Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-13
NAPLES YELLOW RAIN,
A Lurid Account of the Recent Vista
ton i'm That City.

Naples Correspondence London Express.
AS in a sand storm in the Arabian desert,
an atmosphere of yellow ochre enveloped
Naples yesterday. What does it mean?'
every one inquired. "Is it a 'Kamsin' or
Simon; an aurora borealis or an upheav-
al of Vesuvius?''
Sunday dawned under a leaden mantle
which suffocated streets and houses and
covered every visible portion of the heavens
Slowly and implacably it descended, heavier
and heavier, If to crush the city beneath
it. The air was difficult to breathe. and
as the hours passed one felt singular I'M
easiness and oppression. When later the
mantle Of lead assumed a hue of pea-soup
green, heads became heavy. pulses slowed
and lips were parched
In the bay Capri and the hilly outlines of
the shore. with distant Vesuvius, disap-
peared. 1t was even impossible to distin-
guiSn the nearer submits of San MARITIME
and Capo del Monte. The sea itself as
sumed ltvid hue, and dashed in curling
waves against rocks and jetties with men,
acing anger.
As the hot ''sirocco'' threw over land and
sea Its sickening cloud those who feared
only heavy shower, perhaps of hail, re-
called the warnings which foretold the
doom OF Pompeii and the fertile Campania
At midday the blood in ones veins seemed
to turn to fire. The heat was unbearable
In house and street, and the churches be-
came more than usually crowded with tim
orous people anxious to consult the saints
the priests and each other.
San Gennaro was, of course, invoked
Santa Barbara supplicated, and other saints
likewise tormented and apostrophised. Bin
oculars and telescopes were bracketed from
every balcony and roof which faced We
suvius, in expectation of an eruption of
flames and rocks, accompanied by subter-
ranean tremblings.
However, the cloud mantle did not come
from the mouth of he'll" as the crater is
known here. 1t was carried silently across
the sea from the desert sands of Africa,
and early in the afternoon the dust de-
scended incased in water-like a shower of
cayenne pepper, leaving rusty spots on hoii-
day attire which not even ammonia can
scrub out-and penetrating every nook and
Granny of the houses
The atmosphere changed from chrome to
orange, and again to the well-known tint OF
London fog.
Although at first there was a dead calm.
the waves were higher than is usual in
stormy weather, and broke in great crests
over the sea wall along the Via Carrac-
ciolo, spraying far out into the roadway,
and damaging still more the dlapidated
barrier, from which 1t tore huge slabs of
stone. In the calm there was that peculiar
vibration in the air as If nature were
holding her breath
Then, suddenly. from all quarters, de-
mon wind arose, shrieking like fiend
from the surrounding mountains. Trees
bent and moaned as If in pain and eddies
of dust whirled blindly in mimic mael-
stroms. Again, silence
Nature resuperating for another mad out
bursti
Today the sea is calm and placid Far
out in the sunshine the fishermen are busy
casting their nets, while Vesuvius, with
her snowy plume of smoke, gazes in sullen
apathy through the yellow sand streaks on
the window panes, and a light powder of
silica covering trees and houses remains as
reminder that the storm is passed.