The advocate. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1901-1913, 1911-09-07
tHHE CHURCH, THE MALTA. AND,
= THE PEOPLE.

One Of the Interesting sights of
.Catania, Sicily as Of nearly every 9th
err city visited in Europe, is the
market place. I confess that l have
IA fondness for visiting markets. l
tsADFOCATE--4 xzfiflfffi
IIike to wander through the stalls, with
their quantities of fruit, vegetables,
Emeat and bread; all the common,
Wholesome and necessary things Of
life, piled and ranged III bountiful pro
| fusion
H.. like to watch the crowds of peo-
lple, coming and going, buying and
Eselling, dickering and chaffering. A
market, particularly an old-fashioned
market, such as one may see almost
anywhere in Europe, in which the
AEpeople from the town and the people
aafrom the country, the producer and
1.-THE consumer meet and bargain with
] each other seems: a muen more whole
tsome and human place than, for ex-
ample, a factory. Besides that, any
Lone who goes abroad to see the people
tTather than to see the things, will,
Ebelieve, find the markets of Europe
more interesting and more instructive
than the museums.
/ During my journey across Europe
visited the markets in nearly every
large city in which I stopped. I saw
something Of the curious Sunday mar
kets Of Bethel Green and White
chapel, London, with their long lines
tof shouting hucksters and their
Ecrowds of hungry shoppers, and the
Jewish market In the Ghetto of Cra-
tcow, Poland, where pale-faced Rabbis
were Strengthening, according to the
strict ritual of the Jewish law, droves
tof squawking geese. Among others +
visited the Monday market in Catania,
(which differs from the markets I had
Eseen elsewhere in the multitudes Of
kfered for sale, and in the general
Eholiday character of the proceedings.
Il 1t was like a country fair in one
Eef the Southern cities, only cruder
land quainter. For example instead
Bof the familiar shooting gallery, with
Ehad set up dozen painted sticks OIL
la rough box, and offered to the public,
flor something less than a cent, the op-
Eportuntty to shoot at them with an
Eancient cross-bow, such as I did not
Eimagine existed outside of museums.
EThen there were all sorts Of curious
Hand primitive games Of chance.
EAmong other devices for entertaining
Eand hystifying the people l noticed a
'Eyoung woman seated in chair, blind
| fold. A crowd surrounded her while
she named various objects, belonging
bto the crowd which her companion,
a man, held in his hands. At the
same time she told the color of the
| hair and eyes, and reeled off the
future Of the different persons to
whom the articles belonged.
| More interesting still were the pub
lie story-tellers, who seemed to take
the place, to a certain extent, of the
daily newspaper among he masses of
the people, so many of whom can
neither read nor write.
| The stOry-tellers stood upon a little
platform, which they carried about
with them, like portable puIpits, in
order that they might be plainly WISH
Bile to the crowd. Each carried a
large banner on which were painted
a series Of pictures, representing the
scenes in the stories which they told.
| These stories, together with the
pictures which illustrated them, had
apparently been composed by the man
VINO told them, for they all touched
| upon contemporary events. In fact,
most Of them referred in some way to
America. Like those song-birds that
| have only one constantly repeated
! note, each story teller had but one
| story, which. he told over and over
| again, in the same tones, with the
same attitudes, and the same little
dramatic surprises. ...-
| Although I was not able to under
stand what was said, it was not diff
| ficult to follow the narrative from the
pictures. One story told Of the for
| tunes of a young girl who had been
| lured away to America. Perhaps she
| was one Of those white slaves" to
| which | noticed a good many rcfercn-
ces in Italy, and in other Of the emf.
grant countries. At any rate, she was
| imprisoned in very dark and dismal
place in some part Of New York
| which l was not able to locate from
| the picture. Then her brother, or per-
baps 1t was her lover, whom she had
left behind in Sicily, saw vision. 1t
was d vision Of Saint George and
dragon, and after seeing this vision
ne rose up and went to America and
| rescued her. The touching thing
| about it all, the thing that showed
how realistic this whole tale was to
the crowd that stood and listened to #