Missouri Valley times., 1901-05-30

Letter From Frank Harris.
THE P1NcIO.
Boston has her Il aeon and
Commonwealth avenues, New
York it's Fifth avenue, Berlin it's
Tiergarten Strasse, but Rome and
all the whole wide world has the
Pincio. They say here, "The
Coliseum for the old Pagans, st.
Peters for the church, but the
Pincio for the world"
It's q drive, garden, or street
or whatever you want to call it,
and it is situated on the side of q
hill that over looks the entire city
of Rome, and il is there that one
gets, the best idea of Rome. The
first thing that strikes your notice
is the absence of the "Seven
Hills" but really, in the first days
Of Rome they could not have been
very big ones, and today the filling
up of the valleys and the cutting
away Of the hills have caused the
"Seven Hills to be part of yes
terday.
AS one goes to the edge of the
wall and looks over the city, there
on the other side of the Tiber,
that mass of stone that has stood
the rack of the barbarous northers,
the Vandals, the internal and ex-
ternal wars, the earthquakes, and
storms of many hundred years, is
the first object to meet your gaze
and as viewed from there the
worlds first church, St Peters,
looks not to be what it is. Its
many parts are so overwhelming
that at q distance it looks COM
paratively small; but there is
something there, it may be the
masterful dome, or time tried look
of the building itself, that had one
never seen q picture of it they
would instantly say "Ecce St.
Peter"
The Pantheon, peaceful today
as church, can just be seen and
on that wonderful roof with it's
wide gaping opening, greets the
view. It is more than interesting.
Saute Marie Maggiore on one side
and Say, how foolish 'twould
be for me to tell you of the
churches one secs when on the
Pincio. 1t seems that the entire
city is nothing but mass of
churches, but not one spire. Some
have columns and some have
domes but there is not q steeple
to be seen in the entire city.
To the other side is the Piazza
Del Popolo. (Square Of the peo-
ple.) This is really the most in
teresting of all the Roman Gates.
It is most beautiful square,
planned by Michael Angelo. In
the center of the square is an
Obelisk, the Oldest thing even
here in Rome. 1t was brought
from Egypt years and years be-
fore the time of Christ. It was
supposed to have been much older
than Moses. The rest of Rome is
more or less a city of ruins, but
that old Obelisk stands today the
same, unchanged, in all ways as it
was the day it was finished. It's
a strange feeling one receives
when standing in its shawow. It
makes all of yesterday seem 30
real. Never before l came to
Rome did 1 fully realize that those
old people, old places and old
things we're real and not some
idle dreamings of mythology.
Near it stands the church Of Sante
Marie del Popolo. The church
was built for a peculiar reason.
When Nero was buried he was
buried just outside of the Flavin-
ian Gate (now called the Ports
del Popolo) and three or four
hundred years after the people
who lived in that vicinity could
not sleep. They heard Nero groan-
ing and sobbing so, that they petit
toned the Pope to do something
to take away the curse and he
erected that church to Marie as
an offering to have her intercede
and have the aforesaid groans
IT'S said that the day