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for a minute, gave a whisk with his tail and bounded off across a bed
of artichokes which a gardener was cultivating on the Palatine Hill.
The poor man complained that he had lost all his chickens by the
depredations of these marauders.
Everybody has heard of the Vatican. This is an immense palace
adjoining St. Peter’s, formerly the residence of the Pope, and now
famous for its pictures and statues. I hardly knew which of the two
struck me with the greater astonishment—St. Peter’s, with its
stupendous architecture and gorgeous embellishments, or the
Vatican, with its endless treasures of art. Gallery, hall and saloon
open upon you, one after another, till there seems literally to be no
end of statues, vases and columns of precious marble and porphyry.
Beautiful fountains of water are playing in the pavilions, and long
vistas of sculpture carry the eye a quarter of a mile in length. The
apartments amount to many thousands: the wonder is that any man
ever undertook to count them. All description of this place seems an
utterly vain attempt. It is realizing the dreams of fairy splendor to
wander over it.
After the ceremonies of the Holy Week are over, strangers
generally leave the city, and Rome becomes a quiet place. There is
little traffic or industry here, although the population is nearly double
that of Boston. No rattling of carts over the pavements, no throng of
busy passengers in the streets, give tokens of active business. The
shopkeepers sit idly at their counters, and look as if a customer
would astonish them. Two or three little feluccas lie at a landing-
place in the Tiber, unloading coffee and sugar from Marseilles, and
this is all that looks like commerce. Rome has nothing to export but
rags and pozzolana, or volcanic sand, which, mixed with lime, forms
the composition known as Roman cement. At sunset the genteel
classes ride out in their carriages to the gardens in the neighborhood
of the city, and this gives some appearance of life to the place at that
time. But far the greater part of the day the streets are lonely and
still. The shopkeepers close their doors after dinner and go to sleep.
Rome is full of splendid palaces and churches, profusely and
magnificently adorned with pictures, sculptures, precious stones,
gilding, and every other sort of embellishment. The shrines of the
saints are very curious. They are covered all over with votive
offerings from persons who have been sick or have escaped from
accidents. If a man is in danger of drowning, or is run over by a
horse, or gets a bang on the shin, or has a sore finger, he makes a
vow to his favorite saint, and, after his escape or recovery, gives him
a present of a little silver ship, or leg, or finger, which is stuck up in
the church as a memento of the saint’s intercession and the man’s
gratitude. In this manner you may see the walls of a church covered,
for many yards square with silver legs, toes, arms, hands, fingers,
hearts, ears, noses, and nobody knows what else. A traveller
unacquainted with the fact might take them for hieroglyphics. All
sorts of rich offerings are made to these shrines. I have seen the
figure of a saint in a glass case completely covered with gold
watches, rings, bracelets, necklaces, &c. When the saint finds
himself so overloaded with ornaments as to leave no room for any
more, he allows himself to be stripped. The watches and jewels are
sold, and the shrine is open for new presents. It is easy to see how,
in a long course of years, this practice, and others similar, have
brought into the treasury of the church that abundance of wealth
which has been lavished upon the magnificent edifices of this
country. The votive offerings above described are so numerous and
constant that the silversmiths have always for sale, heads, legs,
hearts, arms, &c., of all sizes, to suit the customer as to wealth or
devotion. Sometimes the offering is accompanied with a painting
descriptive of the event commemorated; and you see a portion of the
church walls covered with the oddest pictures in the world. A man is
tumbling down a ladder; another is run over by a carriage; another is
knocked on the head with a club; another is kicked by a horse;
another is running for life, with a mad bull at his heels; another is sick
abed, with a most alarming array of doctors and apothecaries around
him, &c.
Fountains are abundant throughout the city: and it is most
agreeable, in the hot weather which prevails here for the greater part
of the year, to hear the murmur and bubbling of the rills and jets of
water which adorn every street. When we consider the enormous
sums of money which the ancient Romans expended upon their
aqueducts, and behold the immense lines of arches that stretch
across the country, we cannot be surprised that the modern city is
better supplied with water than any other place in the world. It is
brought from a great distance, as the water in the neighborhood is
very bad. In one of my rambles, a few miles from the city, I passed a
stream running into the Tiber, which appeared almost as white as
milk, and had a strong smell of sulphur. All the country round here is
of volcanic origin; yet there has been no eruption or appearance of
subterranean fire within the memory of man.
