Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1895-10-02
QUAINT FETE.
The Lilies of Nola Built by italian
Gilds.
Obelisks Of Paper-Mache Nearly
a Hundred Feet High.

LII tue Oeutury, mary DCo0V-O Guy
gives an account of quaint bit of
Italian merry-making, "The Lilies OF
Nola." The writer says: The fifty
trains despatched by the narrow-gage
railway on Juno "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 I 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 before the in
credulous the proof that reality is
sometimes stranger than fiction. The
sLilies" of Nola, which in the begin
ming were probably pyramids of aow-
ers carried in the procession in honor
of St Paulinus, are today towering
obelisks or turrets eighty or ninety
feet high, artisticslly constructed in
Gothic, Corinthian, and Doric styles,
adorned with statues, ornamental
friezes, bas-reliefs, and emblems, and
built ON movable platforms
Undoubtedly the handsomest Lilly
of the year am describing, for puri-
ty of design and elegance of finish,
was that built by the Butchers Gid.
1t was turret in pointed Gothic
style, inclosed on all four sides, rep
resenting in pure white and soft
chiaroscuro tints tho central minaret,
with its delicate and tracelike tracery,
of the famous cathedral of Milan. A
winged Victory crowned the summit,
and beautiful statues filed the orna-
mental inches; and, vanity of van
ities!. a. life-size portrait of the proud
architect decorated the plinth, to the
edifcation of behoIders. The Lilly of
the prodigal wine merchant have
quoted was in delicious rococo style,
very tangle of brilliant coloring and
elaborate detail as fantastic ss a vase
of Uieur Sare. The grocers' Lilly was
in Gothic and the shoemakers' in
baraco Style. The Lilies of the smiths
and the tailors rose like colossal tow
ers of glittering majolica, while the
bakers Lily, built in pure Corinthian
style, was admirably adorned 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 All uncultivated
people, who rudely but vividly ex-
press what they vaguely feel.
The choosing of designs and the
work of preparation occupy consider
able time; but the erecting, or "dress-
ing" of the Lilly, as it is called, Is
like the building of Aladdin's palace,
done in single night, haste rem
dered necessary by the fact that an &C
cidental shower would speedily melt
the gay structure to paste. However
in this brilliant climate, in the month
of June, unless Vesuvius has very
threatening cloud-cap on, fair weather
may be counted on.
As soon as the lily is dressed and
fully adorned II counted upon one no
fewer than fifty statues Of papier-
macheD y it is firmly anchored with
ropes to the trees and balconies about
the home of the gigliante, which be.
comes the Mecca 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
huttering 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, and 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 band-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 impulse rather than by the will
of forty men.
Queer Advertising Scheme.
One of the most clever schemes In
Ii -