Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-01-04

,oi .ho lcuton ana the Anglo-S Saxon
has long been curious fact of history
The Germans especially seem unable
10 resist the temptation OF the Latin
money pots. II is easy to see why. one
might say that everything the gray
north lacks In physical beauty. In gai-
ETY. and ;;rnce of spirit, In art and the
secret or living, the South possesses
abundantly. Across tho frozen passes
OF the Alps, Italy has laid. tempting
with her green plains. her stored
cities. her vineyards and olive orcha rds,
her frctted seacoast and wine darIS'
sea, with all the romance OF her an
cicnt peopled past. her ruins and her
treasures OF art. Over all for many
months of the year semitropical sun
In cloudless sky has shone. drawing
from the rich earth luSuriant beauty.
NO wonder that the German bear has
iustcd after Italy. even more than for
France. and time and again since the
Roman empire began to crulnble has
descended In force upon this blooming,
seductive land. Latterly these inva-
very lately. however. Now, instead OF
soldiers. hordes of German tourists,
scholars and artists with their women
In graz green German clothes, stout
hobnailed shoes and little Tyrolean
caps. have dumped through the gal
lcries. drunk their beer on the Vene-
tian piazzas and poked their way ex-
clamatorily through the narrow Ro-
man streets. 1t is tho same old story,
the desire Of honey from ltaly's honey
pot.
Friendship With England.
The English greed of Italy has been
no less remarkable. though more peace
able. There has long been n tradi-
tional friendship between the two
countries. symbolized at times by in
termarringes For English literature
Italy has been even more necessary
bor Iityn
borrowings OF plot and scene from the
Renaissance on, IT might be said that
English literature would have gone
bankrupt had 1t not been for Italy.
And Italy has been the second home
of many English poets. from Milton to
Keats and Shelley. from Lander to
Byron and the two Brownings. Sculp-
tors and musicians. painters and his
torians. as we'll az the omnipresent
MILFORD Anglnis." all have made their
homes in the pleasant places of this
land. Their villas star the hills about
the Arno, their memories haunt the
canals of Venice and the dark palaces
OF Rome.
Then there are the hordes of mere
travellers and idle eNpatriates who from
| the eighteenth century on have infest-
| ed Italy from the north to the south
| They came thither first in postchaise,
leisurely and richly. for long soJourns.
thus completing the grand tour by
| OF Italy" Now they scuttle over the
fair land in droves by train or motor
| car, doing Italy in ten days or a
month, and OF these many. perhaps
most, are Americans.
why Modernn Love Italy.
There are many obvious reasons why
we moderns love Italy. why the wan
| dcrer thinks first of this goal. 1t liz
the seat of the oldest Christian church
and the most powerful one. 1t con-
|
us OF innumerable conflicts. 80 that
not n corner OF its surface is without
poignant memories. But 1t is not for
such things that people flock to n
country as they overrun Italy. Scholars
and sentimcntalsts. the cultured"
may care for historical remains, but
not the artist. nor the globe trotter.
the idler. in search OF pleasant places
in which to invite his soul.
1t is beauty that draws us thither
and always will, like subtle magnet,
as long as life endures and men hun
ger for something more satisfying than
mere existence And beauty OF an in
flnite variety Italy holds more abund-
antly than any other land. There are
more of the wonders Of. the world"
elsewhere srander mountains. larger
rivers, bigger forests, holder seacoasts;
but nowhere else can such beautiful
and harmonious nature be found az
from the lakes beneath the Alps to the
circling bay OF Naples and southwark
even to the Sicilian shores.
And this Is not n savage nature. iao-
lated. remote, but q nature so human
lied by the hand OF man that the ghosts
of It's departed lovers seem to linger
on in each spot. It's soil hns been
titled to the rocky hilltops. even to the
black lava line of Vesurius and Etna.
and the fertile fields OF to-day just
cover lovingly the dead remains of n
long past Nowhere has man and his
great mother earth been so intimately
mingled. Small wonder then, that men
born in harshcr lands have always
hungered for Italy, which holds SO
much that we dream our earth should
be In beauty and abundance. That
would seem enough!
Art Still Supremacy Rich.
But. no, there is that other beauty
of art in which Italy. terribly robbed
and abused as she has been. is still
supreynely rich. Marble and canvas
and building, she has them all In their
most perfect examples. And In this
| land they do not seem remote treasures
| stored UP in gloomy caverns for safe
keeping as with us. Many of the best
| of her monuments" are still placed in
| their own background. The Roman
| Forum Is the loveliest museum In all
the world. with the olives on the Cap
itoline, dark medieval towers and
| Roman hall still guarding 1t. There
| all ages touch hands.
| Even when the single specimens of
| her art have been tenderly gathered
| up and placed in shelter 1t is not re-
pellent modern museum that holds
| them, but an ancient palace like the
| Pitt or Roman baths or galleries built
| long ago. like the Vatican. Thus. all
| artifice seems removed: art makes its
| appeal to us as 1t should. directly for
it's intrinsic message of beauty, not
as historical example pedantically
labeled and catalogued. It is human
to abhor the torture OF visiting gal
leries and museums where are housed