Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1895-08-16
QUAINT FETE.
The Lilies Of NOla Built BY Italian
Gilds.
Obelisks of Paper-Mache Nearly
a Hundred Feet High.

In the Century, Mary Scott Udv
gives nh account Of a quaint bit of
Italian merry-making, "The Lilies of
Nom" The writer says: The fifty
trains despatched by the narrow-gnge
railway on June "a are insufficient to
contain the crowds that flock to NoIa
to admire the famous Gigli, or Lilies,
which are its pride. Pure tradition
flor l can find no treatise or historical
account of the eustom) has handed
down from father to son the nrt of
making these large structures, which
l should be afraid to describe did not
photography come to the aid Of faitb
and enable me to lay before the in.
credulous the proof that reality 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 today towering
obelisks or turrets eighty or ninety
feet high, art'sticnlly constructed in
Gothic, Corinthian, and Doric STYLES.
adorned with statues, ornamental
friezes, bas-reliefs, and emblems, and
built on movable platforms.
Undoubtedly the handsomest Lily
of the year | an describing, for puri-
ty of design and elegance of finish,
was that built by the Butchers Gild.
1t was a turret in pointed Gothic
style, inclosed on all four sides, rep
resentiIg in pure white and soft
chiaroscuro tints the central minaret,
with its delicate and tracslike tracery.
of the famous cathedral of Milan. A
winged Victory crowned the summit,
and beautiful statues filled the orna-
mental inches; aud, vanity of van
tiles a life-size portrait of the proud
architect decorated the plinth, to the
e1ification of beholders. The Lily of
the proli gal wine merchant L have
quoted was in delicious rocco style,
very tangle of brilliant coloring and
elaborate detail as fantastic as a vase
of cieur Stre. Tho grocers' Lily was
in Gothic and the shoemakers' in
baraco s'yle. The Lilies of the smiths
and the tailors roso like colossal tow
ers of glittering majolic,, while the
bakers Lily, bailt in pure Corinthian
style, was a-fmTrably nd Jrne1 with re.
clining angels, trumpet in hand, that
recalled the exquisite seraphs Of Fra
Angelica. Thus the old artistic fire
fingers in the veins of an uncultiv4ted
people, who rudely but wildly ex-
press what they vaguely feel.
The choosing of designs and the
work of preparation occupy consider
able time; but the erecting,o or "dress-
ing" of the Lily, as it is calIe |, Is
like the building of AlaI Inns palace,
done in single night, hIste rem
dered nesoistry b. tn, fact tn 1t an az
cidental shower would speedily melt
the gay structurs to paste. However
in this brilliant climate, in the month
of June, unless Vesuvius has very
threatening cloul-cip on, fair weather
may be counted on.
As soon as the lily is dressed and
fully adorned L counted upon one no
fewer thln fifty statues of plpier
muche , it is firmly anchored with
ropes to the trees and balconies about
the home of the gigliante, which be-
comes the Meccl of the ia ithful, until
it is called to join the procession at
the public square. Then the rigging
which is masked with thick punches of
green box and is gaily decorated with
fluttering bannerets, is mounted by
daring urchins, who, poised here and
there like squirrels fifty feet in air,
steady the lofty pinnacle with invis-
ible ropes. The platform is occupied
by the band, without which it would
be impossible to keep step, aud the
underpinning is manned by the robust
porters, whose shoulders before the
day is over are always bruised and
often cut and bleeding. The gigliante
like bInl-master, goes ahead and
gives the signal of march, crowds of
small boys dance and cut fantastic
tricks before it, the people applaud to
the echo, and the majestic pile moves
swiftly and smoothly through the
crowd seeming to be propelled by its
own impuls1 rather than By the will
of forty men.