112 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March, 1921 
DR. HENSHALL’S EUROPEAN TRIP 
WHILE IN PARIS HE VIEWS WITH INTEREST SOME TYPE 
SPECIMENS OF HIS FAVORITE FISH— THE BLACK BASS 
F ROM Naples Judge Longworth and 
I went to. the Eternal City — Rome, 
the most celebrated city of the 
world, famous in both ancient and mod- 
em history; formerly, as has been said, 
for being the most powerful city of 
antiquity, and later for being the ec- 
clesiastical capital of Christendom. It 
is built on both banks of the historic 
Tiber, and rests on seven hills — Pala- 
tine, Capitoline, Aventine, the Quirinal 
and several of lesser note. Rome was 
formerly supposed to have been founded 
by Romulus, but later researches show 
that it existed several centuries earlier, 
as far back as the stone and bronze 
ages. It has been truly said that within 
a day’s ride are the remains of all the 
epochs of civilization. 
Among the many ruins of ancient 
Rome the most conspicuous are the 
Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the 
Baths of Caracalla, though many of 
the numerous temples, memorial arches, 
palaces, colonnades, baths, theatres and 
other ruined structures are of great 
interest. The sombre and discolored 
ruins of ancient Rome are as interest- 
ing, but they are not so pleasing to the 
eye as those of Athens, which preserve 
the original whiteness of Pentelican 
marble. The Catacombs, or under- 
ground cemeteries extend for miles, but 
we were not favorably impressed with 
the skulls and bones of former Romans 
occupying the many shelves of the gal- 
leries; it was, at best, a gruesome 
sight. 
There are hundreds of churches in 
Rome of more or less magnificence and 
importance from St. Peters to those 
of lesser note, both ancient and mod- 
ern. We visited one without the walls 
of the city, built on the spot where 
it was supposed that St. Paul was put 
to death. It is related that he was be- 
TWENTY -THIRD INSTALLMENT 
headed on a stone block, and that when 
his head struck the earth it rebounded 
three times, and that from these places 
springs of water burst forth. This 
church encloses the stone block, and 
the three springs can still be seen 
through openings in the floor. 
A CCOMPANIED by an artist friend 
we visited the famous St. Peters 
Cathedral. Under its vast dome 
was a heroic bronze statue of St. Peter 
holding in his hand the key of Heaven. 
Our friend assured us that, originally, 
it was an ancient statute of Jove with 
thunder-bolts in his uplifted hand, but 
the bolts were removed and replaced 
with the key, so that it served just as 
well for St. Peter, inasmuch as the 
people believe in it. The figure is seat- 
ed, with one foot well extended, and we 
noticed a file of people awaiting their 
turn to kiss its big toe, which, owing to 
this osculatory act of devotion had 
assumed a fine metallic sheen, and 
inasmuch as most of the devotees wiped 
the toe with their sleeve or handker- 
chief before kissing it, it was kept well 
polished and burnished. 
Under the guidance of our artist 
friend we visited the Vatican, the resi- 
dence of the Pope, to which we were 
admitted by the Swiss Papal Guard. 
Comprised within the immense building 
there are thousands of saloons, apart- 
ments, galleries, corridors and stair- 
ways, whose walls are enriched with 
fine fresco paintings, mostly the work 
of Michelangelo and Raphael. One of 
the apartments is the Sistine Chapel, 
at least. fifty by one hundred and fifty 
feet in area. Its walls and ceiling are 
adorned wtih remarkable fresco paint- 
ings by the old masters just mentioned. 
Lying on their backs on the benches 
were some tourists admiring the beau- 
tiful paintings on the ceiling through 
opera glasses. 
On the rear wall was the wonderful 
painting of The Last Judgment, done 
by Michelangelo in his sixtieth year. 
It is an abhorrent scene, thirty by sixty 
feet, the entire space covered with hun- 
dreds of men and women in every con- 
ceivable position and posture of dis- 
tortion, and with every expression of 
terror and horror on their faces. Some 
of the figures were sadly out of draw- 
ing, and others were not true to the 
law of human anatomy. In some in- 
stances the coloring seemed rather 
crude and faulty. I called the atten- 
tion of our friend to these shortcom- 
ings which he explained by saying that 
the picture had been partly restored 
several times by inferior artists. I 
questioned the sincerity of people who 
raved over the painting notwithstand- 
ing the defects mentioned. He then 
said that it was not so much the man- 
ual execution of the picture as the won- 
derful conception and composition of the 
picture as a whole that commanded the 
admiration of artists and laymen alike. 
Among a number of public squares 
or piazzas, with columns and statues, 
was the Piazza di Spagna with a flight 
of broad stone steps leading up to Pin- 
cian Hill. On these steps, any fair day, 
were to be seen a number of men, wo- 
men and children, waiting to be em- 
ployed as models by some of the many 
artists of Rome. There was a modern 
suspension bridge over the Tiber, with 
a dozen ancient ones of stone, the old- 
est, of which only the remains of the 
piers are left, is the Sublicius, made 
famous by Horatius Codes, who with 
Titus Herminius and Spurius Lartius, 
“kept the bridge” against the army of 
Lars Porsena, King of Latium, as im- 
mortalized by Macaulay. 
D URING our stay in the city Cap- 
tain George Dewey, commander of 
the Pensacola, came over from 
Leghorn to spend a week’s end with 
us. We dined one day with the Ameri- 
can Minister to Italy, Judge Stallo, an 
old friend from Cincinnati. Judge 
Stallo was a profound, scholarly man, 
and was so impressed with ancient 
Rome, and so thoroughly enjoyed the 
dolce far niente life of Italy, that he 
passed his remaining days in that 
country, along with a colony of Ameri- 
can and English voluntary exiles and 
expatriates. 
Another day, while walking in the 
park lof the Villa Borghese, a fashion- 
able drive of Rome, King Humbert and 
Queen Margharetta passed us in their 
carriage. We took off our hats and 
saluted the royal pair and were re- 
warded by a friendly smile from the 
Queen, while the King, not to be out- 
done in politeness, removed his hat and ' 
Two-storied bridge connecting the Uffizi and Pitti galleries in Florence. 
