The Portland daily press., 1897-09-18

DAAO
People of Sunny Italy-The Contrast of
Plenty and Poverty.
Especial Correspondence of the PREss1
Rome, August 9th.
We are strongly tempted to send home
a blank sheet of paper with one word in
the centre-Rome! knowing, that one
word will have a deeper meaning, and
be more eloquent, than many sentences.
"We are in Rome p we've said it morn
ing, noon and night, and looked into
each others faces for a transformation
which we felt must have been wrought
by an event which meant so much to us.
Thus far all things have been most pro-
pitious, none more SO than the weather,
and where we most expected extreme heat
in Italy-we've walked and driven
at pleasure, and with less discomfort
that we have often felt at home. Despite
all warnings we have drunk the water
freely, and visited the Coliseum by moon
light, experienced travellers we met in
Rome assuring us, that now nowhere
is water purer than in the large italian
cities, and that with improved drainage
Roman fever has been practically stamped
out. Our good fortune brought us to the
Eternal City during the weuk in which
two noticeable religious festivals were
celebrated. The first was at ST. Peter g
in Vincoli, when both to the faithful
and the heretic, were shown the very(O
chains that bound the saint in prison at
Jerusalem. The second festival com.
memorated the miraculous fall of snow
in August, many ages ago, upon spot
desired by the virgin for church, SO
Santa Maria Maggiore was built and
yearly keeps the festival; the falling
snow being simulated by white rose
leaves, which fell continuously through
out the mass.
When leaving ST. Paul's without the
walls-whose interior is, for our taste,
the most religiously satisfying of all the
Roman churches, with its superb marble
pillars and gold altars-we noticed the
Professor standing in contemplative
attitude with one hand in his pocket
that was encouragement enough; instant
ly he was besieged by beggars in num-
forth the camera, "W'' attempted to
distribute a few centessimi; fatal mis-
take In one instant swarms of mendi-
cants were all about us; apparently they
sp rang from the bowels of the earth, and
dro pped from the skies, MANNED, halt
and blind, motley miserable multitude.
We gave them all the change we possessed
,al,. L.o1 III -
In desperation we rushed to the carriage,
and then with eyes closed, and hands
pressed over our ears, tried to shut out
the sight and sound of poverty and suff-
ering.
The magnitude and grandeur of church
and cathedral eliminates in St. Peters,
so vast that the human mind fails to
grasp it's enormous but perfect proper
lions The chiselled figures OF Canova,
precious stones; all the unequalled splen-
dor of st. Peters, made us feel that the
half had not been told in book or pic
ture. While looking at the massive
statue of st. Peter, a man came forward
leading little child whom he raised to
kiss the shining toe of the apostle, then
pressed his own lips devoutly to the spot;
young girls, while priests upon their
knees close by recited many orisons. We
sent the rosaries we purchased for the
Pope's blessing but fear that hardly
constituted us good Catholics, though
later when walking through the cata-
combs, carrying lighted tapers, we felt as
if we were assisting at some high Romish
ceremonial. A priest bearing flaming
torch led the way down more than fifty
feet into the cold, damp ground, while
twenty of US fearfully shielding our tapers
from the draught, closely followed. We
saw endless rows of tombs one above the
other, the chapels where the early Chris
tians worshipped, and many whitened
bones of long-deads holy men and women.
We glanced shivering down 5he seeming
ly endless side galleries, whose black.
gloomy depths we had no desire to pene-
trate, and all breathed more freely when
we saw once more the light of day. We
decided when visiting the Vatican gal
leries, that while we were receiving very
faint impressions in art, wholly new
meaning was being given to long famil-
lar poetry. AS we walked through some
thing less than eighteen hundred rooms,
and saw continuous lines of canvas
stretching as far as the eye could see, we
grasped in measure never before con-
ceived, the idea Longfellow might G)
have had in mind when he declared that
cart is long, so also when, as in our
case. a voice far up the room kept saying
ladies will you please hurry! p we had a
definite, practical illustration of the re-
maiuder of the line, "time is feeting."
Onsa second visit to the Forum and
Coliseum, Gallo, the prince of guides.
made all things live anew to three en-
thusiastic lovers of Roman antiquities.
The triumphal Arch of Severus-the
memorial carvings on Titus Arch-to
look on them brought back the former
glory of the mistress of the world" !" We
walked along the Via Sacra and each saw
for herself the triumphs of Scipio and
great Pompey We heard the voice of
Antony in burning words as when he
spoke above the body of dead Caesar
But beyond all other ruins, mighty and
majestic, stands the Coliseum Who so
Indifferent as to behold it without a
moistened eye and quicker beating of the
hearth Those walls have seen the centur.
les come and go and still they stand; the
hand of time lies heavy on them, yet even
in ruin they mean-Rome
We awoke one morning to find ourselves