The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-05-15
Special to The Union.
LETTER FROM ABROAD.
One of the Saddest Spots on Earth Some
Inscriptions That Appeal to the
Heart-A Dangerous Gil
mate-Sunshine IN
popular, etc.

of the saddest spots in the world. 1t is situated
near the Porta di San Paolo, close to the Pyra-
mid of Caius Cestius, in a silent and secluded
grove, where the inscriptions, which tell the
Anglo Saxon visitor in his native tongue of those
who have found their last resting place beneath
the bright skies of the Eternal City. appeal ire
sistibly to the heart
The cemetery has an air of romantic beauty
which forms striking contrast with the tomb
of the ancient Roman Praetor and with the mas
sive walls and towers which overlook it. The
Georgia pine trees the willows. transplanted
from the banks of English streams, the homely
daisies, the blackbirds clamoring among the
cedar branches, the simple Gothic chapel, the
plain marble slabs with their strong, familiar
words of faith eugraven in the good old mother
tongue, are bound to stir the breast of the ex-
patriated wanderer with ineffable melan-
choly longing for his native land, the land TO
which these fellow countrymen who sleep be-
meath the sod were not permitted to return.
But this little corner of Rome is more than
sad and beautiful. 1t is pitiful; for youth and
hope lie buried here in nearly every grave. In
our own land most of us regard Gods acre as the
mortal goal of those whose is run, of men
and women to whom death comes only after they
have lived and loved and labored and grown old
Friends and kindred. it is true. are sometimes
called away in the morning of life, but such
deaths always occasion double grief, because
they seem contrary to nature, and so we term
them "untimely." But here almost every grave
contains the ashes of blighted youth, of shat
teredhope, of unacheved ambition. Few are the
gray heads which lie beneath these mournful
mounds, few the names above which is written
Father or Mother, and. with notable excep-
lions, the short life stories of the unfortunates
u pIar1 1,roco
HE came to Rome in search of health, or fame.
and died.
Some of the inscriptions on the tombs are Bit
ter, some expressive of hopeless resignation,
some of glorious faith To me, the saddest one
of all written below the name of young English
man. who, like SO many of his race, had been
lured into this treacherous climate in the vain
belief that by residence in sunny Italy he might
be delivered from the dread disease which had
marked him for its owns
He asked life of Thee, and Thou gavest him
long life, even forever and ever"
On a neighboring shaft are the following
words:
SACRED to the memory of the Rev. Edward
Glyn Hammond, rector of Winford Herts, and
fellow of Jesus College. Cambridge, who died at
Rome, where he came for the benefit of his
health on the goth day of January, 1926, in the
Goth year of his age.'
And few steps further down the slope, upon
pedestal surmounted by the marble likeness Of
a manly, noble browed youth, is engraved the
epitaph of young dragon of the Royal Scots
Greys, who had sought health in many foreign
climes. and departed this life in Rome, on the
Sd day of May, 1850, aged 81 years." and at whose
| own request the following words were carved
| upon the front of the stone:
-. IL.
Cor. ut semper, meum, 81 non ossa confines J"
The Roman climate, though not, properly
speaking, unhealthy, is exceedingly dangerous
for strangers who do not know how to guard
against the fevers which have arisen from the
Pontine marshes to ravage the Campagna since
early classic times. for strangers, who, from
| carelessness or lack of knowledge, fail to pro-
tect themselves against the rapid changes of
temperature common in the spring and fall.
| The surest and most sensible way to guard
against sickness here is to adopt the precautions
| of the native population, among whom the death
rate is no larger than in other European CAPT.
tails, and comparatively smaller than that of the
| foreign colony at Rome. One of the most com
mon predisposing causes of maladv is exposure
to currents of cold air chills in the stone cold
| churches, palaces and museums, after the body
| has been heated by exercise and in state OF
| Precipitation. Exposure to the direct influence
of the sun, especially in the spring, is also an ex-
citing cause of illness, and this explains the care
with which all natives avoid the sunny side of
| the street. 1t is proverb that none but Eng
| lishmen and dogs walk in the sunshine at Rome.
There is something ironic in the thought that
| the greatest dangers lurk in the very things
which most attract all visitors who are lovers of
the beautiful-the churches and museums, which
i. kl1 clio fr.no
italian sunshine, praised by poets Even for
| those who realize their peril the temptation to
run risks is often overpowering. The picture
galleries are 80 marvellous, and the mellow,
| golden sunlight is so delicious Of late years
| all the first-class guide books, securing the
| collaboration of eminent physicians have de-
voted many pages to the Roman climate, and
| while insisting with apparent truth that it is not
| elementally unhealthy, warn strangers in most
solemn language against the imprudences which
have cost so many lives in the past, and the wide
| dissemination of the exact facts has now re-
| duced to minimum the number of annual
fatalities. If the peculiarities Of the climate
| render imperative SO many precautions on the
part of the hale and robust visitors, one can well
| imagine their danger for the invalid, already
| weakened by disease, who seeks refuge here
from the colder but less facilitating north, at
| tracted by the too much lauded "balmy air" of
southern Italy, and these facts may explain why
the Protestant cemetery at Rome is peculiarly
consecrated to tie young and to those who have
died "untimely" Deaths
What spot in the wide world could be more
fitting resting place than this for the ashes of
Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, the two
poets who died in the flower CT youth. and whose
short lives were the saddest in English litera-
oil m rth uotild tho words m
scribed upon the latters headstone seem so in
keeping with the melancholy environment?
"This grave contains all that was mortal of
young English poet, who, on his death-bed, in
the bitterness of his heart at the malicious
power of his enemies, desired these words to be
engraven on his tombstone: Here lies one
whose name was writ in water"
Shelleys tomb is in the upper part of the new
burial ground, under the Aurelian wall, with
this inscription:
"PERoY BYssHE SHELL, Cor Cordium.
Natus " Aug MDCCXCII.
Obitt VIII Jul. MDCCCXXI
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer sea change,
Into something rich and strange"
The expression, Heart of Hearts, is an allu-
sion to the story that when his body was burnt
on the shores of the gulf of Spezia the heart was
the only portion that the fire did not consume.
In literature the two young poets rank side by
side among the immortals-their fame is equal.
But here beneath the pine trees where their
mortal remains are laid L noticed, on the day
CHANGED to visit the spot, that, if in fulfill
ment of the prophetic epitaphs, Shelley's grave
was hidden beneath violets and roses, while that
of Keats was barren and neglected.
SEABROOK.
AS EVERY section of the country has had a
| Worlds Fair save New England il is not un-
natural that this ancient and important por
| ton of our land should wish for a big exposi
ton also. The Boston Herald which is en-
thusiastic in its advocacy of the movement,
has in prospect most magnificent Worlds
Fair-"an exposition unsurpassed in the spIen-
| dor of its conception, unrivsled in its beauty
and its magnitude, unprecedented in its display
of what is worthy of the worlds acceptance,
and unapproachable in its revelation ofhuman
endeavors" That is a splendid conception