The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1898-04-30
LEANING TOWER OF PISA.
One Cannot Help Being Nervous in
Looking From It's Top.

In est. Nicholas" John Ward writes
of THE Bell-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 hundred years
ago, after she had struggled valiantly
for her independence and had won re-
nown during the fierce contests be-
tween the Guelphs (partisans of the
! Pope and the Ghibellines (partisans OF
the EMPEROR. Though Pisa has long
since forgotten the days of her great
ness, 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 Tor 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 1114. It's construc-
| ton is peculiar; there is in the center
hollow brick tube or cylinder; around
| this plain round tower the architects
! built eight stories of open galleries,
| with beautiful, slender columns of
white marble supporting semi-circular
arches. The general effect is one of
! great delicacy and lightness, a fairy
| like tower of wonderful grace. The
summit is 10 feet from the ground.
| AS you all know. the tower leans thir-
| teen feet out of the perpendicular, and
| looks as if it would surely fall over at
! any moment; but, as the center of
! gravity is still within it's base, it is as
! safe as if it were erect. The founda-
lions were probably imperfectly built
| at the start, for the tower began to
lean before it was half Finished and
/ we can see where at one point the
| builders tried to bring it back to the
vertical line by making the columns
! on the lower side higher than the 9TH
! ers The walls too, are strengthened
! with iron bars. Fancy the consterna-
! ton of the architects when they saw
| their beautiful tower leaning over, and
i it's foundations sinking in the ground!
! 1t requires very steady nerves to carry
us to the top, and we find ourselves
! clinging to the wall when we are on
/ the leaning side.
This is what Charles Dickens says
/ about the tower in his Pictures From
, Italy: In the course of the ascent to
/ the top the inclination is not very APP
| parent; but at the summit it becomes
/ so, and gives one the sensation of be-
! ing in a ship that has heeled over
! through the action of an ebb tide. The
! effect upon the lower side. so to speak
/ looking over from the gallery and see
/ ing the shaft recede to it's base, is very
i startling; ard / saw nervous traveller
! hold on to the tower involuntarily. af-
/ ter glancing down, as il he had some
/ idea of propping it up
! When we reach the summit we must
! not forget that this was where the
| great astronomer Calico watched the
/ stars, experimental on the fall of
| bodies, and studied the laws of gravi-
/ tation. 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 repu-
j tation for casting bells of beautiful
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
| We're taken to execution. is ornamented
with a figure of the Virgin and the de-
| vices of Pisa, and has a rich full tone.
Try McMorry's Blend Coffee. Doc.