Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-08-31
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|{2|9|Es1;::,~ C98nA!uctor
C.N.& A.M'WnLlAMSON

she was charmed % learn that he
had pronounced q view from a certain
balcony the finest he had ever seen, resting
his elbows on the IRON railing and gazing
out over the city for half an hour. 1t
really was inspiring-the blue harbor and
the ring of sparkling white mountains,
but I'm not prepared to agree with the SUI
perlative. put the view of Naples from
st. Elmo ahead When the Goddess came to
zee the Capella Palatina with it's gem-like
Arabo-Norman mosafcs, she was moved
almost to tears. 1T is matchless; the
most beautiful thing on earth!' she said.
But afterward I drove her (Aunt Mary
you may take for graHteO out four steep
miles to Monreale and 1t was well that she
had saved a few adjectves. Not that she
is girl who scatters much small coin of
this kind, but she has usually the right
word when a thing does not go beyond
words. When 1t does She says nothing
except with her eloquent eyes. But in the
ancient cloisters of that old monastery
watched her face, and lit was a study.
believe. though each carved capital on each
column Is different from the others, she
intricate biblical designs. In one secluded
and dusky corner there was the faint
tinkle of fOuntain-a wonderful fOun-
tain, very old, and copied from a still older
Moorish memory, by some Arab who served
his Norman conquerofs. My beautiful
girl was picture as she stood gazing at
it, leaning against pillar. her white dress
half in sunshine, half in shadow. her brown
For the modern part of Palermo she
didn't much care; the crowded Corso Wit
tor1o Emanuele; the Qpattro Can't, which
is the Piccadilly Circus of the Sicilian cap
ital, or even the cathedral But she loved
the villa Giulia. which she was greatly
surprised to find a garden. not knowing
that all gardens are Villas in Sicily; she
and Aunt Mary went in alone, while 1
her beauty and pretty frock excited so
much attention that she was quite embar-
raised. and I reaped advantage from her
discontinue, being invited to act as guard
her kodak there, to take a photo (ostensi-
bly, of the big building devoted to lectures
but quietly waited until she had inadyert-
emily crossed my path" Then 1 snapped
her.
We stayed in Palermo for three days. and
even so had the barest glimpse of the place
II l have luck, and win her forgiveness
hlst; and then at last herself, maybe we
ing at all the places we are sighting now.
But dare 1 dream of 1t?
On the fourth day we set out for visit
to one of the show places of the Island
1irsen,l OF the temples And now we be-
gan to understand why the millionaire
florlo, with his four noble motor cars pant
ing in their stalls, has not been able to
lnouce ms friends to stock their Sicilian
stables IN the same way. We knew already
that Italian roads We're generally inferior
TO French ones; that 1t was COMPARATIVELY
difficult to buy petrol. especially good pc
troll or essence, in Italy, and 1 loaded up
the , willing car with several reserve tins
on leaving the Igiea = but of course
had mad to. take the state of the
roads on hearsay. The surprise and inter-
est e OF the crowd, even in Palermo, where
not many ventured with mechanically
propelled vehicles where we were about
10 venture, and l was a little dubious,
sno iai the Goddess was in the highest
i'm for hrio Sl
had heard at the hotel of a very pictur-
esque one who owned a lair in the noun
tainS, and urged me to pay the chivalrous
obdurate and unbelievfng
We started; occasionally. as we progress
go, II was necessary to ask the way. The
back, or crowded into their painted carts.
were so wrapped in wonder at sight of us
that 1T was useless to shout at them with
out warming; they couldn't recover them
sped by. So I adopted a method l have
often found useful. I selected my man at
a distance. singing him out from his COM
panions, and pointing my finger straight at
him as 1 approached This excited his
curiosity and >riveted his attention; he was
then able to reply when l demanded di-
rection.
From Palermo on the north to Girgenti
on the south of the island is something
over sixty miles the way we went-sixty
miles of bad and up-and-down road Sicily
vantage if visitors came to it in larger
numbers l should say one of the first
things they ought to do is to improve the
roads, and make them decentfy passable
LOT carriages, moter-cars and bicycles AT
present the plan of mending the roads is to
dump down so much metal" and leave
me local ira to grind it in. AS every
body avoids it and there is little rain. there
1t stays, and in consequence patches of
sharp. loose stones lie over the roads the
year round. Steer with all the skill one
cc-il I.xl-
stones, and our tires got a good punish
ment ......
The interior of the island, though grandly
Impressive, Is unusually bare. save for its
via mowers. the ancient forests having
long since disappeared. Our road lay for
time along the sea- and then inland, al
ways mounting up into the heart of the
desolate plateaux where fiocks Of sheep
and goats .grazed under the guardianship
or wlid-looking shepherds and fierce dogs,
OF the car into their businesses. We saw
Few people on the road, and passed only
the poorest villages; but we had brought
an excellent luncheon which we ate by tle
roadside we three would 1t had been two),
alone In a wide and solitary landscape. A
very rev years ago such a journey as this
across the interior of Sicily would have
been highly dangerous on account of bri-
gands AS 1t was we had scowls from
dark-browed men whose horses took fright
at us. but no such encounter as we had
VIII eiiC pcdSdHtS III france. An E<LSllSn-
man at Palermo who has lived long in
Sicily warned me that every Sicilian car.
rles gun. and said that In the wild in
terror they would very likely shoot
at the automobile for the mere
fun of the thingt as they would
at any other strange beast that was new
to them. This wasn't encouraging to hear.
But though we met some trucuIent-looking
fellows On the road, their sentiments toward
us seemed to be those of wonder rather
than amnesty. q
Inc sun was sinking III a. haze of rose
and gold as we came to che crest Of the
long hill on which, stands the town of Cir
gent, passed through, it, and coasted down
10 the Hotel des Temples. Beyond the ho-
TEL which stands Isolated between the
town and the sea, we saw suddenly the
great Temple of ConcoN a lonely and
MAJ; monunaeHt. 1t affects the inn
agination as StenahSnge does when you
see II Tor the first tiAne. The red rays Of
the sun shone aslant upon its splendid am
ber-coiored pillars and colossal pediments.
revealing every detail of the pure Doric
architecture When the smiling Signor
Gagliardi had received us and allotted
rooms to the party (the best in the house
Tor the American ladies' ON their automo-
pie, and little one for the chaufeur).
stroiied IN the fragrant old garden, and
leaning on the baluseraAe sby the ancient
well or carved stone, hooked long over this
"a a