A Good Round Tax, Such As Carlsbad Levies Upon All
Sojourners, If Laid Upon The Multitudinous Tourists Joining In Such
A
chorus of criticism of Rome would give them the indefeasible right to
their opinions and would help to replete
A treasury which they believe
is always in danger of being exhausted.
III
THE COLOSSEUM AND THE FORUM
As I have told, the first visit I paid to the antique world in Rome was
at the Colosseum the day after our arrival. For some unknown reason I
was going to begin with the Baths of Caracalla, but, as it happened,
these were the very last ruins we visited in Rome; and I do not know
just what accident diverted us to the Colosseum; perhaps we stopped
because it was on the way to the Baths and looked an easier conquest. At
any rate, I shall never regret that we began with it.
After twoscore years and three it was all strangely familiar. I do not
say that in 1864 there was a horde of boys at the entrance wishing to
sell me postcards - these are a much later invention of the Enemy - but I
am sure of the men with trays full of mosaic pins and brooches, and
looking, they and their wares, just as they used to look. The Colosseum
itself looked unchanged, though I had read that a minion of the wicked
Italian government had once scraped its flowers and weeds away and
cleaned it up so that it was perfectly spoiled.
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