The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-05-03
RONAN HOLIDAYS.
PraI,e o. New Rome.
copynohi. iO0B, bv W. ID. HoralJ,

urally q city that was already twenty-seven
centuries land no one knows how much
more) Of age would not betray the lapse
Of time from 1884 to 1908 a. q man must who
was then only twenty-seven years Of age.
In fact l should say that Rome looked, II
anything, younger at our second meeting,
or at any rate newer; and I'm 20 warm a
friend Of youth Tin otherS) that l was not
sorry 10 find Rome young, or merely new.
| in 20 many good things. At the sam time
l must own that ! heard no other foreigner
praising her for this except a fellow SEP
~tuagenarian, who had seen Rome earlfvs
even than !, and who thought 1t we'll that
the Ghetto should have been cleared away.
though some visitors who had never lived
In q Ghetto) thought it a pity II not a shame
and an incaloulable loss to the picturesque.
These also thought the Tiber Entertainments
. wicked sacrifice to the commonplace.
though the mud banks Of other days invited
the torrent 10 an easy overflow OF whole
quarters OF the town, which were left reek-
ing with the filth Of the food that overlsy
the constant filth Of the streets, and CON-
bined with IL 10 an effect Of disease and Of
discomfort not always personally unknown
TO the politest lover OF the picturesque
There used 10 be a particular type OF typhoid
known a. Roman fever. but now quite un-
known, thanks TO the Tiber Entertainments
and 10 the light and air lot into the p%urlleus
| Of that medieval Rome for which the In
judicious grieve 90 loudly. The perfect
municipal housekeeping leaves no darkest
and narrowest lane or alley unswept; every
morning the shovel and broom go over the
surfaces Of regions formerly almost impas-
sable to the foot and entirely impossible
to the nose.
I an speaking quite literally as we'll as
frankly, and though | can understand
why some envious New Yorker, remember
ing our blackguard streets and avenues.
should look askance at the decency Of the
newer Rome and pretend 1t IN offence
against beauty and poetry. ] do not see
why a Londoner. who lives himself in a
we'll kept town, should join with any Of
my fellow barbarians in hypocritically de-
ploring the modern spirit which has 50
happily invaded the Eternal City. The
Londoner should rather entreat US not to
be humbugs and should invite us to join
him in rejoicing that the death rate Of
Rome, once the highest in the civilized
world, IL now almost the lowest. But the
language Of Shakespeare and Milton Ia too
often exhausted in deploring the modernity
which has housed us aliens there in such
perfect comfort and safety. One must
oonfne oneself 10 instances, and one
may take that Of the Ludovisi Quarter, az
II IL called. where l dwelt in 30 much peace
and pleasure except when l was reminded
that 1t was formed by plotting the lovely
villa Ludovisi in streets and house lots
and building 1t up in attractive hotels and
apartment houses. Even then ! did not
suffer 30 keenly "a some younger people,
who had never seen the villa, seemed to
do. though there are still villas to burn In
and about Rome, and they could not really
miss the Ludovisi. II was a pretty place,
but not beyond praise, and the quarter also
Is pretty, though also not beyond praise,
The villa was for the pleasure and pride
Of one family, but II signifed, even in its
beauty, nothing but patTtoian splendor.
which d IL a poor thing at best; and the quar-
bol hON VI NHV Blthbhlb dhh pllh VI
great numbers Of tourists. mostly Of that
plutocracy from which a final democracy
Is inevitably 10 evolve itself. l could seo
no cause TO beat the breast in this. and In
humber instances. even TO very humble.
I could not find that things were nearly as
bad IN Rome as they had been painted.
There IL no doubt but at one time, d.
reotly after the coming Of the capital to
Rome, Rome was badly %overbuilt. There
is no doubt, also, that Rome has grown
UP TO these rash provisions for her growth,
and that she now @stuffs out her vacant
garments with her form pretty fully.
One must not say that all the flats in all
the houses are occupied, but most Of them
are, and II now the property Of the specu-
lators IL the property Of the banks the banks
are no bad landlords, and the law does not
spare them the least Of their duties TO their
tenants, Or 20 at least II Is said.
Another typical wrong TO the old Rome,
or rather TO the not yet Rome, was the build
ing up, beyond the Tiber, OF the Quarter
OF the Fields, 30 called, where lola in his
novel Of Rome placed most Of the sdualor
which he 80 lGvishly employs in it's con-
trasts. In these he shows himself the ro-
manifest that he frankly owned he always
was in spite Of himself; but when | had read
his book ! made 1t my affair to visit the
scenes Of poverty and misery in the Quar-
there del Pratt, When did 80 | found that
| had already passed through the quarter
without noting anything especially poor
OF specifically miserable, and Invent a third
time TO make sure that l had not overlooked
something impressively deplorable. But
/ did not see above three tenement houses.
with the wash hung from the windows md
the broken shutters Of poverty and misery.
In a space where in the East Side or the
North Side in New York | could have
counted such houses by the score, almost
the hundred. In this quarter the streets
we're swept every morning as they are every
where in Rome, and though toward noon
they were beginning 70 look &c s~lovenly as
our streets look when they have Just been
cleaned ! knew that the next morning
these worst avenues OF Rome would be
swept a. our best never have been since
the days Of waring.
Beyond them their generous breadth has
already been bordAred by pleasant stucco
villas OF the pretty Italian type, feetingly
touched but not spoiled by the taste Of
the dn AouUedu, standing in their own
grounds, and not so high fenced but one
could look over their garden walls into the
trees and flowers that frightened about
than Iika anh,trkan o6oot. o~o