The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1890-11-27

donkeys, and when these could go no
further climbed the 1900 feet OF the cone
on foot, | found they had paid more
than we did, and worked their passage
besides. 1t is a very reasonable trip
by carriage and railway, costing less than
the trip up Mt. Washington.
The street scenes of Naples are more
varied than in any city we visited, the
hundreds of peddlers with thei- queer
cries, some of them riding or leading
little donkeys often not over feet high,
carrying great pdnniers so fnll OF veg
etables as almost to hide the patient
little beasts, others bearing great loads of
wood, and such fuel as Europeans burn,
nothing comes amiss even TO the little
branches trimmed from vines or trees,
down to dry reeds and rushes. The lovely
notes of the donkeys themselves blend
beautifully with the cries Of the yenders.
Here donkey drawing cart much
larger than himself, there, very small
horses dragging along one immehse cart
loaded with many barrels of wine,
cases of fruit, etc., the shafts sticking
far out over the Shoulders of the animal.
Now team composed of horse and a
donkey, or a donkey and a great white
OK, then an OK and horse, or single
OK, all having the great brass covered
saddles on the harness, very fancy nets
covered the animals, coming nearly to
the ground, and adorned with a multitude
of various colored tassels, often a
feather brush stuck at the top of the
head.
All the kinds of fruit seemed to BE-
ripe at one time, 1 saw strawberries,
raspberries, blackberrles, peaches,
melons, figs, pears, and grapes in the
markets at the same time.
Morning and evening large flocks of
goats pass through the city, to and from
the pastures, most have bells about their
necks when producing very musical
sounds except they awOke us as they
passed early in the morning: it was very
funny to see flock of about 20, come
down the principal shopping street just
at the hour when, the narrow sidewalks
were crowded with people, many Of them
threading their way through the crowds,
neither goats nor people seeming to
mind 1t in the least: imagine such flock
coming down Broadway or 9th Avenue
New York city about 4 o'clock p. m. of
pleasant spring day, goodly number of
| them on the sidewalks. European horses
are not to be compared with ours, the
only good ones we saw anywhere were
the great Percherons of France and Eng
land Most of them, pal ticularly in
Italy were very small and looked as if
they were poorly fed. Nowhere are the
same sounds used in driving horses as
with us, the most peculiar was the Ital-
ian cry; when they wished the horse to
go faster they kept saying "Ahl All!
Ah!" with the funniest accent on the
word, and such cracking of whips, the
drivers seemed to think they were not
doing you proper honor unless they kept
up perfect fusillade, it sounded like
pistol shots, but the horses very rarely
suffered, the lash usually did not touch
them. One never hears people whistle
to their dogs, in fact wfiistling of any
kind on the Continent is extremely rare,
I suppose they did not have time to
whistle if they kept alive on European
wages. We saw one little horse drawing
a cart through the streets in which were
seated fourteen grown persons. Don
keys are used principally in Naples on ac-
count of their cheapness, the best being
only $40, and from that 1own to SO.
The holes in which large families live
would astonish an American, even when
they are installed as portiers at the en-
frances to residences, for there thay have
only two rooms on the ground floor, and
usually one of these serve as q workshop,
for they exc out their meagre pay by
work of some sort at home. In most
cases the door is the only opening, as it
is of course tightly closed at night, how
they manage to live in air so foul as it
must become, could not see. The peo-
pie of the city must sleep very few hours
out of the "a, for it seemed as il fthey sat
out in the streets all night talking inces-
sanity, the thoroughfares swarm with
people as soon as the sun gets low; did
not wonder they preferred the streets to
their homes, after had seen the homes.
At the Southern end of the city, on the
road to Posilipo, IS a great cliff of the
rock peculiar to the vicinity of Naples. a
stone so soft that it can be cut by knife
or hatchet, but which soon hardens when
exposed to the air At one place this
rock came right to the edge Of the road
and in this family had excavated two
living there as happy as kings.
The poor babies in Italy have a har6
time, they are wound up so tightly they
cannot move at all, just as Indian babie:
are done up; the little things look so un
comfortable in that hot climate. IL
many places in the streets long strings O
maccaroni were hung on frames, drying
and covered with flies and dust: we con
cluded that the Italians were not partic
; ular as to what they ate. We heard bu
one hand-organ in all Europe outside o
y ENGLAND, they would starve to death oil
! the Continent if they depended on tn
I people as they do here, but we knew
! where they all were.
3 The greatest drawback to travel Il
= italy, Switzerland or even France, is tn
. nlague of fleas. When / see q dog O
= cat stop suddenly and begin to scratcl
themselves vigorously, look at then
with compassion, for have travelled i
> italy. There is healthy, robust, an
- extremely sociable variety in that cour
= try. and thicker even than the beggars.
3 we took the steamer for the Island Q
= Capri, where is the famous ''Blue Gro
y to'' stopping on the way at variOu
y towns along the rocky coast, so preciI
~ itous that the only landing places are th
a little sandy coves, everything has to
=, carried ashore in small boats, for NJ
3 where are there any wharves. Nearly a
20 these towns are perched high up on th
70 cliffs, with the mountain peaks rising 4;
= above them, and little group of hous'
g surround the coves. The scenery W;
es extremely rugged, the cliffs were woi
4 into such peculiar shapes by the actic
y" of the waves, while large caves weren
N merous. At one place men were at woI
av far up on the perpendicular limestoi
~ w cliff, dislodging great rocks which f.
re with crash; the fragments were carrie
oh by vessels to Sorrento and made in
20 lime at the numerous kilns there. II
a men were so far up that | never shou
IA have seen them except for the fallii
iia rocks, even then could scarcely loca
them.
ed Sorrento is situated in the most pee
ps liar place imaginable, a plateau abo
he three miles long, slOping from the hi
he behind it TO the edge of the precipice
lly distance of half mile, this cliff exten
ere the whole length of the plateau and ri
len straight UP from the sea 200 feet, the ia
of ~ II full of immense caves the entraT
Llly 10 some being over 80 feet high.
the effect is exactly like the ?
but lures of the great glacier
tho Alaska which discharges into the oce
on Several other towns are ON this plat
besides Sorrento, but they are all clos
. Joined, making practically one city. 2
sea is reached in only two places, exc
by stairways, one by a ziz-zag inclii
plane, the other by long grade max
use OF tremendous gulf which r
hack from the sea and divides SorreI
Nearly all the hotels which are nun
: ous and large, are built on the edge
: tbe cliff. the foundations necessar
4 some places are at least 100 feet HI
heavy masonry dovetailed into the c
THE outlook from these hotels and
dens at this height can be imagined,
4. Az ..rhola hav Canfi Iachia