The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-05-01
Special 10 The Union.
LETTER FROM ABROAD.
Making 1t Pleasant for Tourists Rome
as 1t Really Is-Many Visitors See
Little of the City's Attrac-
tions-How 1t is Done
in Paris, etc.
ROME. ITALY. April %. 1909.

Mess1s. Editors Rome takes good care of her
tourists and foreign residents. Here. nature,
the government. ever courteous. and the IMAM
on the street, all seem to be in league to make
the visitor carry away the impression that the
city of the Seven Hills is the most charming
spot in the universe.
The stories carried home to England and
America by chronic grumbIers about poor sewer
age. dirt, feas. fever, steep stairways and no
elevators, scarcity of fire-places and absence of
bathrooms, have been untrue for twenty years.
The old Papal city, with its medieval d.scom-
forts has long since melted into broad-streeted,
well drained, electric-t rammed metropolis where
practical modern industry and civic improve
ment are stridng side by side with artistic and
intellectual progress. But what's the difference
if we do occasionally encounter conditions I'M
like those at home? Narrow stairs built on the
model of Jacobs ladder, have no power to
brighten the would-be resident, when they lead
to fifth-story apartment, with roof garden
full of trellised roses, carpet of violets, and
view of st. Peters DOME with sunset that
makes you feel that the evening sky has never
before famed with such gorgeous colors and
that no future sinking sun can ever equal the
effect of this particular evening But back
comes the oblging sun next day TO do the same
"stunt" over again with even more glorious
variations. don't know of any other place on
earth where the drop-curtain of the heavenly
theatre works so regularly without hitch as
behind the Vatican hill.
Here the tourist tide" becomes a torrent.
rich idlers love Rome because its fashionable
hotels are unsurpassed, students come to be
nourished with the past. modern pagans, Chris
tians, Psychologists, artists, cynical newspaper
men, all come and all who remain for more than
A.
magic spell.
But it is not a good place for invalids. Fol-
lowing certain rules of hygiene. there is moth
ing to fear more than in other Cities in fact less
but all things animate and inanimate seem to
conspire to make one forget the rules. Since
the Cloaca Maxima has been conducted outside
the walls the sanitary conditions per SO are ex-
cellent. Roman fever is now usually an effect
of overeating, over-exertion or chills. Go into
a cold church in the summer time, come out to
bask in the sun, and then plunge into another
church, and quite likely the iron will enter into
your soul, or rather the chill into the marrow of
your bones Come up from Naples poisoned
with stale oysters or something else you have
taken into your system in that viest, rottenest
of cities, and then blame Rome for your illness.
Come here already dying from consumption and
then exclaim with your last expiring gasp that
Rome has caused your death. Lots of people
do. But if you avoid foolish eccentricities and
treat the place sanely it will return the compli-
ment.
Many tourists, particularly rich society people.
come here and remain for entire seasons with
out ever visiting the Coliseum the Forum and
the other ruins of Imperial Rome, and not be-
cause they are stupid or uneducated, but simply
because there are so many other things to see
and do. The Pope, the King, the two great
branches of local aristocratic society, known as
the "Blacks" and the "Whites," the churches,
one for every day in the year, in which gorgeous
spectacles are always taking place. the theatres
and Sunday concerts, the long opera season, in
which Wagner takes back seat because the
Italians like their Verdi best, the fox hunts
on the Campagna, the thousand and one pleas
ant diversions offered the wealthy stranger, all
combine to make the modern city no mean rival
of the ancient. Babington's Tea Rooms are as
famous as Delmonico's or Sherry's, and here the
tourists gather, make appointments with their
friends, exchange the latest gossip of the wide
world, discuss Partisan gowns, horse races and
impressionistic art, and naturally forget all
about the baths of Caracaia. Just across the
hall is circulating library and reading-room,
cOlloquially known as the "Orsini" and the Co
lonna," because of their locations and because
they are separated by jealouses and discords
reminiscent of the two great feudal houses. If
you are received pleasantly at one of these libra
ries, you are looked on askance at the other.
Books are chosen in these establishments with
view to making visitors forget that any world
exists outside the Aurelian walls They are not
too Deep but are relevant to the locality. for in
stance, Madame de Stael's "Corinne," Hall
Gaines 1.-THE Eternal City," Marion Crawford's
1.-THE Heart of Rome" etc. A course of such
literature has the same effect as lotus eating.
It is insidious. The temptation is to spend ones
life curled up in one of the big leather arm
chairs in the reading room, to saturate the soul
with these glowing descriptions and let the pal
try reality "go hang"
but Shelley's description of the Tiber is so
much more interesting than the Tiber J" petu-
lantly exclaimed sweet young thing the. other
afternoon when her mama tried to drag her
away from poetry and teacups long enough for
drive by the banks of the classic stream.
Up until year or two ago strangers were per-
mitted, after deposting five lire as a guarantee,
to carry these books to their hotels, but volumes
worth more than the deposited sum began to ac-
quire a taste for travel and frequently never re-
turned to Rome despite the fact that the
heroine in nearly all of them had taken draught
at the Trevi fountain by moonlght), and now
one is compelled, under ordinary circumstances,
to read them at the library, or deposit twice
their worth. am on fairly friendly terms with
the American Consul, but the other day he re-
fused to guarantee my honesty in order that
might borrow a number of books from one of
the libraries. He used to do it. he said, but he
had been "let in too many times and had once or
twice been compelled to pay for expensive
books which had been carried of, more care
lessly than dishonesty, he thought. One of his
own cousins, he said, had caused him to pay for
a big volume of Byron, and if he couldn't trust
his own family he would be - if he would
trust rambling newspaper reporter.
In Paris, when you want to find compatriot
whose address you do not have, you always go
to the New York Herald office, in front of the
grand opera; here you go to the Orsni library.
The secretary is most obiging and all the assist
ants speak good English. Only once have seen
one of them at a loss for response. lady had
walked straight up to her without even good
morning" prelude andI had asked: do you
rent books here p
"Rent" was an expression which the young
girl had never previously heard applied to any
thing smaller than villa or piano, SO she re-
ferred the question to the management.
SEABROoK.