The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-04-05

to have been a very old tune; certainly
It was an eeEie and creepy one. The par
ish clergy, in their Lenten purple, brought
up the rear. The procession wound slow
ly In and out of the little alleys, between
high. white walls. hung with vines and
oveIstopped with lemon and orange trees.
1t was sprinkling Just slightly. the wind
blew in fitful gusts. and the candles sput-
tered and threw ever-changing. distorted
shadows on the wall. Somehow II was
singulaTly subduing. and all sense Of the
merely spectacular was lost in the sim
plicity and the pathos of IT,
On Saturday Mass is said in great state.
At the Gloria in the Mass when the
organ begins once more 10 play and the
bells to ring, fireworks are set off in the
church, and scores and scores OF birds. IN
dustriously caught and Gagged for days be-
fore hand, are let loose 10 fly out at the
opened windows. TIC the unaccustomec
stranger it is about as unchurchlIko L
proceeding as could be Wei imagined
Fireworks. might say. form very cen
spicuous part Of any religious celebration
in the region about the Bay OF Naples
When, for instance, the silver OF San Cos
tanza, the patron saint OF Capri. is annu-
ally carried in triumphaI procession IL
spend q night In the older church by the
marina, his outgoing and his incoming are
amid one continuous. deafening rachat
Of sQuibs. crackers, ''tcrpedoes, and rows
of little cannons loaded to the muzzle
and wadded with sand. At night there
are set-pieces in the public square, and
it is not easy to say which might be con-
sidered the greater exercise OF piety; ID
sit in the midst of it. inhaling saltpetre.
and feeling the sparks pour down the
back of ones neck, or to eat big paper
bag fun of gingercake images Of the saint.
| Both ways are locally popular But there
is 10 escaping the fireworks. l once hap
pened. on a Holy Saturday morning. .
be walking over the famous road along
the cliffs from Sorrento to Amalf. 1t was
the hour of Mass, and, as I neared the
village of Poistano, tucked away in its
deep gorge, the bang and reverberation
Of the exploding fireworks was so ire
mendous that I promptly jumped for the
nearest shelter. IN the firm belief that
what heard was landslide.
Easter morning. solemn High Mass, of
course. followed by yet another outdoor
procession, this time with banners and
sacred images, the clergy in their festival
finest, and all Capri turned out in its best
and its best is worth the seeing, for the
natives have not yet become very greatly
oblessed with the prevalent mania for
store clothes and for discarding all that
is local and genuine. Perhaps the pant
ers who infest the island have somewhat
20 do with this; il so. one might forgive
them some of their pictures Be that rs
il may, they all turn cut. especially the
women and girls. with their massive ear
rings. their peculiar headdress. their cor
ais and charms against the evil eye. their
colored scarfs. their lacings and-wen, all
that sort of thing which mere man Is
safer in not trying to describe
High mass is. naturally. very much the
same the world over. and equally world
wide seems the subconscious agreement
that the true elimination of Easter Is not
In the attending church but in the coming
away from it. That is q function in a
class of it's own, apart. But il Is one
thing to come out into city streets, 20
hail a cab. or walk up the Corso or Fifth
avenue: and quite another to step from
the church door and forthwith look down
through a spray OF peach blossoms into
the flashing blue Mediterranean, and then
across to Vesuvius with its puffs OF gray
ish-white smoke creeping lazily about tue
sides of the cone or rising straight up
like a pillar of cloud into the sky or
TO walk before lunch TO the Punta Ira
CARA, sit on the grass beneath the olFe
| trees and through veil OF good TOBACCO
smoke contemplate Monte Solaro above
YOU. the white dome Of its forsaken her
mitage on the one great outstanding
shoulder of rock looking as Montsalvat
seen from afar might have looked below
YOU the chaotic boulders of the little mar
ina and the sea eternally fretting at the
| base of the Faraglioni
But what one remembers longest OF II
all. when that blessed island has become
but a memory, Is the irrepressibly cheer
| full, sun-batched Italian temperament, the
spirit that viii enjoy itself 1t gives
| convincing whoieheartedness TO such
festival as have just endeayored 10 ce-
scribe. And. for that matter. out OF 4
sin OF wine bit of cheese, and seas
| beneath the nearest vine OF tree, your
| Italian win construct festival II neeis
no great ceremonial. il needs not even the
| 6recrackers. The readiness TO meet en-
| iovruent. halfway. TO take life on easy
terms. 20 see the universal joke of things
! in short the Unborn festival temperament
and spirit which We may wonder at OF
scor at or envy. but never possesS-tha'
is at once his birthrlght and his phios'
ophy. trivial enough philosophy. IL
may seem TO the impatient American. re-
prehensibie. even. 10 New England stan
dards. wholly at variance with the siren
nous life. Very likely. 1t has At any rate
produced. often with little enough TO &c
on. very large sum total of solid cor