The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1949-08-25

with ass's ears and a serpent
wound around his body. Da Ce-
sena complained of this to the
Pope, who must have had a pref
ty good sense of humor, for he
told Da Cessna that if he were
in Purgatory he, as Pope, could
get him out but as long as Da
Cessna was in hell the Pope was
powerless to get him out of there.
That last part is not in any
guide book but was told by the
guide.
Much later after we were back
home here we had Monsignor Ca
doret of the Petit Seminary in
Carthage, over for dinner. The
talk turned to paintings and he
told us the same story again. 1t
seemed much funnier when the
Monsignor told it. He speaks
English we'll and most of the
time holds the catholic portion of
the services at our cemetery. But
it was real thrill to see the
original paintings by Mcclellan
gelo, Raphael and others whose
pictures have been reproduced in
all our American history books.
The art treasures of the world
had been brought to Rome over
many centuries and there are so
many things to see it is hard to
appreciate any of them. / was
like one-eyed dog in a sausage
factory. Total length of the pas
sageS in the catacombs would be
around several thousand miles.
so / need not add that I've only
seen small part of them. 1t was
rather eerie to follow the monk
who was our guide thru those
damp dark passages. The Chris
tianS had been laid on shelves
which lined the walls and many
of the marble slabs which had
covered the openings had fallen
off or been removed. In many of
them we could see the white
bones glisten as we passed as the
only light was the candle that
the monk carried. Believe me, we
stayed pretty close to our guide.
During the times of the perse-
cutions the Christians went below
ground and worshipped near the
tombs of the martyrs and if they
were found out they were walled
up and left to die of starvation.
Something very similar happen
ed during this war. The Italians
had city dump and a hill there
had long passageways very SINH
lar to the catacombs but a good
deal larger One day 80 Germans
were found dead so the Germans
took 325 Italian prisoners out to
this dump, shot them, and then
piled them back in different pas
sageways and dynamited the en-
frances. Now the Italians are
making national shrine out of
it. The bodies are placed in wood
en- coffins and the passageways
are lined with them. Every day
the relatives come and bring
flowers and many of them burn
candles for the dead. On the top
of each coffin is the picture of
the person in the coffin. 1t is the
most depressing thing l have ever
seen in my life. 1t was like 60
ing to a funeral only 325 times
worse.
But the really interesting part
of Rome to me was the old Ro-
man ruins as l am an old Willy
Shakespeare fan. To walk along
the Sacred Way, the very stones
on which the great ones of an
cient Rome had trod; to enter the
Senate, a building beautifully
preserved; to stand on the very
spot where Anthony had deliver
ed the funeral address for Julius
Caesar; to walk thru the palaces
on Palatine hill; to walk thru the
Colosseum, one of the bloodiest
spot of history, put new meaning
in Roman history and makes
reading Shakespeare much more
intriguing. Many times during
the last nineteen months | have
had to remind myself that ] was
actually seeing all these sights
and not just a travelogue of
someone else's travels. Wish jon
were a little older as l don't be-
lieve he will remember much of
this.
We are planning on long va
cation when this tour is over and
intend to come up to your part
of the country. 1t would be nice
if we could get there at another
reunion time. But We can't plan
on that as we'll have to take our
leave when we can get it. Our
tour will be up May Is, 1850, but
how soon after that we leave
Germany will depend on avail
able transportation and replace
ment personnel. We now have a
little movie camera so whenever
we do get there you will be able
to see a little of what we have
seen here. One thing l would like
to have in a movie is an Arab
wedding but there is no hope of