Bisbee daily review., 1908-04-23
ROMAN STRIKE OF TRAM-MEN
 WAS HOT ONE
Shooting Up the City Was Common While the Trouble Was On, and Many People Were Killed.
tc. c. Young.}


 Rome. italy. April 5 1908. My walk in Rome today was walking in the real sense. Not a street car or carriage could be had for love or mon ey. Last night there was big strike. Rome did not go to bed all night lonS There were soldiers by the hundreds on the streets. rioting and shooting at different places In the city and sev eral people were killed. This morning every conveyance pulled by horses or electricity was tied up as dead as salted maekerel Trunks and valices moved to and from the trains had to be hauled in small hand carts pulled by men under heavy guard. of soldiers. Only the government mail hauled by the royal teams were permitted to run, and they were under guard of armed men. I saw a sick man being moved to a hospital and he was hauled in an ambulance pulled by men, and the. were guarded from violence by soldiers.
 There was no law against walk ing and, as mine was not all taken up before leaving America, I went this way about my business of study and sightseeing. I went at once to the an Icient Roman Forum which is between the Capitoline and Palatne hills. In this place once centered all the actiyi- ty of ancient Rome; and, though twen- ty-fve feet below the present street level, the excavations have been done so well since 1856 that one can learn much history from it Besides myself, there were about one hundred other people there on the same mission, that of study. Very few of them spoke English Most of them French ana German students and a few Italians were there studying the foundation history of their country. Fortunately on the ancient buildings were origin ally in inscriptions peculiar to that age and their identity is certain. To me it was a comfort thus to find that very few things here were clouded in doubt, and many of them ancient build ings are in parts very well preserved.
 The reader must remember that the Forum was not one house but instead Ia large group of buildings representing the different phases Of Roman life. It included their temple erected to heath en gods and several administrative buildings of the government. And the grand arches and columns erected to commemorate certain military events. The temple of Concordia, for example, was made scr B. C., to celebrate the final reconciliation between the higher and lower classes in life. In fact. it was the temple of peace and equality of suffrage; for after this date the Pleblians, or lower class, had vote in the election of ruler. Even these people could nominate a man from their rank in life for the highest ot flee, and several men who were great rulers in Rome began life as poor boys rose to the highest office in the state In the temple of Concordia severaI great events of public nature after wards happened, among them the fourth oration of Cicero against Cat aline. Example is the tenn pie of Saturn. erected to the heather god of agriculture and eight of the Ionic Greek columns yet stand, having been built 497 B. c.
 The annual festive to this god was in December, the harvest feast 1t was, and history relates that ali Rome went mad on this day in festivity. The tenn pie of Castor and Pollux yet has some Of the preserved ruins and the site of it is certain because the carved images of the two heathen gods, whose names the temple bear, were found here. They were no doubt made where the temple was, about 800 B. C., and the two statues with their horses are yet preseserved at the entrance to Cap itoline hill. In these two heathen tenn ples, just described, was practiced for the first time by the Romans the GUS tom of uncovering their heads on en- tering the place for worship or sac rifice. Also 1t was in these temple services, one occurring in December and the other on the fifteenth of July. first appeared in Roman heathen wor- ship the custom of burning wax can dles. Probably they got them from the ancient tribes of Israel with whom they had been In contact in their wars in Asia Also 1t is probable that from these two customs the present like customs ali over Italy have some col bring. even though they are in church es and temples of christianity. Every where on entering church or cath edral the command is to pull off hats A native guide may yell or even curse in the church but he will pull off his hat This is true in all the churches of christianity. Greeks, Latins Koptics, mad Abyssmians, in Asia; and of course in the Mohammedan churches we have to pull off our shoes or put over them slippers which attendants furnish us, and every where are the candles, big and little, short and long. There may be few worshippers inside but the candles are there The lights in St Peters church in Rome around the high altar never go out by day or night
 But again to the Forum. The south end of it for about one hundred yards now contains the excavated ruins of the law courts of Julius Caesar. These were afterwards greatly enlarged by Augustus Caesar and Calico "Basilica Julia" In honor of the sons of his daughter, Julia, of whom he is said to have been very proud On the floors of some of these houses may yet be seen the original dice tables in black and white stone. Some of the origin al square dice are stin preserved; sew