The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1886-04-24

A great arched entrance led from the
square into a spacious stone-paved court
with the usual fountain, and the win
dows of the four sides of the palace look
ing down on it, Our party consisted Of
Mr.. and Mrs. John r. Whitney, of Phil
adelphia, and Broin Mawr, with the
Rev. Mr.. Van Meter and myself. Pass
ing into a large archway we turned
through a door to the left into the center
Office of the Prince. 1t was full of
clerks and had very much the appear
ance of an office of wholesale house in
London. Passing through this we came
to another Office of a similar size in
which more clerks were engaged, and
then into a third Office in which the
Prince sat at a plain, tiat-topped desk
with drawers down the sides, at his right
hand and his left. Opposite him sat his
private secretary. Farther on appeared
several rooms more luXuriously furn-
ished, and at the end, seen through the
vista of doors from the first entrance
into this palace of bustling business was
the statue of a nymph in pure white
marble which had a curious moonlit eff
feet as seen at the end of semi-obscure
room through the tunnel of dozen door
ways all in line.
The Prince received us very cordially.
He was a short old man with a 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 to come down to
plain, unadorned English if he wanted
any opinion from me- His English, he
said with a comcal smile, was a pain to
him, and although we assured him that
he spoke English very we'll indeed, for
it hardly does to tell Prince that there
is any thing that he can not do well,
vet 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 Ameri-
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 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. The floors are made
of polished marble of different colors,
and form 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
BILE work of heroic size, representing
Hercules, after putting on the fatal gar
ment of Nessus, hurting the unfortunate
. Lichas who brought it into the sea. The
bent figure of Lichas was arched like {
{ bow over the head of Hercules, who haC
, grasped him by the hair of the heaC
and the ankles. This work is by Canova
Adjoining the walls of the palace
were hundreds of paintings by the ole
masters, of priceless value. In larg
central audience room on raised dai
was a large gilded chair, or rather
throne, turned toward the wall 1t wa
r protected by golden ropes round tn
, outside edge of the dais, so that nobod,
could touch it. In that chair had Sc
Pope Plus X, and the Prince had re
/ solved that after that it was sacred an,
t that no other person should ever agar
, use it.
Q 1t was after our visit to the palac
9 that the reverend gentleman told m
l the story of the American pillow, as W
S sat at supper one evening in his roor
G on the fourth story, whose three wir
= dows looked out across the Tiber to tn
: Castle of St: Angelo with the dome {
o ST. Peters farther on and the purpl
= mountains far beyond dim in the golde
e evening air. The next day met tn
e Prince near his palace, and strange
i say he recognized me. was interes
: ed in his agricultural works, and aske
e him if he would have any objections
l. giving me some particulars about thel
Q that l could lay before American an
n English readers. He said he would b
is glad to do so, and asked me to con
:. with him to the palace. Unfortunate
: his lack of knowledge of English pr
e vented me from getting all the partict
l. lars l wanted, but promised to retul
1t with the Rev. Mr.. Van Meter as tran
/ lator. But the return visit was new,
: made. l learned from the Prince thu
e the great effort of his life was the drai
d ing of Lake Funico, which was wOl
l. that several of the Roman Empero
is had attempted to do but had alwa
1t failed. A subject, however, succeedt
l. in doing what even the Emperors cou
il not do, and for this enormous VOL
is King Victor Emmanuel gave to Il
1t Prince a gold medal which l had 4
d pleasure of seeing in its rich case. II
sr Prince had had struck off number
~, E. of tb;s Y,,aIol in brOng