The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-08-14
QUAINT ITALIAN FE1'E.
The Lilies Of Nola Built by the
Different Gilds.
They Are Obelisks of Papicr-aIachO
Towering Nearly Ono Hundred Feet In
the Air A Picturesque and
Enjoyable Celebration.

In the Century Mary Scott-Uda gives
an account of quaint bit of Italian
merry-malzing, "The Lilies of Nola."
The writer says: The fifty trains dis
patched by the narrow-gaugc railway
ON June "a are insufficient to contain
the crowds that flock to Nola to admire
the famous Gigli, or Lilies, which are
its pride. Pure tradition (for can find
no treatise or historical account of the
custom) has handed down from father
to son the art of making these large
structures, which should be afraid to
describe did not photography come to
the aid of faith and enable me to lay be-
fore the incrcdulous the proof that real
ity is sometimes stranger than fiction
The Lilies" of Nola, which in the begin
ming were probably pyramids of flow
ers carried in the procession in honor
of St. Paulinus, are to-day towering
obelislSs or turrets eighty or ninety feet
high, nrtistically constructed in Gothic,
Corinthian and Doric styles, adorned
with statues, ornamental friezes, bas-
I relicfs and enblcmG, and built on nova
BILE platforms.
Undoubtedly the handsomcst Lily of
the year an describing, for purity of
design and elegance of finish, was that
built by the Butchers guild. 1t was a
turret in pointed Gothic style, incloscd
on all four sides, representing in pure
white and soft chiaroscuro tints the
central minaret, with its delicate and
lacelilSe tracery, Of the famons cathc-
dral of Milan. A winged Victory
crowned the summit, and beautiful
statues filled the ornamental inches;
and, vanity Of vanities! lifc-sizc por.
trait of the proud architect decorated
the plinth, to the cdifcation of behold.
ers. The Lily of the prodigal wine
merchant have quoted was in delicious
rococo style, a very tanGle of brilliant
coloring and elaborate detail as fan.
tastic as a vase of vicux Sake. The
grocers' Lily was in Gothic and the
shoemal1ers' in baroco style. The Lilies
of the smiths and of the tailors rose
like colossal towers of glittcring ma
jolica, while the bakers Lily, built IL
pure Corinthian style, was admirably
adorned with reclining angels, trum
pet in hand, that recalled the exquisite
seraphs of Fra Angelica. Thus the ole
artistic fire fingers in the veins of az
uncultivated people, who rudcly bu
vividly express what they vaguely feel
The closing of designs and the worl
of preparations occupy considerable
time; but the erecting, or dressing,
of the Lily, as it is called, is, like til,
building of Aladdin's palace, done in ;
single night-a haste rendered neccsscr,
by the fact that an accidental shove
would speedily melt the gay structur
to paste. However, in this brillian
climate, in the month of juno, unles
Vcsuvius has very threatening cloud
cap on, fair weather may be counted on
As soon rs the Lily is dressed ant
fully adorned Il counted upon one n
fewer than fifty statues of papier
macEeD it is firmly anchored with rope
to the trees and balconies about tn
home of the gigliantc, which become
the Mecca of the faithful, until it i
called to join the procession At th
public square. Then the rigging
which is masked with thick lunches @
green box and is gayly decorated wit
fluttering bannerets, is mounted b
daring urchins, who, poised here al
there like squirrels fifty feet in all
steady the lofty pinnacle with invisibl
ropes. The platform is occupied b
the band, without which It would b
impossible to keep step, and the under
pinning is manned by the robust port
ers, whose shoulders before the day
over are always bruised and often GU
and bleeding. The giSliantc, like
bard-naster, goes ahead and gives tn
signal of march, crowds Of small boy
dance and cut fantastic tricks before i
the people appl@ud to tho echo, and th
majestic pile r.ovcs swiftly ana snootl
ly through the crowd, seeming to b
propelled by its OWE impulse rathc
than by the will of forty men.