Morning journal and courier., 1882-12-11
Asa Ktmiixasl Fair.
From Belgravia. ]

From Belgravial
 From earliest morning the bells have flung forth their melody over crowd of people hocking in by whatever roads converge on Lenno. They are all natives, chiefly of the working class, and have their show practical ly all to themselves. In the crowd I saw an English family, four all told, who had come down by boat from Cadenabbia, and stood sniffing at tho scene with that gracious sym pathy that distinguishes-us nation when taking our autumn holiday. With this ex- ception, the crowd was composed of Italians. Some came down the lake packed like her. rings in large bsrges whence from time to time issued melody which at least audi ble. But for the most part the people had walked in from the neighboring towns and villages, many of the women bringing children with intent to show them the marvellous tableaus vivants in the little chapels, to be supplemented by the glories of the fair temporaneously displayed in the town itself. An eminently clean, respectable and hard working population, content to spend the hot day amid such simple joys were at hand without sinking into the debasement of drunkenness l did not single man woman the worse for drink though it should in strict honesty be added that the kind of 'tworseness" that would follow upon excessive drinking of the wine of the coun- try would not Do recognizable by ordinary signs. A men of natural determination and abundant leisure might by steady application get stomach ache, but he could scarcely get drunk on such fruit of the vine as Lenno has to offer. The women were all dressed in their best, wearing to all appearance a quite unnecessary thickness and reduplication of skirt. The colors were on the whole of mod est hue, and only the kerchiefs their heads imparted some gaiety of color to the moving scene. These were gorgeous indeed, of every hue of the rainbow, and with some startling arrangements of color, Apparently the country side for miles around does not possess bonnet. A kerchief, the better the more brilliant in hue, serves the women for head gear, and is always tied on with simple grace. Some of the elders and few of the | younger married women were the proud l possessors af magnificent head dresses, cun- | ningly constructed of large silver pins, spread | out fan. shape at the back of the head, with | the hair fcarfully and wonderfully interlaced. | These wore no kerchiefs. Occasionally a 1 bit of black lace coquettishly thrown over | the front part of the head served the double purpose of protecting the head and setting 1 off the glories of tho silver head dress. Az 1 for the men, if any vanity of personal attire disturbed their level of devout feeling, 1t presented itself in tho shape Of an umbrella. | Never, I should say, since shone or rain fell was there such show of umbrellas as 1 houted the blue heaT ens smiling over Lenno | to day Every one had an umbrella, some two, and one woman I met trudsing home ward with three under her arm. Persons | aCCuSLOmOu EO ASSUclhL6 WltI tuc pElIi EuBhiSL umbrella, black or at most dark blue in color, tightly fitting to the frame, and all super | huous silk shipped off, cannot form any con | ception of the true Italian umbrella, as 1t fourishes in by places off the great highway Ths nearest approach to the real thing is the umbrella which Mir. Toole provides himself with when playing Paul Pfy. They are al made of cotton, are of stupendons size, and are built on the understanding that they are not bought every day, but are handed down from father to son, from generation to gen eration. In these circumstances it will be understood that little vividness of color al the outset is rather an advantage than other
 wise There is plenty of time for toninG down in the future, and by the time an um
 brella reaches middle life which I reckon tc be it's ffty-third year, color that may a
 the outset have been little too strong ha
 toned down to soft autumnal hues.
 Tho Monster Trees of Caiif0rasn.
 As regards the wonderful size of tho Sc quoia, that is Q matter which does not at frs fully come to one Tho fact is that all tn
 trees so large that fails to realize tn
 magnitude of the giants All have increaset in proportion. It requires mental calcula
 tion to convince one's self that the transfer
 nation is something quite out of the com
 mon. 1t Is only when you come to walk il
 and out of the hollow trees and to circl
 round them and take constitutional b,
 walking alongside of q fallen giant, or per
 haps, (if it has done duty as chimney befor
 it came to grieG by riding up inside tn
 hollow for considerable distance, that yo
 begin to understand their size, You do 8 best when, standing on the ground beside
 prostrate tree lying buried in ditch of it