Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-02-25

gdildul lONcI, VI lt1 USI pOOI ola con
lessor, who loved her against his will, and
one OF watehful old Elsie
Mrs. Stones charming story made US
all feel at home in Sorrento. The cele-
brated poet Torquato Tasso was native
of Sorrento. The house where he was
born and the rock on which it stood have
been swallowed up by the sea, but its ruins
may still be seen. The town has I, 800 in
habitants, but where they all tuck them
selves is impossible to tell. There
are many tiny dove-cots in the close en-
brace G vines, flowers, and rocks, and
there are small houses which look
almost like vaults, but we puzzled our
brains in vain to make room for $500
people.
The narrow, crowded together, abruptly
ending and abruptly beginning streets
silent, though paved with cobble- stones
is carved and inlaid and sold. others whose
doors and windows are decorated with
Italian sashes and purses for sale, and still
others where little is done, remin led US of
old-fashioned pictures. The interior of
our hotel, the Tramontaco, was quite
palatial and SO large that | lost myself
III ~ HUI ludu tu6I6 WSi6
not many Americans there, but
many English people and newly mar
ried Germans, with their bright we'd
ding rings, and some Italian visitors. My
neighbor at the table d'hote, a white
haired Italian woman who always appeared
to be oVerdressed, turned to me and said
Are you English?" NO" [ answered,
I'VE are Americans. All" she said;
" l
again, from Chicago. " ''Ah! Shekago!'
smiled and she continued: What nice
fat hair you have, and your sister, too. y
turned to repeat the compliment to my
sister, and she TO tell her husband, hand
some Old nobeman, that We we're not Eng
llsh, but from Shekago, etc. )"
g With signs of regret at parting with
beautiful Old Sorrento, we descended to the
steamer through long, damp winding,
subterranean passage-way cut in the solid
rock under the hotel, and embarked for
Capri. 10 our surprise we met acquaint-
ances on board, and. as is always the case
abroad, we were as delighted to meet as if
we had been old friends, and became bet.
ter acquaintance in half an hour than in
all the years we had lived within a few
blocks of each other
Before reaching the landing place of
Capri we left the steamer and climbed into
small boats to enter the Blue Grotto. The
entrance, which appears to be a small hole
In the side e a mountain. is three feeu in
height, and unless the wind is from the
right direction it is impossible TO enter.
The men warned US, and we all lay fat on
our backs in the bottom of our boats and
entered the grottO on the next wave. In
side we found the rocks above and all
around US blue as the heavens when they
are bluest, and sparkling like diamonds
The water also was blue and as brilliant
as the rocks above; the effect was dazzling.
| We looked at each other, and we were all
blue. The boatmen offered to dive for a
franc to show how blue they would look
Our voices sounded hollow and far off, and
we felt as If we were In Aladdin's cave.
The Blue Grotto is the most celebrated of
the caverns In the steep rocky shores of
| Capri
We left the cave, scrambled into the
steamer again, and went ON to the landing
| place, Marina Grande. The younger mem
bers of our party mounted donkeys. There
| is gait peculiar to the donkey of Capri, |
am sure. One man, although he was my
countryman, amused me particularly. The
day was damp and rainy, and mounted on
his little beast, high silk hat on his bead,
his overcoat hanging over the donkey S
back, his kodak jumping up and down as
the donkey trotted, ais trousers up to his
knees, his gray worsted stockings and a
suspicion OF elastics and underfannel ex-
posed, he held the reins In one hand and
an umbrella over his head with the other.
| We Lad just finished taking riding les
I'LL, ~
in our stirrups, except now and then when
we met our poor beasts half way Our
donkeys assembled some steep, narrow
steps and we managed with not little
| discomfort to remain in our saddles. Our
guides begged Jus to buy coral as we
bobbea and jerked up the steps.
1t is impossible TO imagine streets more
picturesque than the narrow ones in Capri,
tropical foliage of all kinds growing on or
peeping over the high walls on either side,
the mysterious gateways and the dark
eyed Italians, old and young, with baskets
of vegetables or jugs on their heads, wan
dering up and down The view from the
town Of Capri of the whole island with It's
ancient ruins, the Gulf of Capri, and the
Peninsula of Sorrento, and to see the
Tarantella danced, is well worth a long,
rough ride Capri (Capreael, meaning
island of goats, has 1900 inhabitants and
the people of the two small towns, Capri
and Anarapri, make red and white wines
IN abundance. The inhabitants support
themselves partly by the production Of oil
and wine and by fishing, but their largest
source of revenue is from the strangers
who visit the island to the number cf
10000 yearly. The natives sometimes
emigrate to South America, but they gen
orally returned to Capri In 1903 during
the NapoIeonic wars Capri was captured by
a miniature Gibraltar. However, in 1903
it was recaptured. We descended in great
haste, as the steamer was waiting. and
had only few moments to 60 into the
cafe of an old hotel and out on the bal
cony overhanging the sea to eat and learn
for ourselves how bad the Capri oysters
are and to load ourselves with the delicate
pink coral and fly for the steamer. When
at last we saw VesuyiuS with its two lofty
peaks shrouded in soft clouds of blue and
purple mists blending with its ascending
vapors, and Naples and its suburbs at its
base, cleaning IN the distance, we felt at
home again. Ideally beautiful, crowded,
dirty, iil-smeliing, charming Napoli.-
Tallulah Powell, in Chicago Inter Ocean.
ROYAL FAMILY PAY.
En ormous Sums Which the Queen and