Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-08-08
GRACE GREENWOOD.
TALKS ABOUT ETNA'S LITTLE
MOUNTAIN AND BAVARIA'S KING.

Sicily and Her Elemental Tragedies-Ths
superstttiou- People of Madrid-The
Late wagncr-Mnd Monarch-The Fairy
Prince of the Nineteenth Century.
Special Corrcspondence.l
MILAN, July 3, lSSG- Etna, 50 long In
agonized labor, has brought forth, not
mous,. hut actually little mountain, which
the Italian Alpine club, in session at Catanla,
has sol,mnly Christenrd Monte Gemellaro.
That great eruption, of exceptional length,
volume and violence, was horrible happen
ing. sufficiently near To Us TO cause popular
excitement, especially during tue days and
nights while NicoluSi, a town whose history Is
n series Of distinctions and recunstructlons,
was threatened with a final overwhelming,
standing. as it were, at bay, with It's a"tui
enemy drawing slowly and steadily higher
and higher. All watched at last with bated
breath-some praying, some betting. Would
the poor little city 20 under, or would IL hoti
Devour Catholics hal hope as soon as they
heard that the bishop Of Catania and
gooily number of priests had gone to the re-
lief of the lava-bcleaguered town, bearing
the veil Of st. Agatha, which, 1t Is said, once
saved C,tania when similarly menaced.
/ Hosts of pious Sicilans believe that the shak-
ing Of that bit OF muslin in the face OF the fiery
torrent arrested it. and delivered Nlcolosl.
| Nicolosi and other menaced tow,s have es-
| capod this time thanks 10 St Agatha; but
! a multitude of the poor peasants OF the region
! round about driven from their ruined homes
! and VINEYARDS, bave lost all their worldly pos
/ sessions in some cases life, in many cases
reason. The correspondent of one Of the
Milan evening Journals gave particularly
| vivid and sensational descriptions of the gran
deurs and terrurs Of the eruption, and OF the
human tragedies attending it, 50 that for days
we "suppei on horrors"
Since Etna ceased from troubling, there
has been the ghastly catastrophe of the sui
phur mine of Naro, in which hundreds Of poor
miners perished through exl loSions or in the
flames and suffocating fumes-the fire and
birthstone which, made Of those yellow
caverns, seem TO the poor wretches who did
not die speedily, the very ante-chambers OF
hell Sicily seems this year To he the scene OF
these elemental tragedies, as Spain was last
year and Us ISchia and Scio were a few year,
ago. All, we are 50 many and such restless
creatures we swarm soon the old earth, that
it seems now and ,hen TO set impatient, and
like some huge pachydermous animal to
make q mad bolt, shake its skin and fling a
lot Of Us off into the infinite void
So many of these calamities have lately
been visited upon Spain and its vicinity that
the supcrStitiouS people Of Madrid take them
rs solemn warnings, especially since their ex
perience Of a regular wild American cyclone
and are looking in pitiful alarm for the enc
of the world Il seems that, according to 1
tradition founded on a prophecy Of old Nos
tradamus that uutoward svent should COM
off in the year when st. Marks day falls oi
Easter Sunday, and that Of ST. Antony oi
that Of Pentecost, and that OF ST. George o:
Corpus DOmine-all Of which conjunction
occur in this year Of our Lord. II there l
really even to be such day OF contiagratioi
and COLLAPSE as the Dies ire of prophets AM
poets We may take II that the mightiest vol
canic eruptions and earthquakes but faintl,
foreshadow its horrors Still fainter remind
ers are they of the stupendous work OF tn
Creator in forming and reforming and trans
forming this round world Of ours. Befor
time was, as we reckon il, the savage force
Of nature had fought out on this planet thei
Titanic battles-the general war OF lawles
elements, which was to establish the geners
law of order. Then cavernous central depth
yawned and drank in great seas; then tdI
waves, that were like runaway seas, rushe
from zone to zone and Overswept continent:
then mighty volcanic forces, fiery plowshart
of God, cleft the granite crust OF the cart
and tossed up mountain ranges. All this "
know, or think We do; but The thought OF tbs
d troubled season OF autd lang syne does nc
& afflict us, for we know also that while thes
; primordial commissions endured, and the pos
d harasSed globe struggled against, or by FL
u and flood, to establish hospitable, habitat
e conditions for 'the coming man"-setting u
e scenes for the drama Of human hfe-thoug
u tortured earth and might groan an
'i moan, there were no trembling mortal wi
= neSses of the conflict and the uproar, no sol
IL tient victims Of the blind fury Of the ell
- ments-
1t is after all the human part played
these tragedies of physical nature whic
gives them not a cruwning horror, but
grandeur beyond all that imagination ca
assign to chaotic shocks and thrOes, oyertur1
ings and subsidences. 1t is the sublimity
human woe. What unspeakable constern
II ton must prevail in a volcanic region duriI
a hard season Of earthquakes 1t Is nigh
mare of dreadful expectancy that the df
~ never breaks upOn-a shadow Of misfortul
:, and grief which no sun dissipates-the hom
= le>sness OF poor WreUcnes WHOM he4Nea ilS<
:, seems to have elected.
"a But does the greater always contain the les
or even balance it in this hfei To the wor
y about u.s. the heaving and rumbling and La
U vomiting Of Etna were Of small account CO,
= pared with the outcries and spasms Of Z
10 French republic, over the Portuguese ma
III riage, and the expulsion OF the Pretenders-ai
- what were the beggaring, the distraction
u destruction Of few hundred peasants-wh
~ were cyclones let loose on and damaging
IA few cities, to the bankruptcy and despair OF
le king, to the whirlwind Of madness which
~ last burst on the royal house Of Wittelsba
Z and bore away its head. The exciteme
~ here, over this last event, was for lit
~ time universal, though naturally the ltalii
H. loves not over much the Teuton, and CT
q tainIy no event 50 CHASTITY, and at the sal
u time so pathetic, has occurred among t
IL royal folk of Europe since the death Of {
TO prince imperial. 1t is strange that it to
this suicide, coupled with a probable hon
u eide, TO convince his subjects that the IN
NJ =, Just entombed as n grand monarch, with il
~, tiS posing pOmps and much Latin, was not fit
uo rule over the stupideSt beer-drinking, be'
VI thinking Bavarian peasants. He ought
~ have been deposed and quietly disposed of
lS some aesthetic Wagnerian mad house yes
rs ago. Indeed, from late revelations it see
H. that he ought 70 have been depoSed before
y was posed on the throne, Is he gave indicatiC
hu of madness III his very childhood, once und
taking to put to death his little brother Otl
ei whom he called his ''vassal," for some act
hu disobedience The French and ltali