Middletown transcript., 1875-03-06
A Glimpse at Naples.

Naples and die A very foolish thing
to say. you think Well, you know
people often say more than they mean
This saying simply means that Naples
is SO beautiful that a man cannot find a
more lovely place; and that having
seen this city, be might die contented.
We, sober-minded boys and girls. who
see SO much that is beautiful and lovely
in life; who find SO many reasons why
We wish to live,-Ue should not be
ready to die just because we had seen
Naples or any other beautiful city.
But let me tell you little Of this old
city Look on your maps, on the front
of what we used to call the boot of
Italy Just above the ''instep. You
see how the sea goes little way into the
land and forms bay, and on that bay
is our city" "Napoli;" or, as we call
it, Naples.
Imagine. then, that we are on steam
er going into this Bay Of Naples. First,
a narrow place where the shores come
out into the sea, as if they intended to
meet each other. with three beautiful
islands resting like stepping stones be-
tween. And here we look over broad
surface of water, spreading in front Of
us and at the sides like very large,
nearly round, basin, and about twenty
miles across But the air is very clear,
and we can see the shores and the
houses on them quite as easily as we
could see half that distance in New
York Bay or Long Island Sound. The
scene is SO beautiful that an old poet of
Naples called it Ga piece Of heaven
fallen upon the earth" The shores
generally slope up and back from the
water with level country in some places.
On our right we see Vesuvius, the
wonderful and dreadful volcano, rising
like black sugar-loaf few miles
away, but seeming very near. About
halfway up from the level of the sea,
its sides become very steep and precip- |
itous, covered everywhere with the
hard, black lara and the scori9 which
have been thrown from the inside of the
mountain through the large crater or
hole in the top. There is nothing very |
beautiful about Vesuvius yet it is to
be seen from every place near Naples,
always black, and sometimes with
smoke or steam coming out Of its sides,
or forming cloud and floating away
from the top. At the bottom Of the
mountain, and in the valley toward
Naples. the eye sees with relief the
bright and rich green Of trees and
fields. Then we see the houses scat
tered along the curved line of the
hore,-Resina built over where Her
culaneum once stood, and then the
city, with its numerous white houses.
looking, as some one has said, like
crowd Of pilgrims going up the hill,
while further on, around this circular
shore. we see the celebrated San Elmo,
the great fort, on a higher part of the
hillside.
The steamer soon touches the dock.
Now look out Beggars without num-
Der are there; they know exactly when
the steamers will come How they
poster US! If we have taken a hotel
omnibus, we shall get through easily;
but if we attempt to walk, we must
prepare for siege. Every man there
looks darker and uglier than his neigh
ber; you feel almost sure that they are
not to be trusted, and yet they all want
to carry your satchel or shew you where
you do not wish to GO. So much for
being foreigner and stranger.
We reach the hotel in time and soon
set out to see the city. The hotel is
not very different from those in New
Yerk-only almost nobody speaks Eng
lish.
But the city does not remind US Of
New York. At frst We pass along
wide street with the bay at our right,
but when we turn off to ''see the city,"
we can easily believe that Naples il
more than two thousand years old. I'D
There is story-not in the histories
that it was founded by a Siren called
Parthenope, and at first called BY her
name. The story is true as to the
name, but we must disbelieve the first
part, for Siren-who tries to attract
people-would certainly have planned
and built different city The houses
are high and dingy, the streets, with a
few exceptions, very narrow, so that
they seem more like cracks than like
thoroughfares
But every picture has bright spot
somewhere These streets are paved all
over as Bicely as New York sidewalk
with large blocks of lava that. when it
poured out of the crater of Vesuvius,
was soft as mud and hotter than the red
iron from blacksmith's forge. Then
this pavement is generally quite clean,
and, since the high buildings keep the
street shady. and the sidewalks are not
nrob xp;dar than q nlank tho noon1A