The evening times., 1899-01-02
BERNHARDT ON VEsUVIUs.
Reflections OF GIcbe Trotter Who
He=rs of Her Ascent.

He=rs of Her Ascent.
New York Jan. 2.-The globe trotter
has just returned from Yesuyius himself.
where he heard that Sarah Bernhardt had
followed on foot the path up which a
donkey had carried him He was panied
but not surprised to learn that the great
actress. having yentured too near the
crater had had her eyebrows singed and
suffered the loss of a curl.
Il don't wonder that Sarah was scorch-
ed" he remarked. The stun that is boil
ing down there in the crater is Just about
nine times as hot as boiling water IL has
! been shown TO have a temperature OF
1,Se0 degrees Fahrenheit. and nobody can
say that il doesn't develop much greater
heat. Sarah would certainly have been
desiccated if she had peered over the edge
of that crater much longer.
she's no ordinary sort CT woman or she
would have done what ninety-nine in a
hundred do when the guide warns them
TO 90 no further. She says that when she
was forty CT fifty steps from the crater
edge the guide told her to stop. He tells
all tourists the same thing and scares
them stiff with stories Of what has hap
pened to rash persons who yentured too
near the crater. He begins with the sad tale
Of the Brazilian boy who was bending ever
the edge Of the crater. Cne day in 1886
trying to see bottom, when he lest his
balance and fell in; then he dishes up the
story Of the poor Frenchman who was
driven mad by the awesone surroundings
and jumped into the cavity, and if these
incidents dcD't suffice 20 make the visitor
wish he was back in Naples or New York
he has other horrors to relate.
But Sarah certainly risked a good deal
more than her eyebrows when sne looked
over into that crater VesuyiCs is usually
very we'll behaved. but she is not to be
trusted Sometimes she gives ample warm
ing that there is SCing TO be an eruption.
and sometimes she utterly fails TO give
anybody a minutes time 10 get cut of the
neighborhCCd. Suppose the old mountain
had begun to fire thirty or forty ton rocks
into the air while Sarah was looking over
the edge. II would have been the great
est tragedy she ever took part in and
she would have been part Of the eruption
herself
Sarah seems 70 have had no thought of
danger or discomfort. Sle was simply in
sp!red by the wonderful surroundings. With
curl consumed and smoking eyebrows. she
says; 1 feel in my iunermost being the
grandeur Of the earth and the iittieness OF
man when face TO face with the forces of
nature That isn't the way the top OF
fesuyIus impresses most people and it
shows Bernhardt rising superior to even
the forces OF nature In the first place. the
ordinary slghtseer doesn't think, bur posi-
lively knows. that it smells horribly up
there near the crater. The mountain al
ways smokes, and il is the most evil
smelling smoke Imaginable Sulphur fumes
choke you and very likely you are euveI-
oped IN a bitter. singing cloud till some
kindly breeze drives il away. Yo1, ara
like woman on her first sea voyage. who
imagines that a good fair wind is a howl
ing tempest The guide. after soaring Won
haIt TO death with his yarns, treasures you
with the remark that the volcano is par
fecuy quiescent now. You don't believe
him. Tor you suddenly hear an uneartbIv
below. followed by long. rumbIipg roar
and you expect that The mountain. wild
with internal agony, is going 20 tear things
to pieces in just about a minute Won.
knees are trembling with excitement. They
mad been trembling earlier with fatigue
for even with the aid Of stumbling Monies
over the Jagged sweep of lava and the
railroad tide part of the way, the ascent
Is warm and tiresOme affair. And vbiIa
you are gaspiug for breath. wiping voUr
smarting eyes and trying in vain 10 see
something. the guide faces You about and
starts you down the hill You have done
EesuTius. and you won't think it neces-
sary to repeat the feat
But perhaps I'll 90 Up again. Sa-ab
says that her feet left prints in the lava
and if the tracks sClidify they may sive
Nesuyius new phase Of interest til she
covers them up with a fresh lava h5w-
It's safe to say the actress didn't suffer
from cold feet while making 70 tDr nts in
the lava. l walked over lava myself that
was as hot as kitchen stove and gave a
blistering heat to the air and | didn't
leave any footprints either. Bernhardt
may il she likes it, but I'd rather be ex-
cuseG."