The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-06-02

pair his front gate. Brick and stucco need constant repair, In Milan they have been without repair for years and years. The Milanese are so terribly taxed that they have nothing left over With which to keep up the good looks or their city. The bricks need pointing up, and the stucco needs new painting from one end of the town to the other. It is sad to see so lovely place in so sad a plight. Italia Unita" is fine sounding phrase but it is empty and unmeaning. Boundary lines all over Europe are artificial. Who can tell eth nologfcally where Italy should end; where France and Germany should be- gin? Commercial ties are far stronger than those of race or language. If it were not so the people of the United States could not live happily together for fortnight
 Under the old regime Italy was for more interesting, and the individual Italian was far happier.
 In old times, from Milan here you travelled through four independent countries, each one with it's peculiar sights, interests and form of govern A'iSiAh' AhAletil " do III lIlG hlilSuOlIl cl Sardinia. Then came the duchy of Parma; then the duchy of Mantua and Modena. while Bolognia belonged to the Pope. Each little town had its court, its peculiar attractions and it's comfort able inn. Now people rush from Milan to Florence; from Florence to Rome, and from Rome to Naples. Even this place is being more and more rarely visited. When the towns were indepen- dent they were kept in good order by local rivalries. The chance of seeing a grand duke or a grand duchess was al- ways an attraction. Now there is noth- ing to see in the way of sovereignty in Italy, but one puny king, who seems to stagger under the weight of his nous tache; and he of course can only be seen in one place at one time. The only country left for the exhibition of grand dukes is Germany, and there they are also being allowed to die out. Concen- tration is as destructive in the old world as in the new. In the old it has destroyed grand dukes and grand duchesses; in the new it has destroyed | the democratic party. The individual all over the civilized world is losing his l III ci NdOI llcll Ol COlillllCi- 1 cial, common place monotony, wherein 1 but few conspicuous heights raise their | autocratic, governing pinnacles. The | Emperor William is one. The speaker | of the House of Representative is an- I other. In the next class come the Czar, | the Sultan and the chairman of the na- 1 tiona1 committee of the successful par l ty. Perhaps J. Addison Porter forms a class all by himself. But is it not about | time for him to show both the vast powers with which he is accredited?
 But to return to our sheep as the French, for some unknown reason, con- tinue to put it.
 l Years ago Modena had a hundred thousand inhabitants. Now it has only thirty thousand. You can hire all the house room you want in historic pal
 ace for one hundred dollars a year. i Thirty years ago Modena had thou sands of visitors year; now there are
 not tens. Yet it's history is the same; its grand ducal palace is the same; it's | churches are the same and it's picture gallery is the same, When Modena | first struggles into light amid the dark
 ages it belonged to that wonderfully | pious parsonage the Countess Matilda
 of Tuscany, who willed her enormous possessions to the Pope and thus start ed the idea that the head of the church
 militant could hold acres on earth as | well as assign acres in heaven. The
 construction of her will occupied the probate courts of Italy for centuries, and their decisions are quoted to-day in
 the courts of New Haven, Litchfield
 and elsewhere. Yet not one New Ha- vener in thirty, nor one Iitchfielder
 (more highly civilized, as you see)
 in ten can be induced to stop and sur
 vey the spot upon whose legal prece-
 dents may depend the tenure of the property he is to-day enjoying.
 Right in the middle of the town is the
 church Matilda built eight hundred
 years ago. She built it large enough
 for the piety of all the inhabitants of
 the town who desired piety. There
 must have been many of them, for the
 church is larger than all three churches
 on the Green put together. On the
 front of the church are some of the
 quaintest of sculptures, setting forth
 the experience of our first parents in
 the Garden of Eden. These reliefs were
 undoubtedly ordered and approved by
 Matilda and delighted her pious soul.
 A local photographer has been promised
 large sums of money to erect scaffold-
 irgs and take photographs of them;
 that the people of the United States
 may see them, may thereby sympathize
 with Matilda, rejoice in her piety and
 feel the unity of centuries as bald-head-
 ed history, without the assistance of
 art has no power to make it felt.
 Then there is the grand ducal palace,
 built nearly four hundred years ago,
 and until 1860 filled with grand dukes
 and grand duchesses. Now it is a mill
 tary school for the purpose of training
 young Italians to take their places as
 minimizing pawns on the chess board of Europe. To what lower use could indi-
 viduals be consigned? Modena, the Uutina of Roman history, is full of rem iniscences which carry the student back two hundred years before Christ Classes in history should be brought
 here, and lectures should be delivered
 in the presence of it's monuments Some time during the thirteenth centu- ry the Estes obtained possession and
 covered the town with their opulence
 and culture.
 The day is closing. The sun at last is ! shining Winter came On again ter