., we arrived at Modane and passed
muster for Italy.

Mont Cenis Tunnel.

We entered the mouth of this great tunnel, over 8 miles in length, at
4:58-1/2 p.m., and were exactly 26 minutes in the very bowels of the
earth, where absolute darkness reigns. Temperature in the middle, 59 deg.
Fahrenheit.

Italy.

We now come to a country which contrasts as strangely with the nations of
western Europe, as those do with America, or as Alpine Switzerland does
with the rest of the world. When I parted at Paris with my New York
friend, he bound for Rome, I for the north, we still had our school-boy
ideas of Germany, Switzerland and Italy; and I shall never forget the
remark which he then made, and which embodied my notions and anticipations
perhaps as well as his own. He said, "I suppose we have now seen the
brightest side of the picture, the trouble is that scenes will now become
tamer as we advance toward the cradle of humanity." I had been pleasantly
disappointed almost every time that I entered a new country, but now, as I
was entering Italy, I expected that I would surely not see much to
interest me except her rich stores of art and the ancient ruins. But less
than a day at Turin convinced me that I had by no means entered a country
whose people were behind hand in civilization and refinement; and when on
my way from Turin to Milan I saw how much clearer and brighter the blue
heavens were, how much sweeter the air smelt than any I had ever breathed
before, (not excepting that of Paris, even), and how much fairer the
people were than any other that I had yet seen, I felt that I must surely
be on the border of that charming paradise which the poets make of Italy,
but for which I had never given them due credit.

Italy's Fair Sons and Daughters.

I now come to a dry subject, especially for old people; but numbers of my
young friends, among them several editors and teachers, requested me very
earnestly to take particular notice which country contained the fairest
specimens of the human species. Why these literary characters are so
deeply interested in this question, I cannot tell, but my duty is plain
enough--they want "a true and impartial statement of the facts," which I
will endeavor to render them. I observed everywhere that _culture_ and
_personal beauty_ always go together. When I came to a city that had clean
and beautiful streets and houses, I invariably found good looking people
there; but in the