Daily public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1892-191?, 1896-07-18
cN rAE poMg oF 81. egrER,s.
Almost Panorama OF the World stretched
Before the Beholder.

Before the Beholder
The strangest, most extravagant,
most incomprehensible, most disturb
ing sight of all Is TO be seen from the
apper gallery in the cupola looking
down to the church below. Hanging in
mid.air, with nothing under ones feet,
ono sees the church projected in per-
spective within huge circle. 1t is as
though one saw il upside down and
inside out. Few men could bear to
stand there without that bit OF iron
railing between them and the hideous
fall, and the inevitable slight dizziness
which the strongest head feels may
make one doubt for moment whether
what is really the floor below may not
be in reality ceiling above, and wheth-
er ones sense of gravitation be not in
verted in an extraordinary dream. At
that distance human beings look no
bigger than flies, and the canopy of the
high altar might be an ordinary table
And thence, climbing up between the
double domes, one may emerge from
the almost terrible perspective
to the open air, and suddenly
see all Rome at ones feet,
and all the Roman mountains stretched
out to south and east, in perfect grace
of restful outline, shoulder to shoulder,
like shadowy women lying side by side
and holding hands.
And the broken symmetry of streets
and squares range below, cut by the
winding ribbon of the yellow Tiber, to
Aa ,;rr ha AN-onfinn with fbp
dark expresses of the Protestant Gem
etery beyond, and the Palatine, crested
with trees and ruins; the Pincian on
the left, with it's high gardens, and the
mass of foliage of the Villa Medici be-
hind it; the lofty tower of the capitol
in the midst of the city; and the sun
clasping all to it's heart of gold, the
just and the unjust, the new and The
old alike, past and present, youth. age
and heterogeneous as only the sun
can be in this sordid and misery world.
where bread is but another name for
blood, and a rood of growing corn
means a pound of human flesh. The
sun is the only good thing in nature
hat always gives itself to man for moth
ing but the mere trouble of sitting in
the sunshine, and Rome without sun
light is very grim and gloomy town to-
Cay.
It is worth the effort of climbing so
high. Four hundred feet in the air, you
look down on what ruled half the world
by force for ages, and on what rules
the other half to-day by faith-the
greatest center of conquest and of dis
cord and of religion which the world
has ever seen. a thousand volumes
have been written about it by a thou
sand wise men. A word will tell what
il has been--the heart of the world.
Hither was drawn the worlds blood
by all the roads that lead to Rome, and
hence it was forced out again along
the mighty arteries of the Caesars
roads to be spilled in the Caesars bat
tles-to redden the world with the Ro-
man name. Blood, blood, and moro
blood-that was the history of old
Rome-the blood of brothers, the blood
of foes, the blood of martyrs without
END. II flowed and ebbed in varying
tide at the will of the just and the UNI
just, but there were always more hands
TO shed it. And so il may be again here
after; for the name of Rome has a
hcart-stirring ring, and there has al
ways beeD as much blood spilled for
the names of things as for the things
Observation-Disclosures Crawford, in Cen
fury,