The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-03-05
TEsUTIUS AND THE BAY OF NAPLES.

toll than 1t took to cut down the trees
little time ago, for she is but a toy town,
comparatively.
Naples. especially this old part of it down
the sea beach along the old stone wharves,
IS very. very sickly-malaria of deadly
type. You see stupeDdOus houses of stone
all aleng here, empty, silent rs tOmbs, and
yet II all looks very beautiful You see
goats Oh the gently rolling brown hills, hills
exactly Ike thUse Of California, g0atherdS
with pipes and other instruments, sandals,
Eoatskin coats, long black hair resting on
SHEER shoulders, peaked hats and high
Cock feather-all as in pictures or the
opera; but they do not lie down on the
ground, and they go home with their goats
before the setting of the sun; for even
they. acclimated though they are, cannot
stand the night air. Il IS here and here
aDOutS that the rarest old Etruscan relics
have been and are still being excavated at
intervals; so that long before the Romans
came this way and for centuries after, this
country must have been at least reasonably
healthy. There is a thTee-mile tunnel from
lake to the sea, said to be the work of
ttrusceus
Here was the great naval center Of the
Roman Empire: the canals here, reaching
inland to the lake, to say nothing of tie
wharves before referred to, are simply
astonishing works. The great stone and
cement reservoir, made for watering ships
and entirely covered with masonry and all
grass-grOwn now, is one OF the marYels.
L he pdldCS VI NHTO 5llIl SIRIUS, hE rather
hangs; hangs on the side of Monte di
NueYo. or new mountain. This new noun
tain was a new volcano, and sprang up in
NerO's garden ia single night, carrying
tile palace up IN The air with II, where it
still hangs. Il was to this house or palace
that NeiO's poor mother fed after the fail
ure Of his attempt 10 drown her and ii was
here IN this house hanging up in the air on
the steep mOuntalnside that his aSSassins
found her that same day aud here they
butchered her.
Out youder, toward Goat or Capri Island.
IS the rugged island to which BrutuS fled
after the assassination of the first Cesar
and where Portia swallowed fire and so
died" Here, as we set our faces away from
all the wreck and ruin Of the pathetic PAST,
and approach Naples, the Naples of to-day,
we see the round, tent-like tomb OF Virgil
and thousand other tombs all along the
hills above the bay here, and all in better
State Of preservation than those Of Rome,
for Rome never quite returned back to the
earth. The houses and the walks and the
gardens all hover along tie eeashore here
In TeStfnl Naples. now, and the malaria
seems not 10 be 80 serious in the pOpulous
city. 1t is an immense arc reaching about
twenty-five miles around the blue bay, aud
II must have been twice that area in the hes.
days of Roman pride. OF course that would
include many little vailed towns like Her
culaneum and Pompeii, lying further on and
around the rim Of the bay.
Yes, Naples is building too. Her new
in the world. There are palm trees along
by the waters edge and hanging gardens Of
great beauty up on the steep round noun
p tain that makes the impTegnable fortress or
citadel in the retired heart of the city
Naples Is unlike London, for here you can
get drink of water The water is carried
down from the mountains on the backs of
= duek-legged, dark little mountain girls and
sold all street corners at l centime
cup. This centime is the smallest coin in
= the world. one-tenth Of a penny. The
water is handled In round, red porous jars
or pts, exactly as in Mexico, and is kept
cool and pleasant in the same way by swing
Ing the pot in the air. When the girl sells
cup of water she whacks her cup upside
down on the stone curb to make it empty
and ready for the next customer; and so
you hear this clang and bang OF the dark
end silent Water-girls from the mountains
from morning till DARK. They are peculiar
to themselves like the water-carriers OF
Venice, that come down from the mountains
there, are very pious. pure and domestic,
and cannot be induced, even by gold to re-
main over night in the city. When the TWO
Jars of water, which they have carried
down the steep mOuntainside for miles and
miles, barefOOted and in the burning sun,
are sold, they malt away into the approach
ing night, TO come again with dawn.
There never can be but one Naples, for
there never has been but one Vesuvlus, and
sou find yourself looking all the time. or at
least most of the time that you are out of
doors, up toward the top of this one. 1T is
forever on fire; often flames that seem to
burn hole in the blue skies and conjOintiy
with the stars fash up at night and drift
away with the winds in clouds OF fire. The
flames. OF course, are not so cons picuous
by Gay, but all the time there is the
smoke and the smoldering FIRE coming
up and out and curling around over
and beyond the city and the bay Many
. times / have seen the streets strewn with
ashes. like light fail of snow. Fishermen
for these Greek NeapOlilans are the most
" famous of all famous Greek fishermen, fad
much trouble with the pumiee stone which
almost nightly, at certain seasons, strews
the bay and blocks their work of casting
and drawing their nets. This pumice stone
is 10 small bits or balls, like nuts. and Is
falling about half the time on the water
near the shore and is a continual source Of
annoyance to all boaimen. They tell you
that the site OF Vesuvlus was once a garden
and that the mountain came ND In a single
night. as did the new volcano in the old
garden of Nero n few miles down the sen
and on the other SIDE Of the city. Be thai
as it may, you can drive quite around the
mountain, all the time through vineyards
and fertile fields. and get back 10 Naples in
few hours. There are oranges on every
side and very pretty vineyards.
POmpeii seems - have been nearly at one
extreme. of the long city that bent around
the bay Of Naples in the old days. as was
the great stone wharf, where ST. Paul
landed, the other extreme. YOU 90 TO Pom