Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-05-23

Letter From Frank Harris.
THE ROMAN FORUM.
Rome, Italy, May 6, 1901 Tis
with fear and trembling that /
approach this mighty subject.
Ills the place that was once the
head of Rome-that was once the
head Of the world; and the place
that is today above all sought by
those who wish to link together
the civilization of yesterday and
today. In this place does Rome
come to climax and it is a
mighty climax at that. Really l
know not where to place it, but it
is as near Beethoven symphony
or q Brahms sonata as is any
thing l have ever seen, but why 1
do not know; yet those mighty
piles of old stones that yesterday
meant 80 much and today mean
more; those old columns that are
today SO defaced yet retaining
much of their grand beauty of
yesterday; this old statue, head
less, arlnless and footless, that
even at that disadvantage is still
marvellous in its cold grandeur; or
those old wells from where the
Romans of centuries ago drank /;
or that old cellar filled with
broken plates and dishes, lamps
and vases, all seem in way to
express to me q certain kind of
a strength that is found only
today in the mind of a Bach, or a
Beethoven, or a Brahm.
AS one goes from pillar to pill
lar, from column to column, and
from heap of rock to heap of
stone you realize that the Roman
of yesterday, while perhaps not
having the terrible strength of a
mighty Odin, yet they had the
happy faculty of combining the
beauty of the warm Greek and
the strength of cold north
Norseman. The Greek seemed to
have wanted only his poetry and
smiling beauty, the Norseman
seemed to have wanted his cold,
wild, fierce strength, yet the old
Roman to me seemed to try to
combine both and at the expense
of neither, and the more time ]
spend in the old Forum the more
I realize that it wasn't such al
awful thing to be an old pagan
Roman.
The first record of the Forum
goes back so far that it is useless
with this modern neck of ours
even to come within dreaming
distance of it. Long before
Romulus had laid the foundation
of Rome Gin about 753 B. G. it
was used as sort of a market
place for the different tribes who
used the heights of the "seven
hills for feeding grounds for
their focks.
The Forum as seen today ia
about as long as from Third to a
point about half way between
Fifth and Sixth streets, and is !
should say about l,500 feet wide.
In the rough its about three times
as long as its wide.
In recent times or until some
time after 1870 this was used as a
field for cattle and the accumula-
tion of soil had raised the surface
about fifty feet from its classic
level but after the Papal fail of
Rome, much to the disgust of the
modern painter and the 80. called
lover of the beautiful, the many
trees, the endless wild flowers,
the herdsmen with their wonder
fully picturesque dress, the aocke
and in fact all the beauty the
painter and dreamer are prone to
dream over have disappeared be-
fore the shade of him who wants
to rub his nose up against the
'doings" of yesterday.
l know not where my sym.
pathies are, with the dreamer OF
with the shade, yet I am just q
little inclined to favor the shade,
although as some sage has said,
"Ugliness and truth go many
times hand in hand" Yet really,
I can see no use for such howl
oo hoo hoor pnodo hooou.o o,,or q