The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-08-28

L
in reach of it, and has been fought
over, by Christian and Turk and
heather for two thousand years and
more. 1t has felt the tread of the all
conuuering legions of old Rome, has
fallen prey to the wild horde of the
Cloths, has taken for itself the name
of the wide-wapdering Longobardi-
the 'sLong beards"-, has yielded te
Charlemagne, has fought out the feud:
of Guelph and Ghibelline, has shaken
under the heavy tramp of the mailed
Crusaders, has been free and bond
and then free and bond again, has fur.
nished battle ground for nearly every
old world general of note from the
great Caesar to the little Napoleon
And so, because great armies have
marched over il, and thrones have
been won and lost here, and men have
fought and fallen on almost every foot
of it, one notes with curious interest
its physical features. And all that is
seen is soon told: A low-lying level
country, not unlike Kansas, with
long rows Of poplars. ("Lombardy"
poplars, it is fair to presume) along
the road sides, and neat stacks of
grain in the fields, vineyards nearly
every where, occasional fields of corn,
and scattered apple and peach and
plum trees. The farm houses are all
of brick or stone, plastered on the out
side, dingy and uncomfortable look
ing, and there are no out buildings of
any kind, and no "front yard" with
flower beds and footpaths. The wom-
en- are at work in the fields with the
men. On an occasional high hill may
be seen an old castle, sometimes in
ruins with the ivy creeping over the
broken walls, sometimes apparently
i'm good preservation and still in use.
These are the main features of the
Lombard plain, as they could be dim
ly discerned through car windows,
late in the evening Of rainy day.
~
Milan is a great city, and as cities
go in Europe, a splendid and beauti-
full city. 1t is rich i'm historical asso-
Citations, and has many features of inn
portance and interest. But the thing
I sought out first, returned to often
est and looked at last, was the great
Cathedral. TO give anything like a
detailed description of it, would ex-
pand this letter into volume. And
to give in a few words any idea of it's
grandeur and beauty, is hopeless
task. can only say that it is the
most marvellous in conception, the
most perfect in execution, the most
wonderful and beautiful i'm general
effect of any building I ever saw or
imagined. Covering acres of ground
it is second in size only to st. Peters
at Rome-it stands in the center of the
city, a mountain of glittering white
marble, crowned with a forest of spires
and pinnacles, which in their turn are
tipped with statues and wreathed
with vines and flowers. The walls,
the roof, the buttresses, the spires, the
even the lofty dome, $50 feet
above the pavement, are of pure white
which seems in some myster-
ious way to have been freed from the |
law of gravity and to hang from gi1dy |
heights i'll fine tracery, as light as Cos
,amer lace. One may look at it from
the ground, from the roof, from every
side, and the wonder always grows
that the mind of man could have con-
,eived and the hand of man executed
such marvellous work. The interior,
while less striking and beautiful is not
ess imposing than the exterior, 1t
vas here that Napoleon crowned him.
'elf king of Italy, placing upon his
,wn head the iron crown of the Lom-
'ards, and surely no place could have
better befitted so notable a ceremony.
rhe majestic nave-500 feet long, $50
eet high, $50 feet wide-the clustered
,illa-s, the lofty arches, the great
tainted windows, the largest in the
world, the numberless inches filled
With marble figures, the stately tombs
nd monuments combine to form a
citing that would add dignity and
to the proudest pagent.
Contrasts are interesting sometimes,
not always pleasant. And so hav- {
ng spoken in a general way-and how :
no one can better appre- t
late than myself-of the beauty and {
plendor of the Cathedral, let me &
peak OF two grissly horrors that it
One of these is the statue a
f a certain saint-what was his
skinned alive. He '
represented as standing erect, fay T
j, with his own skin hung like a a
lantle over his shoulder. The work 7
the sculptor is perfect, and the spec 8
ltor is almost sure that he sees an P
,casional CULVER shake the lidless t
yes and pass over the bare nerves and T
lie livid flesh. The other horror is 8
he chapel of st. Carlo Barromeo, one d
the early archbishops of the Cathe- a
raj. This chapel is really tomb in II
lie crypt of the church. For the n
nall consideration of one franc you G.
e conducted down stairs and along "