Wichita eagle., 1888-10-26
IN THE ETERNAL CITY.
A Disappointed Tourist In ROme-Ths Ro
man and tho Greek.

a Disappointed Tourist In tsOne-1uo NO.
man and tho Greek.
It was not unlike shock Of pain or disap-
pointment when for the drst time threaded
my way through the Roman streets, passed
out into the Forum and wandered around the
Coliseum. So dingy and dsnuded did the
relics of old Rome appear TO me that they
were more like the few brown bones which
the spade Of the sexton has Just thrown up
by the sideo reopened grave / have never
seen place where the remains were so few
and the suggestions Of what was lost were so
many. Rome looked Like q place which first
had been q cradle and afterwards had been
turned into grava
1t seemed as If everything bad been born
there, everything had grown old there, every
thing had died there, and everything had
been buried there. home IL the city OF the
Holy Sepnlchre. At Jerusalem pilgrims
visit the spot where Christ was once laid AT
Rome we seem to visit the shrine where old
Time himself had been buried. Under this
bead may briefly note down . few first i'm
pressions.
1t was said that Augustus found Rome OF
brick and left e Of marble. 1t might be
added that the Cloths, the popes and the
mobiles found Rome of marble and left It Of
brick. SO completely have these despotling
powers peeled off tho beautiful white hesh
and left Rome like body, brown, shapeless
and Invested Of every trace ID her former
lovelinesS But the Romans themselves pre-
pared the way for this desolation- Their par
simony brought its own punishment. For
parsimony, we must remember, Is a sin fol-
lowed up by its special retribution, quite as
Tho of kOna--
hard, practical and atihtarian-were as Pc
nurious In all works of art as they were
shamenIlly extrayagant IN all pursuits
of physical enjoyment. Even in the use
Of the cheap traveYtine stone they were
ridiculously stingy. But when it came
to marble they were by necessity as
we'll as by nature most economical IN the use
Of it. Athens had whole mount Of marble
at her back door, and could hew out OF
Pentelius all the shrines and statues she
wanted Rome bad almost the same advan-
cages; for it can hardly be urged as an apoi-
ogy for the city on the Tber, that she was at
a distance from the mountains of Luna ana
the great quarries Of Carrara, when we re-
member that an easy waterway was ever
open between the shores Of Lgaria and the
foot Of the Palatdne; and when We remember,
moreover, how DO obstacles were allowed to
remain between the Roman and the object
Of his ambition or his appetite-both OF
which he was ready to CRAFTY at an IN
bounded price.
But when it comes to works Of taste the
Roman betrayed h5s true nature. With him
nothing was too mach when ls~ished on bod
lily qualification, nothing was too little when
spent on art. The Athenian built his temples
worthily Of the gods in solid blocks OF mar
bic, IN unmeasured spNendor, giving to the
deities what cost him something. The Roman,
when he came 70 raise bis temples was con-
tent to make them Of brick or stucco or cheap
stone and then toshesthe these 10 q thin cas-
ing Of marble When, therefore, the destroy
ing hands Of Goth or the Gothic hands Of later
Roman mobiles, such as the Colonnas. the
Farnese and the Borgbese families were laid
upon the ancient edifces, It was an cosy task.
as we'll as a great temptation, to remove
these light coats OF marble and to invess
their rising palaces with such apparel Of
many colors as the marbles Of old Rome pre-
rented, ready made. TO their rapacious bands
He'd the men of Rome followed the example
Of the men Of Athens, and dedicated 10 their
divinities a few senctuasies of solid marble,
they would have left behind them such MOI
uInents as would have deiied the assaults Of
later generations, and would havo CON-
nanded as this Gay the wonder Of the world
Il Bernard Carpenter in Boston Gieba