The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1905-11-01
Letter from Italy.

Letter from Italy.
We leave here for Vlllafsck, France
Genoa is an old city. It was here
Gslileo first tried his telescope. and
it is the place where Columbus was
born. The house where he was born
and married in is still standing and
in good state of preservation. It
is four room houee wedeed in be-
tween two large houses. The rooms
are ten by twelve feet. Oqe room is
or top OF the other and are entered
by a winding stairway from the rear.
It is taken care of by the Italian
government and preserved d as reiict.
There is also fine large monument
cut in fine marble at the intersection
of two streets. Standing before this
monument of the greatest d'scoverer
the world ever produced, with it's
marble features looking out over the
bay, my mind reverts back 413 years
ago when this lion hearted nan was
.plowing an unknown sea with 8 re-
belliors crew in frail craft with
meagre support and no promise of
reward. Who can doubt that the
hand of God was not guiding the
rudder to civilize the savage and
found an asylum for the oppressed
of every nation, where every man can
worship God according to the dictates
of his own heart and sit under his
own vine ands6g tree. He was 8
God fearing man for he erected a
cross and gave thanks to God for his
prosperous voyage as soon as be
landed.
There are three great characters
that have shaped the destiny Of the
world: Columbus in the South. Mar
tin Luther in the North and George
Washington in the West. Religious
and political liberty. The thought
borders on the sublime and makes a
second Spanish> Inquisition and an
Edict of Nantes an lntolerable thing
for the watch dogs (tbe United
States, England and Germany OF the
world are not chained.
Genoa has the finest ees wall and
harbor in the world and there is a
great deal of shipping done here. The
finest velvets and silks in the world
are manufactured here. The. ceme-
teries are marvel The bodies are
buried in vaults placed one on top of
the other and the sculpture in mar
bic on the vaults is simply prodigious.
There is an old church here whose
exterior looks rough. but the inside
is quite different There are huge
columns of solid Carsra marble in
laid with marble as black as the
ravens wing. The paintings are
taken from scenes in the Old Testa-
ment. I have no words to express
it. There was one painter painting
for fourteen years in this church.
There are alec considerable
number of people buried in inches in
side OF the walls of the church. It
is said this church cost 40,000,0O0
francs or S9.000,e00. You can form
some idea when the wages here are
about one.fourth of what they are in
the United States what it would cost
TO build a similar one there.
The people here are fine looking.
There are more blonds than brunettes
and not at all like the Italians that
migrate Az some one expressed
We get the scrapings of hell. [ won't
tell you what they say about us
simply because I don't know. You
wonder, I suppose, how we can
understand anything they say. It is
done by signs, especially where there
are so many nationalities and so
many different tongues. If you
would tie ones hands behind his
back be will sssrve.
TIE streets in some places are not
more than twenty feet wide and the
houses five and six stories high. Oh,
for little more air, and little more
stirring of the air. The population
of Genoa is about $4,000. [ could