The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-08-02
M HOLIDAYS.
A Few Remaining Moments.


ssNotttaE
In the days OF he earlier EOS we youth
who wished TO be thought cultivated dld
not feel ourselves 30 unless we were desnlv
read In Hawthorne's romance OF sTbs
Marble Faun.' We made that our mstbetIo
handbook In Rome, and we devoutly looked
up all the places mentioned in 1t, because
they were important for being mentioned:
though such places as the Tarpeian Rook.
the Forum, the Capitoline Museum and Tie
villa Borgheee might secondarily have thelr
historical or artistic interest. In like man.
ner Story's statue Of Cleopatra was to be
seen, because It was the "original' Of The
imaginary sculptor Kenyon's Cleopatns
and a certain medieval tower was SACRED
because It was universally identified az thu
tower where the heroine Hilda lived dream.
ing and drawing, and fed the doves that
oircled around its top. We used to SHOW
the new arrivals where Hilda's tower WA
and then stand with them watching a.
pigeons which made 1t u~nmistakable. I
should then have thought I could nevr
forget IL, but I must have passed 1t several
times ~unnoting in my latest Roman ~sojourn.
when one afternoon In a pilgrimage TO ths
Via del Gamboro a contemporary Of that
earlier day glanced around the marrow
piazza through which we were PASSING
and seeing a cloud Of doves wheeling aloft
joyfuliy shouted. "Looki There IL HiDda,s
toweri" and II Hilda herself had waved IA
us from its battIements we could not haye
been surer OF IL. The present vanished and
We were restored to our citizenship In that
Rome Of the imagination which Is greater
than any material Rome, and which II need.
- .~-loxat&~t.k e. 1tnaNuon II Il. IL.
structibIe integrity.
No one to-day probably visits the Capito.
line museum for the Faun of Praxftelz
because 1t gave the book it's lame; but
ut my latest sight Of II I remembered h
with a thrill OF the young piety whiA
first drew me to It.. and Involuntary |
looked again for the pointed. furry cara
as / had done Of old. to make sure that
It wal really the Marble Faun Of Hawthorne.
I was now. however. for no merit Of MIN.
in official and scientific company with
which It would have been idle to shafe
my satisfaction In tho veriication Of tho
Faun's ears. Instead OF boosting II
listened to very interesting talk Of the
deathless Dying Gladiator, who 10 now
held to have been originally looked It
more from below than he has been seen IN
modern times and who IL presently 10
be lifted to something hker his antiqus
level. He in fact requires this from Ne
spectator who would feel all his paths,
as we realized in sitting down and looktns
q little upward at him.
In his room and in the succession q
the rooms filed with his bronze and In
mortal marble companions I was a II
with ghosts Of people I had known In
some anterior life. They were 30 familiar
that I felt no need 70 60 about asking thsr
names, even II the archeologists had not
in several cases given them new nama.
I should have known certain Of them By
traits which remain in the memory long
after names have dropped out Of II. Julius
Cs sar. with his long Celtic upper lip. sdl
looked like a better sort Of Irish American
politician: Tiberius again surprised No
with the sort OF racial sanity and besuty
surviving in his atrocious personality from
his Julian blood; but the too Neronlin
head Of Nero. which seems to have ben
studied from the wild young misaeaht
when trying to look the part had an un-
remembered effect Of chubby idioSy. A
thing that freshly struck me IN the buas
Of those imperialities. which Of courss
must have been done In their ~lfetimes,
was not merely that the subjects were
mostly 30 ugly and evil but that the artists
were apparently safe in showing them %.
The men might not have minded that. but
how had the sculptors managed TO por.
tray the women as they did and liver
Perhaps they did not live, or live long
they are a forgotten tribe. and no one
can say what became Of any given artist
after executing the bust Of an empress
his own execution may have Immediately
followed. But what ia certain 10 that thoes
ladies are no lovelier in their looks than
they were in their lives; to be sure. In thdr
rank they had not 50 great need Of per.
sonal charm as women Of the lower class
The most dignifed and touching face %
well as the most beautiful face among
them is that Of the seated figure which
used to be known as that Of Agrippina but
which. knownno as that Of Romanmatroa.
does not relieve the imperial average Of
plainness. The rest could rival the average
American society woman only In the pro
vailing modernity OF their expresssoa;
imperial Rome was very modern. 40 W
all know. and nothing in our " tina
could be more UP to date than the hv0
and looks Of its smart people.
The general impression Of the othx
marbles Of the Capitoline Museum remains
a composite Of standing. sitting. stoopins
and leaning figures, Of urns and yase'
Of sarcophaguses and basreliefs. you
can be definite about some such delightful
presence as that old River DOING over BIZ
| fountain In the little cold court you 80
first and last a you come and go. hb
more thar your reader. II he is as wis
| you wish him. can ask Of you. have been
wondering whether he could proftaoV
AJAX Of mo some record Of my eIperiepce
in the official and scientific company VIA
| which I was honored that day at the Camp
doglio: but I should nave to offer him aesh
a sort Of composite psyohograph Of ob,eca
| printed one upon another and hardg
separable In they succession. There wouh
| be the figure Of Marcus Aurelius, CON
manding us with ou~tstretched arm Iron
the back Of the bronze charger Whin
would not obey Michael Angelo when d
babe 1t Co. not because 1t was not me
like but because II was o fat to move
Against the afternoon sky. looking Gown
into the piazza with dreamy unconoefn
from their vantage would be the sta1oe
on the balustraded roof Of the museum