Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-09-17

the old artists. At first wanted to laugh
at the stiff figures and unnatural atti-
tudes. But after seeing so many of the
other kind. especially the Dutch artists,
and those like 1'intoretto, it is restful to
see one of the simple, more crude sort.
The faces nearly always mean something.
which can't always see i'm the others.
But I'm far from appreciating art or az
lists, and feel very ignorant when the
wise people get to talking Of Architect
ure. Ruskin, etc.
You see by our letters that you have
thought of US on the wrong days, except
Sundays. Our itinerary has been chang
ed. We're day ahead now. and have
circular tickets to take us to Florence be-
fore we get to Rome, but we shall PROB
ably be in the latter place next Sunday.
Think of it. only one week, and then We'll
set out on the return trip. Tomorrow
morning we visit the art gallery--more
pictures. Don't know yet where we shall
spend tomorrow night. Saw boat race
this afternoon. Our rooms are all front
ones, so we had a fine view. The 'head-
man" speaks English and seems anxious
to please us. We have had ice cream
delicious, too( during our stay here.
We've voted to stop at Hotel Aurora in
our edition of Baedek. Wish could
write another sheet, but ought to be In
bed. we had services in Prof. and Mrs.
Powers room, and have been visiting; so
the evening has flown.
BOLOGNA, Italy, July IS, 1891.
We have a short time between dinner
and the hour when our train leaves for
Florence, and I'll put it in this way.
How warm it is in the middle of the
day. | feel as if should melt. Yester-
day morning we spent in the Venice Art
Gallery. There were very many fine pic
lures, though | IN sorry to say that have
only blurred recollection of a great
number. Titian's masterpiece, the As
sumption of the Virgin, is to me the one
picture above all others we have seen so
far. 1t is so beautiful; its very beauty
is enough to draw tears from your eyes.
The harmony and exquisite blending of
color is marvellous. All this aside from
the dignity and beauty of expression in
face, etc. You must see it to feel its
power. l wish you all might do so.
There is small photograph of it among
my embryo collection. have bought a
larger one. but neither gives fair idea of
the real picture.
Another art gallery this morning; |
didn't stay to see all the rooms; my ca
pacity gives out all toossoon, and / get TO
the point where it is useless to try and
''soak in' any more of art. Some few
pictures we.can, l thinksI shall, always
remember. Raphael's st. Cecilia, is the
great picture for which people come to
Bologna The photographs give good
idea of 1t. though the faces of St. Cecilia
and John surpass anything that is an at
tempted copy of the original. / fear I'm
not yet ready to appreciate Raphael, still,
the more looked at the picture the more
there was in it to see. There are many
fire paintings by Guido Reni, among
them 'Crucitixion'' and an "Entomb-
ment.' The head of the Mater Dolorosa
in each is often copied, and you have
seen one if not both of them. There were
a number of paintings by the Caracci who
once had school of painting here. Some
more modern pictures were very striking;
one was John the Baptist-very young
and handsome. but rather effeminate, |
thought, for such a character.
Ill close remarks on arts, and tell you
little bit about things in general, our
trip from Venice here to begin with. 1
think we were all sorry to leave Venice;
it is such fantastic, interesting, old city.
As we, came down OH the train Mrs. NJ.
read to us from Dickens Pictures from
Italy, his description of Venice. 1t is
choice bit of a sketch and we enjoyed it
SO much the more as we were just leaving
and the scenes were still fresh In our
minds. | shall want to re-read all the
books l ever read, SO that the places may
be something more to me than names
that | cannot remember.
There are a great many cornfields i'm
this part of Italy, all green and tasseled
now. We saw large fields of hemp yes
terday. | called it sugar cane and Miss
d. thought it was something else just as
absurd. Miss II. has seen it before and
she knew it was hemp.
They train the grape vines over the
trees; whole orchards of plum and apple
trees with grape veins running through
them, sometimes festooned between the
trees, like chain or garland linking the
trees together. Ofcourse grapes are not
ripe yet.
We have fine large plu.1s, purple and
long yellow ones; they call them prunes
here. We have had pears and peaches
too, but rather hard and green. The
strangest experience with fruit in Italy
has been ripe figs. liked the first oreI
tasted, but don't care particularly for
them. They taste little bit like musk
melon, the least bit like paw-paws. The
only thing by which you recognize the
figs we get in the dried state is the seeds.
The kind we have had Is the dark purple-
skinned variety; the shape is like pear,
only deformed so as tG be broader and
rather uneven, and altogether wanting
in symmetry. Its outward form land in.
ward too, for that matter) is quite unat-.
tractive.
SCHOOL BOARDS needing teachers win
please notify the undersigned, gfving post
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