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imaginable ornament; mosaics, and cameos; brilliant water-color drawings of the Roman school; and no end of small bronzes and sculptures and other works of art. Among the things exhibited are the soft-colored Roman pearls; and, looking through some of the shop windows, we can see women at work making these pearls, for they are manufactured by human beings, and not by oysters. Each pearl is made on the end of a piece of wire like a knitting-needle. Hundreds of these needles, with pearls on the ends, some little things, and some the size they are going to be, may be seen sticking in cushions, while women and girls are at work dipping other wires into the soft composition out of which the pearls are made, molding and forming them into the proper shape. Everywhere, too, may be seen men, boys, and women with baskets of tortoise-shell ornaments, of fruits, and flowers, and nearly every imaginable thing to sell; and foreign visitors have sometimes a great deal of trouble to escape from these energetic street merchants.

people all appear the same to a Roman driver; if they don't get out of the way he will go over them. Sometimes when I have been in one of the little open Roman carriages, it has almost taken my breath away to see the driver dash into the midst of a crowd of people; I certainly expected that somebody would be knocked down, but I never saw any one injured, or even touched. Practice makes excellent dodgers of Roman foottravelers. The fact that it is against the law to get in the way of a vehicle helps to make them careful. In many parts of Europe, persons who are knocked down or run over by vehicles are fined or imprisoned.

The royal palace is in Rome, and the King, Princes, and many of the other nobles live in or near the city; and we may often see their handsome equipages in the streets and in the parks. Every fine day the little Prince of whom you have read in one of the numbers of ST. NICHOLAS, may be seen in a carriage with his tutor. The little fellow might almost as well ride bare-headed,

so frequently does he take off his hat to the people. Very often we shall meet his mother, the beautiful Queen Margharita, who is a gracious and pleasant lady, and bows to the people as if she knew them all. King Humbert, too, is constantly to be met on fine afternoons. He is very fond of doing his own driving, and as he has over two hundred horses in his stables, he can always have a pair to suit him. It is harder for a king to drive than for any other person to do so. He must hold the reins and guide the horses, he must also hold the whip, and he must always have a hand free with which to take off his hat, which he does on an average three times a minute. If ever I ride behind a fractious pair of horses, I don't wish a king to drive them. The modern Romans, even the common people, have a proud and dignified air. They seem to have preserved something of the spirit of their ancestors. The men are very fond of long cloaks, a corner of which they throw over the left shoulder as the old Romans did their togas. It is quite amusing to see a letter-carrier delivering the mail, with his cloak thrown around him in this martial way. As for people who are truly martial, there are plenty of them to be seen in Rome. Soldiers are everywhere; handsomely dressed officers among the people on the sidewalks; private soldiers singly, or two or three together, hurrying hither and thither on all sorts of errands; and very often, a regiment, with a band, marching along at a quick rate, as if something were about to happen, every man with his rifle and his knapsack, and a whole cock's tail of feathers in his hat.

As I have said before, the Italian government is busily carrying on the work of excavating the ruins of ancient Rome, and among the most interesting of these are the remains of the old Roman Forum, where the most important of the public buildings and temples stood, and where assemblies of the people were held. We shall wander for hours about this great open space, which is not far from the Colosseum; we shall see the triumphal arch of Septimius Severus; the remains of temples with some of their beautiful sculptured pillars still standing, tall and strong; the narrow streets, with their pavements of wide flag-stones, in which are the deep ruts worn by the old Roman wheels. These stones are marked in some places with circles, on which are indicated the points of the compass. On one side of the Forum is the lower part of the Basilica Julia, a great public building erected by Julius Cæsar, with its long lines of steps, the mar

ble floors of its corridors, and some of its mosaic pavement still remaining. In these corridors we shall see, scratched on the marble slabs of the floor, squares and circles on which the Roman boys and men used to play games while idling outside the halls of justice. Near one of the temples is a broad platform from which orators addressed the people. Here Marc Antony stood when he pronounced the oration over the body of the murdered Cæsar; and if we examine the place, we shall find that, near the edge of the low platform of stone, some of the great slabs are much worn. This was the best position for the speakers, and it must have required the sandals of generations of orators to so rub down and wear away the stones. It is probable that it was on this very spot Marc Antony stood, and if any of the boys think that to take his place would inspire them with eloquence, they have but to stand there and try. Near by is the triumphal arch of Titus, which he erected when he returned victorious from Jerusalem; and among the other sculptures on it we can still see, very clear and plain, the great seven-branched golden candlestick which he carried away from Solomon's Temple.

A few steps from this brings us to the entrance of the palaces of the Cæsars. These are the remains of the palaces built by the Roman emperors,

ROMAN OXEN.

and they cover a large extent of ground. Of some of them, all the upper parts are gone, nothing remaining but portions of walls and marble floors and fragments of sculptured columns; while of others there are still many archways, corridors, and apartments. On the grounds is a small house with some of the rooms nearly perfect, in which are to be seen the paintings on the walls and the leaden pipes by which the water was brought in. Everywhere there are remains of beautiful marbles and sculptures. At one end of the grounds is a pædagogium, or school-house. Here are several

rooms, on the walls of which can be seen caricatures and inscriptions made by the Roman boys. They are scratched with a steel stylus, which they used for writing. Some of the pictures are quite good; and a number of the names of the scholars are to be seen.

We shall wander a long time over these palatial grounds, and in one place we shall see a small stone altar with an inscription on it stating that it was erected to the Unknown God.

stone; and there are some beautiful marble pillars and porticoes still standing.

