The Republican journal., 1905-01-19
CHRISTMAS m UAlY.

The Journal has been favored with
the following letter, received by Mrs. s.
c. Sherman of this city from her sister
Mrs. E. A. Fisher. Previous letters
from the same pen have been greatly
enjoyed by our readers:
GRAND EDEN HOTEL, NAPLES
ITALY, Dec. 25. Dear Sister. | wish
you "merry Christmas" 1t is a love
ly June-like morning and all nature
seems reckoning one out of doors. 1t is
so warm and sunny and the garden here
is as lovely as ever, with the most
beautiful camelias and roses that T
ever saw. There are as MANY as forty
kinds of dollhouse flowers in bloom in
the garden and we have the tables dec
grated with them all the time. They
are decorating the dining room now
| with flowers and the flags Of all nations.
| must tell you of our Christmas din
ner here in Italy. Following is the menu:
LIST course, soup. End, lobster Sd, roast
beef, potatoes, caulifower, fresh peas,
string beans, tomatoes and boiled chest
nuts. 4th, salmi of partridge and
chicken with mushroom sauce. 9Th,
mushroom and cream with artichokes.
9th, lettuce salad and pheasant. 18th,
plum pudding (barning.) sth, ice cream
and sherbet, oranges, apples, pears,
figs and nuts. On every table were laid
sprays of pink and yellow roses.
Yesterday we went to Sorrento and
back. We went on the boat and it was a
lovely sail across the Bay of Naples.
1t was as calm as mill pond, but some
OF the women imagined they were
going to be seasick and so they laid
down and were covered up. After
lunch we went to ride out to the end of
the peninsula, where we had never been
before, and the road and water were
lovely. We drove for miles along the
coast, and on one side were the olive
orchards between us and the sea, and on
the other side were the orange and
lemon orchards with the ripe oranges
and green lemons hanging from the
branches. Flowers were growing every
where; especially those little single
pink and white daisies. In some places
Observation-Disclosures was preaching
just as if he thought it was Sunday.
The narcissi, my favorite, were grow
ing in the inches of the rocks. but so
high above my head that | could not
reach them. could only inhale the air
made sweet with their fragrance. The
road, like all the roads here on the
coast, are partly cut in the cliff and
partly built up so that you are high
above the sea. Steep paths led up
above you to the mountains and steep
er ones below you to the sea.
| must tell you a little of our thr-
teenth trip across the ocean; though
that now seems like back number. 1t
was very cold when we left Boston
that saturday, and Sunday was cold
stormy and rough, so we could not
stay on deck at all. 1t continued rough
until we reached the Azores the next
Friday, but we were not sick at all,
and Monday it was warm enough to
stay out on deck in our chairs all day,
and every day until we reached Naples.
We were in hopes to land at the Azores,
but 1t was too rough, as the ship had
to anchor far out, and land the people
in small boats. They had hard work to
land the people who were going to stop
there. Monday morning we arrived at
Gibraltar and stayed seven hours. 1t
was quite treat
Thursday we arrived at Naples. In
few days we shall go to Taomna in
Sicily, where it is much warmer When
we came over Mr. and Mrs. Alanson
Tucker were on board. They have cross
ed with US now five times. They travel
with maid and valet. They have a
house at Bar Harbor He says he does
not want to die as long as he can spend
his summers on the Maine coast and
his winters in Ceylon, for he thinks he
is very near heaven then. They are on
their way to Ceylon now. On one of
our drives we went upon a high hill
and then drove down into the village of
Possolippo, where hundreds of years
ago the old Romans had their summer
residences, we saw some of the old
baths still there. Everywhere was
wealth of flowers, whole hedges of
roses and all the ground carpeted I'M
der the trees with the large yellow
oxalls and the wax pink growing in
every corner and hanging over all the
banks. The geranium> is everywhere
and the pink ivy geranium grows in
masses.