The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1909-05-29
A Visit to st. Peter's-CIimbing Wonder
full Dome Like Ascending High
Mountain-But One is Well
Repaid for the La
Dor. etc., ct.


English Pretender, James III. uniformed
custodian whose duty it was to take up tickets
and conflscate all contraband articles such as
canes, umbrellas, pocket-kodaks, dynamite
bombs, &C., bounced upon my walking stick,
tapped my pockets and permitted me to pass.
The Vatican officials are clever and courteous,
but they have no sense of humor. Instead of de-
priving the climber of his light cane, in view of
what lies before him, they ought to invite him
to come armed with an iron shod alpenstock and
coil of rope; or better still, they might install
a funicular like that on the slope of Vesuvius.
Being inside building 1 had expected to
encounter staircases and ladders, but found in
stead in the hollow space between the enormous
walls, which were thirty feet thick in some
places, wide spiral roadway paved with brick
and cobblestones up which Rocky Mountain
stage coach drawn by six-horse team could
easily have mounted to the roof. Here and
there along the route were bronze and marble
plates with the names of members of the reign
ing houses of Europe who had made the ascent,
one of the inscriptions recording the fact that
King Edward VII of England had once passed
that way. Considering the corpulency of that
monarch it was a feat worthy of being COM
memorated by a triumphal arch rather than a
mere marble tablet. Encouraged by his Majes-
ty's illustrious example toiled doggedly up
ward in the path trodden by so many royal feet
and at last emerged upon the roof where 1 saw
that the climb had not really begun, for the
gigantic gray dome still lowered above like some
inaccessible snow-capped peak, while the roof
was sort of intermediate plateau country.
call it roof because don't know any other
suitable name, but it was really more like ter
raced villa, built upon mountain side. There
was house for the caretaker, a two story house
stuck OFF in a corner where it seemed like toy,
dwarfed by the surrounding architecture, but if
it had been placed down on the ground in an
ordinary street it would have appeared quite a
respectable dwelling.
There were fountains, sun dials, vegetable
gardens, telephone system and numerous brick
structures invisible from the piazza below be-
cause of the height of the facade. The statues
of the twelve apostles which ornament the
facade seem, when viewed from the ground, to
be only eight or ten feet high, but found on
drawing near them that st. Matthew's little
finger was bigger than my whole arm.
The dome, whether viewed from within or
without, is the great object which commands
the admiration of the stranger who visits St.
Peters for the first time. Nothing can surpass
| the magniicence of its stupendous vault; no
cupola is divided into 16 compartments, orna-
mented with gilded stuccoes and four ranges of
mosaics, the lowest representing the Savior,
the Virgin and the Apostles, and on the ceiling
of the lantern is a mosaic of the Almighty, by
Marcello Provencal The cupola is glorious in
its design, in its altitude and even its decora-
chants the eye, it satisfies the taste, it expands
| hQ c0T1l ho oil fO oaf mr. nj "a
is harsh or colossal and leaves the observer moth
| ing but the sublime to feast on.
| The surprise of the beholder is increased by
the recollection that there is second cupola,
that the dome is double, and that the passages
which lead to its summit wind upward between
the two gigantic shells. However, while 1 was
getting from the roof of the basilica to the in
side of the dome another series of circumstances
occurred to render realistic the illusion that
was mountain climbing. Four times was set
upon and robbed, robbed by fierce moustached
| brigands, who lurked in the ravines and gorges,
which form the labyrinth of passageways be-
| tween the inner and outer dome. Instead of
| showing a revolver or stiletto in my face they
| pushed their gold braided caps under my nose,
and instead of shouting "Your money or your
| lifei' they chartered off confused recital of
measurements and technical details regarding
| the number of tons of bronze used in the dome's
| construction-but the result was the same and
they succeeded in getting every cent of my
pocket change.
The view from the topmost balcony, which
runs around the outside of the lantern directly
beneath the great bronze ball and cross, is one
of the finest in the world. In the foreground
are the rambling palaces, the courtyards and
| - 4 Al q A. L Ia
flows the Tiber, which one may follow with the
eye in its southwestern course toward the sea,
and on clear days the Mediterranean itself is
visible, silver line along the horizon. Closer
lie the Seven Hills of Rome. 1t is easy to dis
tinguish the Aventine with its monastery and
orchards the Palatine, with its massive ruins
the Capital, with its medieval tower, and the
Quirinal, surmounted by Victor Emanuel's yell
low palace, but the Caelian, the viminal and
Esquiline form less prominent features of the
landscape.
Beyond the city walls is the green Campagna,
with its miles of crumbling acqueducts stretch
ing in irregular broken lines toward the Alban
Hills. 1t is difficult to imagine more impress
sive or more beautiful panorama, but it is human
nature to be never satisfied. And on this par
ticular morning young woman, who had made
the ascent with one of Cooks guides, was sulk-
ing because that latter worthy individual was
unable to point out to her Naples and Vesuvius
The guide, who seemed to be quite decent
chap, instead of telling the girl she an igno-
ramus or throwing her bodily over the railing,
suavely assured her that if she would return
another clear day with good pair of opera
glasses it would be a simple matter to see the
volcano.
But after all the real reason why the ascent
time and energy is the new conception it gives
of the immensely of the cathedral. for its enor-
nous proportions cannot be comprehended or
appreciated either from the piazza or from the
interior, even when one is standing beside the
baldechino directly beneath the dome. Byron,
whose poetry contains more solid information
about the monuments of Rome than all the
guide books combined, noticed that the immen-
sity of the building is entirely lost on the obser
yer standing in its nave and commented on it as
follows:
Power, glory, strength and beauty. all are aisled
In this eternal ark of worship indebted.
Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not;
And why? 1t is not lessened but thy mind
Expanded by the genius of the spot,
Has grown colossal and can only find
A fit abode wherein appear enShrned
Thy hopes of Immortality"
The perfect proportions of the architecture,
with the more than heroic size of the statues
mosaics and other decorations diminish the
real magnitude of the building. The eye is SO
accustomed to such figures that these ornaments
supply a false standard by which the spectator
measures the details of the edince without being
sensible that he is doing so. The marble cher
ubs which support the two baptismal fonts at
either side of the main entrance appear to be the
size of ordinary children but are in reality larger
than full grown men. These curious visual
phenomenon may account for the fact that many
visitors are disappointed on their first entrance
to st. Peters, but if they remain in Rome and
return often to the great cathedral its sublimity
begins gradually to dawn upon them.
st. Peters is the embodiment of thought, of
a religion, of humanity's loftiest aspirations.
1t is temple destined to enshrine the philoso-
ply and faith of mankind. Michel Angelo COM
pretended the word Catholicism in its broadcast
sense and achieved in his masterpiece its most
complete expression. st. Peters Is the stone
apotheosis, the monumental TRANSPORTATION of
the religion of Jesus Christ. The architecture
of the Gothic cathedrals in the north is splendid
but full of barbarian and medieval superstition,
while st. Peters is the philosophic Christian
from which the genius of the bull
der banished darkness. shadows and mystic
gloom, chasing from their lairs beneath the
caves the grinning gargoyles, the hideous half
human beasts, the crouching devils, who lurked
at the basis of contorted columns, and replacing
this traditional petrifed compromise between
jungle and an inferno with beauty, symmetry,
purity and light. 1t is the most abstract temple
that human genius. inspired by the idea of the
Divine, has ever raised on earth. The mind does