enth-century piece of mechanism, but freely, fully,
and completely. Hurrah, my blood is up! dark, liquid eyes; black,
flowing locks; strange, pleasing perfumes are around me. There is a rush
as of a strong south wind through a myriad of floating banners, and I am
borne onward through triumphal arches, past pillared temples, under the
walls of shining palaces, into the Coliseum....

'Pray, and can you tell me--if that pile of d----d old rubbish--down
there, you know--is the Forum--for I do not--see it in Murray--though
I'm sure--I have looked very clearly--and Murray you know--has
everything down in him--that a traveler....

'A commercial traveler?' ... interrupted Mr. Caper, speaking slowly, and
looking coolly into the eyes of the blackguard Bagman.... 'The ruins you
see there are those of the Forum. Good morning.'

MODERN ART.

'Lucrezia Borgia at the Tomb of Don Giovanni! You see,' said the artist,
'I have chosen a good name for my painting, ... and it's a great point
gained. Forty or fifty years ago, some of those fluffy old painters
would have had Venus worshiping at the shrine of Bacchus.'

'Whereas, you think it would be more appropriate for her to worship
Giove?' ... asked Capar.

'No _sir_!... I run dead against classic art: it's a drug. I tried my
hand at it when I first came to Rome. Will you believe me, I never sold
a picture. Why that very painting'--pointing to the Borgia--'is on a
canvas on which I commenced The Subjugation of Adonis.'

'H'm! You find the class of Middle Age subjects most salable then?'

'I should think I did. Something with brilliant colors, stained glass
windows, armor, and all that, sells well. The only trouble is,
ultramarine costs dear, although Dovizzelli's is good and goes a great
ways. I sold a picture to an Ohio man last week for two hundred dollars,
and it is a positive fact there was twenty _scudi_ (dollars) worth of
blue in it. But the infernal Italians spoil trade here. Why, that fellow
who paints Guide's Speranzas up there at San Pietro in Vineulo is as
smart as a Yankee. He has found out that Americans from Rhode Island
take to the Speranza, because Hope is the motto of their State, and he
turns out copies hand over fist. He has a stencil plate of the face, and
three or four fellows to paint for him; one does the features of the
face, another the hand, and another rushes in the background. Why, sir,
those paintings can be sold for five _scudi_, and money made on th