age.
Life in Florence is joy. The sensation of living is of itself a
pleasure. Life in that delicious atmosphere becomes a higher state of
being. It is the proper home for poets and artists. Those who pretend
that there is any thing in America equal to Florence either in
climate, landscape, or atmosphere, are simply humbugs. Florence is
unique. It is the only Athens of the modern world.

[Illustration: Pitti Palace.]

The streets are cool and delightful. The great bath houses keep off
the rays of the sun. The people love to stroll away the greater part
of their happy days. They loiter around the corners or under the
porticoes gathering news and retailing the same. Hand-organs are
generally discountenanced. Happy city!

[Illustration: Fountain Of Neptune, Palazzo Vecchio.]

When it is too hot in the streets there is the vast cathedral--Il
Duomo--dim, shadowy, magnificent, its gigantic dome surpassed only
by that of St. Peter's. And yet in the twilight of this sacred
interior, where there dwells so much of the mysterious gloom only
found in the Gothic cathedrals of the north, many find greater
delight than in all the dazzling splendor, the pomp, and glory, and
majesty of the Roman temple. Beside it rises the Campanile, as fair
as a dream, and in appearance almost as unsubstantial. Not far off
is the Baptistery, with its gates of bronze--an assemblage of glory
which might well suffice for one city.

[Illustration: The Duomo.]

Around the piazza that incloses these sacred buildings they sell
the best roasted chestnuts in the world. Is it any wonder that
Florence is so attractive?

[Illustration: The Campanile.]

The Dodge Club obtained furnished apartments in a fine large hotel
that looked out on the Ponte della Trinita and on the Arno. Beneath
was the principal promenade in the city. It was a highly agreeable
residence.

No sooner had they arrived than Buttons set out in search of the
Spaniards. Three days had been lost on the road. He was half afraid
that those three days had lost him the Spaniards altogether. Three
days! It was possible that they had seen Florence in that time and
had already left. The thought of this made Buttons feel extremely
nervous. He spent the first day in looking over all the hotels in
the city. The second in searching through as many of the
lodging-houses as were likely to be chosen by the Spaniards. The
third he spent in meandering disconsolately through the cafes. St