Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-11

climb the steep hills on terraesd steps;
the old d.. walls nd wave with h,, isTns
varieties Of wild flowers brighten the crass with
brilliant, tropical colors." Multo bella Capriin
steal voices; 'iMulto bella Capdl'' echoes every
stranger who puts his lucky foot upe-s the shore.
There are thousands Of people who come over
take dinner at hotel and then 20 away. daring
to say that they have seen Capri 1t is much
easier, however, to go away the first day than
the second the second than the third, The
Englishnlan who came to stay three days and
remained forty years is now spoken Of as type.
Yet Capri is not Injurious, an enervating
land; it is inyigoratlng it is piquant; it tempts
you to exploration. to conquer its heights, to
seek and find new charms continually, and when
the outside of it is exhausted there Is the inside
to explore in the shape Of
NUMEROUS eRorToEs.
The sea has burrowed with fosmy fingers into
every tiny hssure left by the earthquakes in
Capri's solid ramparts of rock, and there Father
Neptune has made himself retreats, adorned
with splendor such as Tiberius could not find
in all his empire with which to garnish his
twelve Caprian villas. Father Neptune took ad-
vantage of Tiberius' innovation, however,
that delight and despair of artists.
the blue grotto. 1t was in this way: At the
time when Tiberius left Rome to spend his wick
ed old age in Capri, there was large grotto in
the northern side of the island, $50 feet long,
eighty-hve feet wide and thirty feet high, with
a large round opening fifty by forty feet in size,
about one-third of which was above water. On
the crag above this grotto the emperor built one
of the twelve magnificent villas that have made
the soil of Capri treasure-trove Of mosaic pave
ments, statues and rare marbles. The grotto
evidently used for q huge bath, as steps are
found on the outside of the cliff leading down
into it from the villa, and in order to admit
these steps. as well as more light and
air opening was cut through the rock
above the entrance to the cave. The
rra4,T bod rrd lad no nj
died, and one day the fires beneath the sea be-
stirred themselves; there was earthquake,
and then, when mother nature recovered her
calm again, the blue grotto was made. The
large, natural opening to the cave was sunk
seven feet below the surface of the water, and
the window cut by Tiberius, being half sub
merged, left little entrance three and half
feet high. 1t Is only in very calm weather that
one can 90 in. A case is on record OF an enthu-
sisstic artist who was in the grotto alone paint
ing; he did not notice the rising waves and when
at last he laid down his palette to pick up his
oars he found that exit was impossible, and
there he was
IMPRISONED WITHOUT FOOD
for three days of storm. Small boats, holding
three persons beside the oarsman. take the pas
sengers in from the steamer; you lie down in
the boat; a moment of darkness, and you find
yourself floating upon an illuminated sea of
blue, the vivid, tightening blue of burning gas.
Above, the vaulted roof is blue as the water be-
meath. The oars fash like quicksilver in the
water; you put in your hand and Gnd it turned
shines like silver fish. The multitude of small
boats, showing black as night upon that illu-
mined sea, the hollow murmur of many voices,
the many cleaning oars, add greatly to the
wierd unhealthy of the scene. 1t is such Won
derful place. and all our adiectives have been
SO worn out exaggerating the wonder Of
to tell you about it. 1t is literally
like floor of pale blue fire, rooted with blue;
st the Paris exposition. The little entrance ad-
mts very little light, so that the cave is lighted
chiefly from beneath,
BY THE SUNS RAYS
penetrating the outer water and sIanting through
the great submerged hole. The rays are then re-
lected by the white sand bottom, and decom-
posed by the blue water, and refracted by some
thing else, and the red and yellow rays get lost
somewhere, and then they are all polarized, but
what the poor tortured and torn pieces rays
do at last is to silver any object that is put in
the water, and hope you understand the meth
cd of it as clearly as do.
One of the finest excursions to be made is the
trip around the island. The coast unfolds ike
q panorama with every stroke OF the oars; you
pass around Tock-streHn promontories where
huge, fantastic stones are thrown about in
chaotic confusion, sometimes jutting out in
long, needle-like formation, sometimes forming
rude arches; past walls of rock shading from
cream color to black and red; crags towering up
hundreds OF feet into ragged crown of ruined !
fortress; wilder and grander 1t grows as you go !
around the western point under Mt. Solare,
rising a sheer $500 feet straight up out of the
water. till you dart suddenly from the dazzle |
of sea and sun into the green grotto. The walls
grotto are made pale, vivid green not by re-
hection, though the sea here is green as pale !
emerald, but by mixture of sulphur with the
water from an ancient sulphur spring. It was in |
grotto that we ate our lunch the day we made
this trip, with some friends at the hotel. While
we were eating, one of the oarsmen still in the
boat suddenly fished up devil-fish, or octopus
one of these hideous creatures with eight arms
a foot in length. covered with blood-suckers. We
all rushed to see, but on our way we saw the |
boatman grasp the squirming thing firmly in |
his hands, and opening his lips he TOOK in
GREAT MoUTHFUL
Of the live thing. and bit it, then, grinning with
delight, he said: "Napoli, due francol,'
which meant that devil fish was considered a |
and be could sell it at Naples for two
francs. or course we ladies shrieked in proper |
form at this performance, but we learned that
the boatman had taken the swiftest and the |
only way to kill the creature; that is bv breah,
ing the little, soft backbone, which he cou1d |
only conveniently do by holding down Tbe |
squirming legs and using his teeth before the |
blood suckers could be put in operation.
Fast the Fariglione, three huge rocks standing
up in the sea, like three gigantic sugar loaves |
through one of which the boat passes by a |
natural arch; past the slender waist of the island
with its fruit groves, and you come under an |
Did castle, beneath which, half way down the |
cliff, is an immense cave. When the corsairs, |
they found it empty, for the clever old baron |
who built it had cut subterranean assage |
down into this cave, which is large enough 70 |
hold two or three Thousand people, and which |
he kept stored with provisions and water, The |
passage is stopped up now, but we |
climbed down into the cave one day by tascins- !
Lingly dangerous little path. winding around |
'ne crag after another by irregular steps cut |
from the face of the rocks. The reservoir for
water is still there, and the water still drina |
Town from the broken cistern above.
Around at the eastern end OF the island Won |
'ome under the villa of Tiberius, a shapeiess |
mass Of ruins on the edge of the cliff. Down |
hat sheer precipice Of thousand feet this fes-
i've old emperor had his prisoners and enemies
hurled, and the story runs that soldiers were !
stationed at the bottom to break up the bodies |
ind destroy any life left in them by the fan. /
This precaution seems rather unnecessary to one |
cooking up the cliff from the sea-
There are several more grottoes to explore be-
tide the green and the blue one, but thev are |
much inferior in beauty. Capri is an iuspfring
nbiect and will tell you more about itsSTf |
me. JESSIE C. CuAMRxSs
~ Is cSreded by the members of thu rSle.ts IN
Ellianef Strange andlH heel fhRts q 81 e1Sss
hey Is Subject 10 asesA1 ( IS q =