Rome is a fine residence for a person with a small income, no
business to do, and the wish to get as much as possible for his
money. House-rent is as low as one can reasonably desire. You may
lodge in a palace with galleries paved with marble and the walls
covered with the finest paintings; for the Roman nobles are poor and
proud; they will not sell their palaces or pictures, even though
threatened with starvation; but they let their best rooms to lodgers,
and live in the garrets. In all Rome I saw but one new house:—a
sure sign of the low value of real estate. The markets are cheap;
clothing costs about half what it does in America. The people have
some queer ways in buying and selling. Many things sell by the
pound, which we never think of putting into scales: apples, cherries,
green peas, firewood, charcoal, &c. I inquired as to a pair of woollen
stockings at a shop, and the goods were weighed before I could be
told the price. I bespoke a pair of boots, and calling one day to see if
they were done, I found the shoemaker at work upon them, but the
leather had never been colored. “Body of Bacchus!” said I—for that
is the current Roman exclamation—“I don’t want yellow boots,
Signior Lapstonaccia!” I was surprised, however, to be told that the
Roman cobblers always made the shoes first and colored the leather
afterwards.
The greater part of the campagna or open country about the city
is kept waste by the malaria or unwholesome air of summer. What is
the cause or nature of this noxious vapor, no one has yet been able
to discover. The soil is perfectly dry, and there is no marshy land or
stagnant water in the neighborhood which can impart unhealthy
moisture to the atmosphere. The sky is beautifully clear in almost
every season, and each breeze that blows seems to savor of nothing
but balmy purity. Nevertheless, the country for miles is uninhabitable,
and shows a desolate plain, with a field of wheat here and there, or a
few scattered willow trees and thickets of bramble. Shepherds feed
their flocks among the ruins during the healthy season; but there are
no villages till you come to the hills of Albano, Frascati and Tivoli, in
which neighborhood the Romans have their country seats.
The malaria also infests the city, particularly the ruinous portion.
Strangers seldom pass the summer in Rome on this account,
although I was told there is no danger of sickness for any one who
does not go out at night, and takes care to sleep with the windows
shut. The unhealthy season is from June to September. During the
remaining months Rome is thought to be as healthy as any spot in
the world. The winter is delightful, being mostly like the finest
October weather in New England.
I could fill a book with stories about this wonderful place; but the
brief space allotted to me makes it necessary to pass on in my story.
The Deluge.
BOYS AT PLAY.
Here are three boys at play. Each boy has a hoop, which he
strikes with a stick, and it rolls along. It is very pleasant to roll a
hoop. If you strike it hard, it flies along very fast, and you must run
with all your might to catch it.
You must take care not to drive your hoop among horses. I once
knew a little boy playing with his hoop in a street. A horse was
coming along, but the boy was looking at his hoop, and he did not
see the horse. His hoop rolled close to the horse’s fore feet, and the
boy ran after it.
The horse was going fast, and he struck the boy with his foot. The
boy fell dawn, and the horse stepped on his leg. The poor boy’s leg
was broken, and it was many weeks before he got well.
THE GIRL AND KITTEN.
“Come, pretty Kit, come, learn to read;
Here with me sit; you must indeed.
Not know your letters! fie, fie! for shame!
The book I’ll hold; come! spell your name!
Now try to say K I T, Kit;
For you may play where you think fit,
Upon the bed, or on the tree,
When you have said your A B C.”
’T was snug and warm in Mary’s lap,
So pussy thought she’d take a nap.
She went to sleep,—the lazy elf!
And Mary read the book herself.
She learned to read, she learned to spell,
And said her lesson very well.
And now, my little reader, say,
If you from books will turn away,
And be like Kit, an idle thing,—
Now catch a mouse, now twirl a string;
Or will you learn to read and spell,
And say your lessons very well?
Varieties.
If you think the above worthy a place, you can publish it.
You may hear from me again soon. My sheet is full, so I have
but to subscribe myself,
Very respectfully,
W. F. W.
Dear Sir:
My little daughter has handed me the following puzzle to
send to you for your next number, which please insert, and
oblige
A Subscriber.