Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-06-29
HOW THE WILLOUGHBY GRANGE
SPENT IT'S VACATION.

was thronged with the populace who
assembled to hear the splendid ora
tons Of Cicero, or later when the
Colosseum was yet untouched by the
hands of the devastators, when con-
quests were celebrated by triumphal
professions and when Rome was at
the height of her power. But we are
surprised to find our hotel much like
those of New York and the houses,
streets, ard costumes of the passers-
by reminding us of home. We need
not go far, however, to find traces of
the ancient civilization. There are
but few of the wide streets, most of
them are narrow and crooked with
rough pavements. The ancient city
lies many feet below the level of the
modern one. The dust and rubbish
of centuries have accumulated so that
much excavating has had to be done
to unearth the old buildings with
their treasures of statues and mosaics.
No doubt many people living in Rome
to-day have under their houses
another house of the times of the
Caesars, and this may be built upon
the foundations of still another which
was occupied FIVE or six hundred
years before. We visited the Louvre
in Paris and are also interested in the
oroot ri v,,uoonp, of Doooo tho Vot;.
can. Here are many famous statues
such as the Apollo Belvidere, LAGOON
and Mercury, which we see 80 often
pictured or represented in casts;
much of the work of Michael Angelo
is to be seen in the picture galleries.
The great library, too, will attract Us,
filled not only with books and manu-
scripts of priceless value, among
them the original manuscripts of the
gospels, but also containing many
superb presents received by the
Popes from European kings and
queens, for the Vatican, with the
church of st. Peters adjoining it, is
under the exclusive control of the
Pope and guarded by his own soldiers
If we could enter the Pope's apart
ments we should find them large
dreary rooms, with marble floors and
uncomfortable looking chairs by no
means suggestive of the luxury that
he is commonly supposed to be sur
rounded with. st. Peters church
beside which the Vatican stands, is
the largest church in the world-so
large that it takes Us some time to
realize how big it is. II we walk,
around it, 1t will seem like walking
around a village. The ball on the top
seen from the ground looks about
the size of an ordinary football, but
if we go up the long, long flights of
steps that lead to it, it will be found
large enough to contain sixteen per-
sons. The roof is of great extent,
and on it are houses in which the
workmen employed inside have their
homes. There are pictures and
statues, grand affairs and other things
in the church, but perhaps the size
will be the most interesting feature to
US. Everyone who goes to Rome will
certainly wish to see the Colosseum,
and it is to this that one of our first
trips is made. In spite of all the
descriptions that we have read and
the photographs we have seen we
find that we had no idea of it's immen-
sity and grandeur. We enter the
arena, great open space, surrounded
by tiers of seats rising to height of
200 feet, the top being open to the
sky. Around the sides and under
meath this arena are deep cellars and
dungeons where those men and
beasts that were to furnish the
amusement we're kept. Can we
imagine this great structure filed
with people and remember that it
had seats for as many as could be
packed into 125 churches the size of
the Methodist church here? We notice
the place of honor at one end, re-
served for the emperor and his fam
lily, commanding very good view of
the games. Let us sit down here and
imagine that we are living In the first
century instead of the twentieth and
that we are the Roman emperor and
his wife and children, and see what
form of amusement we are to be en-
tertained with. Perhaps the arena is
flooded with water to make it into a
lake and there is to be a mock sea-
fight; perhaps it has been planted
with trees to give it the appearance
Of forest into which have been
driven great numbers of deer and
antelopes, and we shall be allowed to
go down and hunt them; or we may
be permitted to see fight between
two men or between a man and
tiger or lion: or even to see hundreds