The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-26

| delight to me. With eye Keen TO spot
a stranger, in every part Of the city
they chung to you like leech, holding
| out their various wares of illustrated
postal cards and vestal matches, and
| no amount of "niente, niente,N would
drive them away Their brown eyes
only twinkled the merrier until in sheer
defense you had to give them the few
! pennies, when with smile and thanks
and graceful cap-raising they hu. ried
| off in search of some new victim. For
| many a day their bright smile will be
with me.
Very few tourists visit the Catacombs
at Naples, yet are they larger and more
complete than those of Rome. / spent
part of a Sunday in this underground
cemetery of the Christian martyrs and
no church service could have affected
me so powerfully. Archaeologists can
not agree as to the origin of these
strange galleries, descending into the
earth in tier on tier and in four levels.
Prosecuted as they were during the
early centuries, the Christians could
not built them. They only used them
as places of assembly for divine wor-
ship; they carved out little antc-roo
churches in two of the galleries, with
columns out of the natural rock, with
an altar, a Bishops chair and font.
Here they met and worshipped--whi
Caesar reigned without. We Can I'M
agine them, down in these gloomy
Vaults. dark ever as night, with their
pickering tapers, as they read the sa-
cred scroll of the holy writings when
at the end of the first century Logan
to be distributed among the churches;
and then the few but earnest words OF
exhortation-and then, most sacred
mystery of all! they gatherer round the
rude iltar to celebrate the Body ana
Blood of Christine simple service ended,
they went forth into a hostile world,
perhaps on the morrow to die In me
amphitheater. Then the faithful gain
cred together the bones which the lion
had not crunched, and buried them rev.
erently in these cuticula. Niches or
three different kinds are carved, ranged
in rows one above another in them,
they laid the bones of the martyrs and
nlaced a stone slab against them, In
scribed with the name and prayer.
Forty thousand of these rude ipscrip-
tions have been gathered from the cat
acombs-giving us an idea OF the vast
number Of Christians even at that early
date. over the catacombs Is now built
a home for old men; two OF them met
rs at the gate Of the courtyard and
carried us TO the entrance of the pass
age: here they lit small tapers which
scarcely enabled us to do more than
watch our footsteps. In and out of the
galleries they led us, deeper, deeper into
the bosom OF the earth. Now we paused
TO read the inscription Of martyr:
then TO look at skeleton in some rined
tomb. Here we see the emblems OF the
early church--a dove, a fish. an olive
branch-carved In the stone; next we
can Just make out a faded painting OF
Christ as the Good Shepherd. Sud
denly at the end Of the gallery huge
pile Of bones have been thrown into a
corner, and, as the dim light OF the
taper falls upon them, they confront
us, filling us with strange speculations
as 20 the human destiny Once human
beings like ourselves. they lived, they
breathed, 1900 years ago they adopted
the Christian faith, they sealed Il with
their blood in the amphitheater and
now an indistinguishable mass o. life
less bones. n required wrench to
tear ones thoughts away 10 the unseen
side VI their faith ~ waa a relief 20