ITALY: Notes, May 19, 1924

Marquis Bottini, staunch friend of the Prince of Monte Nevoso (Gabriele d’Annunzio), went to London town to sell Gabriele’s manuscripts. It was asserted that Gabriele intends to build with the proceeds a great memorial to the late Signora Eleanora Duse, famed Italian actress. Once an American offered the poet $200,000 for the manuscripts, but Gabriele did not then need the money.

From the terraces of the Villa Savoia, on the outskirts of Rome, King Vittorio Emanuele, Queen Elena, Crown Prince Umberto, Princesses Malfalda and Maria watched a big fire, took many photographs. Next day they praised the courage of the firemen who put out the fire.

Premier Benito Mussolini planned a great opera house; his Ministers approved it as a matter or course. The opera is to be worthy of comparison with those of Milan, Vienna, Paris, Berlin, Manhattan. The stage is to be the “largest in the world” and the theatre is to seat 4000. The edifice is to cost about $150,000, will be situated in the Via Vittoria Veneto, most beautiful modern street in Rome.

The Society of Playwrights at Milan decided to place a bust of Signora

Eleanora Duse in the Manzoni Theatre, where the famed tragedienne won so many of her successes.

A despatch stated that the Pope was “intensely angry.” Moscow Bolsheviki had imprisoned 15 novices of the Women’s Franciscan Order, ten Catholic priests. No charge, it was stated, had been filed against the women; the priests were charged with disseminating anti-Soviet propaganda; all were doing relief work. The Pope contemplated “strong action.”