The citizen., 1913-12-12
Impression OF Americans on
Tour of Eternal City.
On Banks of River Tiber-Brief Re.
sumo of the Historical Sights of
Ancient Capital Depicted in
Humorous Vein.

London.-There is a large place
down in Italy between Naples and
Florence that is known as the Eternal
City. You may have heard of it. 1t
was the place, you know, where Ro'
mulus and Remus; Julius Caesar, the
victim of the black hand plot; Nero,
and some other famous persons used
to hang out, and which was once
saved from some one because bunch
of geese cackled at the psychological
moment. Young Remus and Isis broth
er Romulus, it seems, started the
place and it has been eternal ever
since, although a number of lowbrows
attacked it with armies and broke up
great quantities of it's statues and
statutes and tried to swipe it off the
map in other ways. But it bit its
thumb at all these agitators and still
manages to worry along on the lire
and centisimi it can wheedle out OF
curious visitors. Hotel keepers have
become it's principal citizens.
For many, many persons, who just
love antique things, go to see Rome
every year. Yes, that is the name OF
the place, if you haven't already
guessed it. If you want to do as the
Romans do, you can call it Roma.
The ruins are great stuff for those
who like to investigate the civiliza-
tion of the folks who lived at the time
that Uncle Remus drew a circle on
the map and called it Rome, and when
julius Caesar flashed the news to an
eager world that all Gaul is divided
into three parts. You must remember
when he did that all the papers got
out extras"
We were in Pompeii one day and a
soldier in the place that must have
been the corner grocery of the Pom
peiians, for it still seems to be the
favorite hang-out for soldiers, guides
and other unemployed persons, told
us that although these were pretty
fair little ruins, if we wanted to see
some ruins that were ruins we should
run over to Rome for few days. We
had been out to the Blue Grotto the
day before, and as we were still feel
ing rather blue from the experience,
we decided to take a look at this
Rome place and see if we couldn't get
cheered up a bit.
So we caught a train that after
noon that happened to be going to the
Eternal City. We entered a first
class compartment. The man who
collects the tickets came around after
a while and asked to see our billeti.
He looked at them a moment and in
formed us in a grieved tone that they
were for the second class compart-
ment. We assured him politely that
that was all right; that we should
just as soon stay where we were, as
we didn't like to change now that we
were all settled. And just to show
him that we had no hard feelings to-
ward him we gave him a couple of
lire. He understood at once our aver
sion to making a change and locked
the door of our compartment so that
we Shouldn't be disturbed. Those con-
ductors are charming fellows.
We arrived in Rome along about
nine o'clock and took a carriage to a
hotel. "ln the Eternal City at last"
we murmured. Every one else was
saying the same thing in rapturous
tones as he got into his carriage, so
we did likewise, thinking it was Gus
tomary; it seems to be a popular re-
mark. Just like every one pulls the
old one about seeing Naples and dying
when he lands there.
Early the next morning we started
out to see the Eternal City. We had
TO admit that it was quite place,
and that the two famous brothers
started something when they founded
the city. We strolled around to look
at the Tiber. We couldn't discover
why any one should look at the Tiber,
but it seemed to be popular pastime,
so we Joined the rest of them. Red
Daedekers flashed in the sunlight as
long line of sightseers leaned on