The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1901-01-05
Patras As 1t Is Today and As 1t
Was in History.
Basic, Switzerland, Dec. is. 1900.

Basic, SWlLLeIlduu, OcO. Aos Aooos
A new phass OF ocean travel begins
when one toards the neat little steamers
which cross the Adriatic-Ionian Seas en-
route for Greece. The cabins are more
commoiious than on the TRANSATLANTIC
routes and the food, served Ia table
d,hose. Ia most exoellent without that
superfnity fond on ocsan steamers.
Thess ro-called Post steamers stop at all
the different ports on the way, giving the
traveller time TO disembaTk and visit va
rious cities, the regular fast special pas
senesr steamer being a thing OF the fu-
ture on these iontes.
Thus at Ansona (meanirg an elbow
from Its form), an old city founded by the
uolio Greeks and msgniicently situated
on tina Auriatic, yo1 have n whols day;
and II you get up early and time your
trains closely you can visit the Holy
House of Nazareth at Loreto, small
town built high upon promontory,
which at distance shines out in the
clear sky like beacon to shipwrecked
mariners; only In this case the light
house Is a church, which does no. warn.
but heckons thousands of pilgrims each
year TO visit for healing and spiritual
support. Helena, the mother of Con-
stantine the Great in her old age, pre-
served this House OF the Nativity al
Nazareth and had church built over it,
which finally fell to decay. Then the
angels seeing 1t abandoned, are said to
have transported 1t TO Dalmatia on the
Adristic, opposite it's present site; but
afterwards being dissatisfied with the
location, they took it up in the night and
landed 1t on the grounds of certain
widow by the name of Laureta, The
present large tasilica was then built over
it and the village sprung up around it
for the accommodation OF the large pill
grimages Of believers.
Ancona itself eas been the scene Of
many vicissitudss. the beautiful arch
built by Trajan marking 1t as a Roman.
In the early ages the Goths ana other
Darbarians desolated 1t and after the 18th
century it was the ground of dispute be-
tween the Austrians and French, one
after the other holding 1t, but finally it
was added 10 the Pope's territory AMI
continued to belong TO him until the
union of the Kingdom OF Italy.
At Bari, the ancient Barlum of the
Romans, which now, as In the time Of
Horace, is celebrated for fish, you are
given day TO look over the bones of st.
Nicholas in the crypt of church named
from that Saint and TO study the lower
strata OF Southern italian life in the
marrow streets and alleys of the old part
of the town. These sunless streets are
filled with handsome, though poverty
stricken men and women of the regular
clinsd, you can obtain phase OF moro
mode1n Italian life in the New White
City, the Bari of the present,
at Brindisi yon are glad TO stay on the
steamer, since the place Ia not only prim-
tive but devoid OF interest except for its
Hne harbor and its being the terminus Of
the old Appian Way We are familiar
with it also from the fact that Horace
with Maecenas, as he tells us in his Odes,
stopped here after many amusing expert
encss on the way to Rome before going
to the celebrated council at laramie
which cementsd the early alliance OF o.
tayious and Antony. Some of the old
crusaders left their bones here, as we'll as
Virgil who expired In house near the
hsrbor. Here also Pompey was besieRed
BY Caesar just before he crossed over TO
Greece on his last fatal campaign. AS
historically interesting as many of thess
old italian cities are, one night is
sufficient to test their facilities for mod
ern comfort and convenience.
The approach to the beautiful Island of
Corfu is most charming, though it is a
rather weird Introduction to Greece,
the land so renowned in art and arohitec-
ture, the nation so glorious in deeds OF