Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1891-01-04


Hospitality received for the night.
These carbonari form distinct class
among the mountains of Italy. They
generally live in the villages, the wife and
daughters engaging in the vineyards gath
ering olives or chestnuts, and often as
shepherdesses with small hocks. The
fathers and sons go from one forest TO an
other as the owners desire charcoal made.
The landlord secures the telling and cutting
of the trees, and the carbonsro simply at.
tends to building and firing the pyres and
watching day and night their smoldering
progress. In this labor the sons share, and
regular watches are taken. The logs are
stood on end in round piles of perhaps
eighteen feet in diameter, covered and
chinked with mossy earth and then fired
in central hollow which has been filled
with chips of dry timber. fir cones, chips
from the logs and dead leaves and grass.
Once well ablaze, this flaming funnel is
covered with moss and earth, and the pile
is then left to smolder for five or six days
When reduced to carbone or charcoal, the
carboaaro delivers it to the owner, packed
in sacks, two SACKS composing a donkey
load, for which he receives abort ten cents
or about 81 for each burning. yielding forty
sacks. At this camp, an unusually large
one, score or more carbonali were at
work, and, es the burning was to be for an
extended period, some six or eight of the
| carbonari had built temporary huts and
had removed their entire families 70 the
forest.
This gave life and picturesqueness to the
scene, especially at night. A few iron
cressets had been fastened to the tree
trunks, and the crackle and farings of
cones and knots lent wierd colorIngs to
the motley groups of women with dazzling
teeth and eyes, and men grimy and swarth
beyond all description. l could not re-
press the feeling that l was at my old
wanderings with my Gypsy friends again;
and as the night gathered close its sable
wing over the majestic forest trees above,
and, one by one some strange instrument
of music was produced from the shadowy
huts, while the melody and dancing added
their fascination to the wild, strange scene,
thousand recollections of the days with
the Rommany swept back on Pratomagno's 8
darkened heights. Deeper still grew this
feeling as l was shown to couch of fir
branches for sleep. 1t came not for hours;
for in the gentle soughing of the frs, the
calls of the watchers to each other, and
here and there through the camp sup
pressed tones of melody, as those who
watched grouped together and reassuringly
sang low and soft the stornelli of Italy, l
was with my loved vagabond friends by
their witching camp-fi fires in nv own loved
land.
When the morning came, after break
fast OF pan unto bread fried in olive oil,
snd many a kindly "addie," and "vale ~
from my grimy hosts, l found my own way
back 10 Tosi. On such June morning as
that in which journeyed, the songs of
birds, the Eolian music of forest breezes. so
bewitch one all the way from Tosi that sud-
denly and without warning you are at the
enchanting mountain eerie of Valombrosa
The spot itself comprises but a few acres
of level meadow, through which runs a
long avenue of stately trees. At the end of
this avenue stand the lichened and gray
old buildings. On one side of the sunny
opening miles on miles of frs rise in ser
ried ranks to the very top of Patromagno !;
on the other thousands of chestnut trees
glow in their golden foliage. Behind and
above, hosts of sturdy beeches climb the
mountain. There are still standing 10000,
planted by the busy priors' hands. The
monastery itself is huge quadrangle
structure, with spacious inner courts.
The ancient church, completely robbed
Of its former treasures of paintings-save
an Assumption, by Franceschini, and the
cupola frescoes, by Fabbrini-stands in the
center OF the courts. Its massive square
tower rises grim and lone above the half
deserted buildings. Perhaps a score of
folk, professors, students, signal-bureau
agents and Government foresters, who act
as sort of mountain police about the Sc
questered property, abide here surly, in
hospitable, and as if doggedly conscious of
the sacrilege in their pretense of scholastic
life. The old monastery bell still sounds
the hours, but it speaks only to silence
and decay. The great water basins which
held the monks trout preserves are filled
with dead leaves. The wondrous old
kitchen, mighty truncated cone, where,
swinging from huge turnspit, the oxen
once were roasted, is cobwebbed, cold and
fireless. The Mettata, where a hundred
COWS were kept, is untenanted. Psradis-
ino, the ancient hermitage on the cliff
above the monastery, with its celle, tower
and church, are stripped and transformed
into hayloft. The half-ruined mill,
under which rushes the Vicano, is deserted
and still. Marvellous indeed is it that the
Italy of to-day has left one hint of the old
life here. But there is Just one In the
church there is an elaborately carved silver
reliquary. 1t contains the relics of San
Giovanni. How the one brown bone
which has miraculously escaped decay
must haunt the grave professors of the
"Collegio Forestale," as Valombrosa now
is called
Oae thousand feet higher than where
ancient Valombrosa stands in its nest-like
valley 5000 feet above the sea, rises The fir
crowned summit of Pratomagno. From
this point the most ravishingly beautiful
view in all Italy is presented. What won
drous associations are conured in contem-
plation of the fair, far Casentino valley
with its boundary beyond, formed by the
lofty Apennines, where are born historic
Tiber and enhancing Arnol Tuscany,
home of the dream breeding vine and fair
est women, stretches sunnily to the west
ward. The Duomo glitters down there in
the center of the purple, vineyard check
cred valley where Florence stands. And
far, faint and msgically seen through the
passes of the uttermost peaks of Carrara,
CLEANS speck of sapphire where sweeps
old Mediterranean's sails.
As incoDgruous as are the present occu-
pancy, uses and association of Valombrosa,
the spirit of the olden time flames in ali
one sees and feels at the deserted monas-
terry. In this cell which now a stripping
student makes his camara da letto, the
good monk Guido originated the modern
method of notation in music In these
larger rooms reposed at different times the
noble forms of Emperor Conrad H., EN-
mellina, of San P;etro Igneo, after being
triumphant in his ordeal of fame of Popes
Victor H., Alexander IL and ", Innocent
H., Pascal ii. and Leo TX, of Beato Tesoro
Beccaria, the martyr, and that grandest
type of all Italian culture and chivalrv.
Lorenzo the Magnificent. Christophano
Landini, the celebrated commentator OF
Dante, made Valombrosa his haunt. The
famous botanist, Buoro Fsggi, Mattio Ban
dello, Boccaccios s rival in letters, and Berni,
the brilliant humorist, all lived and medi.
tated at the hospitable retreat. Dream
among its cloisters and groves as long as
you may, and then go your way never to
return. The most priceless association
that remains to you, as to all men who
speak the English tongue, is that Milton
knew and loved this idyiic spot. For
months he was its welcome guest. Vsllom.
brosa was the fountain of his inspiration.
Here was conceived the plan of great and
ennobling Arthurian epic. That gave place
to loftier, grander theme whose sublime
motive, imagery and accomplishment form
the diadem in al, that crowns the English
tongue. Because Valombrosa was the
foster mother of Paradise Lost" men will