Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-05-04
DR.. CAMPBELL WRITES
FROM NAPLES. ITALY
Interesting Letter From Absent
Professor Is Received by
Friends.
From the Sioux city Tribune.

From the Sioux City Tribune.
"Ravello, March "a, 19l1.--Prov. di
Salerno.-We have been five days now
In Naples and vicinity. Did not in
ten to stay so long but the things
out OF the city are most interesting
and take considerable time. We are
:,ow on a FIVE days trip from Naples
70 Paestum, Amalh. Sorrento. Capri.
etc. We We're at Paestum yesterday.
We are making this trip with Profess
For Constance and wife from the Uni
verSlty of Minnesota. Such good COM
oany adds to the pleasure and then one
,an relieve the other in the necessary
bargaining, dickering, and bluffing. so
Indispensable With Italian drivers (and
i'll other Italians here.)
AT Pacstum, go miles south of Ma
)les, the Greek temple of Neptune, 600
B. c., stands simple. beautiful and
majestic although half ruined. We
walked about and through it, stood
III the platform of the great altar in
vents that occurred there $500 years
go. This temple impressed me with
MO things: First. the religious spirit
lad a strong grip on the ancient. They
.uilt a permanence and sclidity into
heir religious temples which charac-
I'll the buildings of this once populous
:ity, the temples alone remain They
believed that coming generations
WOULD be religious too. and have need
# temples-a splendid attitude. They
we're non-Christian. but dare we call
way in which the Greeks combined
,eauty with their religious temples.
And why should not esthetic beauty
We Joined today with religion? The ar
Infect and builder are worthy of pro-
ound appreciation. Huge blocks OF
'tone hewn to h n unity of pur-
Jose. Professor Constance, who is a
:ivil engineer, estimated one of the
capitals which had fallen and now lies
n the Interior, at over five tons weight.
But when you turn your sight from
he temples the scene is also impress
tive by contrast. The cite of the an
cient city is covered by small fields of
grain, a few garden patches, here and
there a scraggly olive or lemon tree.
stony places grown up to briers, a few
miserable stone, peasant huts, a pre-
tended country store. begging children
following everywhere almost every
foreign visitor, large two-wheeled OK
streets. and always dirty, stupid, de-
generate peasants. the mere dregs OF
civilization. In the fields near by one
sees groups of eight to IL women work.
ing with heavy hoes, and one nan as
an Overseer who carries a long rod,
but does not work at all.
From the city of Cara, 30 miles
south of Naples, the drive of 40 miles
Is made along the rocky Inc mountain
Gus coast, through Amali to Sorren-
to. We are now at Ravello. This viii
lage is about two miles from Amalfl
by o and half a mile by air line
and chiefly up the mountain side. The
hotel lies about 1900 feet above the
sea level and the view Of the sea and
mountains is certainly magnificent; far
better than in the far famed Amalf-
but Amalfi had Longfellow to sing it's
praises. Lemon vineyards cover a con-
siderable portion of the mountain side.
They are terraced up by walls eight
to 10 feet high and give the mountain
side the appearance Of giant stairs.
These terraced places vary in size
from that Of a good sized room to the
lemons are hanging on the trees n
will stay there until the trees blossom
again, which will be next month.
March 26.-At Naples again. The
wagon road around the coast to Sor-
rento is a wonderful work. 1t has
been blasted out Of the mountain side,
passes through several tunnels, now
skirts the waters edge n now rises
TO 500 feet on the mountain side. Along
almost the entire length runs q stone
wall on the seward side to prevent
one's topping over on the crags and
INTO the water below. The curves of
course are almost constant. 1t would
be difficult to find 200 yards straight
away anywhere in the entire 40 miles.
We met Professor and Mrs. Harris, OF
Princeton. at Ravello. He is here for
rest and finds it an ideal place. I wish
the whole Morningside faculty could
spend The spring vacation there.
o h island Of Capri we climbed
the heights at the s n where
Tiberius Caesar had his home and
where he lived almost constantly his
last 10 years. The ruins with under
ground chambers, tunnels, ETC., are
quite extensive, but now mostly lew
eled to the ground. A lone hermit monk
has his abode here Inc keeps a little
chapel outside overlooking the sea I'M
der a giant image Of the Madonna. In
cidentally. of course, this pious (?),
dirty old hermit rakes in a lot of coin
as he controls the highest point where
one can best see the splendid, even
magnificent view of the Bay of Ma
pies, the peninsula Of Sorrento, and the
great sea off to the south. One does
not regard the few coppers to the monk
when once he looks out upon the great
Ecene before him-1,2OO perpendicular
feet over the stone wall to the water
below. And the water is blue-blue
when seen from affair and blue when
seen from a row boat-pale blue and
lark blue, and every shade from green
to black blue as you look at the sea
and the bay. Vesuvius raises it's
.runcated zone 1000 feet into the sky