Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-05-03
THE.SIROCC0.
Some Of the Delights of the Early Spring
Sicily.


A correspondent of the Pail Mall Ga
zette writes.
Between Sicily and England there j
not g. poet nor an artist who would de
ny that the charm of physical exist
enee was with the former. But ther,
are exceptions stream of life doe
not always run entirely smooth even IL
Sicily; and though the medal may b,
OF gold it has its due proportion of al
10y. During the tramontana, say, wheI
at the aches and pains which are borne
by the cast wind crowd upon you witt
redoubled force, you have the alloy
not the gold, and you question very
closely the pleasantness OF the place
where your lines are cast. But the ira
montana can be evaded, if not con
| quered. You are not Obliged to go out
or if you are, you can wrap yourself uI
in warm woolen clothing, and dodge
your enemy behind a cachenez, or 8
brigand's fur-lined coat.
The tramontana may be becircumvent
ed, but what shall we say of the sirocco.
What, indeed! Only Dante could dc
justice to its horrors; only setting il
side by side with the plaques of Egypt
cOuli rightly catalogue it. During the
sirocco you do not live. you exist; and
your existence is suffering. All the
strength goes out of your sinews; all
the stiffness out of your backbone. You
have no energy, no hope, no cheerful.
ness, no patience! Your head is burn
ing, your heart heavy, your nerves are
rasped and as if lying bare, your tenn
per is 81 cure to yourself and an inlic-
ton to your neighbors; and GU take
kindly to the strange new heresy which
makes this planet the place of torment
and human life the expiation of fore
gone 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 you, 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 )ur 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 woulo
| blind you there and then-you think
| that your cup is full, and that it would
be impossible 10 add more TO your tale
of suffering.
But when the night falls thi4gs are
even worse. The heat is intense and
the earth seems 10 radiste dull and
poisonous fire. If you open your
windows you are burned; if you keep
them shut you are suffocated.
| Mosquitoes seem to be made of the
same stuff as those stout mediums y
! who can drop thorough a roof or cell.
ings, pass throagh closed windows and
two.inch doors, without more difficulty
than fash of electricity; for with al
the windows fastened they somehow
manage to make good their existence
and 10 make you aware that they are
| there. During sirocco they bite like
fury; so do the light cavalry, which
abound IS if born of the dust which
crumbles under your feet as you walk
across your tiled floor; so do thc
myriads of flies which infest your
apartme ent, for the one part, and fol
the other, they fall about like drunk Ell
things and sicken you with their heavy
loathsome touch. Well for you if these
are your only living enemies. Life i;
prolific in Sicily; creeping and fyinS
things of all kinds are abundant anC
ubiquitous, and it would seem as if the
native skin were impcryious to assaults
which fairly madden you.
Everything suffers during the sire c 60
The flowers droop and fade, and the
grass, or what takes the place of grass
here-is burned and Drowned. I ntht
Favorita, which should be very car
pet, woven of all manner of wild fl ow
ers, there are not this year QUE e-tentf
the usual number. The orchards are
stunted; the moss is parched and dry
many seeds have not come up at all
many roots are withered before flower
ing; the orange and lemon gardens are
diseased, and the fruit is covered Will
fungus, or the laryc of the little insects
which incrusts tho rind with small
brown oval spots, and the leaves are
shriveted and blighted.
| Day by day you pant for the rair
which never comes, and without which
all things pine now and die hereafter
In normal seasons the sirocco lasts fo
three days, and then passes off IN rain
this wear IL blows for mora than its Al
lo:ed term-blows almost continuously
and no rain falls. Night by night tn
sun sets in fiery vapors, which presag
storm and deluge; day by day tn
morning sky is overcast with cloud
which anywhere else would mean
heavy downpour. But by noon thes
have cleared away, and the sun shine
free of all obstacles, save that ligh
brown veil of dust, the blue haze whic
lies scentless over the town.