St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-07-16

ruined paradise, their desolated home"
the mind of the dead Keats? Pisa did
its duty by Shelley. l must now leave
him where the mournful Mediterranean
left him. stark dead upon its shore, with
the latest volume of Keats i'll one pocket
and d volume of the Greek tragic poet |
Aschylus in the other.
City OF the Dead.
1t will soon be fifty years since our
American traveller, Bayard Taylor, Wis |
tied Pisa. Then he complained of the |
barebOned horses and the hOrrid cries of |
their urging drivers as the tourist goes /
from the railway station to the city of !
the dead. 1t would seem as though the |
same horses still live on. and that the |
same vettarini have not yet shouted |
themselves to death. At all events, the |
bones OF the horses are as bare as those
described by Thackeray in his Irish
Sketch Book" and the hoarse shouts of
the men are as strong as those spoken
of by the great novelist, without their
being interSpersed with the redeeming
feature of Celtic wit.
The Campo Santo, or city of the dead.
is covered with earth brought from the
Holy Land. In the days of Christian
chivalry, when Tuscan knights went
East to fight the battle for faith, the
ships which bore them thither came
back laden with the sacred soil of the
Holy Land. They tell me that this soil
has the peculiar and useful quality of
decOmpOsing all bodies in few DAYS.
1t seems that the chemical qualities
which produce this effect are growing
gradually weaker in the Pisa Gem etery,
so that decomposition takes longer now
than when the precious clay was first
brought there.
"a Great City.
LOmbardy is the richest province OF
Italy, and Milan. its capital is under
many aspects the most fourishing city
of the peninsula. Lombardy is rich
not merely by comparison with the
less favored provinces of Italy, but rich
also IN natures products. It's people
are strong physically and intellectually.
The contrast between them and some
of the more southern inhabitants of
Italy is painfully to the disadvantage of |
the latter. Milan retains its ancient
splendor, and yet keeps pace with mod |
ern advancement. 1t Is rich in art and |
architecture, III commerce, religion and |
amusements. Its young men love ath- |
letics as we'll as aesthetics, and the re-
suit is that their cultured minds are |
encased In splendid physiQues.
Da Ninci and Charles BOrromeo have /
left lmpOrishable influences at work in |
this city of art. and or religion. "Oh, |
nations" writes Ouida, CLOSELY should /
you treasure your great men, for by /
them alone will the future know of you" /
What's were Antwerp without RubenS, |
Florence without Dante, Milan without |
CarOlO BOrromeo and st. Ambrose? |
Milan might we'll be called the city of |
saints. 1t must have been singularly |
fortunate in its bishops, for thirty-three |
of them have been enrolled in the |
calendar Of saints. They were not all |
equal to st. Charles, who became bishop |
Of that see when only twenty-three, or !
to st. Ambrose, who was not afraid to /
rebuke an erring emperor; but the !
sOlidity Of Christianity in Milan is al |
evidence that its long line of chief |
pastors were men OF sterling ability.
The timid anu temporizing men of |
other times and other places would |
take cowardly refuge in some reflex |
principle rather than Tebuke an i'm
perial ruler, as st. Ambrose rebuked |
Theodosius. Here in his wild pagan, |
passionate youth, Augustine taught |
rhetoric; here also he resolved to undo /
the past and to devote his brilliant |!
talents to the advancement of Chris |
tianlty.
The Cathedral.
Never were people prouder of their |
cathedral than are these manly Milan |
ese. And well may they rejoice in it, |
for its beauties battle description. Its |
spires and statues. its tuTTets and tow
ers, play havoc with figures of speech |
and defy nature and art to supply COM
parsons. People speak of a certain
view of this cathedral as though the /
vision were one OF limitless Limerick
1oo1 r,rrH, :
frost work traced by winters icy artist
upon a vast eXpanse OF glass.
But the simlles suffer from pow
erty. Although begun in the
year 1886, it is not yet flushed,
Rather long time to spend In building
one church, but these things which are
a JOY forever. take more than day to
put the browning touch upon them.
Two hundred statues adorn its Greeian |
front. Its shape is that of Latin cross:
its style is Gothic, except the front,
which is as much out of place as a
cOurtier of Louis XIV. would be in one
of the Dakotas. This must be changed.
a Grecian nose is very beautiful. but it
does not suit cold Teutonic face. The
design of the Milan cathedral is said to
have been taken from an Alpine peak.
Mount Rosa. 1t has an enormous size
as well as extreme beauty, only two
churches being larger-St. Peters at |
Rome, and the cathedral of Seville in
Spain.
An Ancient Liturgy.
There obtains in Milan even to this
day what is known as the Ambrosian
rite. 1t is rubrical regulation regard
ing the mass and Office, differing from
the ceremonial of the Roman mass and !
Office. Evidently st. Ambrose was a
strong character. and wished to carry
out nOn-eSsentials as 1t seemed best to
him. The points of difference are merely
secondary matters. For instance, there
is no mass for the Fridays of Lent, and
bread and wine are still offered by the
people for the sacrifice in solemn masses.
Although pope confirmed this ancient
riUe, nevertheless. pressed as 1t is on all