The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-10-10
FASCINATING FLORENCE
AN INDIANA VISITORS IMPRESSIONS
OF THE OLD ITALIAN CITY.
History OF Centuries That Makes IT.
self FeIt-Life in a Flat with "A Mod
ell Servant Proves IdyIIic.

all so old-so dead and buried To my per-
verse notion the people who live there Tow
count for nothing. Without force. without
morals they lounge in graceful, sensuous
Incidence, too old for evil and too old for
helpful good. 1t is not so in Florence. Com
ing from Rome we ascend and ascend from
marsh to mountainsde, and find a corre-
spending change in the spiritual and moral
atmosphere. Florence is sturdy, honest, in
tellectual She has beauty surely no other
city has so much, but she loves it purely
and highly. And it is the noble beauty. not
the enervating one of Rome nor the fever
ish. overstimuated beauty of Paris. l may
as well say that I am in love with Flor
ence. ] am satisfied with it, enchanted by
1t. I go to sleep thinking of it, l wake re-
joicing that I have another day in Flor
ence One only feels for oneself For my
part I cannot realize that in this sweet
place is any violence or hopeless misery
There is no thought of any bad thing. The
people in the street look like our own peo-
pie. They have the same keen intellectual
quality, the same look of pensive, gentle
humor that we see in the faces of the peo-
pie of the West and Southwest Indeed,
am often startled here by Resemblance in
face and bearing to Americans that
know. The Florentines are not all dark, as
/ had fancied Italians 1t would seem that
they, as we. have a good mixture of Saxon
blood in their veins. Indeed, we may well
feel kinship with the spirit that shows
through their history. The men whose his
toric names you hear whose faces you see
in bust and monument, are like own
heroes. In Rome they were a cruel-looAing
lot dark visaged and brutal, but here their
faces are stern and grave with earnest pur-
pose. No doubt in their day they were
ready to fight and to Kill. These narrow
streets have been slippery with blood, but
at least they always believed that they
We're fighting for a principle / used to
suppose that the Guelp and Ghibelline strife
was not much more than a personal con-
fiict-a sort of Arkansas family feud on
large scale, but it was much more than
that Although the names changed in and
out and parties divided and subdivided in
successive centuries the men of Florence
were always fighting in defense of liberty
and against the idea of one-man rule. They
wanted to govern themselves, to make their
own laws and enforce them In their best
years they had a. republic that was almost
ideal They had too. beautiful respect
for achievement and for labor itself There
was no demagoguery about this, none of
the posing and sentimentalism which we
nave frequent examples Oh III AHleIlCd
They had an order of nobility, no doubt.
but to take a hand in the ruling a man
must have done son ething-must have been
capable of producing. SO each man was
enrolled in one guild or another, according
to his taste or need. And it is a fine thing
that these guilds united; whether of law
yers, doctors, merchants, silk weavers,
goidymftfIs Or artisans of every sort, they
met on absolutely equal ground in the dig
nifty of achievement. see now, as never
could before understand, what sort of man
the artist-artlsan was, Of whom William
Morris and Ruskin talk / see how he
could have been man of simple habits and
few cares, loving his work for his works
sake, secure from fear of want with time
for study and congenial intercourse, sure
of appreciation for whatever he might do
that was good, and happy in the one un-
alleged pleasure that God has given to man
the pleasure of doing something well and
freely. What did it matter whether he
worked in iron or gold, on canvas, stone or
silk? All Florence was watching him, and
rewarded good work with praise and appre-
citation. The old F'lorentines had in them
some of the qualities of the Puritans, but
there was one blessed difference-always
they loved what was beautiful. They never
themselves be false to their idea of the
highest taste. While strongly intellectual,
they lived in the sunshine. and not in SOM
Der shadows.
I do not know whether it is right to talk
about the people before speaking of the
town itself 1t is situated on a high plain
circled about by hills and mountains. They
say that centuries ago when the first stones
he Tof1 H.
covered with flowers, and SO the place got
the sweet name. I can fancy Just what
those stretches of blossoms looked like.
There were fields of white lilies set closely
together, the lilies of the Virgin; there
We're great spaces full of the lovely blue
Florentine iris that princely blossom with
fragrance sweeter than violets and ex-
cept where the flowers have drawn aside a
little to make room for the city, they are
all here still.
All the other cities that I have known
have about their edges sort of ugly scum.
place neither town nor country, a region
OF poverty and squalor, or else of dirt and
factories. But you can look down from high
Fiesole on the city of Florence. which lies
below like water-liy on its leaves and
feel that for once there is nothing in the
scene which you must try to forget The
sculptor the other day said that il is not
what Florence is but what it is not. that
we love, and added that humanity persisted
ordinarily in making things ugly against
the intention of nature. This may be true.
but nature can't do everything and no
amount of leaving alone could have given
as fair towers lovely bridges, castles.
arches and statues. However, this city.
which is like TO jewel. is only the casket
in which a thousand jewels are stored 1t
is not for me to attempt to write of the art
treasures of Florence. I question, indeed,
whether discussions about pictures, statues
and the like ever fulfil their intentions
The books that have read on such SUBJ
jects have never made anything clear to
me, but have only left with me a sense of
the critics admiration or profound disap-
probation. l do not remember that a de-
scription Of a picture has ever given me
definite pleasure. This much, however one
may say-that nowhere in the world is there
In the same space so much of what is
greatest in all the arts as within the limits
Of Florence. There are students who have
lived here for years, and have found their
time fully occupied, not in producing. but
merely IN studying art. l thought myself
that had seen in Rome all that l could en-
JOY for a while. My eyes and my percep-
tions were Jaded. But these pictures and
statues have the charm of sweet music
heard in the night they delight without ex-