The Monticellonian., 1915-09-02

" [ IS thought Dy some that fdul
 defective eyesight may have pre-
 vented his appreciating natural
 scenery. However that may have
 been it seems impossible that he should not have been impressed by the splendid views that anyone sail ing up the coast of Sicily through the Straits of Messina and along the south Italian shore enjoys, says Rev. Dr. Francis E. Clark in his series, "1n the Footsteps of St. Paul, in the Christian Herald. He would have seen at first smiling, vine-covered hills; and before he had gone far, glorious Etna, snow capped for much of the year.
 An ever-changing panorama delights the eye until we come to Reggie. the ancient Rhegium Alas, 8 pitiful sight there greets the traveller today. Mes sina on one side of the narrow strait and Reggie on the other were both wrecked almost beyond recognition by the disastrous earthquake of 1908. On the Messina shore one sees great rows of little wooden houses scarcely larger than henhouses. These are the port able bungalows which were transport ed from America, ready-made, to re- lieve the sufferings of the houseless and homeless people. They are still occupied, for little has been done to build up the ruined cities.
 Between Scyla and Charybdis.
 Shortly after leaving Reggie we hot Cou11o ond GharUhdiG the fabled monsters of antiquity, the rock and the whirlpool, which have been robbed of all their terrors since steam navigation came to bless the world, and to make the travellers bur dens and dangers light. Soon after the active volcanic mountain of Strom- boil, on one of the Lipari islands, is seen, and all the way along the glori- ous South Italian shore reveals itself; splendid mountains rear their heads in the near distance, their sides clothed with vineyards and olive and orange orchards far up their slopes.
 AS we approach the Bay of Naples the scenery becomes constantly more entrancing. We see the promontory of Sorrento across the Bay of Saler no, and soon Capri with it's blue grot- to comes in sight on the left, and tow ering Vesuvius with it's constant plume of smoke on the right.
 Sailing across the Bay of Naples. past the spot where the notable city of the present day is situated, place which was then comparatively insig- niticant, our travellers came to Pute- oil, or Pozzuoh, as it is now called. at present a decadent suburb of Naples.
 This miserable and dirty town of some 16,000 inhabitants s, as it now is, is connected by trolley and steam rail way with Naples, and is often visited by the modern tourist who wishes to see the remains of the ancient tenn ples and amphitheater and the mighty mole. which still tell of the ancient glories of Puteoli.
 Nearby, too, is the volcanic field of Solfatara, not a mountain, but flat plain, the crater of low volcano, into which one can thrust his cane in many places anG find smoke and sul- pUuTOuS NdpOI ISSuiiS HUH tiit uOit he withdraws it. Probably there are few more dreary or disreputable places in Italy than this modern suburb of Naples It has not the ragged pie turesqueness which somewhat redeems the worst slums of Naples, but is squalid, unwholesome town of the worst type.
 Was Noted Roman Resort.
 It is difficult to realize that it once might have been called the Liver pool of Italy" that here was the LII crine lake, which supplied the pam pered Romans with their famous oy- sters, and that the whole bay was covered with the beautiful yachts of the fashionable folk who made Baiae, just beyond, the most noted resort, as corrupt as it was noted, for the in yalids and fashionable idlers of Rome. There were famous springs here, which attracted the sick from many quarters, and it is said that the an cient name came from the sulphurous stench which they emitted. Puteol l is no longer fashionable watering