The Portland daily press., 1895-09-30

Tho Appian way-Catacombs and
Tombs.
CORRESPONDENCE OF THE PREss)
Bale, Switzerland, Sept. IL.
After one has mingled with the an
ticuities of Rome and revisits them, he
feels each time a new sense of ownership
in the old churches the ancient WORKS OF
art and in each of the Seven Hills which
form so unique a setting to all this print
tive glory. For these today exist as liy-
ing monuments of the time, when the
Caesars ruled, and dwelt in the palaces
which are still the embodiment OF gran
deur on the Palatine Hill
The Coliseum speaks anew each hour
to the stranger sojourning here and gives
it's lesson of ancient barbarism and, at
the same time, shows how the seeds OF
the highest civilization of today then ex-
listed, and how the rude scales of superstl-
ton dropping off, were replaced by the
refinements and intellectual development
which has been leavening the ages ever
since.
When the old avenues within the, city
have been retrayersed one may follow the
Corso far out past the Piazza del Popolo,
through the Via Flaminia, which did not
stop, in olden times, until the Adrlatlc
had been reached and the Via Emilia
Napoleon's later route had embraced IL
au bord de la mer.
These old roads contain much OF the
history of ages past. Every stone in the
Appian Way, as it makes its mark on the
sole of your boot in its unyielding tread
and racks every limb OF your tired pody-
speaks of the time when Horace and
Maecenas followed its winding way to
Capua, and thence to the heel OF the
Italian boot, hating at Brindisl
In those days men thought, as they
trayersed these roads, and evolved threads
which have since become history. Today
the shrek of the engine and the wear and
tear of travel exclude old fashioned
Thought and when one wishes to study i,
he must retire from the hustle OF active
life to think.
ABBADIA TIRE FONTANI.
There is outside of Rome place well
fitted for this kind of study. 1t is mon
astery. built on a spot rendered memora-
BILE by St. PauI's martyrdom at in this
aAbbey of the Three Fountains" and
the three fountains are supposed to have
sprung up where the head OF St Paul,
rebountling, three times struck the
ground. This place is about two miles
heyond est Paul's Outside the Gate,
io
"Porta San Paolo." In reaching this
gate one has already passed the Protestant
Cemetery where are found the graves OF
Keats and Shelley with these ep1taphs.
The one over Shelley's grave, whose
body was washed ashore and burned at
Spezia, his ashes only being buried mere,
is this:
IGOR CORDIUM."
ssNothing of him that doth fade, ~
But doth suffer sea change Z,
Into something rich and strange.
That over Keats, whom the critics
killed is this:
t'Here lies one whose name IS WITH IN
water"
After leaving the church OF st. Paul
which is full of frescoes representing
scenes from ST. Paul's life, one goes up
hill and down, passing the road to Ostla.
and at last sees far in the distance a
strange mirage. Suspended III mld-alr
above the clouds there seem to be three
churches md an old gray monastery. IL
appears almost like Constantine's sign OF
the cross only visible to believers One
of the churches proved to be an old
Basilica; the second is ST. Paul Of the
Three Fountains which also contains the
pillar of white marble to which he is said
to have been chained, at the time OF his
execution, while the water of the f an
tains is supposed to possess miraculous $
"Maria Scala Coeli maria Of the Holy
Staircase) so-called from the vision given
to St. Bernard in which angels were
conducting persons saved by him from
purgatory. At the SIDE OF these churches,
in the courts OF the old monastery, ono
sees at distance the bare-footed monks
at their daily rounds and duties walking
with pious tread and downcast looks. If
YOU approach, they offer you a glass of
Eucalyptus wine to fOrtify you against
the malaria, to the influences OF which
one is liable even in the short time he is
here.
This place was handed over to French
Trappists in 1868, it being no longer fit
for even monks to live in, on account of
its unhealthiness, but since that time
there has been such rapid growth of the
Eucalypti trees which have been in recent
years planted. that the sanitary cond1-
tions have been SO improved that today
it appears to be fitting spot for study
and repose. 1t seems to me that place,
within so short distance from all this
glory of ancient times, SO near this great
centre of the highest art, amidst the in
SEPARATIONS from the long buried monu-
n,ents of the past, would be a suitable
1sut to establish Conservatory of the
Erts and Sciences, where with books
and papers and the archives of by gone
centuries, one could retire into these
cells, where monks have SO long wrestled.
With these thoughts, we turned away
and passed through the gates of John the
Baptist's time, reading as we went, the
Inscriptions then written and now be-
dimmed with age; and instead of its be-
ing a chateau en- Espagne, we looked back
into garden of churches surrounded by
a eucalyptus grove.
Just before reaching the Church of St.
Paul, on our return, we saw at a distance
looking across lots, many of the old relics
of the Appian Way, among which was the
tomb of Cecilia Metella. But the usual
way thither Is through the Sebastian
Gate. This is the route.
THE BATHS OF CARACALLA.