lived in fabulous luxury in
their homes at Puteoli. On the southern
slope lowered the walls of vast amphithea-
tire, whose ruins measure an arena larger
than that of the Coliseum, and whose au
dience space accommodated upwards of six
ty thousand spectators.
The lower stories of these villas, as is done
to-day, were cut into the tufa rock, which is
so soft!that it is chopped with Ratchet, like
blocks of wood, but which becomes as hard
as adamant on long exposure to the air. The
very material thrown out was used as stone
to pile up other stories, and the dust mixed
into cement to bind together the whole
Often they mounted to eight or ten tiers of
rooms, receding into the cliff, and were COW
cred with marbles and highly emberished
Behind this beautiful city the terraced gar
dens and vineyards climbed ON one side to
the Apprentices, or sloped gently away to
the fertile plain, where the voluptuous Pom
peians rolled in luxury, and over whose
heads Vesuvius held her warning torch at
night, or waved her silvery plume by day.
A spot lovelier by nature or more adorned by
art-except Rome itself-could not be found
in the civilized world than was spread before
Paul as he walked into the town of Puteoi
and received the hearty welcome Of his
Christian brethren. To-day not one stone is
left upon another, and the despoiling hands