Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1888-11-19
IN THE ETERNAL CITY.
A Disappointed Tourist In Rome-The To-
man and tho Crock.

man and tho GreoA.
It was not unlike shock of pain or disap-
pointment when for the lrst timo threaded
my way through the Roman streets, passed
ont into the Forum and wandered around tho
Coliseum. So dingy and denuded did tho
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 sideof q reoponed grave. have never
seen place where the romans were so few
aud the suggestions Of what was lost were so
many Rome looked like place which first
had been a cradle and afterwards had been
turned into grave.
II seemed as if everything had been born
there everything had grown old there, every
thing had died there, and everything had
been buried there. Rome is tho city Of tho
Holy Sepulchre. At Jerusalem pilgrims
visit the spot where Christ was once laid. At
Rome we seem 20 visit tho shrine where old
Time himself had been buried. Under this
head may briefly note down few first inn
pressions.
II was said that Augustus found Rome Of
brick and left it of marble. It might be
added that the Goths, tho popes and the
mobiles found Rome Of marble and left it Of
Lrick, 50 completely have these despoiling
and left Rome like a body, brown, shapeless
md Invested Of every trace Of her former
lovelincss. But the Romans themselves pre-
pared tho way for this desolation Their par
simony brought its own punishment For
parsimony, we must remember, is sin fol-
lowed up by its special retribution, quite as
much as prodigality. The men of Rome
hard, practical and utilitarian-werc as pc
la nj flslse 49, .rf.
shamefnlly extravagant in all pursuits
Of physical enjoyment. Even in the use
Of tho cheap travertine stone they were
ridculousy stingy. But when it came
20 marble they wero by necessity IS
well as by nature most economical in tho use
Of it, Athens had a whole mount Of marble
at her back door, and could hew out Of
Pcntolius all the shrines and statues she
wanted. Rome had almost the same advan-
tagcs; for it can hardly be urged as an apol-
ogy for the city on the Tiber, that she was at
distance from the mountains Of Luna and
the great quarries Of Carrara, when we re-
member that an easy waterway was ever
open between the shores Of Liguria and the
foot Of the Palatine; and when we remember,
moreover how no obstacles were allowed to
remain between the Roman and the object
Of his ambition or his nppetito-both Of
which he was ready TO crafty at an I'M
bounded price
But when it comes to works Of taste the
Roman betrayed his true nature With him
nothing was too much when lavshed on bod
lily qualification, nothing was too little when
spent on art. Tho Athenian built his temples
worthily of the gods in solid blocks OF mar
bic, in unmeasured splendor, giving 10 the
deities what cost him something. The Roman,
when he came 10 raise his temples, was con
tcat to make them of brick or stucco or cheap
stone. and then 10 sheathe these in 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 Borghese families, were laid
upon the ancient edifices, it was an easy task,
as well as a great temptation, to romove
these light coats Of marble and to invest
their rising palaces with such apparel Of
many colors as the marbles of old Rome pre-
sented, ready made, TO their rapacious hands.
Had the men Of Rome followed tho example
Of tho men Of Athens, and dedicated to their
divinites few sanctuaries Of solid marble,
they would have left behind Thorn such mon
uments as would have defled tho assaults OF
later generations, and would have COM
manded at this day the wonder Of the world.
H. Bernard Carpenter in Boston Globe.