The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-04

the nights bring with them the real
splendor and luxuriousness of this match
ess city of the south. There is music
everywhere. In thousand half-liRhted
balconies are groups of men and women
chatting in low musical tones or listening
to the sweet notes of mandolin or guitar;
in countless entradas backed by courts
filled with rich lights, plants, flowers and
quaint corridors in an almost Oriental
seated half out upon the street, and
among them somewhere is music of voice
or instrument; and here, there and every
where. upon the housetops. in luxurious
gardens, are merry crowds singing, play
ing, dancing: Melody in word, laugh and
every kind-nothinR loud and sonorous,
but everything soft and dreamful-pulses
in harmonious chords above and over and
through the soundful streets. You may be
alone and not of it, but it Is all-conpassing
and it possesses you. You know it not,
universal voice Of mirth and music:
It is in strange tongue, yet it
taught JOY Of blessed childhood. Then,
from the half seen, wholly felt scenes
Of melodious nlirth, look upon the splendid
into the glorious Marina. Fully 10000 eq-
oocupants. NAV be seen, Three times that
number of pedestrians look down from the
upper Marina. Military bands discourse
the sensuous airs of Italy. In this concourse
clamor are unknown. Every. frequenter OF
the Marina only intensifes the everywhere
manifest chivalrous courtesy and considers
ton SO distinguishing this great outdoor
reception room Of a great city. 1t is not
until after midnight that the crowds seem
49, n:-~:o E~~s - IL NR al
obligation upon every gentleman and lady
of the city to be present at some time dur
ing the evening. Then from midnight on,
by an unwritten law another sort of life has
| the right of way. It is an intense life, over
which Italians have few agonized .philoso-
| ern life and cline az that strange brown
flower of the south, which only exhales odor
from its dropping foliage by starlight, is an
enchanting and sensuous type of CLINE
and nature that in no hour cease their warm
| and glowing activities.
OF the hundreds of religious edifces of
great ags and exceeding interest in and
| about Palermo, the stranger will linger
longest at the church and monastery OF
Santo Spirito. famous as the scene of the
sad tragedy of the Sicilian Vespers, on
March SO, 1882. and its Campo Santo for the
lowly dead, where there are 3G5 stone pits,
covered with stone slabs, into one of which
the dead of single day of the year are cast
| with consuming quicklime, to remain undis-
i turbed until the same day of the succeeding
year; the huge convent of San MARITIME and
cathedral of Monreale, built by William II,
to outrival the greatest RELIGIOUS sdifices OF
northern Europe; the Royal Chapel, with
its marvellous mosaics, finished in 1882; the
interesting Saracenic relics of La oCuba and
La Elsa; and the magnificent cathedral en-
Duomo) with its mighty sarcophagi where
repose the ashes of the royal Normans, King
Roger /, his daughter, Constantia, and EN-.
peror Frederick H.; but the most weird and
unsarthly fascination will be felt in thu
where over 5000 bodies are disposed in thu
eternal sleep in a manner which ought K
bring eternal sleeplessness to the living
These bodies are practically embalmed, O
mummifed, and many, habited IN thu
clothing of their mortal days, are stood. O
fastened, or hung in inches, in upriRh
pastures, in which they sway, seeming Il
writhe in horrible facial contortions, TO
the entertainment of the onlooker. Ever!
possible age, every manner of dress, ever!
conceivable posture, 10 discernible. Th
! theory upon which this ghastly show j
conducted ID that it 10 . good thing for tn
living to commune with the dead. Perhap
it is noe a bad idea, bat il would take
healthy American some time TO get used 4
. it: and as our steamer sped towards Naple
was glad that the brightness and beaut,
of Palermo, fla felice," we're rich enough
in memories of delight to hide the Capuchil
catacombs as eladsomely as sweet Jun
day will efface hateful dream.
EDoAs L. WAKxNAx.
;
} There are persons Who do not know hoV