St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-11
SONG And sunny SEA
La Bella Napoli, Queen OF the
Deep Blue Mediter-
panean.
Music, Sweet Music, Mingles
With the Murmur Of
the Sea.
Songs and Palaces Charm,
While Beggars Annoy
the Tourist.
A Graphic Description OF the
Richest Monastery in
Europe.

lies DluG DIS al
sapph ire and
calm as a pearl. The outline of Capri
is clear against the horizon. The
solemn, mysterious mountain waves IT'S
plume of smoke in answer to the SOFT
from the girdling hills the fair city
bends TO the BAY. Parthenope!
This largest of Italian cities has a
charm that eludeS description. Less
splendid than Rome, less beautiful than
Florence, LA Bella Napoli'' has her
own secret. and those who have. the
happiness to catch a shadow of its
meaning must pay for it the price OF an
amending sadness unless they be
blest enough to abide always
with her. For Naples leaves no
room for a later and lesser love:
There is no special excellence OF
architecture. The streets in the Old
part of the town are dark and devious
and dirty exceedingly. The entire ten
ement house population turns itself out
upon the pavement and then arranges
its hair, nurses its children, exchanges
its social courteSieS, and adjusts domes-
tic difficulties of every variety. Side
walks are the exception, and you may
be called upon to contest the pavement
with the cows, which are taken ABOUT
from door to door to be MIXED. Cases
of mutual embarrassment have arisen
when the tourist calling upon his law
yer, is obliged to dispute the right of
way on the staircase with goat of the
softer sex, which has been up to the
lawyers apartment for the purpose of
amelioratng the morning coffee.
The beggarS who swarm every
where take all rebuffS as mere
pleasure of the interview. Any casual
glance at shop window ELECTS smil-
ing proprietor who does not release the
passing stranger until he is convinced
that the eternal fitness of things de-
mandS an immediate exchange OF the
balance of his letter of credit for half
the tortoise-shelI and lava and coral
goods within. The slightest service is
a bid for a fee-yes, all this is true and
more, yet the stranger within the gates
knows well why he has been hidden to
''See Naples and die"
If Rome has statelier palaces, Flor
ence tairer streets, Naples has always
wall-and what sight of mans handi-
work can compare with the mutable
face of the changeless sea? If the
NeapOitan be less thoughtful than
the Florentine, less brilliant than
the Roman, he is always more lovable.
A light-hearted, caressing, sweet-nat-
ured race are these children of the sun,
full of bright patience that may be
half indolent, but is wholly charming.
There is still trace of Spanish pre-
dominance observable in the pomp of
the equipages in which aristocratic
Naples takes its afternoon drive along
Via CaraCciolo and Via ParthenOpe,
beautiful streets reclaimed from the sea
within the past nine years. Here one
may see, between the hours of 3 and 5,
the fair Neapolitans leaning back i'll
their open carriages, looking as naughty
as Russians and as languid as Orient
ais. notable among them the handsome
duchess, who once did not care to know
her sovereign lady Margherita because
her own blood could boast an older
strain than that of the house of Savoy.
But that is past now, and the duchess
is lady in waiting to the gentle queen,
who has won the hearts of her people,
as her gallant husband has commanded
their respect.
The royal palace here is one of the
finest in Italy, filled with beautiful
things. among them some unrivaled
Gobelin tapestries. The spaces are very
magnificent, vista on vista of arches
opening as one walks in the court, aisles
on aisleS of lofty rooms within. In
many of these stately chambers the no
bic frescOing of the ceiling looks down
in quaint contrast on carpets as in
genious ugly as one might find in the
best room OF Connecticut farm house,
but one is grateful for their staring hid
eousneSS when it saves one from the
GOODNESS of the tiled floors. 1t was in
this palace that the heir to the Italian
throne was born, and he is called always
here the Prince of Naples. Opposite
the palace is the grand inward curve of
the Cathedral of st. Francis de Paul,
and in the space between plays the
graceful fountain which first sent it's
bright waters up into the air as Mar
gherita stepped out upon the palace
her handkerchief from her white hand.
Like all the water of Naples to-day, it
is of the best, for the cholera scOurge
two years ago proved to be blessing in
disguise, since it was directly traced to
the poor water system, which has now
been done away with and supplanted
by the best of its kind. Carnival has
just begun in ali its fast-fading glory at
Rome, but there is no special ohServa-
ton of it here. As Neapolitan gentle
man said to me i'll Naples, it is always
carnival. Indeed, one would think so
passing through the Swarming streets,
with their ininitable Punch-and-Judy
shows-the original Polichinelle was
Neapolitan-their handsome, saucy
vendors of small wares, their flower
sellers, dashing horses, with their met
albedizened harness, gay soldiery, and
equisite Neapolitan dandies.
And from morning until night the air
is filled with music, such music as we
I'm the North pay out feveriShlv more
dollars to hear drilled out of grace at
the opera, and here find breaking as
lightly as breath from the lips of driver,
porter, and goatherd. How the singers
Napoli" as they chant its praises in the
popular air, and with what flash of
eyes and lips and cleaning teeth they
answer the involuntary "Bravo!" of the
listener. That sunny smile of Italy!
The plaineSt face is glorified by it, and
when it beams out from the cherub
features of young children and the clear
cut lines oil countenanceS that still keep
the classic purity of an earlier day, one
knows why Italy is the God-app0inted
custodian of art.
Seeing and hearing all this, looking on
the rolling hills and the matchleSS bay,
on the oranges and lemons that hang
their golden globes in crowding plenty
from each laden bough, on the roses that
bloom in February with all the gay con-
iidence of June, on the neglected gar
denS OF, the villas, starred with marbles
and ri0touS with leaves. one might feel
this to be the land of the past, the golden
age of dreams. But not so. Italy for
the Italians! That sounds clearer each
day. That new Italy which Garabaldi
won and Umberto upholds is growing
into strong and stronger life. New
buildings are rising on every hand. AL
ready portion of the old, crazy, pic
turesque, dirty town is doomed to de-
struction and the people are to be
transferred from their swarming
tenements to new apartments on