New-York tribune., 1900-12-23
THE QUARRIES OF CARRARA.
PRIMITIVE METHODS THAT WILL. Re sr-
PERSEDED IF AN AMERICAN Sc
CURES THE PROPERTY

The marble quarries Of Carrara, Of which
every one has heard. have been brought rno,s
especially TO the attention Of the American mr.
lie lately by a report from Rome thar Senator
Proctor. who already has large marble inter-
ests in Vermont had entered into negotfat,on0
for the purchase of the Italian deposits. tn.
significance of the report is in the prospeet n
presents Of more abundant and more reliable
supply of statuary marble and other fine grades
for the future builders and decorators Of Amer
lean palaces.
II is not generally known. perhaps, that the
rarity OF these finer white marbles IS due much
less TO the niggardliness Of Nature than TO the
ipefficiency of the means used for working the
quarries. The small town Of Carrara is the cen
tire of mountain district in which the savage
ly picturesque character Of the Apennine for
nation appears at it's strongest Ever since the
days of the Roman republic. when the tribes Of
those regions kept themselves apart from the
march Of contemporary civilization and made
themselves menace TO it., the great central
watershed of Italy has been the stOTehOuse OF
primitive traditions and the home Of prim-
tive race. To this day primitive methods con-
tinue among the rough marble quarrymen OF
CarraTa. Ouida long ago champoned the cause
of the poor dumb oxen Of Carrara used for
hauling the heavy primitive marble laden wag-
Gns. 1t is said that favorite method there
of inducing to do good work is TO insert
the end of a stick into the nOstril of the beast
and twist the instrument of torture into the
flesh like a gimet
Below each of the several openings in the
sides of the hills a white mass of freshly
Clipped marble extends like glacier for hun
dreds of feet. showing up in striking contrast to
the surrounding darkness of the weathered rock.
These cascades of debris made up of innu-
merable small fragments Clipped out in the
process of quarrying. As each block is labOri-
OUsly extracted. it is launched on downward
journey to the "depOggiO' directly under IT, and
in it's rush it brings with it thousands Of small
fragments, some of which remain behind to be
again disturbed by the passage of the next large
block. All these chips of marble, it is hardly
necessary to say, are in a state CT extremely
unstable equilibrium. that a climb up the
temporarily stationary avalanche. even when no
block happens to be taking a header is a
work of considerable risk to say nothing OF it's
difficulty. Nevertheless, visitors do climb up 90
the quarry's mouth. Mr.. Jackson. of the firm
of C. d. Jackson & Co, to whose courtesy The
Tribune Supplement is indebted for the Of
several photographs of the Carrara district.
says that. with the assistance of a guide,
equipped in the we'll known fashion of Alpine
guides, he has often made such ascents. The
quarry climber of course, takes care to be shOd
with the regulation thick sOled. nail studded
boot of the peak hunter, and the guide knows
of giddy, zigzag goat tracks by which man
with steady head may. by various uncOmfOrt-
able modes of locomotion, make his way with
out cOurting certain destruction