The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-08
LEANING TOWER OF PISA.
One Can Not Help Being Nervous in
Looking From Its Top.

Looking From Its Top.
In April ST Nicholas John Ward writes
of the THE Ben-Towers of Italy" Mr.
Ward says of the most famous of them ALL
pisa seems like a sleeping city. as she
lies so quietly and silently along the two
borders of the river Arno. She fell asleep
several hundreds years ago, after she had
struggld valiantly for her independence
and had won renown during the fierce con-
tests between the Guelphs 0partisans of the
Pope and the Ghibellines (partisans of the
Emperor). Though Pisa has long since
forgotten the days of her greatness the
world cannot forget them when it looks
upon that wondrously beautiful group of
four marble-white buildings standing apart
in the sacred corner: the Cathedral, the
Baptistery, the Campo Santo Cor burial
ground), and what interests us most of
all, The remarkable Campanile, so well
known as the Leaning Tower" This
famous tower was built in 1174. Its con-
struction is peculiar; there is in the cen
ter a hollow brick tube of cylinder; around
this plain round tower the architects built
eight stories of open galleries, with beau
tiful slender columns of white marble
supporting semi-circular arches. The gem
eral effect is one of great delicacy and
lightness, a fairy-like tower of wonderful
grace. The summit is 179 feet from the
ground. AS you all know, the tower leans
thirteen feet out of the perpendicular, and
looks as il 1t would surely fall over a any
moment; but as the center of gravity is
still within it's base. it is as safe Dis If it
were erect. The foundations were proba-
bly, imperfectly built at the start, for the
tower began to lean before it was half fin
ished; and we can see where at one point
the builders tried to bring 1t back as much
as possible to the vertical line by making
the columns on the low side higher than
the others. The walls, too, are strength
ened with iron bars. Fancy the conster-
nation of the architects when they saw
their beautiful tower leaning over and its
foundation sinking in the ground! 1t re-
quires very steady nerves to carry us to
the top, and we find ourselves cIinging
to the wall when we are on the leaning
side.
This is what Charles Dickens says about
the tower In his Pictures from Italy:
I'm the course of the ascent to the top
the inclination is not very apparent; but
at the summit it becomes so, and gives
one the sensation of being in a ship that
has heeled over through the action of an
ebb-tide. The effect upon the low side, so
to speak, looking over from the gallery
and seeing the shaft recede to its base, is
very startling; and l saw a nervous trav-
eler hold on to the tower involuntarily,
after glancing down, as If he had some
idea of proppng 1t up"
When we reach the summit we must
not forget that this was where the great
astronomer Calico watched the stars, ex-
perimented on the fall of bodies, and stud
led the law of gravitation. Here. too, in
the upper story, hang the six bells, the
largest of which weighs more than 1900
pounds. The bell-founders of Pisa had a
wide reputation for casting bells of beau
tiful tone, sonorous and harmonious. They
lavished on them all their art and their
talent.
The Pasquareccia (the Paschal belD,
the most famous of the Pisan bells, the
one which was tolled when criminals were
taken to execution, is ornamented with a
figure of the Virgin and the devices of
Pisa, and has a rich full tone.