Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1923-08-22

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ciety, Washington. D c.
Etna is an efficient If dangerous al.
vertising feature for Sicily. The great
volcano literally put the island on the
map, according to biologists, and it
continues by it's eruptions from time
to time to draw the eyes of the world
to land that quakes and spews forth
lava now and then, to be sure. but
which has at all times some of the
most notable garden plots and beauty
spots of the world.
Not only has nature made a tenn
pestuous history for Sicily; man has
wrought in similar vein. Fifteen ma
lions have had a foothold there in it's
historic span of nearly 5000 years-in
ancient times Phoenecia, Greece, Car
thage, Rome, Byzantium, and then, sue
cessively, the Cloths, Vandals, Sar-
acens, Normans, Germans, Anjouans,
Aragonese, Spanish, Bourbons, French
and English. Nor does that list include
the period since 1860 as a part Of the
kingdom of Italy, Or the original dwell
ers, the Sikans, Sikels and Elymians.
In the days when Greece was the
great factor in the world, Syracuse in
Sicily was the Grecian metropolis, as
Athens was its art and intellectual
center. A wonder city was Syracuse
with a population of million or more
and a commerce unrivaled in it's day.
The city began as colony of Corinth
more than 700 years before Christ;
but it rose to prosperity and promi-
hence so rapidly that by 664 B. G. it
was establishing colonies of its own.
Ruled now by an oligarchy, now by
tyrants and at times as a democracy,
the city went on growing until in size
and power 1t outshone even Athens.
That city made war but got the worst
Of the struggle, and Syracuse con-
tinued, world city, until sacked by
the Romans. 1t was during the long
Roman siege that, Archimedes, the
Edison of his age, and probably the
most famous son Sicily has had, kept
the enemy at bay with his ingenious
devices. The great city fell in 212 B.
G. and though it has continued to exist
to this day it is but small reminder
Of its past glories.
The Greeks had had to share the
control Of Sicily with the Carthagini-
ans, but after the fall of Syracuse the
whole island quickly came under the
sway of Rome, the power Of Carthage
being crushed.
When the Saracens Held It.
mi - & d.. ", 14ov1
history was the occupation of the
island by the Arabs or Saracens who
took there, as they took to Spain, the
sway of an alien religion and an alien
stock. Sicily had been largely demon
allied since the breakup of the Ro-
man empire, and Byzantium held only
a light control in S27 A. D. when the
Saracens, coming over from northern
Africa as the Carthaginians had come
before them, gained their first foot
hold. Those vigorous people, at the
height Of the remarkable boiling up"
that they evidenced just after the es-
Enlistment of Mohammedanism, were
really valuable constructive force In
decadent Sicily. They were the fore
most opponents of science and art at
that period and they made Sicily
beneficiary Of their knowledge ana
skill.
After q century or so, when the
Arabs in turn had become effete, sturdy
Norman adventures from France
came and took control of Sicily, ana
ushered in It's most romantic PERIOD.
The Norman rulers took the well-or-
dered government machinery OF the
Arabs for their own, increased Hber-
Ties. and ruled most wisely. Under
them art and letters fourished Tor
brief period in way to provision the
Renaissance that was to become gen.
eral several centuries later.
With the loss of it's Norman rulers
Sicily slipped backward into turDu-
lence and was buffeted about from
nation to nation and ruler 10
ruler until Garibaldi and his red
shirted revolutionists made IL
Aart of the new Italy In 1861.
In gaining Sicily, Italy necessarily
took up the handicap OF coun-
try impoverished by hundreds OF years
of misgoyernment and lack of develop
ment. Government has been bettereo
and by degrees railroads have been
constructed, harbors improved. ana
other development carried out; out
even. so the economic lot of the Siciiian
masses is none too good, fact when
has been made obvious by the ire
mendous emigration from Sicily 10
America.