The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-07-04
on THE DOME OF ST. PETERS.
It OverioolSs the Greatest Center Of
Conquest the World Ever saw.

From the Century.
The strangest. most eXtraVaraut. most
Z incomprehenslble most disturbing sirht
of all is 20 DE seen frcm the upper gallery
in the cupola looking down 20 the church
below. Hanging 10 midair. with nothing
under ones feet. one sees the church pro-
Jeeted in perspective within a huge cir
Gle IL is as though one saw &c upside
down and inside out Few men could bear
10 stand there without that bit of iron
fitlling between them and the hlde0us fall,
ana the inevitable slight dizziness which
tAe strongest head feels may make one
DOUBT FOR moment whether what is
really the floor below may NOT De in real
ny celilhS above, and whether one IS
sense OF gravitation bee not inverted in
an extraordinary dream. Al that distance
human beings look no bigger than flies
ana the canopy Of the high altar might
be an ordinary table.
And thence, climbing up between the
double uomes, one may emerge rom the
almost terrible perspective To the open
air and suddenly see all Rome at one s.
| feet, and all the Roman mountains
| stretched out TO south and east, in per
| iect 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 ranges below. cut 10y the
| winding ribbon OF the yellow Tiber 70
| the right the low Aventine. with the dark
/ Expresses of the Protestant cemetery be-
yond, and the Palatine. 1rcst ted with trees
and ruins; the Pincian on the left. with it's
nigh gardens. and the mass of foliage Of
the Villa MediCi behind IL: 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 decay-generOus as only the sun
can be in this sordid and miserly world.
where bread Is but another name for blood
and rood Of growing corn means a
pound of human flesh The sun Is the
| only good thing IN nature that always
gives itself to man for nothing but the
mere trouble of sitting I'm the sunshine.
and Rome without sunlight is a very grim
| and gloomy town to-day.
1t is worth the effort of climbing so
nigh. -Four hundred feet I'm 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 disCord and of
religion which the world has ever seen.
A thousand volumes have been written
about IL by thousand 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 he spilled in the Gaze
sars hattels-to redden the world. with
the Roman name. Blood, blood, and more
blood-that was the history of old Rome
me blood of brothers, the blood of foes.
/ the blood or martyrs without end. II flow
| ed and ebbed in varying tide at the will
| or the just and unjust. but there was al
ways more hands to shed H. And so II
may be again hereafter; for the name of
Rome mas heart-stirrlng ring, and there
mas always been as much blood spilled for
| themselves