The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-03
HISTORIC SPOTS IN THE WET.
Some Features OF the Recent over
flow of the Tiber in Rome.
Baltimore Sun.

Baltimore Sun
ROME, Dec. 2,-Today half the popuIa-
ton of Rome crowds Theirs banks to
gaze at the river mighty in flood. The
almost constant rains of the month of
November have produced foundations
throughout the country, and the Tiber
has oyerhoWed its banks in many parts
bringing about wreck and ruin to dwell
erS In the loWlandS through which It
flows.
The people of Rome are deeply inter
ested IN the rise of the river. Many of
them who dwell in the parts of the olty
which are lower in level, and which are
the first to be flooded have had to leave
their dwellings, which are now unap-
dwell in the more elevated quarters have
taken occasion of the first bright and
sunshiny weather for some time past to
visit the places where the flood is most
conspicuous.
The Roman Forum is one of the first
places to be flooded. The extraordinary
foundations of today has rendered 1t
great lake in which the ruined buildings
rise III the midst of the yellow water
like the visionary city Of a mirage. An
Client history repeats itself in the Forum
today. 1t is Horace who in his ode to
Caesar, describing the inundation of the
year B. c., writes:
We have seen the tawny Tiber, with
waves,
wrenehed violent back from vents in
March on to Muma's hall and vesta's
shrine,
Menacing downfall
The residence of Numa, the Regia adj
Joined the Temple of Vesta in the Forum,
not far from the base of the Palatine.
Today the gentle waves Of Tiber lap the
formless foundations of Vesta's shrine
ana lie close to the marble remnants of
the Regia.
From the Temple of Romulus, the son
OF r; Maxentius, to the base of the arch
ca Julia to the other side of the Forum,
there Is nothing but yellow water visible,
amid which fragments Of ancient build
1ngS rear their heads and are reelected
in the still, mirrorlike surface Of the risen
Tiber
The photographer finds feast here to-
day All kinds of machines. from the
heavy large sized article on its tripod to
the pocket kodak, are directed from many
points on the flooded Forum, and what
might be called water colored views of
this classical spot will be shown in many
a distant land.
AT st. George in velabro, beneath the
west size of the Palatine, where the
four-SIded arch of Janus Quadrifrons and
the arch of silversmiths, raised in honor
of Septimus Severus, stand, the river
has risen. The church, which was once
the titular church of Cardinal Newman,
was flooded to about eight feet in height
from the floor. An unapproachable gas
lamp lighted before the river rose in
light iIsi .iSHs . turning IL 'He OIisn' sun
The temple of Hercules. by the Theirs
brink, with its circular portico of nine
teen futed marble columns, stands In the
midst of a large and deep lake. The
chlA,ch of Santa Maria, in Cosmedin, re-
Gently restored with great care and cost
to its antique state of the seventh cen
tury, it filled with water eight feet deep.
st. PauPs, that grand church of bright,
new marbles that are a delight to every
one who looks upon them, in unapproach-
able, as tho road leading to it is deep
under water.
AS regards foundations, writes Ian
ciana, the Ttber ranks among the proud
est rivers in the world. That of Deem
Der, 1870, will never fade from the mem
DRY Of the living generation, and, he
continues, Il fear that this impressive
and picturesque spectacle will never
again be seen, since civilization has
taken up the matter and by means Of
lofty entertainments, of locks and gates,
will succeed, 1 am sure, in keeping the
river, confined hereafter within its two
parallel walls"
Undoubtedly the flood Of the December
of 1900 would present a much greater
resemblance to that of the December of
1870 were it not for the Tiber embank-
ment. The river bed is widened and
offers more spacious flow to the water
1t is only in the lower parts of the
city where the water floods rising
through the drains
The Pantheon is unapproachable from
the front by the water that surrounds
it and occupies its floor; but the pan
theon is in one of the lowest districts
in Rome.
The height above its ordinary level
which the Tiber has reached today can
portion of the Campagna surroundings
Rome IS under water. Some accidents
have, of course, occurred but the serv-
ice of assistance is so well managed that
these are reduced to minirn I'm.
The wine cellars that are excavated