The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-05-19

EDITOR CLARION Where IN the name
Of goodness are those boys ?" We reckon
that is what Grandma Jnlienne viii say
when she will see this letter. We Travelled
from Naples here last night, and stopped
Tor Sunday. II you look at the map OF
Southern Italy near the Adriatic Sea, you
will find Toggia surrounded by wheat
fields, vineyards, fig, lemon and orange
groves This morning, under our window,
a lot OF very large goats were stopped by
the herdsman and MIXED, two OF them,
right there in the presence OF the hotel
keeper. Then from house to house, in
the same way the goats sold their own
milk. No danger OF adulteration, You see.
Ne had the milk in our coffee. 1t is richer
than cows milk That's all we are going
to tell you about Toggia
When we wrote you last We were in
Genoa, where we stopped Tor over two
week.. There we visited, during Holy
Week, the wonderful Sepulchres which are
more beautiful IN that city than even
in Rome. You will hardly believe Us
when we tell YOU that at least $4,000
worth of wax candles were burnt in the
twenty four hours from Holy Thursday
morning TO Good Friday. Genoa is the
city Of Camelias, which grow in hedges in
the open air. The ladies OF that city
work them artistically, like they do marble
Mosaic, into all sorts OF figures. In one
church we saw the whole Crurifixion rep
resented in Camelias Of every hue and
color, like in picture. In another church
We saw round bouquet FIVE feet in diam
eter, with a scriptural passage referring to
the passion Of our Lord. written in Came
las. We saw here the house where Chris
topher Columbus lived. From Genoa
we went TO Pisa, aud saw the leaning
tower. the great DuOmo Cathedral, aud
the ancient Baptistary. In Florence we
visited its wonderful churches, the Mu-
scum and picture galleries, which alto
gether are about a mile long.
THEN TO ROME.
Here we remained four days. We could
not begin to tell you all that we saw. On
Easter Sunday we were at Mass in st
Peters Cardinal Howard celebrated Mass
instead of the Pope, who never comes out
IF his palace. We saw the Pope and heard
mis- Mass last Tuesday. On Monday we
visited the Cataeombs, which are like an
,ther Rome under the ground two
and three stories deep. When we were
coming out, in were coming an Austria
ian family who knew not a word Of
Il
explanation in real Roman language, which
was Dutch to them. Father Quito offered
% explain things to them IN English, and
they were SO thankful that they in
yited US to dinner at their hotel. We
visited Rome with them for three days.
rhey were father and mother, two boys,
one 10 years old, the other IA, and girl
II. We had lot of fun together. We all
went up on the cupola of st. Peter. The
ball under the cross, from the public
square below, looks about big a
mans head. But we all got inside OF it
except the old Australian lady who was
too fat to climb that high. Sixteen people
can get inside OF it easily.
FROM Rome we went to Naples. 1t is
the most beautiful place we have seen yet.
The silver and gold that is found in one
chapel of the Cathedral could hardly be
hauled away at one load by a stout mule. |
The boys will not believe what we are
going to tell them now, but when we get
home we will prove to them that we tell
them no yarns. Last Friday morning We
visited Pompeii and then Mount Vesuvius.
Pompeii was city of some 10000 inhabi
tants, four or five miles from Nesuyius
In the year of our Lord 70 the volcano be-
gan to throw up lava, stones, and ashes to
such an extent that 1t covered that city
aud several others from 20 to 80 feet deep,
burying houses, animals, people and every
thing else About half of Pompeii has
been lately excavated, and we saw the an
eient city as it was, streets, temples, thea.
tres, houses. etc. Plenty of people were
buried alive, aud the bodies can be seen
now after over 800 years. We even saw
eggs that were cooking then, aud the bread
n a
under the Lava and are found now
as they were eighteen centuries ago. There
are pictnres and statues in the houses as
fresh "a if they were only year old.
After seeing Pompeii We assembled Mount
Vesuvius. 1t is smoking and throwing up
stones and melted lava all the time. A
company built, Ito about half way,) ca
BILE railroad. They will take charge of
YOU in Naples and take you up that dis
lance and then show you Pompeii for the
consideration of ten dollars a head. But
we did not want to go up IN such an or
binary way. We went by railroad TO
Pompeii and visited it. There we hired
four Sandman ponies and guide Tor six
dollars. Then bareback we travelled,
through beautiful vineyards planted in the
cinders OF the Vesuvius, the slope of the
mountain and then through the lava as
high as the cable road can go, From that
point up, every body must take it afoot.
Here plenty of men are ready to be hired
to pull you up with ropes, because il is SO
steep and rugged that ordinary people can
not go higher.
But Father Datto told us that we could
not see the crater unless We could go
up by ourselves. Our guide helped us
boys little Father went up entirely by
himself. We saw at least fifty other peo-
tle of all nationalities going up, but every
body hired help. The men who pull PEG
pie up have shoes with iron soles. They
have ropes which they pass over their
shoulders or around their bodies. People
| take hold of the ropes aud are pulled up
that way. We went up TO the very top
and looked down in the crater. We saw
the stones thrown up high in the air and
picked bit of one to carry home. We
cooked a few eggs in the lava while ii
was getting cold. The lava was rolling
down the sides of the mountain in great
volumes like melted iron. We got to il
and put our sticks in it. Every body is at
first frightened, but the experienced guides
know so we'll how to dodge every danger
that fear soon passes away. We saw ever
several ladies on the very top. Wher
there we said, Wonder how Grandma Ju
lienne would like to be here? 1t took u
three hours to go up, and two to come down
We ate that evening good supper and
slept soundly. 4rirsderci.
AMOS JOHNSTON,
EDWARD SCoTT.