The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1882-02-02
THE SIROCCO.
SOME OF THE DELIGHTS OF THE EARLY
SPRING IN SICILY.

| A correspondent of the Pail Mall Ga
zette writes: Between Sicily and Eng
land there is not poet nor an artist who
would deny that the charm of physical
existence was with the former. But there
are exceptions-the stream of life does
not always run entirely smooth even in
Sicily; and though the medal may be of
gold it has its due proportion OF alloy.
During the tramontana, say, when all the
aches and pains which are borne by the
east wind crowd upon you with redoubled
force. You have the alloy, not the gold,
and you question very closely the pleas
! antness of the place where your lines are
| cast. But the tramontana can be evaded
if not conquered. You are not Obliged
to go out; or if you are, you can wrap
yourself up in warm clothing, and dodge
your enemy behind a cachenez, or 9
brigand's fur-lined coat.
The tramontana may be circumvented;
but what shall we say of the sirocco?-
What, indeed Only Dante could do JUS
tiee to its horrors: only setting it side
by side with the plaques of Egypt could
rightly cataloge it. During the sirocoo
you do not live, you exist; and your ex-
istence is suffering. All the strength
goes out of your sinews; all the stiffness
out of your backbone. You have no en-
cry, no hope, no cheerfulness, no patiencel
Your head is burning, your heart heavy
as lead, your nerves are rasped and as if
lying bare. your temper is curse to
yourself and an indiction to your neigh
bors; and you take kindly to the strange
new heresy which makes this planet the
place of.torment and human life the ex-
piation of foregone guilt.
At night you cannot sleep; during the
day you can neither work nor play
When you get up in the morning and see
the clouds of dust hanging heavy in the
air; when you note what has crept in
through the crevices during the night,
and is now lying settled on everything in
your room-when you find sand between
your teeth and rub sand into your eyes =
then you know what is before yon, and
shudder at the melancholy prospect of
the day.
When the noon comes, hot and fierce
like the blast of furnace; when the air
burns your face, cracks your skin and
dries up your hair till it feels like gritty
hay; when the intolerable glare over
everything, even when the sun does not
shine, makes your eyes ache, and when
it does seem as if it would blind you
there and thar,-urrr think that rorr~ ,n,,
is full, and that it would be impossible
to add more to your tale of suffering.
But when the night falls things are
even worse. The heat is intense, and
the earth seems to radiate dull and
poisonous fire. If you open your win
windows you are burned; if you keep
them shut you are suffocated.
Mosquitoes seem to be made of the
same stuff as those stout medium" who
can drop through roof or two or cell
ings, pass through closed windows and
two-inch doors, without more difficulty
than fash of electricity; for with all the
windows fastened they somehow manage
to make good their existence and to make
you aware that they are there. During
sirocco they bite like fury; SO do the
light cavalry, which abound as if born of
the dust which crumbles under your feet
as you walk across your tiled floor; so
do the myriads of flies which infest your
apartment, for the one part, and for the
other, they fall about like drunken things
and sicken you with their heavy, 10th
some touch. Well for you if these are
your only living enemies! Life is proli-
fed in Sicily; creeping and flying things
of all kinds are abundant and Ubiquitous;
and it would seem as if the native skin
were inpervIous to assaults which fairly
madden you.
Everything suffers during the sirocco
The flowers droop and fade, and the grass
or what takes the place of grass here-is
burned and Drowned In the Favorita,
which should be very carpet woven of
all manner of wild flowers, there are not
this year one-tenth the usual number.
The orchards are stunned, the moss is
parched and dry; many seeds have not
come up at all; many roots are withered
before Towering; the orange and lemon
gardens are diseased, and the fruit is COW
cred with fungus, or the larvae of the
little insect which incrusts the rind with
small brown oval spots, and the leaves
are shriveled and blighted.
Day by day you pant for the rain which
never comes, and without which all things
pine now and dine hereafter. In normal
Seasons the sirocco lasts for three days,
and then passes of in rain; this year it
blows for iuore than its allotted term
blows almost continuously, and no rain
falls. Night by night the sun sets in
fiery yapors, which presage storm and
deluge; day by day the morning sky is
overcast with clouds which anywhere
else would mean heavy downpour. But
by noon these have cleared away, and
the sun shines free of all obstacles, save
that light brown veil Of dust the blue
haze which lies scentless over the town.
A CARD.
Tto oil vrl,a ara c,, fror;,ox f~o.> Al -