Morning journal and courier., 1888-06-12
AN ABLE ADDRESS.


 gregatfonaI Club on ssAnclent and
 Modern ROme"-The Annual Meeting
 and the Election offhe Club.
 There was large audience at the College street church last night. It was. the occa- sion of the annual meeting of the Congrega- tional club. The interesting feature was an Rev. Dr. TwitchelI of the Dwight Place church. As descriptive writer Dr. Twitch- ell is among the best. His description of ancient and modern Rome last night was an able effort, and anyone who did not hear it missed rare treat.
 "Rome, as you know, is the chief city of ancient Italy, indeed of the world, as seat of political power, and a center of religious influence. Her empire has embraced every civilized nation, her emperors being the &C., knowledged head of all authority. Some of the most tragic sc enes of human history have been enacted there, and some of the most mighty forces have proceeded thence to mould the character of the advancing ages. From Rome came jurisprudence with her courtly liberty, with the imposing trib- unes; law with her proud Caesars; religion
 WlL0 u0E EO1C4AA PA4CSLS3 oA0 AAAaAAAOAA4tJ with her sceptered popes. Rome is really the tomb of antiquity; the battlefield in which lie buried the gods of ancient mytho- logies and theelogies,
 ''I shall give you this evening bird's-eye view of the city as I saw it in the early winter of 1879.
 'sIt is twelve hours ride from Florence down to Rome. The night we crossed the Appenines was cloudless, with it's full round moon hung high, and stars that always shine like suns in that clear Italian sky.
 "Two weeks followed of the hardest con- ceivable work, in which from early morning till late at night. we climbed ruins, inspected temples, wandered through catacombs, gazed on wondrous works of art, until all the books we had ever read of Rome or Roman history seemed as nothing to the sights and sounds and surging thoughts awakened.
 HOn the top of Capitoline hill is an open square paved with stone. A long bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius stands in the cen ter; in one corner the Campanile or bell tower, circular column 50 feet high, surmounted with a figure of Nuna. Under this statue the great bell, which was rung to announce the approach of the carnival and herald the death of popes. Palaces of considerable size and beauty sur round this square, built in the seventeenth century, containing the senate chambers and the official departments. On one side is the famous Tarpean Rock, from which the condemned were hurled to death on spikes below.
 "You pass down this hill by steep car riage way, or by flight of 134 marble steps, and come on the ruins of the old Roman forum, an oblopg, open square, originally paved with the costliest marble and sur- rounded with porticoes, temples, shops, pub lie granaries and various offices, whose archi- lecture and ornamentation were wonderful. R,1rr- kf,a.~ ,1- -<oe clearing it began, and now the whole floor of the forum has been uncovered.
 Passing on from this forum to the south
 and east we come first on eight granite
 columns fifteen or twenty feet high. These
 are the remnants of the Temple of Saturn,
 originally built 800 years before Christ. Then
 we come on one lone arch thirty or forty feet
 high, and then on three columns of the
 Temple of Vespasian erected under Titus;
 then on the remnant of the Temple of Con-
 cordis, founded by Calnillus about 400
 years B. O., and raised to commemorate the close of the struggle between the patricians
 and plebeians. A little further on we come
 swung across the Via Sacra. This arch is of most elegant marble and has stood for twenty centuries, defaced of course, but with
 figures and inscriptions easily traced.
 "All along the Via Sacra are scattered columns from two or three to ten or twelve
 together, and these are the only traces of the former glory of that old Via Sacra.
 "On Palatine hill are three colossal arches, the remnant of the Temple of Constantine,
 the summit of which is the place from which
 to view the ruins of old Rome, indeed the
 whole city. Walking through many crooked
 streets and lanes we find in the rear of these
 arches dilapidated building used as a little
 girls asylum. We ring, are admitted, pass through dirty courts and dismal rooms into e neglected garden, climb stair after stair, pass through garden after garden, creep along crooked aisles or little castles and towers, and stand at last upon the summit, over the arch es, in the grass and among the weeds that have sprung up there. There we spend hours gazing on Rome-the ancient ruins, the mod ern houses and temples. What thoughts fill our minds and emotions move cur hearts as we seem to hear the tramp of a hundred gen erations, with the crimes and woes whicL crowd them and the hopes that lie buried al around us.
 ''Stirred by these memories and emotion. we make our way back. On our way dowI we come on numberless ruins, those especial ly attracting us being those of the imperia palaces, of which nothing is now left save crumbling walls of masonry.
 ''We come to the Flavian amphitheater usually called the Colosseum. This is tn. great ruin of the world. Its proportions ars amassing. Even now, hardly more than , \ third of them left, they seem the work of th great architect who reared the Alps anG built the wondrous cone of Vesuvius, rathe than the product of any human strength This colosseum is an open elliptical building with circumference of 800 feet and Q loni diameter of GUS feet and . short diameter O 560 feet. It consisted originally of four sto ries.
 "Eighty open arches, forming eighty en frances, surround the first story. Over thi first story there extends a cornice, and ove Al H. AL IL second story. Another cornice forms th base of the third story, which is also cut il arches; and thus on. Standing on the top O the third story, you are up nearly 100 feet Above you, hard upon a hundred feet more rises solid wall of masonry, pierced by fort, small windows.
 'tOn the inside of the walls seats rose tiel on tier to the top of the third story, or which S7,000 spectators could be seated some say hundred thousand. Under ths seats of the lower story all around were chambers, or dens, where the wild beastf were kept; also rooms where the gladiatori met befere the show began. These have you can pass all through them. Or one side of the Colosseum was what was call ed the "Gate of Life," through which tn. gladiators entered; on the other side, 9th, Gate of Death" ," through which the mangle6 corpses were dragged for burial. The arena was the open space assigned to combatants called arena from the sand with which it wal strewed to absorb the blood.
 't1magine now a roohees building of thu construction and height already indicated which would nearly cover Monumental ParE I in the center of our city, hard upon as higt as the stone church spire, and you have ths Roman Colosseum. It was the work ot Titus that cruel bloodthirsty monarch ot the East.
 ssThis colosseum was partially destroyed by lightning in the reign of the Emperor Macrinus in the third century, but was re stored by Alexander Severus about twenty years later. It was last used for gla1iatorial shows in the sixth century.
 "Another notable ruin of ancient Rome if the tomb of Hadrian, a massive and magni6 cent structure, surrounded with columns and statues and covered with the costliest mar
 ble. In design and finish it was unlike any thing ever built before or since.
 "A visit was also paid to the Catacombs,
 which are immense underground burial
 places of the early centuries. There are
 aisles, galleries, chambers, streets running
 ten, twenty, thirty feet beneath the surface
 of the ground, combing all the hills of Rome
 and much of the vast campagna out beyond
 the city walls. The united length of these
 galleries or streets has been estimated at 800 or
 900 miles, and it is believed that they con-
 tained interments to the number of {, ,00e, ,000 or 2, 1000, 900.
 ''Modern Rome is surrounded by brick
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