Catoctin clarion., 1912-07-11

Nnat can We say que -
the worlds city OF the ages.
and it Is improbable that
any conceivable combination
vi advantages can ever produce a
rival to her supreme charms. The
capital OF the greatest empire OF an
tiquity, and In more modern times the
metropolis OF Christendom, she Is un-
like any great city in the world. The
whole of Rome Is one vast museum,
In which the very galleries, palaces.
churckes-which contain the finest OF
its treasures-are themselves but SIM
gle items In that museum which Is
Rome. What gives to all this Its spe-
cial charm Is that Rome is still liv-
Ing city. the capital OF a nation. and
with an actual life OF its own. which
often enough can be seen In its direct
descent from antiquity.
When Hawthorne wrote his fas-
cinating tale OF the TRANSFORMATION. In
the early SOS, Rome was maze OF
narrow, unclean lanes, q congeries OF
evil smelling, sQualid dwellings inter-
spersed with gloomy medieval pal
aces in sad disrepair. In short. an III
drained, ill-lit unsavory old city, teem-
ing with beggars, models, thieves and
cutthroats, and, to cap all, the ac-
knowledged headquarters Of the malig.
nant malarial fever. But the sQualid
city OF Hawthorne's time has now CIV
nlQna n tho finn Uall ohnilt NIT
OF United Italy. We must look to the
most utilitarian reasons for any inter
esI we may feel In Rome today; to
health statistics, to sanitary reform,
to building laws. All these seem
prosaic when done under our eyes,
but the same things We're full OF poetry
when done In the time OF Augustus
and Traian. Let US rid ourselves OF
the Illusions OF time and admit that
to have driven Out dirt. brigandage,
and pestilence, and to have diminished
crime. Is not unworthy tribute to
the glory OF Rome as a modern capital.
writes Harvey Middleton in Grit.
Area Has Increased.
When the Italian troops entered the
city through the Porta Pia on the
memorable goth OF September, 1870,
and papal Rome became the capital
of the reconstructed kingdom OF Italy,
a new era dawned Since that day the
area covered by houses has been in.
creased one-fourth, and the face OF
Rome has changed more in the past
~ years than III the previous three
population Of about 21b,O0O In 1911,
when Rome celebrated the tiftieth an.
niversary OF the Proclamation OF the
Italian Kingdom with three great ex-
hibitions. the population had grown to
nearly half million. II map OF
the city OF 1870 is placed opposite a
map of today 1t Is easy to see at what
point the increase OF building has tax.
en- place The space once covered by
the beautiful Ludovici Gardens is now
handsome and perfectly dull but
healthy houses Other. streets have
arisen on the gardens and fields which
lay on the Esquiline and Celian hills
between Santa Maria Maggiore and
St. John Laterap. A still larger mass
of houses-partly detached or semi
detached viila-like residences, partly
high blocks OF tenement dwellings, In.
habited by the poorer classes-has
sprung up In the district called the
Meadows OF the Castle, pratt di Cas-.
tello). to the north OF the Castle OF st.
Angelo. and to the north OF the Vati.
cana region that was open country
from the time when Cincinnatus titled
It's fields until 1870.
At the, opposite side of the city
thickly set houses line the streets
which run out into the Campagna from
the Porta Pia and the Porta San Lo.
renzo, SO that considerable suburbs
now cover what had been perfectly
lonely and silent region from the days
of the Emperor Constantine to the
DAYS OF Pope Leo XIII. Open vine
Yards have given place to factories,
warehouses and dwellings.
Three new bridges have been flung
across the Tiber to the former farm
lands OF Cincinnatus. In this neigh
borhood, too, all along the city side OF
The Tiber. the enIb;nkment, which has
done so much ior the health OF Rome
has sweat a~av innGmerabie tets