The Portland daily press., 1892-06-21


of vice and degradation, but suddenly on
slight ascent, turning the head, the
city like fairy land bursts upon the as
tonished sight. From this point Naples
looks like beautiful mosaic in it's tints
OF gray and red and brown and white.
The sheen from the bay and the refec-
ton of the sky on the glistening waters
farther out to sea, the mountains beyond
and the heights above, casting faint
shadows over all, with Ischia and Capri
seeming to defend the town, all form a
picture on the mind which cannot easily
be erased.
From this view which Vesuvius affords
and that one gets out to sea on the way
to Capri, Naples is poetry itself, it is the
embodiment of verse. an illustration of a
lyric ode. But the unwritten history of
the town is, no doubt, each day prose,
tragedy and comedy combined, for the
dark blood of the italian is full of fire
and renders each hour romance or a
crime.
The Italians are temperate but at the
same time ferocious in every look They
are no truer than the French and less
loyal then the Germans; revengeful but
gay, obsequious and lacking pride. They
mad rather beg than work, prefer to restin
idle repose than earn right to live.
Many of them are desperate men, typical
bandits whom you feel afraid to meet
alone in twilight, and in the older parts
of the town.
Sights in Suburbs of Naples.
Cooks carriages IN passing through
the streets of Portici and Resina between
the hours of nine and eleven hear strange
sounds, and fall in with queer sights
which some illustrated German news
papers have caricatGred well. Hordes
of what might be pretty children, streams
OF hardened men and worn out women,
follow on behind all reaching out the
hand for money. They dance. they sing,
they laugh, they weep, they threaten by
their looks, they spit at you, they curse,
they swear, they literally stand upon
their heads for moments at time, they
try to amuse, entertain and attract the
attention by every possible method. No
professional athlete could perform many
of their pranks in a more skillful man.
ner.
This medley of swarming life is always
ready at the accustomed hour, since
many strangers and especially Americans
knowing their habits, provide themselves
sometimes with the very smallest coins
for the curiosity of the money, which
are one-fifth and two-ffths of our one
cent piece in value These they throw
amongst the crowd in handsfull, to see
the scramble, the topping over, the
rolling together of the whole unsightly
mass of degraded humanity.
Lava Beds.
After this excitement came the lava
beds which are miles and miles in ex-
tent. They name these different fields
of lava from the different centuries which
all differ of course in hue, consistency
! and general appearance. There is lava
of the LIST, 9Th, 18th, Sth and all the cen
turtles up to the present day. Some of
the very same lava which surprised
Pliny between Naples and Castellamaae
and deprived the world of it's most cele-
DRAFTED naturalist, and some of the same
which rolled down into Pompeii and Her
culaneum and which to-day goes to every
and rings, spoons and knife-handles and
ornaments of almost every sort
1t lies in solid coils like cable and some
of it is like the hugh gnarled trunks of
trees and the big roots which are some
times seen growing above and adhering
to the ground. They pile it up for walls
over the precipitous cliffs on either side,
| enough of it to furnish souvenirs for all
the unborn millions of the earth. There
is clear lava, lava mixed with ashes,
blocks of lava, hardened streams of lava,
hot lava, cold lava, whole mountain sides
Of lava. Where it issues hot near the
crater they use it to make imprints of
coins or model it with any fantastic de-
sign. They imbed old coins and current
pieces of money in small blocks of it for
strangers to take away as souvenirs. A
visit to this new crater and these lava
beds, where streams of hot lava are al
ways gushing forth is exceedingly inter
esting, though resembling the old pen
ance pilgrimages for sin, for people re-
turn from thence almost barefoot, with
their clothes oftentimes In tatters, saving
they found the way toilsome enough,
sitting and steaming hot with gaping
crevices and chasms. After the lava
beds comes the cable road, and then
after ten minutes walk the crater
mouth.
Out of Door Life of Naples.
These had been uncommon days for
Vesuvius it being more active than for
months before.
Looking back at sunset, in descending,
we saw the CLEAN of the fires from the
new crater between the two mountain
peaks, from whence the present streams
Of lava flow, Pickering it rose and shone
brightly forth in the deepening twilight,
presenting sight for the explorer, who
makes the ascent at night, most gor-
geous and sublime. But the out-of-door
life of Naples, through which we were
passing called us back to it's realities.
| The hawkers in the streets, the booths
filled with all sorts of wares and attend
ed by all kinds of vendors, the insolence
of the lower classes, the fawning of the
extortioners, the opportunities Of cab
men and beggars, the fear of pick-pockets
and dread of the brutality of roughs, who
sometimes, in the remoter streets of the
| older parts of the city resort to violence,
all of these made us forget for moment
the sulphurous mountain left behind,
which for more then two thousand wears
has frowned and allured, beckoned on
| and DESTROYED so MANY who have come