The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-04-16
A TRIP TO
MOUNT ETNA.'
1t Is Most Graphically Described
by Edgar l.. Wakeman.
Scenes In and Around Catania-A City Of
Houses Built of Lava-streets Paved With
Lava-Food as Tasteless as Lava.
Special to THE MoHNrNG CALL.

CATANIA Sicily, March II. lS90.-One has
to resist the strongest possible temptation to
classic musings at Catania. In the pagan and
Christian history of the eastern shore OF the
island of Sicily, or that portion extend
ing from Messina at its northeastern ex-
uemity past Catania, about midway be-
tween, to Syracuse, in nearly direct north
and south line, one can almost read
the history of the world. Exactly half way
between Messina and Syracuse, its summit
about the same distance from that part of
the l0nian Sea known as the Strait of Mes
sina, as it lies tritle west of north of
Catania, stands that origin of countless
Hydrologic furies and incalculable actual
destruction, the most majestic and fearful
volcano of all Europe, Mount Etna.
From any of the tiny lava peaks In the
suburbs of Catania within ones range of
vision the fancy can summon to their olden
| places the myth-wraiths of Jove's most
powerful helpers, frowning from Etna's
smoky crest; the wrath of Empedocles
wandering on Etna's side. clothed in purple
and bearing Delphic crown, five centuries
before Christ; of Dionysius the Elder, 200
| years later, after destroying Naxos, scaling
the walls of little MOla above like fero-
! cious beast to butcher its defenders; of the
silver tongued Alcibades. down there in
the amphitheater, built between 400 and
| 800 years before Christ, which you can to-
! day see beneath ages of lava, enthralling
the Catanians with his loving speech,
| while the Athenians were treacher-
| ously entering the city along the
shore; of the demigod warriors and
| philosophers flashing like meteors within
the scenes of the Roman Ampitheater,
sea rely less majestic than the Coliseum,
whose fragments still exist beneath the
street of Slesichoros; of that old law
ma ker we ought to have at Washington,
Charondas, who decreed that legislators
should only make or unmake laws while
st anding with halter around their necks
before the people, ready for hanging, should
their propositions fail to prevail; of st.
Paul ferVidly preaching a simple faith in a
simpler ay than Christianity now enforces
| It's unyielding and aggressive creeds, down
there among the lowly upon the lonian
shore; away to the south, the wraithS Of
countless hosts of invaders wne persisted
upon the Catanian plains,
ONCE THE GRANARY OF THE WORLD,
Where Ceres, with her own divine hands,
sowed the first wheat and taught men to
till the soil, and hey Skirting the
lonian blue, those myriad wraths of myths
and humans that knew the birth, acme,
decay, despair and destruction of that most
magnificent of all Hellenic cities, glorious
| SAD, tTanScendent, pitlable Syracuse. For
| truly all this and thOusand-fold more are
| seen with the eyes of sense and thought,
/ while the lightning-flashes of fancy course
the realms of mythology and history.
| There, at Etna, Enceladus, bound beneath
| Jnpiter's earthly throne, turning upon his
! fiery bed every century or so, shakes the
| world with his earthquakes. Here, at Cata-
| MIA, twenty centuries of stored treasure and
art lie buried beneath seas of liquid fire.
R.aN~F,r 4 Lot
| cence of Greek achievement is crumbling
beneath centuries of filth. The sea, the
moraSseS with their deadly miasma, and the
notwithstanding fures of Etna alone re-
MAN, Resplendent civilizations are ami
hllated. Etna TOaTed, the seas engufed
the morasses swept hosts away. That
was 300 years ago. We say Of that
time superstition was the mother OF
mythology. Let Etna roar. a tidal
wave eDgulf, or sinking swamp breed
pestilence to girdle the earth, a more
sodden superstition and fatalism are here
to accept the old, and create new, bugabOOs
to-day. What availed st. Paups austerity,
81. Peters benIgnancy, or even that a
Christ was born, to such as these?
But how can YOU long continue Igith the
gods, when vile beggars chase you from one
classic point TO another, and alert and ven-
turesome fieas, brave as another Italian
whose discoveries we are about to cele-
brate, swarm over new worlds of conquest
upon your toothSome American anatomy?
1t is impossible. And so you see Catania
with eyes of to-day. Those view two
or three long, handsome streets with
white facades aud towering domes
Back to the bay half-destroyed by
lava, and, in the other direction, toward
tiny peaks and luXuriant wales, run narrow
lanes whose structures are low and black.
These are all built of lava blocks. The
streets are paved with lava, fountains
are carved from lava, floors are tiled with
lava, interiors are built from lava, the
very dishes one eats from are turned out
of lava. and the bread one gets is hard,
shiny and tasteless as lava itself. You can
never get away from a constant conscious
ness OF the source of destruetiveness and
revivification bowling Etna is to Catania, TO
It's near cities, the dense population herding
all about its base, even to smiling and ex-
ultant nature itself. Over eighty eruptions
Of Etna are OF historic record. 1t spews out
rivers OF liquid fire every generation or SO.
These Obliterate Cities villages the very
face of nature.
THE PEOPLE RUN AWAY
And let the lava cool Then they come
back aud dig out their homes, or compos-
eddy cut blocks from the handy substance
and build anew. Where the old VINEYARDS
olive and fig plantations once were,
new ones spring like magic if the porous
stuff be barely scratched by pick or hoe for
seeding-places. Never will the line,
Ger Death eternal Life is blossomlng
Come to you with such fash of forcefulness
as here.
Perhaps $4,000 souls exist in Catania
The palaces which border her PRINCIPAL
streets are very new, splendid and great;
perhaps the Biscaria Palace, which houses
vast stores OF Greek sarcophagi, terra cottas,
vases and sculptures, eXcavated from the
lava, being the most imposing. Then there
is the Marina, where the lowly gather and
listen to the music Of Government bands, a
hthy place much loved by the lazzaroni.
But the Bellini Garden, out on the heights
toward Etna, Is surprisingly beautiful; and
IN tins you VIII see military officials re-
splendent in uniforms and decorations, lords
and princes covered with insi gnia of rank,
all the really interesting arlStOcracy of Ca
tanla, and truly the most winsome soulful
eyed, empty-headed women of Sicily OF
the GrBco-Roman remains the theater can
be visited by the use of guides and torches.
The ancient Odeum is near; and in Archie
Duslrl street will be found what is left of
the Roman Amphitheater. Under the Pr
azza del Duomo, adjacent to the great Cathe-
oral. are the Roman Baths; but the best
preserved specimens Of these are seen I'M
derneath the Carmelite Church, where
there still remain in marble the warm bath,
the h0t-Water bath, the vapor b ath and the
fire-rOOm and the disrobing-roOm. There
are many medieval half-ruiued structures
Of interest in Catania; while the unfinished
Monastery Of San Nicola is, excepting that
of MARIA in Portugal, the largest and most
imposing in all Europe.
But the traveller is not so much attracted
to Catania by its reminders of mighty
past as he is to put eyes and feet upon the
monster which all through that known
time stood moaning or laundering above it.
Its ascent is begun within the very streets
of the city. Strada Etna, Catania's longest
street, beginning at the very edge of the
port side, leads almost due north toward
the volcanoes peak, within a few feet of
11,000 feet above the level of the sea, and
fully twenty-eight miles away. The area
nf cd hu rha