Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 303, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 December 1913 — TOOK LOOK AT ROME [ARTICLE]

TOOK LOOK AT ROME

Impression of Americans on Tour of Eternal City. On Bankd of River Tiber—Brief Resume of the Historical Sights of Ancient Capital Depicted in Humorous Vein. London. —There is a large place down in Italy between Naples and Florence that Is known as the Eternal City. You may have heard of it. It was the place, you know, where Romulus and Remus; Julius Caesar, the victim of the black hand plot; Nero, andrsome other famous persons used to hang out, and which was once saved from some one because a bunch of geese cackled at the psychological moment. Young Remus and his brother Romulus, it seems, started the place and it has been eternal ever since, although a number of lowbrows attacked it with armies and broke up great quantities of its statues and statutes and tried to, swipe it off the map in other ways. But it bit its thumb at all these agitators and still manages to worry along on the lire and centisimi it can wheedle out of curious visitors. Hotel keepers have become its principal citizens. Fpr many, many persons, who just love antique things, go to see Rome every year. Yes, that is the name of the place, if you haven't already guessed it. If you want to do as the Romans do, you can call it Roma. The ruins are great stuff for those who like to investigate the civilization of the folks who lived at the time that Uncle Remus drew a circle on the map and called it Rome, and when Julius Caesar flashed the news to an eager worpi that all Gaul is divided into three parts. You must remember when he did that all the papers got out “extras.”

We were in Pompeii one day and a soldier in the place that must have been the corner grocery of the Pompeiians, for it still seems to be the favorite hang-out for soldiers, guides and other unemployed persons, told us that although, these were pretty fair little ruins, if we wanted to see some ruins that were ruins we should run over to Rome for a few days. We had been out to the Blue Grotto the day before, and as we were still feeling rather blue from the experience, we decided to take a look at tbit Rome place and see if we couldn’t get cheered up a bit So we caught a train that afternoon that happened to be going to the Eternal City. We entered a firstclass compartment. The man who collects the tickets came around after a while and asked to see our billet!. He looked at them a moment and informed us in a grieved tone that they were for the second class compartment We assured him politely that that was all right; that we should just as soon stay where we were, as we didn’t like to change now that we were ail settled. And just to show him that we had no hard feelings toward him we gave him a couple of lire. He understood at once our aversion to making a change and locked the door of our compartment so that we shouldn’t be disturbed. Those com, ductors are charming fellows.

We arrived In Rome along about nine o’clock and took a carriage to a hotel. “In the Eternal City at last,” we murmured. Every one else was saying the same thing in rapturous tones as he got into his carriage, so we did likewise, thinking it was customary; it seems to be a popular remark. Just like every one pulls the old one about seeing Naples and dying when he lands there. Early the next morning we started out to see the Eternal City. W« had to admit that it was quite a place, and that the two famous brothers Started something when they founded the city.. We strolled around to look at the Tiber. We couldn’t discover why any one should look at the Tiber, but It seamed to be a popular pastime, so we joined the rest of them. Red Baedekers flashed in tbe sunlight as a long line of sightseers leaned on

the parapet of a bridge and read what, the book had to say about the Tiber. All we could recall about the stream was that it used to be a favorite cemetery among the Romans. W’henever a person became obnoxious he was thrown into the river. We concluded that such an action was the height of insult. It was just like being thrown into an unpaved street on a rainy day. “Isn’t it lovely?” an enthusiastic young girl exclaimed, turning to me. “Great,” I replied. “Only it seems to have a bad case of jaundice just now. Perhaps this can be cured, however, sp we can’t hold it against the poor river.”