Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-06-12
. FAIRY ISLANDS.
Lake Maggiore and It's Chateau
Beautiful Isle of Dreams.


ermen's isle. fronting the Sirnplon pass.
the gateway of the north. The slopes
of the mountain round the lake are
leovered with vineyards and exotic gar
dens, but the most luxnriant is a mat
ter of fact experience beside the Fairy
isles. Even when the blue haze clothes
them in a magic film, they preserve tho
solidity one associates with fairy-taIe
islands; the visionary glamour Of Celtic
faery dreams is not here.
These islands with their chateaux of
stone and plaster and their gardens of
baroque architecture belong to the sew
enteenth and eighteenth centuries when
the Old French fairy tales were written.
The Prince Charming who belongs to
the Beautiful isle delighted in ostrich
plumes and siIken stockings and court
dress and diamond buckles; his cha
tean. which rises from the water. is OF
the splendid kind, With many windows
and an imposing entrance approached
by grandiloquent fights of steps aud a
great stone terrace. A flourish of palm
trees graces the courtyard and areades
| rise from the terrace.
| But the chateau. for all its pomp, 10
merely the chateau belonging to tho
garden. No less than 10 terraces rise
| from the water, planted with giant Ole
anders and magnolas. lemon and or
ange trees, eamellias and mifuosa
against the stately background of ce-
| dars, wellingtonias and eucalyptus; and
amongst these, statues and shell grot-
| toes and pinnacied pedestals abound,
| eliminating in a sort oftpyrotecIinieal
display on the topnost terrace. the ex-
| treme summit Of the island. The PIN
nacles are gilt, the statues carry corn
| ucopias and drive Winged horses the
| terraces are deliberately balustraded.
| the whole effect measures up to the
most approved nursery standard Of
| magnificence. One might be in a Wal
| ter Cranes toybcok. There is even
great stone arcade where fountains
| drip and triclSle and ferns infuse the
air with their broeky, earthly odors
| One can imagine a poor Beast lurking
| in these shadows, peering out at Beau
| ty in the sun.
| Today there is a desolate air about
the chateau for 1t is not lived in, and
its central wing needs painting, and
| the windows are gaunt and vacant
| Count Borromeo built 1t in the seven
teenth century, but it was never finish
ed. One may go through a gallery hung
| with Flemish tapestry of that period.
and suites Of grand reception rooms,
but the place seems to sigh for the
| Prince Charming whose idea it was
| The island was mostly bare rock
when he discovered 1t; its little church
and cluster of cottages still remain
| tucked in between the chateau and the
Igardens: some of the cottages have
| been turned into restaurants, AMI
i booths where women sell fans and oas-
kets are placed across the shore. Visit
tors swarm here and their boats
crowd the shingle.
| We turn our gay boat and row across
| the crystalline blue water with the
| uninterrupted mountains mirrored in it.
The second island waits us, a little
Lsmaiier, not 81 monumental its cha
teah is less annhitiouss it fnigft well be
designed for the mother of Prince
Charming or dowager princess. It is
painted in, warm apricot and peach
color, and but three terraces adofn the
front. They are patterned prettily with
lemon and orange trellises and on the
Irocks are gray-leaved agaves
We round a promontory of shingIe,
skirt delightful shore of quart aud
4
in shimmery green, and black poplars.
radiant in redgoId foliage. Behind
masses of lex trees crowd to the rocks
and wealth of laurestinas break the
darkness with a cascade of fragrant
| foam. The scent is SO delicious we pun
in and throw heap of waxen blossoms,
In the stern Then we round another
promontory Of boulders and come upon
al Ino =;
mel of gold light and mystic shadow.
We have found the .harbor enclosed on
| three sides by stone walls
We pull with easy strokes To the
island which supplies the atmosphere
of plebeian industry. without which no
fairy tale is properly complete iepe
the fishermen ccngregate. entirely sep
arated from the pomp and cereinony sf
the other isles. Their baIconIesi houses
gay with pot plants. huddle together
higgledy- Piggledx. some set high ON
arches Of protligious soliditY. Boats
exactly like the one that Giotto sr,1,p-
tured. are drawn up on the strand. the
rigs of the canopy support look some
thing like y reversed coracle. a. the
extreme end OF the island Is a clean
looking restaurant Tim, with 4 tree
shaded avenue along the spit of shingie.
1t looks as if it would be plessan.
enough to stroll down 1t and look out
across the water to the solemn siIe,.t
mountains, SO ineffably remote frnm
the toys and fancies OF the Fairy isles.
christian Science Monitor.
|
An automatic bottle-malsing machine.
invented and in use in Germany. IL one
of the triumpEs of modern machine
building Doing the work OF $50 expert
glass blowers, it was considered SUCH a
menace to labor in Germany, where
matchmaking is an industry OF great
magnitude, that the Government Is said
to have limited its use by rather string
| ent rules
| The automatic making of bottles Is ac-
eompished through great number or
movable vacuum arms. A certain guam
tity of molten glass is drawn into the
machine. air pressure is applied. and the
glass is injected into an iron mold ac-
commodating several bottles This OPP
GRAFTON takes but few seconds, then