The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-05
STRANGE CONTRASTS IN ROME.
All sorts and Conditions of Men JOS
tie One Another in the streets.
From the Century Magazine:


From the Century Magazine.
Perhaps it is true that the impressions
which Romeo makes upon a thoughtful
man vary more according to the wind and
the time of day than those he feels in
other cities. Perhaps too. there is no
capital in all the world which has such
contrasts to show within mile Of each
other-one might almost say within a
dozen steps.
One Of the most crowded thoroughfares
of Rome, for instance, is the Via del Tri-
tone, which is the only passage between
the Pincian and the Quirinal hills, from
the region of Piazza ColOnna toward the
railway station and the new quarter. Dur
ing the busy hours of the day a carriage
can rarely move through its narrower
portions any faster than at foot-pace,
and the insufficient paVements are
thronged with pedestrians In a measure,
the Tritone of Rome corresponds to Galata
bridge i'm Constantinople. In the course
Of week most of the population OF the
city must have passed at least once
through the crowded little street, which
somehow. i'm the rain of millions that
lasted for two years, did not manage to at
tract to itself even the little sum which
would have suffeed to widen 1t by few
yards. 1t is as though the contents of
Rome were daily drawn through a key
hole In the Tritone are TO be seen daily
magnificent equippages, jammed in the
string between milk carts omnlbuses ana
dustmens' barrowss preceded by butchers.
vans smart dog carts, and plgh wheeled
country vehicles driven by rough, booted
men wearing green lined cloaks and look
ing like strange bandits; even saddle
horses are some times led that way, TO save
time; and on each side flow two streams
OF human beings of every type TO be
found between Porta Angelica and Porta
San Giovanni.
A prince Of the holy Roman empire
pushes past a group of dirty school chill
dren, and is almost driven into an open
barrel of salt goldfish, IN The door OF u
poor shop, by black-taced charcoal man
carrying a sack on his head more than
half as high as himself. party OF Jolly
young German tourists in loose clothes.
with red books in their hands, and their
field glasses hanging by straps across
their shoulders, try to rid themselves Of
the flower girls dressed in sham Sabine
costumes, and utter EXPLANATIONS OF as
constituent and admiration when they
themselves are almost run down by a
couple of the giant Royal Grenadiers, each
six feet five or Whereabouts, besides nine
inches, or so, of crested helmet aloft gor-
geous, gigantic and spotless.
Clerks by the dozen and liveried mes
sengers of the MINISTRIES struggle in the
press; ladies gather their skirts closely,
and try to pick a dainty way where. in
deed, there is nothing "dain" Ca word
which DR.. Johnson confesses that he could
not find in any dictionary but which he
thinks might be very usefuD. servant
girls. smart children with nurses and
hoops going up to the Pncio, black
proved washerwOmen with big baskets
of clothes on their heads, stumpy little in
fantry soldiers in gray uniforms priests,
friars, vendors of boot laces and thread,
vegetable sellers pushing hand carts of
green things i'm and out among the horses
and vehicles with amazing dexterity, and
yelling their cries in superhumanly high
Voices-there is no end TO the multitude.
If the day is showery, it is a sight to
see the confusion in the Tritone when
umbrellas of every age. material, and col
or are all opened at once, while the
people who have none crowd into the cod
fish shop and the liquor sellers and the
tobacconists, with the traditional con
permesso of excuse for entering when
they do not mean to buy anything; for
the Romans are mostly civil people and
fairly good-natured. But rain or shine, at
the busy hours, the place is always crowd
ed to overlooking with every description
of vehicle and every type of humanity.