The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-04-18


which extends for miles about the his
toric city of Rome? Yes, I call it truly
an inspiration, Here prehistoric ma
lions dwelt and built their cities, which
have faded away into mists and fogs
so attenuated that even archaeologists
find 1t difficult to penetrate them.
Here are magnificent aqueducts
stretching far away to the mountains
beyond like giant antennae; each arch
represents a separate picture and tall
waving grasses and pretty wild flowers
cling to the very trayertine blocks
High in the distance loom the Sabine
and Alban hills trembling and purpling
in the sunlight; just so they appeared
when Hannibal, the Carthaginian, en-
camped here on his victorious march to
Rome, but the prize he never captured.
During that memorable siege when
tn Romans hourly expected the Afri-
can to march through the shattered
walls of the metropolis, and thus die
tate his own terms in the Forum, they
decided to decline and battle the enemy
by a clever ruse, so out of the great
gate towards the Tiber there marched
forth a whole Roman Legion bound
for Spain, thus proving to Hannibal
and his hordes that there We're suffi-
cient legions left to cope with all their
enemies, and that they could thus east
ly spare a legion for distant Spain, the
ruse had it's effect, as for conquerng
such a brave nation Hannibal found 1t
quite impossible.
But this is very old history; in fact
it was more than two hundred years
previous to the Christian era.
Every portion of the Campagna is
historic and intensely classic. Ghosts
of the great men of Rome seem ever to
hover about this lovely plain, throngs
of poets, historians, orators, warriors,
statesmen, philosophers and the great
of all nations seem to glide about in
the thin 'air; across this plain kings
and queens from far away peoples
came as prisoners of war to grace no
BILE triumphs and afterwards to suffer
death by strangling or starvation in
dark prisons.
Alas! how could the old Romans
prove so cruel with such lovely, exqui-
site nature surrounding them. Vine
yards and gardens and deep valleys,
through which rush pretty streams
dashing over great rocks are to be
seen here, while behind melting away
like pale mist rises the great city of
Rome, and high above all is the dome
of st. Peters, and above all is the cross.
How strange it is that an obscure
fisherman from the Lake of Gennesa-
rath should have such gorgeous tomb
above his dust as the matchless
church of ST. Peters.
Over this same wide field trudged st.
Paul coming through the wild flowers
on his journey to Rome to a martyrs
death, and here too passed st. Peter;
many to this day with curling lip sar
castically cry prove that st. Peter
ever came to Rome"
Ensebius and others who We're very
well informed upon the subject state
that he did come here and ! for one
am quite ready to believe it. Rome
was a noble city in her palmy days.
Imagine her seated gloriously upon her
seven eternal hills, with five million
inhabitants, the naughty dominant
mistress of the entire world. She
boosted of eight hundred and fifty-six
public baths of the greatest splendor,
two immense amphitheatres, two cir
cuses, each with capacity to seat one
hundred thousand people, five lakes for
naval contests, thirty-six triumphal
arches, nineteen public libraries, forty
eight obelisks and numberless statues
of marble, bronze and stone, and TWEEN
ty-two great equestrian statues
The suburbs Of the city reached far
a 1xyoU fo hcti 10 an, I,n lodi How. non,
and over to Tivoli and A1bano, while
countless villas dotted the Campagna
and hillsides. There never was so
grand a city as Rome, and there can
never rise another to compare with her
magnificence and wealth
All the above thoughts We're rushing
through my mind when 1 exclaimed to
myself in an unromantic train of
thoughts, well this railway can pay
no dividends at all for declare am
the only passenger in the car" We
flew along by pretty landscapes and
all nature seemed to Civ with perfect
beauty-a perfect creation, pure, ideal
surrounded us-when suddenly 7 got
up to walk to the rear of the car when
] met a pair of black staring eyes and
noticed large Italian arrayed in
snowy garb of red, blue and yellow,
looking like a pretty water color step
ping forth from it's frame, he appeared
to belong to the better grade Of peas
ants, and how in the world he got into
the car / am at loss to understand,
for know when we left Rome l was
the only passenger. SO intently did
this "mercanto di campagni'' watch
me that the very hair of my head stood
up in individual hairs, all my thoughts
of classic Rome, all the traditions of
the old towns of Latium and all my
air castles tumbled about me like a
pack of cards, for those burning eyes
would they never cease regarding me?
I had considerable money about my
person and my fear was that this fell
low would spring upon me with his
shining stilleto rob and murder me
and then leap out to the campagna
and thus escape. I inwardly cried
"sous perdito. Il walked across the car,
there rose dim blue hills, I saw them
not, what cared 1 for Rome or the
Roman campagna. AS 1 looked fur
lively to one side, those internal orbs
gIared like very serpents eyes. Quiet
ly I lowered the window while my
hand stole down to the brass door
knob, for thought l, I will escape to
the next car. The door was locked,
alas, / cried, am certainly trapped.
Every moment l waited for the fatal
CLEAN of the ivory-handled Stilleto; if