Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1892 — A House with 4,000 Rooms. [ARTICLE]

A House with 4,000 Rooms.

The Vatican, the ancient palace of the Popes of Rome, is the most magnificent building of the kind in tho world. It stands on the right bank of the Tiber, on a hill called the Vaticunus, because the Latins formerly worshipped Vaticinium, an ancient oracular deity, at that place. Exactly when the building was commenced no one knows. Charlemagne is known to have inhabited it over a thousand years ago. The present extent of the building is enormous, the number of rooms, at the lowest computation, being 4,422. Its treasures of marble statues, ancient gems, paintings, books, manuscripts, etc., are to be compared only with those in the British Museum. The length of the Statue Museum alone is a fraction over a mile. Conservative writers say that the gold contained in the medals, vessels, chains and other objects preserved in the Vatican would mako more gold coins than tho whole of the present European circulation. [St. Louis Republic.

A reform which removes one of the most shocking practices of the Dark Ages has just been brought about through a circular sent to all the Governors in Finland, declaring the auction of paupers and iunuti.es to be illegal. Up till now parishes have not had asylums aud workhouses for the sick and aged; but everyone who has from one reason or other hod to live on the parish has once in every year been sold at auction, aud given to tho bidder who has offered the lowest tender.