Sketches New and Old


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regular way, it has at least afforded me rare satisfaction to translate  
the following able account of it from the original Latin of the Roman  
Daily Evening Fasces of that date--second edition:  
Our usually quiet city of Rome was thrown into a state of wild excitement  
yesterday by the occurrence of one of those bloody affrays which sicken  
the heart and fill the soul with fear, while they inspire all thinking  
men with forebodings for the future of a city where human life is held so  
cheaply and the gravest laws are so openly set at defiance. As the  
result of that affray, it is our painful duty, as public journalists, to  
record the death of one of our most esteemed citizens--a man whose name  
is known wherever this paper circulates, and whose fame it has been our  
pleasure and our privilege to extend, and also to protect from the tongue  
of slander and falsehood, to the best of our poor ability. We refer to  
Mr. J. Caesar, the Emperor-elect.  
The facts of the case, as nearly as our reporter could determine them  
from the conflicting statements of eye-witnesses, were about as  
follows:--The affair was an election row, of course. Nine-tenths of the  
ghastly butcheries that disgrace the city nowadays grow out of the  
bickerings and jealousies and animosities engendered by these accursed  
elections. Rome would be the gainer by it if her very constables were  
elected to serve a century; for in our experience we have never even been  
able to choose a dog-pelter without celebrating the event with a dozen  
knockdowns and a general cramming of the station-house with drunken  
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