Evening star., 1923-12-20
Gift of Library to Vatican
By the Italian Government

| permit the late Nine. Lima Crispi to
be presented TO her on account of the
very stormy antecedents of the
woman; and also on account of the
! irregularity of her marriage.
/ The late duke started in the very
| heart Of the Roman Campagna, an
| immense tobacco plantation with the
| object of gradually freeing Italy from
/ Ter dependence upon the United
i States for nearly the whole of the
/ 12.000,000 pounds or so Of the herba
| nicotina which she was wont to con-
| sumo each year. The sale of tobacco
! in Italy is a government monopoly.
but the state has been obliged to buy
| nearly all of it in America. whereas
! when the tobacco consumed by the
| Italians can be grown IN their native
/ land the money heretofore spent
/ across the Atlantic would remain at
home. Naturally, the development of
/ this project has been hampered. in
| a measure, by the great war and also
| by the wars with Turkey and in the
| Balkans, which preceded It. But the
| Torlonia tobacco plantation of the
| Campagna is now proving a success,
| and there is no doubt that, in the
course of time, the aim of the late
Duke Leopold Torlonia will be full
! filled.
| In devoting his vast wealth to this
useful and patriotic enterprise, the
| late Duke Leopold was walking in
| the footsteps of his father, Don Giu-
| lilo. who. during the two decades end
| ing in 1875, completed a task which
| Roman Caesars. emperors of the Holy
! Roman empire and sovereign pontiffs
had striven in vain to achieve dur
| ing a period extending over twenty
| centuries. namely, the draining of
| Lake Fucino that big inland sheet of
| ~f tl,A
| cient Romans. measuring some forty
miles in circumference. AS all the
mountain streams of the region drain
| into il and there was no outlet, 1t was
! constantly overfiowing its borders and
| carrying death and destruction into
| the surrounding country. the town
| of Avezzano being among the chlef
! sufferers. Julius Caesar was the first
| to propose the draining of the lake
| in order to avert the disaster and ever
| recurring inundation. Caesar Angus
tus actually inaugurated the work.
Emperor ClaudiuS employed, In vain,
| some 1000 men on the work through
out the last eleven years OF his reign.
Emperor Frederick II lavished human
lives and money without stint, ana, IN
fact after every great inundauon or
| more than ordinary destructiVeness
| the attempt would be resumed TO
drain the lake.
It was not. however, until the late
Duke Giulio Torlonia and his brother,
Don Alessandro, undertook the task
| that the enterprise was brough mt 10
a successful conclusion. thanks 10 tne
amount of money which their enor-
NOUS fortune permitted them to EN-.
hark in the venture and to the skill
| of the eminent French engineers
whose services they engaged, namely,
] NJ de Montrichet, the chief engineer
of the French department. OF the
| Bouches- -du-R Rhone, and M; du Piace,
! the chief engineer Of the Paris-Lyon
] Railroad Company. The diHculties
| were enormous The greater part OF
/ the huge tunnel constructed TO oraln
| the lake into the River Irus having
| to be cut through rock many nun
| dreds Of feet below the surface. me
| tunnel Is eight or ten miles IN lene'h.
X X
and are the only parvenu family at
Rome which has managed to secure
admission to the inner and exclusive
circles of the old patrician houses OF
| the Eternal city by means or inter-
marriage. Every reader OF Thack-
cray will remember the Torlonia ram
| lily which figures in so many OF ms
pages. The great-great- -grandfathe
! Of the present head of the Torlonias
was a Frenchman who hailed from
! Auvergne and who bore the name aot Oh
| Torlogne. He accompanied the nrst
Napoieon to Italy as one Of the sut-
| lers Of his army. Not that he was
| in any way attached to the cause OF
! Napoleon. In fact, he Jared so badly
| that he was reduced to selling in the
| streets of the Eternal city the wood
| en- chips used for getting fire from the
| finder boxes, which was then the
common method of kindling light.
| When Plus VII decided to publicly
oxcommunicate Napoleon then Gen.
| Bonaparte, for having dared to lay
he found no one willing to nail the
| duly signed and sealed bull Of ex-
| communication to the huge doors of
the Lateran Basilica, that mother OF
one ventured to brave the wrath of
Napoleon and of his troops, until Tor
Pogne undertook the perilous task and
Esntia1 SesSsaiaa S9siae