Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1912-04-20
Foreign News

Special Correspondence of the Argus.
Rome-As the Venetians stood about
the utter ruins of their campanile, just
ten years ago, to them it seemed ire
vocably lost, gone glimmering through
the dream of things that WERE" In
those first moments the disaster ap-
peared irremediable, but still there is
their tower today, refashioned just as
before, and they rub their eyes almost
thinking it all bad dream.
The campanile fell the morning of
July 14,1902, and already in the spring
of the next year work had been begun
on the new structure, but not before
much time had been lost and angry pas
sions reused over the form it should
take and where it should stand. One
party argued that the ancients when
one of their great buildings was de-
stroyed did not erect another just like
it in its place, but built the best which
living architects could produce They
also said that the old tower had broken
] the symmetry of the piazza and that
/ thus the site of the new structure
should be elsewhere. The other party
was for an absolute reproduction of the
old tower and in the old place, and
| it won the day.
! 1t was soon discovered that matters
might have been much worse than they
were; the campanile was indeed a rub
bish heap, but out Of that rubbish
came wonderful things, bells cracked
but not destroyed, pieces of marble
showing the designs and shapes of
what had been, old bricks bearing the
names of all the emperors, from Nero
to Theodosius, the angel which stood
on the top was little injured, and SC
on
After careful examination It was de
cided to use the old foundations (toc
small for the weight which they had
been made to carry for so many hun
dreds of years. as they were perfect
So in 1903 the Count of Turin, with
Pope Plus X, then Patriarch of Venice
to bless 1t, layed the cornerstone Of
the reincarnation, in the center of the
original foundations. Around them were
driven, over an area of twelve feet
3,O76 fresh hardwood piles, from Ca
dore, the piles being, more or less
nine inches in diameter and twelve
and half feet long. Larch has TIVE
qualities which makes perfect piles
they harden, almost petrify, in the pc
culiar clay of Venice, and they ar,
straight. They averaged twelve 4
Z d.
total enlargement of 900 square yards
and were driven in by a 570-poun'
weight, raised four feet six inches, t
! absolute resistance.
However, the work presented man
difficulties, as for instance, during tn
driving, the northwest corner showed
depression of half foot, due to a dit
ference OF soil. so longer piles had {
. be selected and run through a sand
4 deposit into the clay below.
On this bed Of piles were place
& large blocks of stone cemented II
gether, which when finished, 1t was e!
timated, would hold a weight of 5000
tons, while the completed tower
4 about 10000 tons.
This Work TOOK Two years, and
4 year after the structure was alread
eighteen feet high. Work was the
suspended for over year, due to dis;
greements, so that the end of 1908 a
4 rived before the shaft was finished.
All this time artists were workin
over the decomposition OF the beaut
full Loggia di Sansovino. which stoo
at the foot of the tower, a work
wonderful perseverance. as, for il
stance. the celebrated group Of the NJ
donna with Christ and St John,
terra Gotta, was broken into two thou
and pieces, which have been patient
picked out Of the debris, and, wit
even more patience. fitted together
\ such a manner that what is real