Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1895 — Rome and Paris. [ARTICLE]

Rome and Paris.

Rome, already occupying a central position in relation to the country inclosed within a semi-circle of the volcanic Latin hills, found herself also placed In the center of the oval formed by the Apennines; aud later, after the conquest of Italy, her territory occupied the medium voint of the whole peninsula bounded by the Alps, and marked almost exactly the half-way station between the two extremities of the Mediterranean, the mouths of the Nile, and the Straits of Gibraltar. Paris, again, so finely situated near a triple confluence of the waters, at the center of an almost Insular river-basin, and toward the middle of a concentric series of geological formations, each containing its special products, has also the great advantage of standing at the convergence of two historic roads —the road from Spain by Bayonne and Bordeaux, and theroad from Italy by Lyons, Marseilles and the Cornice; while at the same time it embodies and individualizes all the forces of France In relation to her western neighbors— England, the Netherlands aud Northern Germany. A mere fishing station at first between two naiTow arms of the Seine, the opportunities of Paris were limited to her nets, her barges, and her fertile plain that stretches from the “Mont des Martyrs” to Mont Geneviere. Next, her confluence of rivers and streams—the Seine, the Marne, the Ourcq, the Bievre —turned her into a fair or market; and the convergent valley of the Oise added its traffic to the rest. The concentric formations developed around the ancient sea-bottom gradually gave an economic importance to their natural center, and the historic road between the Mediterranean and the ocean made her the nucleus of Its traffic.—Ellsee Rechis, in the Contemporary Review.