Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-30

eopresStiso,
"trsr l.o.T,eo
From Molly Randolph to Her Father.
PARKERS HOTEL, NAPLES.
January 49,
You Dear: 1 have seen Naples, but
don't wish to die Not that l should SO
much grudge dying after the happy HE
you've given me- but there'd be such an
awful waste of time in staying dead "heh
so much is left to see. There's Capri, and
there's Sicily almost next door, and even
Saturday to Monday Mars wouldnt
make up to me for missing them.
We put our hands to the plough and came
here from Rome in six hours, only one hour
more than the fast 60 train takes. we
| didn't stop for lunch but kept ourselves up
on beef lozenges which were nasty but
supporting. We wanted to see how quickly
we could do 1t, and even Aunt Mary was
excited She is much pleasanter without
Jimmy. and we really did have fun 1t 8
an i'll rain that doesn't temper the GUST
to an automobile so We blessed the weather
which we had previously anathemauze0.
After pouring night, it cleared before we
started. and it one of the best days
| we have ever had. 1 remembered heaps OF
things which had happened to me when
was a Roman princess, two thousand years
ago and felt just as If l were travelling
| in my chariot from my fathers palace III
Rome to his villa. perhaps In Balae. MY
| only fear was that, in going so 1ast, we
| should arrive at our destination so long De-
| fore the impedimenta that l should have
| to do without my baths of asses milk lot
! several days; and where would be my royal
| complexion?
1t was six o'clock and dark. when we
| came in sight of something which made
| me cry out, 'Oh!' 1t was dull red light.
| high up in the sky. and a dark shape, IKE
| a great wounded bull. with two streams or
| fiery blood pouring down it's gored sides.
Vesuvius! Brown had planned that we
| should see it for the first time after dark.
l had wondered why he suggested not leav-
| Ing Rome till twelve o'clock. when usually
| he is SO keen early starts, and he was
| evasive when 1 asked why. But when I
| had breathed that OH and had a moment
| to recover myself, he told me.
| Dad. dear, Brown is splendid. He has
revealed Naples to me. l can't express 1t
! In any other way. for nobody else who has
| told me about coming to Naples has ever
| done the things that we have; and they
! would not have occurred to Aunt Mary or
| me. We should have gone the ordinary
round if it hadn't been for him, and when
| we said goodbye to her Naples would
| have been only mere acquaintance of
| ours. not dear and intimate friend who
| has told us her best secrets. In the first
place. we shouldn't have known any bet
| ter than to stop in some big, obvious sort
| OF hotel In the noisy wasps' nest of the
| city, instead of coming here where the air
| is pure and some of the most beautiful
| things in the world in sight without turn
| ing our heads. It's such a homelike hotel,
| and instead of sending to England for
| orange marmalade made of Sicilian
orarges, the way all the other hotels seem
! to do, they make it themselves out of their
| own oranges; and it's a poem.
we've been up Vesuvius, not in the day
| time. like the humdrum tourists, but by
| torchlight, and we saw the moon rise In
| stead of rushing to the museum the first
| thing and incoming vaguely about there for
/ hours. We saved 1t until after we'd been
out to Pompeii on the motor-car: then it
| was a hundred times more interesting and
| we are coming back after Capri to pay
| announcer visit to the busts of Tiberius and
! ms terrible mother. 1 felt in Rome as If it
were an impertinence to be modern and
young. But in Pompeii-oh, I can't tell
you what felt there. 1 think-I really do
tmnk that L saw ghosts. and they were
much more real and important than 1. 1t
NC as .ae enterlns the enchanted palace of
| thousand times more thrilling and wonder
| 1ui. didn't feel as If any one else had
| ever Deen there since it was dug up. ex-
| Mary. Va o'o' <Auis
Brown knew about fascinating Italian
iestaurants, and he drove us up ON the
hhebm on, FOR tea to new hotel on a
. ..s niH, almost mountain It's the
smart thing for people who know r. ' no
up 10 tea, which-if it's fne-you have on
d great terrace that is the most heautif,,i
nalns IN all Naples. And we spent whole
| 'iioi iiis up at st. Elmo That is going to be
my best recollection, I think ond ~ We
| WIN iaugh-but the next best will he tho
| thana mum. when you came to Naples was
ehnst d .hlng in the Aquarium like the
sH iot OF cucumber, transparent as glass
win Strings of opals and rubes hainu
oraWn through it's veins every two n,nutas
regularly? Brown says that it-or its an.
r re,,o, 6een there ever since he can
AQUARIUM, which makes you feel as If vo,
| were mermaid under the sea, and Inclined
| TO swim instead of walk
MnNh we were driving up to the hotel
| brown Said II was almost as steen and
winding as the road from Capri to Ana
capri That speech, and gazing from onr
balcony at Parker's over the blue bay to
| the island which looks like the SDh,nx ris
| ing out of the sea, have made me distra cteo
| 20 take the automobile to Capri Brown
doesn't advise it,, and thinks I'VE NAV
nave great trouble in landing, but that
| makes me want the adventure all the more
SO were going tomorrow-not just for a
day. like the people who don't care abou,
Tiberius, and think the Blue Grotto is the
only thing to see-but to stay for several
| days Brown says one could find a new walk
on the Island for every day of a whole
month, and each would be absolutely dit
ferent from the other. though Capri is only
three and half miles long and about q
mile and half in width.
l feel as If we were in for something ex-
| citing, just as you feel, 1 suppose, when
you are going to bring off a big coup I'm
the street."
Your Chip Of the old Block,
| P. 81 wouldn't post my Naples letter.
1 thought If did, you might imagine that
! we and our car had been engulphed in the
| sea, unless you got the end of the adven-
ture tackled on to the beginning: so this is
to be a fat postscript. Yes, gorged python
| of a postscript.
At first the dock people couldn't be per-
suaded that we seriously intended to take
an automobile to the Island of Capri, and
when they realized that were in earnest
| they buzzed with excitement like swarm
ing bees. Everyone directly or indirectly
| concerned argued at the top of his voice,
and embroidered his arguments with ges-
lures, nobody paying the slightest atten-
| ton to anybody else. We didn't even ask
permission to go on one of the big pas
| senger steamers. for We knew 1t would be
! no use; but there's little sea-chick of a
| thing called La Sirena, which plies back
and forth every day with provisions. lug
| gage and passengers, to whom cheapness
Is an object. She was our prey, and as no.
body had happened to make a law against
transporting motor cars, simply because