We all have heard the statement that Rome was not built in a day, and we shall find out for ourselves that it takes a great many days to see it, even if we only glance at things which we should like to examine and enjoy for hours. But we shall try to use profitably all the time we have to spend here, in this old city, great in ancient times, great in the Dark and Middle Ages, and great now. All about this part of Rome are ruins of other We shall visit very many churches, each different immense and costly buildings erected by the Roman from the others, and each containing some interemperors. A moderate walk will bring us to the esting painting, or possessing some architectural remains of the lower part of the celebrated Golden beauties which make it famous. Among these House of Nero, where we may wander through are the Pantheon, a circular church, formerly a many great vaulted corridors and rooms. The pagan temple, still perfect, and lighted by the Emperor Nero, as we all know, was as wicked a same great round opening in the roof, through man as ever lived, and did all the injury to his fel- which the rain came in the days of Julius Cæsar low-beings that it was possible for him to do; but just as it does now. Here Raphael, Victor EmanI used to think, and I suppose everybody agreed uel, and other celebrated men are buried. We with me, that the time had long since passed when must also see the church of St. John Lateran, with he could cause injury to any one. Yet, when I was an extensive building attached which for a thouvisiting these ruins, which in places are very damp sand years was the palace of the popes, but is now and wet, I caught quite a bad cold, and, for about an interesting museum; and Santa Maria Maga week, I was very severe on Nero. Who could giore, with its beautiful chapels; and the Borghese imagine that anything he had done would have villa, and its beautiful gardens, filled with works of injured a peaceful American of the nineteenth art; and we must not fail to visit the magnificent century! But the influence of the wicked is far- new church of St. Paul's, outside the walls, the finest reaching. religious edifice of recent times, the vast marble floor of which, as smooth and bright as a lake of glistening ice, is worth coming to see, even if there were no mosaics, and no cloisters with splendid marbles and columns, and pillars and altars of alabaster and malachite sent from sovereigns of Europe and Africa.

Over the ruins of this Golden House, which must have been a magnificent palace, the Emperor Titus erected baths, of which we may still see portions; but these are nothing to the grand remains of the Baths of Caracalla, where we shall spend an hour or two. This was an immense and magnificent building, capable of accommodating 1600 bathers. A great part of its tall walls are still standing, and here we can walk through the immense rooms, some still retaining portions of their beautiful mosaic pavements, and we may even go down into the cellars, where are still to be seen the furnaces by which the water was heated. There was probably never in the world so grand and luxurious a bath-house as this. It had great halls for promenading and recreation, and a race-course; and in it were found some of the most valuable statues of antiquity.

Many of us will be surprised to find the greater part of the Roman ruins of brick. This brick-work is of so good a quality that it has lasted almost as well as stone. The marble outside of most of these walls has long since been carried away. Some of the more important buildings, however, are of

And very different from all this is what we see in another quarter of Rome, where the narrow streets are crowded with men, women, and children, each one with something to sell; while the fronts of the houses are nearly covered with old clothes hung against them, and where there are dingy little shops crowded with bric-à-brac and all sorts of odd things, some of which we shall like to take home with us, but must be careful how we bargain.

There is more, more, more, to be seen in Rome and in the beautiful villages near by, but we can stay no longer now; so we all shall go to the Fountain of Trevi, each of us take a drink of water, and each of us throw a small coin into the pool, for there is a legend which says that people who do this when they are leaving Rome will be sure to come to this wonderful city again.

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WHEN I was in Melbourne, Australia, a few years ago, I made myself a Christmas present of a babycockatoo. It was one of four which a Chinaman was offering for sale. They were about the oddest little figures I had ever seen; and as they sat perched upon the cross-piece of the upright stick on which the Chinaman was carrying them through the streets, I could not resist the temptation to purchase one, never thinking how I was to get it safely home with me to America.

The young "Joeys," as the birds are called in Australia, had evidently been stolen from the home nest that very morning. They looked very

much like balls of cotton about three or four inches in diameter; but projecting from each ball was a beak altogether out of proportion to the seeming puff-ball, while two big, staring eyes shone in each tiny head. And there they perched, and squeaked and blinked, and blinked and squeaked, with almost clock-like regularity.

Now, it is by no means difficult to obtain an old cockatoo, but so young a specimen as could be selected from these little "Joeys" promised much in the way of education and docility - qualities in which the older birds are invariably lacking. So I plied John Chinaman with questions:

"Will they never end this babble? Why do they keep up such a squeaking? Are they so very hungry?"

To all of which John, with just the ghost of a Chinese smile on his yellow face, replied:

"Can catchee plentee eat, no can makee muchee sing. How can ?"

This meant that it would be easy to keep the birds quiet if they had enough to eat. That would be easy enough, I thought, and forthwith I bought one of the little parrots. But I soon discovered my mistake, and after striving vainly for twenty-four hours to quiet my new pet I gave him into the keeping of a Melbourne bird-fancier until I was ready to sail for home.

And so it came to pass that, about six months later, I arrived in Philadelphia, having as a traveling companion and pet possession a full-fledged great white cockatoo-"Our Joe!"

The cockatoo, as you know, belongs to the parrot family, and receives its name because of its peculiar call, or cry. "Our Joe" is a fine specimen of the species known as the sulphur-crested cockatoo. He stands about fourteen inches in height, and is of a warm white color, with the exception of the crest, the tail feathers, and the under parts of the wings, which are tinted with a delicate lemon yellow. His legs are sturdy, and his strong claws-like those of all climbing birds— have two toes in front and two reaching backward; his strong curved beak suggests the tearing propensities that make his tribe the enemy of the Australian farmer-being strong enough to

rest, deftly throws the broken food down his throat. The plumes of his graceful crest are fitted into a powerful muscle on the forehead, which forces it

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