The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-06-05
Special TO The Union.
LETTER FROM ABROAD.
A Childish Fancy About Plutarch And
His "Lives"-The Forum of
Trajan-Simply a Cat
Hospital, etc.

mere matter OF twenty centuries, not in the age
of the Imperial Caesars but about In the Spring
of 1890, which seems to me an epoch infinitely
farther distant, became deeply interested in
that monumental work, 1.-THE Decline and Fall
of the Roman Empire" Though scarcely five
years of age frequently forsook toys and play
mates to spend long hours in my fathers library
with an appreciative mind concentrated on the
ponderous volumes of the great English histo-
rian. They made such excellent building blocks
In that same epoch of kindergarten kits and
curls, it occurred to me one afternoon that 1T
would be nice to have red roof to the top of the
marvellous palace was constructing on the rug
before the open fire, and for this purpose chose
a gorgeously bound volume of Plutarch's lives.
II made splendid architectural effect, but the
title puzzled me. Il used to read all the titles
because thoy were in big, shiny capital letters.)
Why was it "lives'' instead of life? Who was
this Plutarch whose biography had to be written
in the plural? That night lay awake in my
little crib, vaguely bordering the question, and
at last great light broke upon me; a man has
only life" but cats have ''lives"--nine of
them, so 1 had been solemnly assured-erRo,
Plutarch was cat! Now wasn't that a triumph
of logic for five-year-old2 And it was evident
from the size of the book that Plutarch could be
no common nursery-rhyme feline. no "ding
QOQg- pussy Sill buc-Wcll Aiuu VI q OCdoD
but rather an animal of high degree, possibly a
bewitched prince. From that moment 1 became
the admirer of the mysterious Plutarch and
secretly cherished the hope that some day I
might make his acquaintance. Every time
strange cat arrived in the neghborhood 1 spied
upon it's habits to see if it might not be Plutarch
in disguise, but was always disappointed, and
at last my hopes of meeting this wondrous king
of cats were buried with other childish dreams.
Well, yesterday met Plutarch recognized
him instantly by the nobility of his countenance
and the superb dignity of his surroundings. He
was enthroned upon broken marble column in
the centre of Trajan's Forum his tail was ele-
gantly cured among the acanthus leaves of the
Corinthian capital; his black fur cleaned like
onyx in the golden Italian sunshine and his
green eyes were contemplating with sphynx-
like gravity the glorious ruins strewn around
his feet. It was quite easy to distinguish him
from the forty or fifty common cats who were
prowling among the classic relics with their
/ vulgar minds bent on fish-scraps.
The Forum of Trajan is large rectangular
pit possibly $50 to 800 feet in extent in the CEN
ter of a modern public square. 1t is eighteen or
twenty feet deep and is surrounded by an iron
railing. Its soil is covered with luxuriant grass,
| and down there. imbedded in the verdant sod,
| are countless massive broken columns and pic
turesque fragments of the splendid temples
which formerly stood on the spot. This Forum
has been for years the abode of all the homeless
| cats of Rome. Any day, rain or shine, winter or
| summer, scores of them are visible and on
bright spring mornings, during the hours when
the sun imparts a momentary warmth to the
messy stones, they become the chief feature of
the landscape. They do not seem homogeneous
or out of place, and, indeed, the forum would
lose half its desolate impressive beauty if they
were chased away.
"They say the Lion and the Leopard keep
The courts where Jamshyd glor.ed and drank
| Deep"
wrote Edward Fitzgerald, describing the ruins
| of Babylon's departed grandeur. and poets have
always agreed that it is necessary to have some
kind of menagerie roaming wild among the
verses in which they depict the sites of buried
cities. Now lions and lizards are more illitera-
tive than plain cats. but the latter are better
adapted for decorative purposes to spot visited
| every season by one hundred thousand fat Ger
| man tourists. Two or three dozen lions roaring
| around loose on the Palatine or in the Forum
would undoubtedly imparta certain tone to the
| picture, especially by moonlight, and might
| even be made practically useful If trained to
| devour professional guides on sight, but it is
possible that nervous old ladies might object to
| the innovation. The cats, on the other hand,
| please everybody. Visitors have often wondered
| why there are more of them in Trajan's Forum
| than in any other spot in Rome and, indeed,
there is a special reason, which learned last
| night from my obliging and intelligent hostess,
| Signora R. This Forum, she tells me, is
| the Roman cats poorhouse. the felines' found
| ling hospital, the kittens orphans home. 1t
| has been so for half century. When Roman
wishes to get rid of a cat instead of tying a
| stone around its neck and throwing it into the
| Tiber, he simply carries 1t to Trajan's Forum
and drops it over the iron railing t could, if it
chose. climb out of the pit with greatest ease.
| but it never does and never goes back home.
81 remember once when was little girl, -
said Signora R, "a cousin. who lived at
| Tivoli, presented me with fine Maltese cat.
| My mother didn't like animals, but yielded to
my entreaties and let me keep the pet. However,
| it turned out to be the wrong kind of cat and
got into the annoying habit of having kittens
every six weeks. presented them to all my
friends and playmates, right and left, and man
aged by hook or crook to get rid of the first two
families, but when the third litter arrived pune
tually on the scene my mother lost all patience,
| packed the cat and kittens in basket, hung the
basket on my arm, tied a pink sunbonnet be-
| meath my chin, for it was the month of May, and
| sent me Off to the Forum. 1 cried while was
| lowering the basket into the pit, and at first
went back every morning with little package
of meat, but there were so many Maltese kittens
that could not be quite sure which were mine'
and at the end of week, when leaned over the
railing and called 'Peppa, Peppa, Peppa,' they
all came running together and couldn't tell
at ALL
How the custom of abandoning cats in this
particular spot originated have not been able
to learn. To borrow phrase from the archeolo-
gists, "history is silent on the subject" but by
a queer coincidence it was in this same neigh
borhood that stood the Egyptian temple Of Isis,
one of the few edifces of Imperial Rome in
which the strange gods of the Nile replaced those
of Olympus. Cats, as everybody knows. were
held sacred by the Egyptians and by converts to
their cult, and the supposed site of the temple
in which these animals were anciently worship
ped makes peculiarly fitting refuge for the
modern deserted felines of the Eternal City, a
refuge in which, though not worshipped as of
old, they are at least well fed and unmolested,
for every day people bring them scraps of food
which they throw down into the pit for the fun
of seeing them scratch and scramble Indeed
feeding the cats in Trajan's Forum has become
a public pastime, something like feeding the
swans in New Yor1s Central Park and the
pigeons at Venice. SEABRooK.
AN EXECUTIVE order issued on the 18th of
May was found to be the first step in the policy
of economy and retrenchment contemplated
by this administration. Its purpose is to sys
tematize the purchase of supplies needed in
common by two or more departments, to pro.
cure such supplies at lower and more uniform
prices and to create General Supply Com
mittee. This committee is to be made up of
one representative from each department and
independent bureau and its duty will be to
prepare a schedule of all supplies needed by
the various departments and bureaus before
the end of each fiscal year. A uniform method
of advertisement, inspection and testing is
prescri bed.
FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND people witnessed
the opening of the Alaska Yukon Pacific Ex-
position at Seattle on Tuesday. June LIST. An
elaborate program was carefully carried out
and the show starts under the most favorable
auspices. President Taft. in the White House
at Washington, touched the golden key that
set in motion the machinery over 5000 miles
away. 1t cost s1O,OOO,OOO to get this EXPOSE
ton under way.