The searchlight. [volume] (Culbertson, Mont.) 1902-current, 1910-05-13
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towers stand chill and silent along the
narrow lanes Of streets. The small
boys In low voices ask us. not for pen.
MES. but for foreign stamps. and. an.
ticipating our inability to supply them
on demand, they hand us tiny scraps
Of paper upon which are their names
and addresses carefully spelled out in
pencil-unexpected signs of enterprise
In this sleepy place.
After wellserved dinner in the no
tel housed in an ancient palace with a
tower, we set out and follow a guide
whose careful English and smiling
face seem also alien to this strangely
hushed city. We go with him from
church to church. wondering anew at
the skill Of those old architects and
builders of the ages we call dark. We
puzzle out the Bible stories in the
bright frescoes OF Gozzoli and Ghirlan.
daio which line their walls and we
marvel again over that old Italian race
Of men who were fighters. courtiers.
painters or princes of good fellows as
occasion served. In the lovely white
and gold chapel dedicated to her we
listen to the story of the city's patron
saint-Santa Fina--a maiden OF fifteen
who. to expiate sin. lay for five years
upon an oaken board. At the end OF
that time she died after vision OF
Saint Gregory. and the board upon
which she had lain broke out into
flowers. and great tempests arose.
when of sudden the bells In the city
towers rang mysteriously and the tenn.
pests were stilled and. looking up, the
people saw white-robed angels swing.
Ing the bells In their towers: and they
knew that she was holy: and, behold,
as we turned, there upon the walls
We. too. saw the swinging bells and
the white-robed angels-painted by the
hand OF Ghirlandaio.
Then we climbed the stairs to the
old Palace of the People and saw the
spot In the council chamber where
Dante stood when he came from Flor
ence In 1900 and talked for the Guel
fic league" as the marble tablet on the
wall tells us. Little did those people
imagine as they listened to the young
ambassador that upon this visit to
their city in the thick forest" would
rest much Of San Gimignano's fame
In years to come. We wandered
about and studied the battlements OF
the palaces. some with Guelfic and 9th.
ers with Ghibelline trimmings, as the
city. midway between Florence and
Siena. followed the fortunes now OF
one. now OF the other rival.
These towers were once the sigma
of the wealth and aristocracy OF their
owners. who Wed with one another In
building them 80 high that at last the
law had to intervene and regulate
their height and no private individual
was allowed to exceed with his tower
the height OF the tower on the public
buildings. Today only the bats and
owls tenant these proud relics OF the
past and peer from the little windows
from which distant battles were
watched.
out Of the 10000 inhabitants OF San
Gimibnano's prosperous fifteenth cen.
fury days: wars. the black death and
the new trend Of times having left
the place In a backwater OF modern
Italian enterprise.
As We drove out through the gate
and down into the lovely valleys OF
the Elsa. we had 4 feeling az Of hav,
Ing been bodily back In the dim mid.
die ages. Of having taken sides In its
fierce hates and loves and prides. We
had indeed added another vivid impress
sion Of Tuscany to our experiences.
and AZ the sun was reddening In the
west we halted In an lex forest to lis
ten to the clear notes Of the nightin-
gales. the finishing touch to our last
vacation day.
The oracle had said truly-one can
not know Tuscany who has not seen
San Gimignano. the City Of Beautiful
Towers
ADA WALKER CAMEHL.