Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-02-17
THE ETERNAL CITY.
MODERN NOTIONS PROVIDING OUT
 THE OLD AND PICTURESQUE.

MODERN NOTIONS CROWDING OUT
 THE OLD AND PICTURESQUE.
 Growing Disrespect for tho Sabbath-.A
 Vast Change Taken Place-The Priest
 hood and the Military-Foreigners
 Tho Roman Cowboy-Maidens Fair.
 Rome is unquestionably the high school of art, but in it's everyday aspect it is a disap- DO -ntment. The city has lost its individu- ality. Government employees pave the streets on Sunday, and men saw wood in public on the same day. Everything is done left handed, literally or figurar.vely. Cab men run their vehicles at furious rate with stun py horse and whitening curses, always managing to keep to the left; the knobs of doors turn in that direction, and men who cut Limber for fire purposes put their left foot on one rim of wood saw with the blade in perpendicular position, and run the stick over the teeth.
 Business is ablast on Sundays Boys begin early ill the morning to scream their disinter- estedness ill the wealth of this world by an- nouncing the low prices they ask for big onions they carry with them on long string; greasy looking men, with fish on
 
 stock, while others, wi.h huge punches of eel cry balanced on their head, desecrate the festival with their noise and grimaces. The shopkeepers pull down their shutters and hang on the outside wall specimen articles. The butcher will in this way display sides of meat and the shoemaker ropes of boots. A tailor, tape measure in hand, is at his door ready to execute an order for a suit of clothes. The sight of thousands, prayer book in hand, en route to the churches, has no effect on those who violate the day. Once a rarity indeed, now to be seen frequently on Sundays, intoxicated men go along the streets staggering or singing aloud from hired carriages. Others, with their backs to walls, where sunshine will keep them aglow, lounge for hours, relieving the time by quaffs from their long necked bottles, held on a finger by loop of braided straw.
 MODERN NOTIONS.
 4 vast change toward modern notions has arrived. A street railway skirts the Coli scum, and omnibuses chase one another into the famous precincts of the city. The site of a grand palace, reared ill 1SS6, is now a beer garden, with the beverage at three cents a glass; and the walls of the building altered to suit the purposes of the bushes conducted therein. Public life has lost much of the traditional picturesquenesS and romantic. appearance. To be sure, the brown hooded long bearded Benedictine monks, the bare footed Capuchins witE their hair cut into topknot, the white robed priests of the Red Cross, the Christian brothers, in their black gowns and immaculate collars. clergy in knee brooches, black stockings and silver buckled shoes, and students in flowing robes and wide brimmed, low crowned felt hats, are met at every turn; but they are dwarfed in number and novelty by the uniforms of the military, for Rome is policed by 15,OOo troops, in all the glory of infantry, engineer rifiemen, cavalry, field artillery, grenadiel and gendarmes dress. They line the streets and fill the houses. To their uses, as we'll a: those of the civil authorities, the oldest O, buildings are being appropriated. Eligible locations for private or governmental uses are selected, without regard to the antiquity of the surroundings and structures of the living era erected. Here and there on street corners strapping young fellows in blue jackets, brooches of the same color, red vests and blue stockings, with their feet in huge hobnailed shoes or sandals, and swathed at the ankles, loiter ill the company of gray boards, in rags hidden beneath cloak that reaches to the ground who pose with artistic effect on an umbrella of blue stuff
 American and English are such numerous ! visitors that the influence of their customs, lieillilcl duu 10 CToNulHS the CyplCal resident out of existence They have now their doctors, their dentists, patent medicines and tailors, and one sees the announcement in all quarters that English is spoken. The peasant who comes to town with his team of | three horses, resplendent ill flaming trap | pings, plumes and tinkling bells, and driven tandem to his cart, has to pull to one side tc | allow stylish broughams, coupes and family carriages, with prancing animals and clean shaven coachmen and footmen with the asparagus bunch looking tuft on one side of their shining high hats, to pass.
 THE ROMAN COWBOY.
 In this day the Roman cowboy is looked upon curiously enough by even those who speak his own tongue when he comes to the city for the holidays. A veritable "bul. pusher" he is indeed, with his short stick and it's iron point in hand to goad the cattle The sombrero of his North American con temporary differs only in color from his blacL felt hat, while the accouterments of leather | leggings and spurs are alike.
 | Deserted, save with occasional exceptions, is the public square around whose massive | steps Neapolitan girls of rare beauty and bright hued dress were wont to congregate | to hire their charms for the artists guidance | ill his work. A few are still left, and a strik ing comparison they make with their sister. 1 in bonnets, sealskin sacques, velvet jackets and silk dresses. No bustle or padding serves I to fill out their highly colored dresses, nor bangs to set off the classic arrangement of their hair, parted in the center and falling in even proportions on each side of the head. | Tapering from shoulders to the hips, their | waists are symbols of healthful ease and good twenty-four inches ill circumference. No corsets mar the outlines of the graceful figures. Their swan-llke necks are bare al- most to the shoulder blade. Theirs are the ''eyes black as sloes and hair the color of the ravens wing" In one particular only do they resemble the Roman girls ill modern dress: they love high heels on their shapely low cut shoes, and oftentimes have them four inches in length. Women in Rome have a passion ill this direction, for thereby the foot l is arched, its size curtailed to tho eye and the instep gracefully turned.
 l The glory of Rome has we'll nigh departed; the tag end of its once every day self is alone determinedly preserved in its bad cigars and leathery bread made without yeast. The for mer burn as if composed of brown paper wrapper and pine shavlngs for filings. For | the latter, the sarcasm of Hawthorne that