The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1923-05-17


Prince Gelasio Caetani, Italian ambas-
sador to the United States. The story
is accompanied by large picture OF
the ambassador as he appears today
also picture Of him in his working
clothes at Kellogg and view of the
Bunker Hill & Sullivan mill.
A Prince Of a Fellow.
Back in 1903. a tall, why young man
in his early thirties came from Col
umbia university to work for Mr.
Stanly A. Easton at the Bunker Hin
x sullivan mines, Kellogg Idaho. lie
had a slight foreign accent and an
aiistocratc bearing that struck his
associates as an anectaton until they
learned from association that e was
Unborn and that, in spite of it, he was
a prince Of a fellow. royal and COM
panionable.
His name, Gelasio CaetanL was
hard to remember 1t sounded funny
and foreign to Americans. But his
ability as a creative engineer was
striking He had graduated with hon
or from the Royal School of Mines
and post graduated at Columbia. In
vacation periods he had served as
miner, timberman and underground
surveyor in Colorado and in the deep
coal mines Of Belgium and Yorkshire /
England. And on the Bunker Hill en-
cheering staff he worked himself mp 1
rapidly until. after having been time
transferred to the Treadwel island /
mines in Alaska, he returned to be- /
come superintendent of mills for the |
Bunker Hill K Sullivan company /
That was in 1909
Today in 1928. one will find at /
Washington distinguished gentle
man lately come from Rome to be ann
bassador TO the Emitted States from /
the court OF his majesty King Victor |
Emanuel H. He was picked for the |
place by the dynamic premier Mus
solini. He bears an enviable war
record in the Italian military engin- |
eering corps and there is a tale to be
told how he directed the remarkable
feat of blowing up on April II. 1916, |
the summit of Col di Lana, an Aus
trian stronghold in Val Cordevole on |
the Italian front And the name of |
this distinguished gentleman is Prince |
Gelasio Caetani.
1t is the same tall. wiry fellow who |
be sure, time has made many changes |
in his appearance as it has in his for
tune From Caetani, the cub engin- /
Ger. TO Prince Caetani the ambassa- /
dor and war hero. is not the jump or |
day
II appears that the Idaho mining en-
gineer. after finishing his work at the |
Bunker HILL went into private engin-
eering practice at San Francisco. as
sociating himself with Albert Burch /
a former manager of the Bunker Hin |
mine. and with its resident geologist.
under the firm name of Burch Gaze /
tani x Hershey. They specialized in
ydro-metallurgy and mill design.
In 1914 came the war and Italy's en-
trance. Caetani dropped his engin
eering affairs and returned home He
was made captain i'm the First regi-
ment of royal engineers served dur
ing the whole war and retired with
many decorations and colonelcy
Then, succeeding to extensive fam
lily estate and the titles which have
come down in a straight line of sue.
n.
Caetani settled down to serve Italy
He constructed a canal to drain ex-
tensive marsh lands between Rome
and Naples He subsequently be 5
came a member of the city govern
ment of Rome later went to the Ital-
ian house OF deputies With Musso-
lini he was one of the original %
members of the fascist movement :
launched by conservative service men
TO keep Italy out of the bolshevist and q
tra-radicai class II is natural Sc
quence that this man so influential in
Italy so much i'm harmony with its ,
government and SO familiar with Am
erica should now be Italian ambassa-
dor at Washington.
Robert n. Bell, former state mine
inspector of Idaho. has given the
Statesman this story Of a personal
experience with Caetani. the Idaho !
engineer: In
Due 70 a very serious coal famine !
i'm the winter of 19O9-1O. 7 was able ,
to interest Mr.. Bradley. Of the Bum a
l1er Hill and two other prominent
Occur dAlene operators in the con
sideration Of the purchase of coal de !
uosits i'm Fremont county. Idaho. near !
ine Wyoming line. and Mr.. Caetani !
was selected as the examining engin- !
Ger.
81 met Mr.. Caetani through a tele- 1
graphic appointmentment at St An ]
thony. He had checked his dunnage /
bag at Kellogg, containing his work 7
ing clothes, but on arriving at st. An I
fhOnv found if had NOT oor,e flro,torl, / {