Middletown transcript., 1896-02-22
: STRANGE CONTRASTS IN ROME.
All Sorts and Conditions Of Mon JostIe
Ono Another In the Streets.

4
! Ono Another In the Streets.
Perhaps it is true that the impress.
sions which Rome makes upon a
thoughtful man vary more accord
ing 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 con-
trasts to show within mile of each
other-one might almost say within
q dozen steps.
One of the most crowded thor
oughfares of Rome, for instance, is
the Via del Tritone, which is the
only passage between the Pincian
and the Quirinal hills, from the re.
gion Of Piazza Colonna toward the
railway station and the new quar-
ter. During 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 q measure, the
Tritone of Rome corresponds to
Galata bridge in 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 some
how in the rain of millions that
lasted for two years did not manage
to attract to itself even the little
sum which would have sufaoed to
widen it by few yards. It is as
though the contents of Rome were
daily drawn through keyhole. In
the Tritone are to be seen daily
magnificent equipages, jammed in
the string. between milk carts, om-
nibuses and dustmen 8 barrows, pre-
ceded by butchers vans and follow
ed by miserable cabs, smart dogcarts
and high wheeled country vehicles
driven by rough, booted men wear
ing green lined cloaks and looking
like strange bandits. Even saddle
horses are sometimes led that way,
to save time, and on each side flow
two streams of human beings of ev-
cry type to be found between Porta |
Angelica and Porta San Giovanni.
A prince of the holy Roman en-
pire pushes past a troop of dirty |
school children and is almost driven
into an open barrel of salt Goldfish |
in the door of poor shop by a
black faced charcoal man carrying
a sack on his head more than half as
high as himself. A party of jolly
young German tourists In loose
clothes, with red books in their
hands and their f1eldglasses hang
ing by straps across their shoulders,
try to rid themselves of the flower
girls dressed in sham Sabine cos
tunes and utter EXPLANATIONS of as.
tonishment and admiration when
they themselves are almost run
down by couple of the giant Roal
grenadiers, each feet or there
about, besides nine inches or SO of
crested helmet aloft, gorgeous, gi-
yantio and spotless.
Clerks by the dozen and liveried
of the ministries strug-
gle in the press; ladies gather their
skirts closely and try to pick a
lainty way where, indeed, there is
"dain" "a wcrd which DR..
Johnson oonfesses that he could not
ind in any dictionary, but which
le thinks might be very useful);
girls. smart children with
,urses and hoops going up to the ,
'inoio; black browed washerwomen,
With big baskets of clothes on their {
leads; stumpy little infantry soldiers
n gray uniforms; priests, friars,
enders of boot laoes and thread,
egetable sellers pushing handoarts
f green things in and out among the
orses and vehicles with amazing 9
exterity and yelling their cries in !
high voices-there is
o end to the multitude.
If the day is showery, 1t Is sight I
D see the confusion in the Tritone 6
7hen umbrellas of every age, ma
arial and color are all opened at I
nee, while the people who have {
one crowd into the Goldfish shop, Q
nd the liquor sellers, and the to-
acoonist's, with the traditional con Q
ermesso of excuse or entering when 8
1ey do not mean to buy anything, Z
II the Romans are mostly civil 9
eople and fairly good natured. But n
lin or shine, at the busy hours the
lace is always crowded to overflow Q
e with every description of vehicle 2
I'd every type of humanity.-Mar- I
n Crawford In Century. ,
A Typical English Joke.
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