Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1876-06-10
THE GULF OF FIRE.

THE GULF OF FIRE
"You are wrong, captain, wrong
Old women yonder," and as the cront
spoke, casting out her wrinkled fore
finger, in token of disdain, toward the
lowland country at the base of the great
spurs of Etna, she looked weird and
wild enough, with her ragged gray hail
and fiery eyes. for the Sibyl of Cuma-
"old women yonder, say, may not be
worth listening to. But was graded
up here in the very lap of fire."
well, we'll, mother" I answered,
soothingly; ~ am far from doubling
your skill. In the three months of my
stay have learned something of the un.
certain humors of the burning noun.
tain, and, trust me, I'll not venture too
far from the safe track.
"Ah, Inglese! You are just like the
rest of the young men," said old AS
sunta, with somewhat of rude pity in
her tone ; "won't be warned Had I
not three bold sonss Two were coral
fishers. One followed Garibaldi to
Naples and Gaeta. He, at any rate, is
laid in dry earth-not like Beppo and
Totti. Have care lest your grave be
not hot onel" And with nod of her
head and wave of her hand she was
gone.
The old woman's words made an i'm
precision on me which vainly tried to
shake off. Let me explain how matters
stood. In the first place it was only
under the pressure of misfortune that I,
George Clements, lately second officer of
first-rate clipper ship, had become
sub inspector, or more correctly, an act
ing sub-inspector, in the sulphur works
on Mopnt Etna. My ill luck had
brought me there. In an evil hour I
had been talked into investing my
savings-some two hundred pounds
in becoming part owner of q Maltese
coasting vessel, on board of which I was
mate, the skipper being a Maltese named
Antonia, a worthy old fellow in his way,
but obstinate as a mule and niggardly
to degree.
So long as we met with average
weather our voyages were prosperous
and We netted dollars. But three days
storm, a rarity in the Mediterranean,
sent us staggering, dismasted. leaky,
and with n frightened crew, under the
cliffs of Sicily. was the one English
man on board, and it was only by the
utmost exertions that could force the
olive skinned southerners to leave off
telling their beads and invoking the
saints, and keep the pumps going. As
it was, the schooner laid her bones on
the beach near Catania, and though no
lives were lost the wreck of property was
complete. The skipper had relations in
Malta who would take him in, but !, the
English mate, who now owned nothing
but the sailors suit I came ashore in,
might have starved, had not the vice
consul kindly recommended me for the
petty post l now filed, and which in
sured me bare subsistence, and no
more.
these sulphur mines, whence comes
by far the greater proportion of the raw
sulphur OF commerce, have always been
a government monopoly. Indeed
have heard that King Bomba, at a criti-
cal point of the Crimean war, had
thoughts of prohibiting the export of
the Sicilian sulphur, without which the
powder mills of England could not
furnish ammunition, and the present
rulers of the island could not neglect
such source of revenue. The collec-
ton of the sulphur naturally deposited
by the volcanic forces, ever restless be-
meath the soil, does not require much
skill, but the occupation is toilsome
and unhealthy one, poorly remunerated,
and not always exempt from peril.
Sulphur gatherers are not, as rule,
native Sicilians. The majority were, at
the time of my sub-inspectorship immi-
grants from the mainland, whose ante
cedents it was perhaps quite as well not
to pry into. A fierce looking set of sal
low, ragged ruffians they were, with
unkempt hair and boards, and haggard
faces innocent of the touch of soap and
water, always gambling, now with pack
of greasy cards, now, in Neapolitan
with dirty fingers uplifted, and
quarreling as savagely over infnitesimal
stakes as though fortune had been in
jeopardy. As for old Assunta, she was
The widow of q charcoal burner, and
still, with the help of her grandchildren,
to sell o few loads of fuel in
The city below. The family, however,
bore an i'll repute for poaching, pilfer-
ing, and, 1 believe, sorcery, and I am
afraid that Assunta herself encouraged
This last report as source of profit.
Her regard for me was merely due to
The fact that had prevented some of
our rough workmen, who insisted that
she was witch and had the evil eye,
from flinging her, body and bones, into
The wintry torrent that rushed roaring
past our huts, and ever since that day
,he had been patronizingly polite to II
Captain, as she called me.
Mine was not, as sub-inspector, q very
desirable position. The inspector, save
on pay day, did not often show himself,
and when he did visit the scene of his
nominal duties, would have been power
less to enforce any sort of discipline
amongst our black sheep, but for me.
By the combined effects of coaxing,
good d-humored banter. and the occasional
of knock-down blow, had
,ontrived to establish some ascendancy
,ver the wild spirits around me, and
vas rather popular than otherwise, al
hough at first my orders had been met
With scowling glances and lingering of
Inives. The work to be done was none
If the pleasantest. The crude sulphur,
el1om quite cold, and often glowing
lot, had to be raked with hoes and iron
looks from the brink of some of the
numerous small craters on the crest of
he volcano, in the midst of poisonous
umes and eddying clouds of smoke, I
mowers of red-hot ashes, and even of
tones.