And then
there wuz the autograph portraits of the great painters, Guido,
Rembrandt, De Vinci, Vandyke, Raphael, and also the greatest works of
all these painters. It wuz a grand and inspirin' sight never to be
forgot. Robert Strong and Dorothy wanted to see the statute of Dante;
they set store by his writings. It is a splendid statute of white
marble riz up in the Piazza Sante Croce; I hearn 'em talkin' about its
bein' on a piazza and spozed it wuz built on some stoop and mistrusted
he deserved a better pillow.

But it wuzn't on the piazza of a house, it wuz out-doors, and the
pedestal wuz over twenty feet high, all covered with carvin's of seens
took from his "Divinia Commedia," and some lions, and the arms of
Italy, and things. It wuz a good-lookin' statute, better lookin' as
fur as beauty goes than Dante himself; he wuz kinder humbly I always
thought, but then, I spoze, he didn't always wear that wreath on his
head; mebby he looked better in a beaver hat or a fur cap. 'Tennyrate,
Thomas J. always sot store by him. It wuz a noble statute, more'n
fifty feet high, I presoom, with two figures standin' on each side and
one on top. The one on the left seemed to have her hand outstretched
telling to all the world just how Dante wuz used whilst he wuz alive,
and the one on the right had just throwed herself down and wuz cryin'
about it, and Dante, settin' on top, wuz leanin' his hand on his head
and meditatin'. What his meditations wuz, I don't know, nor Josiah
don't. Mebby he wuz thinkin' of Beatrice.

Thomas J. had read Dante's books a sight to his pa and me. "The Divine
Comedy," "The Inferno," "Bernadiso," "New Life," etc., etc. Thomas
Jefferson thought "The Divine Comedy" a powerful work, showing the
story of how a man wuz tempted, and how sorrow lifts up the soul to
new hites.

I never approved of his praisin' up Beatrice quite so much under the
circumstances, and I dare presoom to say that he and Gemma (his
pardner) had words about it. But then I couldn't hender it, it havin'
all took place five or six hundred years before I wuz born.

Robert Strong said that his writings wuz full of eloquence, wit and
pathos. His native land sets great store by his memory, though they
acted in the usual genteel and fashionable way, and banished and
persecuted him during his life. One thing he said I always liked. He
wuz told he might return to his country under certain pains and
penalties, but he refused and said:

"Far from a