Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-08-26
CORFU.
Is Described as Occupying the Most Beau
tiTaI Situation IN the UorId

Is Described as Occupying the Most Beau
! tT'"t Situation IN the Torld.
| August Harper:-The French move
list of to-day, Paul Bourget, describes
Corfu as 80 lovely that one wants to
F., take it i'll ones arms! Another French.
i OF phrases, no less Il parsonage than
Napoleon Bonaparte, has left upon re
cord his belief that Corfu has the most
! beautiful situation in the world" What
then, is this beauty? What is this sit
uation?
| First. there is the long and charminc
approach, with the snow-capned noun
tains OF Albania, in European Turkey
looming up against the sky IT the end
! then comes the land-locked harbor;
then the picturesque Old town. its high
, stone houses, All of creamy hue. crowd
ed together on the hillside above the
Sea-Wau, with here and there Il bell
! tower shooting into the blue. Below is
the busy, manycolored port. Above
towers the dark, double fortress on its
rock, and finally, the dense. grovelike
vegetation of the island cncirclcs all.
and its own mountainpeakS rise be-
mnd, one OF them attaining Il height of
three thousand feet. There are other
Islands of which all this, or almost all.
can be Sald-Capri, for instance. But
at Corfu there are two attributes pc
culiar to the region: these are first, the
color; second, the transparency. Al
though the voyage from BrindiSi hardly
occupies twelve hours. the atmosphere
is utterly unlike that OF Italy; there is
no haze; all is clear Greece ard Cor
fl is Il Greek islantD seemed to me all
llSht-the fghtest country in the world.
III other lands, if we climb Il high
mountain and stand on its bald summit
at noon, we feel lis if we were taking
Il bath i'll light; in Greece we have this
feeling everywhere even in the valleys
EurpidieS described his countrymen as
forever defeating tripping through
the pellucid air. and so their modern
descendants trip to this day This dry
atmosphere has an exciting effect upon
the nervous energy, and the faces of
the people show it. 1t has also, | be
heve the defect OF this good quality.
namely, an ovcr-stipulation which
sometimes produces neuralgia. In
some respects Americans recognize this
cleamess Of the atmosphere, and its
influence, good and bad the air OF
northern New England in the summer,
and of California ut the same season, is
parency is more white. more blank: we
have little of the cOloring that exists
IN Greece, tintS whose intensity must
be seen to be believed. The mountains,
the hills, the fields, are sometimes ba-
thcd in lilac. Then comes violet for
the plains, While the mountains are
rose that deepenS into crimson. At
other times salmon, pink, and purple
tlng@S are seen, and ochra saffron, and
cinnamon brown This description an
plies to the whole of Greece. but
among the Ionian Islands the effects
of the color is doubled by the wonder
ful tint of the surrounding sea. |
promise not to mention this hue again:
hereafter it ran be taken for granted.
1of 1t is always present; but for this
once I must say that YOU may imagine
the bluest blue YOU know the SKY.
lapis lazuli, sapphircs, the eyes of some
ciildrcn. the Bay of Naples-and the
IoEian Sea is blucr than any of these
And nowhere else have / seen such
dear, queer little foam sprays. They
are so small and so very white on the
blue, and they curl over the surface of
the water even when the sea is pc,-
fectly calm which makes me call them
queer. You meet them miles from
land. And all tho shores are whitcncd
with their nHvcr-c"asinG play. 1t is
4 pE%my sUrf.-C. Il. Woolson.