The Portland daily press., 1892-09-26

chapels there, l decided to visit st. Peter S
for the first time that afternoon.
found the best musical talent of the
church represented. and the chapel in
which it was held was filled with curious
! worshippers. Not only the chapel was
overf1owing, but st. Peters itself was the
scene of much of the wealth and fashion
then represented at Rome. Proud peo-
pie from every country walked up and
down it's aisles and filled the nave, in rap
lures at the magnifcence of the whole.
Many knelt before the great altar, and
scores of people kissed st. Peters big
great toe, and in the recesses some holy
mummery was transpiring among all
classes and conditions of society, while
the great organ filled to repletion the
chapel and pealed and vi5rated through
the whole great edifice, even to the
DOME
The magnificent appearance of the ex-
terror had in measure prepared my
mind fort he grandeur within, but notwith-
standing, as passed through the door the
glory of it almost took away my breath.
1t was like the effect of the too rarified
air on lofty mountain tops. The size, the
halo, the resplendency of it's adornments,
the quality of the workmanship, the
beautiful statuary and painting, the sweet
faces of the madonnas that smiled over
everything, and the Christ in it all.
had the same feeling afterward in the
Pantheon, but there it was a more mel
lowed glory which pervaded all, the light
being a little DINNER and more subdued
which comes in only through the great
rotunda of glass, of which the dome of
the rotunda is composed.
In so vast place the emotions are
mighty and conflicting. The idea that
all this wealth and splendor is an offer
| instead of elevating it's worshipperS it
keeps them in ignorance still, is too much
| to complacently contemplate.
went to st. Peters many times after,
| when of course it ceased to seem so
| strange and highly wrought, but each
| time | found new wonders and fresh
studies which many weeks would only
| help to comprehend.
The Dome and Statue Gallery.
| The next morning, after many adven-
| lures in getting a permit, 1 visited the
dome, entering the galleries on the way
up at the different heights, from which
| the people in the aisles below look like
pigmies, and the ascent outside, past the
lantern tossthe ball, affords views over the
campagna far and wide to the sea, which
make q perpetual photograph on the
mind. And In descending it is curious
| to see the little village on the roof, in
which are tiny houses where colony of
workmen and attendants dwell.
| After this brisk walk takes one past
the colonnade and round the great cir
cult of the church to the dominion of the
Pope, where in moment all the para
phernalia of the kingdom of Italy passes
away, the ordinary gems dGames, giving
| place to the Swiss Guards in bright ar
ray. Let people who have too much
time hanging on their hands, enter these
Roman galleries and they will find it will
go, as the Germans say, ''pfeilgeschwind'
| Gas swift as an arrow)
After several hours spent among these
old works of art, we left, going back to
Piazza Venezia and over the Viminal and
past the beautiful squares of the Esqui-
line Hill to the church of st. John in
Lateran and to the Lateran Palace which
was the old pope's palace before his do
minion was for time, in the fourteenth
century, transferred to Avignon.
The Santa Scala.
Opposite this palace Of the Lateran is
this holy staircase. Half way up the