Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-29
.THELAIE P0PELEOxN|
A Visit to Oarpineto, His
Ancestral Home.
HEAD OF PECCI FAMILY
PRESENT COUNT AN ABLE AND
ACCOMPLISHED GENTLEMAN.
Interesting Description Of the Ancient
Castle and It's Contsnts-A
Museum Of Gifts.
HEAD OF PECCI FAMILY
BY WILLIAM q. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM II. COhIl0.
Special Correspondence % The Evening Star and
Chicago Record Herald.
ROME, December 10. 1903
With Salvatore Cortesi, the king OF
Italian newspaper correspondents, who
knows everything, made journey the
other day to Carpineto, the ancestral
home of the late Leo XIII, one of the
most picturesque and romantic places
you can imagine Cortesi is the man who
reported the death of Leo XIII. and the
election of Piux X for the Associated Press,
and from every standpoint of view his dis
patches stand unsurpassed. 1t was one or
the greatest reportorial feats on record.
Taking the Naples train at Rome we passed
southwark across the campagna, through
the estates of Prince Colonna, to the little
town of Segni, where there is a large sugar
mill run by electricity, a new industry in
troduced into Italy since the Cuban revolu-
ton of 1896. Here also are enormous quar-
ries of tufa, the building material Of Rome,
and hundreds of men are working them to
supply the demands from that growing city
A fine road, centuries old, and built to last
forever, leads US upward toward the VOL
scian or Lapini mountains. as they are
sometimes called. through vineyards, fields
of sugar beets, chestnut groves and vast
stretches of yellow stubble, from which the
wheat ana oats mad been CUT All THIS lduU
for miles and miles, an empire In area, be-
longs to the Doria family, one of the Oldest
and most important In Italy-formerly from
Genoa, where they have large estates also
and whose palace and art gallery upon the
Corso are visited by every tourist The
Doria palace is the largest in Rome, being
almost two-thirds the size of st. Peters
Cathedral. Marion Crawford in one of his
books on Rome tells us that "a thousand
persons once lived under the roof outside of
the gallery and the private apartments.
which alone surpass in extent the majority
of royal residences" The picture gallery
contains a fine collection of family portraits
beginning with the famous Andrea Dorta.
the great statesman of Genoa. the founder
of the family, and large number of old
masters collected by him and his successors.
The present Prince Doria is one of the
wealthiest men in Italy. 1t is question
whether any Italian has more money than
he, which is an unusual thing to say of a
Roman prince. but during the epidemic of
speculation he kept his head and increased
instead of diminished his fortunes, and the
family has had few black sheep The pres
ent princess Is a daughter of 1.-The English
Duke of Newcastle. They belong to the
white society in Rome and are consid-
cred the leaders of the English colony.
They cultivate Americans in friendly way
tinguished strangers. When the German
Doria gave ball in his honor, which caus-
ed considerable comment. because 1T sur
passed in splendor that given at the Royal
Palace, hence when King Edward came
last spring the king would not permit the
mistake to be reDeated