Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1897-08-05

Vatican, and was composed of members
OF the various orders of monks, priests,
canons, 300 bishops, arch-bishops and
cardinals. Among them were Asiatics
and Africans, as we'll as Caucasians.
Some wore the head dress of the Greek
Catholic church. Finally Pope Leo
XIII appeared, seated on richly dec
Grated platform, and preceded by the
jeweled papal tiara. He was carried
by some of the Roman nobility and sur
rounded by his household or cabinet,
while the Swiss guard in their striking
uniform formed the outer circle. He
turned right and left, bowling to the
people and extending his hands in
blessing. He looked very wan and
feeble and US though the burden OF his
81 years was almost too great TO bear.
We did not stay to see the further GER
emonies, being utterly worn out by the
crush and crowd for over four hours.
We went from Rome to Florence and
spent two days in its great art CALLER
les, thence to Venice where we stopped
at the Hotel Brittania on the Grand
Canal. There is not a horse or car
riage in this city, the 4, 900 gondolas do
ing all the business, with the help of
small steamers. There is about
three-foot rise and fall of the tide here,
which serves to keep the canals clean.
We had bath in the Adriatic and
rode in our gondola at night, listening
to the singers, who we're followed by
hundred gondolas, all enjoying the
sweet music and the romance of the
surroundings. However, Venice will
do to idle in for week or two, but it
has no business except working"
tourists, and would be tiresome place
to live in.
We stopped at Milan q day to see the
great cathedral, the third largest in
tie world, aud the exterior and roof
decorated with nearly 1900 life-size
marble statues, each one representing
some historical character. Milan was
the first go-ahead business city we saw
in Italy. The streets are mostly wide
and we'll paved and are we'll lighted
with gas and electricity; the sewer and
water systems are good, there are many
large manufacturing plants and much
business going on. The people seemed
to have something to do besides beg
ging. In Naples and Rome the beg
gars were as thick as flies. They
would follow you every where, and the
unfortunate and crippled would ex-
hibit their deformities. The ground is
thoroughly farmed in Italy, as in most
of the countries we have seen. A crop
of grain or fodder is sown among the
mulberry and olive trees, and the
grape vines are trellised from tree to
tree, thus getting three-story crop,
so to speak.
We stopped at Lucerne a day, al
though this beautiful little city on the
blue lake, with the snowy peaks of the
Alps surrounding it, invited longer
stay. The St. Gotthard road and tun-
mel, the latter over nine miles long, is
great piece of engineering.
Zurich is busy city and makes good
use OF it's magnificent water power.
At Schaffhausen we stopped a few
hours to see the great Falls OF the
Rhine, and then went to Lake Con-
stance to stay over Sunday. On our
way to Mayence, we passed through
the Black Forest and then took steam
err down the Rhine to Cologne. The
scenery is fine, but leaving the ruined
castles aside, think the Hudson river.
from Albany down, equally beautiful.
At Cologne we visited the great cathe-
dral and climbed the tallest spire in
the world, SIP feet high. We also
bought some of the GENUINE Cologne
water, but, alas, the baggage-smasher
got in his deadly work, and our Col
ogne is now only q fragrant memory.
Here we took the train for Kiel, pass
ing through Hamburg, and then went
by boat to Copenhagen, a fine, modern
city Of 100000 people. We stopped
here two days and then crossed to
Malmo, in Sweden.
The crops all through our wander
ings have been unusually good. The
railroads are not up to date, the Italian
cars being abominable. No baggage is
checked until you get into northern
Germany. There are three, and in
some countries four classes. The first
and second are nearly the same, and
are about like our ordinary trains. The
third class has no upholstered seats,
and are evidently not cleaned very Of
ten, while the fourth are open freig hit
cars with board seats. The first-class
are only used by ''the aristocracy, Am
o.;oo o~z foo1c A.