The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1884-09-29
WHITE MARBLE.
THE QuARRIEs AT cARRARA,
Procuring Material for Monuments -
Primitive Methods--As I'm the Days
ofPharaoh 1t Is Done To-Day
Swarthy People.


'T'wixt mountain and sea, on strip Of
sandy waste, and ilanked by gloomy
pine woods, is hot, bald piazza, sur
rounded at intervals by poor, painted,
staring houses. A sandy track leads to
the beach, on which lie huge black boats
ofquaint rig and stacks of marble slabs
Toward the rugged marble hills the
land softens into olive gardens and lit
tie vineyards, whore corn grows up
amidst sheltered vines. Brown men
and women, bright with colored scarfs
toll in the fields, while patient, mild
eyed oxen drag the wooden pillow or
draw down white marble slabs toward
the sea. Wild, haggard valleys, wrecked
into stones, lie behind those first olive
clad swells of land, and high up,
the mountain peaks seem to bleed
red and white, CALLED by insect man.
And ever and anon there are pufls of
white smoke and light reports in the
distance, rs the miners are at work
again. In the CULTS below, in those val
leys wasted with fallen rocks, crowds
of huge -limbed, shaggy mon await the
rough-hewn blocks which roll and leap
in the horrid race down from the
wounded mountain side. And one may
see a swarm of such men armed with
ponderous iron bars, leap, Liliput-liko
upon some fallen monster, which thoy
will push and pull, amid rhythmic cries,
on TO low-wheeled wagons. Hugo
wooden wagons, these, such as some
hundreds Of Israol's poor nudities
might have dragged, charged with gran
lite rocks, for some Egyptian Pharaohs
burial
And now come the ten yoke of oxen
with driver balanced athwart each
yoke, goad-armed to prick the hating
ones. A block of rough stone drags be-
hind as the noisy train descGnds the
deoply-rutted track, and the shadows
are dark in the bright sunlight as the
load Is left TO be hewn into new white
slabs by the many-jawed saws of the
water-mill below. fience comes those
piles, those heaps of marble on either
side oil the low jotty, on the sandy ridge
by the sea, sorted right and lett, grave
yard-like, in utter nakedness az If
against some judgment day. And when
the white moon wanders up Mt night,
they stand like gentle ghosts, bright
shining path over tho sea lying all be-
fore them. No need then, there seems,
OF those black prison-hOuses, those great
boats that lie like cast-oif shells of huge
leyiathans- need, there seems, of
these TO wing the white souls on their
way.
IL is glazing noontide, the deep shad-
ows have shrunk into rectangular
stumpiness, and drowsy peace has
crept over the dusty piazza. The brown,
ragged world is all at dinner. How sol
EMMY grand in its dignity Is the mass
i've pump i'll the centre there that cares
so little for the rival attractions OF some
half dozen wine shops which ilaunt
their gaudy invitations to thirsty souls!
There Is Il fort, too, in the square, with
oold, frowning front toward the now
distant sea, and then smiling win
dowed side for the ria2za and the pump.
On either flank there Is "a little quaint
street OF ragged houses which reach TO
the pineta, and toward the mountains a
stretch OF dusty road. Presently, din
ner over the stacks of marble will
swarm again with swarthy men aud
boys. The oxen, too, that have crept
into the shade TO chew the cud, viii
begin again their dusty pilgrimages
TO the mountains, or will rumble the
marble-piled tram-car along the jetty to
the big-boomed boats.
IL was early morning as the first light
stole over the mountains when the
techlni awOke TO labor. And first, the
big, flat-bottomed boats, that Law in
black rows on tho sand, were hauled
down by many yoke of oxen; for each
yoke a driver In the heavy cart. Naked
and shouting, q troop of men and bows
placed logs OF wood across Leyiathnnis
path, 80 that he slid down grooming, and
IN short stages 10 the silent sea, looking.
as he gathered the cart-ropes about him,
Ike some huge, black monster of the
deep throwing out horrid feGlers. Leyia.
than. launched and tamely tied TO a
wooden pier, scores Of men hand down
marble fashioned into slabs and
squares,or with block and tackle slupr
from the big boom lower great roughl
hewn masses into the hold. Other boats
lie distant 10 be laden from barres
which receive their marble freight from
ox-carie That wade out till the oxen are
breast deep Ia the blue water, their pa
uent noses swept over BY the splashing
waves. Under little sheds or ia ::554 ri:
sun men square and shape the marble
into tiles, while others labor with a
great saw on some hugo marble rock.
Amidst the dazzling Wilderness on the
shore tho lordly "padr0ne" of marble
caves, armot with Blue spectacles and q
sun umbrella, Is busy with note book,
ana on the ictty the captain of lading
vessel breaks into poetic oaths. 81
work runs on till noon and afternoon
anu when evening comes, the sun sink
ing red in lurid, cloudless west, secs
there the workers still toiling. But then
comes weeks while "libeccien RACES, an1
the men stand idle all the day long look
ing impatleGtly at curling sea an,
gloomy Skies Pail Mall Gazette.