The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-07-26

that | thought he was rebuking my
American accent; "but If you wish to
know what time we shall arrive, that
is an entirely different question. It
depends on great many things yet
to happen, and on some others that
have been happening for centuries.
Civilization, he continued, ceases at
Salerno. After that you can never
tell" 1t was not roseate forecast,
but it soon began to verify itself Be
fore we reached Salerno at all the en-
CINE broke down going up hill. We
had to wait for another from Salerno,
which we reached after midnight l
then went to sleep, dreaming of ban
dts and brigands, and awoke in the
early morning, when the train was
starting for the Gulf of Policastro and
the sun, just risen, was flooding the
sea with gold and dancing on the white
terraces of a little village above.
The person who has made a course
in the Greek or Latin classics will
naturally approach the Straits of Mes
sina with something of the same feel
ing that an American boy, who has
Toasted on the dime novel, comes into
the neighborhood of the Bowery. It's
terrors have been impressed on his
imagination at an age when the i'm
agination was plastic, and something
of 1oocf will bouo rornoinnd D,1f tb n
experience of the classic scholar on
first beholding the straits, like that of
the boy on his first sight of the Bow
cry, will be one of disappointment.
People who know New York will testi-
fly that there are few streets in any
great city of the world where the
danger of life and limb is less than
it is on the famous Bowery My first
experience of the straits was to cross
to Messina in the second-class rail.
from Salerno, and was here shunted
onto the ferry boat. But this was not
exactly the point on the straits to
which the blood-curdling stories Of
classic lore have reference, and on my
second day at Messina | made an ex
cursion to Faro, on Cape Pelorus. The
world is truly getting small and
friends meet in unexpected way and
places; and the pleasure of a drive tt
this classic spot was due to the invita-
ton of an old English friend whom
had just stumbled on amid the ruins
of earthquake and tidal wave al
Messina. The carriage road skirts
along the sea, passing through the vii
lage of La Grotta. Faro is the Italian
for light house, and the name has beer
given to the village. At the extreme
point on the opposite shore is the vii
lage of Scilla (the Italians simplify
their spelling for all words of Greel
origin, with the rock of the same
name in the foreground, rising per
pendicularly out of the sea and sur
mounted by an antique castle. Tht
first fortress on this rocky promontor.
was erected in 476 B. C. At the bass
of the rock on which we stand on tn
Sicilian side is supposed to have beef
Charybdis, a whirlpool which was tn
terror of mariners in ancient times
Between these two points are the rea
Straits of Messina We were, there
fore, on classic, if not on sacred
ground; for this is the place of whicl
we have all heard and read. On tn
day / drove out to this point tn
straits were calm and looked yer
harmless. At the base of the roc
there is no whirlpool today, and tn
learned are not agreed as to whethe
there ever was one. Steamers pass u
and, down every day, and even sma
fishing smack, without fear of harm
Thus one is disposed to think that tn
ancient poets wished to deceive III
But we must remember many things
Ships are large today. Steamers ar
a modern invention The late eartl
quake destroyed Messina, and show
that nature can be treacherous her,
and that the whirlpool could have b,
gun with one earthquake and cease
to exist with another. Besides, eve
today the placid Mediterranean ca
become very ugly in bad weathe
Whatever may be thought of these te
rors in fact, they have been mad
immortal in fiction and poetry Home
was the first to describe them, an
no poet coming after would think hi
fame secure if he had not tried to in
prove on the great father of cpl
Hence it has come to pass that Scyll
and Charybdis became familiar word
to every school boy, and the difficult
[of steering clear of Scylla withoU
falling into Charybdis has become
proverb in all the languages of civiliz;
ton. Ulysses, the hero of Homer
poem, lost six of his sailors in hi
passage through the straits; but Hon
er thought him fortunate in havin
struck against Scylla, for all woul
have persisted had be fallen int
Charybdis. The imagination of tn
Greeks personified, or rather deifieC
every force of nature, and, therefor,
Charybdis was to Homer's readers a
Unsuitable goddess, surrounded b
howling dogs and with maws ever ope
to swallow the daring mariner tha
would venture to pass without payin
her toll. 1t is too bad that we all cal
not read Greek, for the passage
one of the finest in the Odyssey. Blu
it is something to know that the bes
translation of the great Greek cpl
has been done into English by
Catholic. Thus does Alexander Pop
give us Homer's description of ScyIla