The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1879-05-23

Letter from DR.. CurrIer.
y NAPLES, April 80, 1879.

Vuo VI bno OluBSt cities of
wnicn we have any account, which still
exists IN fourishing condition. IL
nas population of 100000. Its climate
10 soft aud mild, and IL is perhaps owing
to that fact that the lower classes live
almost entirely in the streets, and pur-
sue their household avocatfons there.
with most astonishing disregard OF
passere-by. Women cook, wash, sew
and spin, and dress their own and their
neighbors hair, with apparent profound
ignorance that they are objects Of obser Z
vation
The street scenes are very curious.
Vendors of all sorts of commodities as
sail you on every hand; a macaropi
seller at corner will have half a dozen
tattered customers sprawling ON the
pavement, all helping themselves from
one dish, with the aid Of no accompan-
iment save the fingers which nature
has provided for forks and spoons.
Picturesque looking. beggars make
mournful demands on your purse
strings, and they need no other lam
guage than that of their expressive eyes
and gestures to impress upon von the
fact that they are starving.
Water and soap are luxuries-evi-
IDENTITY beyond the reach of the Door of
any condition, be they of the, working
or begging class, and the crowded. dir.
ty streets in which they literally
swarm, give ample evidence what n
scope plague like that which visited
Naples in 1866, might have if it came
again. This city is most beautifullv
situated on the bay of Naples. Just A.
cross the bay to the right lies the pretty
little island of Capri, noted for Its ia
nous blue grotto, and for its fine
VINE. There are many places of
interest within an hour or two's ride of
Naples, and excepting Pompeii, none
can compare in Importance with Mt.
Vesuvius, whose baleful shadow hangs
over the city to the left, and from whose
summit nightly shines out a dull red
constant reminder that the fires
which have made so much devastation
and death in the past, are still kindled
and ready again to burst their confines,
and at word OF command from the
power which controls them. idg.
Yesterday in company with two gen.
flemen made the ascent of the noun
tain; we rode for three hours up q
gradual ascent, passing on our way
acres OF vineyards in fine condition, and
also acres of black lava which looked
ike the refuse of iron furnaces. To
he north and east were the Apprentices
below us lay the broad fields of the
Campania, and at our feet the blue Med.
terranean and the blue bay of Naples.
Accompanied by train of vociferous
'us and persistent beggars and guides,
whose harvest is the season when the
Unfortunate traveller finds himself in
heir borders, we come at last to the
a strongly built stone struc-
ure erected by the government of
italy for the purpose Of noting the vi
,raions of earthquakes, which ti,ey
ascertain by the aid of sim
Die instrument called the seismograpb.
t designates the direction, time and
luration to a second of the agitation.
'lacing my hand oil the table under
he instrument l was sensibly conscious
If a strong vibration, Vesuvi1s being
ctive at the time. From it, telegraph
C communication is held with Naples
nd the adjoining towns so that the in
diligence may be transmitted of threat
ned erruptions, the direction from
which it may be expected, and various
'ther details connected with Vesuvius,
What may naturally be supposed to be
# interest to the inhabitants living
within distance of its shower which
leal death and destruction wherever
hey chance to fall.
The superintendent of the observa-
ory informed me that he was ut his
'ost all through the eruption of 1872,
vhen many of the Inhabitants of
naples had fled from the city which
hen seemed doomed to destruction.
The observatory for days rocked to
nd fro like the pendulum Of clock.
Mutterings like heavy thunder filled
he air and the stream of lava which
owed down the mountain side was
alf mile wide and twenty feet 'deep;
ot stones were thrown up into the
ir to al distance of 5000 feet.
A party Of curiosity seekers who,
espite the warnings of the guides,
1ade their way to the foot of the cone,
1ere overwhelmed by streams of hot
'ater and lava and paid the penalty of
heir temerity with their lives.
AS parties leave the observatory TO
lake way to the cone and crater, they
re besieged by guides who offer
onies, chairs, and their own services.
Voc TO the traveller who stops 10 par
ey with them, for peace and quietness
hen and there forsake him.
Four ugly looking fellows followed
s up to the very crater In hopes that
re might be constrained either by
neir persistency or our fatigue to en-
10y them, but as the experience of
theirs had convinced us that there was
o need of them unless ladies were of
he party, we turned deaf ear, though
hey never relaxed in their efforts to
tract our attention, persuasively sug-
esting at intervals in very tolerable
,nglish,' every fatigue" every tire"
A mile walk ascending beds of
lackened lava curiously shaped,
rought us to the foot of the cone and
here the real work commenced; we had
D climb up an almost perpendicular
scent some 1900 feet, at an angle of
orty-five degrees, walking through
ght ashes and cinders, which by the
id of our stout walking sticks we ac-
in something less than two
ours.
Then we stood over what seemed
Ike the very mouth of hell, under our
eet was thin crust of hot lava
iliSI Jul htd tiC oOlCo vi Jul -DOUls Al
We stood long i'll one spot, and which
vhen struck by onr walking sticks
ave out horrible hollow sound.
We could hear boiling and Kissing
which seemed to be under our very
eet, while smoke and beautiful bubbles
# sulphur, which hardened on expos
ire to the air issued from cracks and
revices; but more terrible than all
lse, was the steam of red hot lava
which crept snake like out of assures,
nd wiiggled down in the circuitious
cute it had marked out for itself in
he side of the mountain, liquid and
'oiling; it looks like melted ore.
Imagine what 1t must be like when
I is halt mile wide and twenty feet in
lepth, accompanied by showers of Gin
lers and pumice, and boiling hot
water, stones and hot lava rushing up
nto the air for 5000 feet, earthquake,
hunder and lightning attending upon
10 horrors. 'lIuD