The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-07-12
Some of ItaIy's Richest Treas
ures and Memories May Be
RuthIessIy Destroyed.

4 5. / :
WASHINGTON, July 12.-Where
romance and industry, beauty and
! squalor, the greatest in art and yert-
est quacleery run riotous patterns
throu gh the sub-A1pine lands of Italy.
| invasion is threatening again. and
such of the rich heritage of civiliza-
ton as has weathered the many
storms that have gathered and
broken over northern Italy, is again
in danger of wars ruthless destruc-
ton. Some of Italy's richest treas
sures and memories are contained
in her northern cities. and here, too,
lies the weight of Industrial, com
mercial and political italy. An in
innate description OF these provinces
AUDITING upon the latest battlefront
tier has been prepared for the Ma
..tional Geographic Society by Florence
Craig AIbrecht. whose understanding
of Italy is that OF a longtime, SYM
pathetic friend. She writes:
The fatal gift of beauty which
is Italy's dover, is that Of each of
her children, as their history Is hers.
The unified Italy, which our genera
ton has known. is no older than US.
The peninsula bounded, roughly
speaking, by the Alps. the Mediter-
hanean, the Adriatic and the TYR
henean sea. has been occupied from
the dawn of history. to our own time
by countless rival states; has been
in turn both conqueror and con-
bouered: ruler of half the world. vas
sal of petty kings. Each os its an
cient cities presents shield so dented
with scars, SO overwr1tten with
words and deeds. that no casual tour
ist NAV decipher it. It's loneliness.
however, he may none-the-less enjoy.
TtaIy'S Glowing Pages.
.tIf Italy's pages in history are
drenched in blood, they are gilded
I,and glowing also with music and
poetry and song, with valor and love
and art. II she were not a nation.
she was the home of many; bit
of earth so lovely that the coolest
headed geograpler must admire;;
mace that gave birth not only to
wondrous fruits and flowers, but to
marvellous children of men.
what our debt to her may be-
IN architecture, In sculpture. in
painting, In music. in poetry. in all
that raises life from dull necessitous
routine-none may measure Her
political past we may criticize; her
artistic, never.
prom Genoa northward to Pavia
;s hut little way, but that way
is over the Ligurian Alps. all green
and gray with vineyards and olives,
and noisy with swift little rushing
rivers. and milI-wheels clacking
around-a lovely way that eventually
brings us into the plain Of Lombardy
And here there are many rich cities
and much of art and of history, for in
this great fertile plain between huge
mountain chains armies have ever
rathered. looking up toward the Alps
10 great victories over the pagans
i.bevond them, or, themselves pagans.
rejoicing in the 1uxuriance spread pc
fore them, as they faced 5oyously the
Apennines and Rome.
Alps Natural Barrier.
teNorthward the snow peaks OF the
Aims form a natural barrier, it would
seem, to the nation tenanting this
peninsula; but soldiers have little
sympathy with geographical boun-
daries save for strategic purposes.
and dip1orflAtists none. The western
chain of Alps bends southwark to
the Mediterranean. ending presum-
ably in the breat headland between
Nice and Monaco. Across this ply
steal boundary line Italy's western
limits have been thrust back and
forth through centuries, reaching
once far beyond Nice. at present not
quite touching Mentone. which is
fifteen miles to the East OF It: In
the Central Alps the southern slopes
lifelong to Italy. although. Of course.