The sun., 1908-05-10

medieval church which IA turning itself into
his study, of listening TO his PREDATORY talk,
80 informal and 40 easy that one did not
realize how learned 1t was, and then Of fol-
lowing him down TO the scene OF his re-
searches and hearing him speak wisely,
poetically, humorously, even, Of what he be-
lieved he had reason t. expect Ia find. We
stood with him by the Arch Of Titus and saw
how the sculptures had been broken from
II In the fragments found at its base, and
how the richly carved marble had been
burned for limein the kiln built few feet of
80 that those who wanted the lime need not
have the trouble Of carrying the sculptures
away before burning them. handful OF
iridescent glass from house drain near by,
where 1t had been thrown by the servants
after breaking It, testified Of the continuity
Of human nature In domestics Of all ages.
A somewh hat bewildering suggestion of the
depth at which the different periods Of Rome
underlie one another appealed from the
mouth Of the imperial we'll or cistern which
had been sunk on the top OF a republican
we'll or cistern at another corner Of the
arch. In a place not far Of, looking like
potter's clay pit, were graves 80 old that
they seem to have antedated the skill Of
man 10 spell any record Of himself and in
the small building which seems the provi-
sional repository Of the archeologist's finds
we saw skeletons Of the immemorial dead
In the ooffins Of split trees still shutting them
imperfectly in. Mostly the bones and bark
we're Of the same Indifferent interest but
the eternal pathos Of human grief appealed
from what mortal part remained Of little
child with beads on her tattered tunic and
an ivory bracelet on her withered arm
History in the presence Of such world old
atomies seemed an infant babbling Of yes
terday, In what It could cay Of the Rome Of
the Popes, the Rome Of the Emperors, the
Rome Of the Republicans the Rome Of the
Kings the Rome of the shepherds and cow
herds, through which a shaft sunk in the
Forum would successfully pierce In reach
ing those aboriginas whose sepulchres
alone witnessed that they had ever lived.
II is the voluble sorrow common 10 all
the emotional visitors in Rome that the past
Of the different generations has not been
treated by the present with due tenderness,
and the Colosseum is a case notoriously in
point. But II il was an Italian archRologist
who destroyed the wildng growths in the
Colosseum and scraped it 10 a baroness
which nature is again trying TO clothe with
grass and weeds, it ought to be remembered
that il is another Italian archeoogist who
has set laurels all up and down the slopes
Of the Forum and has invited roses and
honeysuckes 10 bloom. wherever they shall
not interfere with science but may best
help repair the wounds he must deal the
soil in researches which seem no mere dis
sections, but feats Of a conservative. almost
a constructive surgery. 1t is said that the
German archRologists objected 10 those
laurels where the birds sing 30 sweetly;
perhaps they thought them not strictly
scientific, but when the German Kaiser,
who always knows 80 much better than lall
the other Germans put together, visited the
Forum he liked them and he parted from
the Genius Loci with the imperial charge,
-Laurels, laurels. evermore laurels.' After
that the emotional tourist must he hard
indeed TO please who would begrudge his
laurels 10 Commentators Boni, or would not
wish him a perpetual crown Of them.
W. d. HowEL1s,