The Wilmington morning star., 1944-02-06
Yanks Weld Former Two
Sicilies With Fire, Steel

A-
is increased by the sulphur mines,
which once supplied nearly all
the worlds sulphur.
A Yank invited into a peasants
home is likely to see large fami-
ly living in one or two rooms with
its pigs and fowls, and children
wearing rock-salt amulets to ward
off the evil eye. A rich Neapolitan
or Palermitan might treat him
10 rich foods and fine wines in
the courtyard of palacelike
home.
Sicily, granary OF the ancient
world, and, as the home of Ceres,
mythical birthplace of agriculture,
is today a combination orchard
garden-vineyard, more fertile than
southern Italy. Citrus fruits, grapes
and olives are the big crops.
Cereals are raised only in SUBJ
sistence quantities.
Yanks in Sicily may forget their
jeeps long enough to take a ride
on the traditional two-wheeled,
highly decorated, donkey-pulled
cart. On the narrow sides Of these
carts appears the history of Sicily
in original oil paintings. The IA
vorite scenes in these moving
pictures"s deal with the days of
Norman occupation, when knight
mood was in flower.
Few Forests
Southern. Italy has a few forests,
little dense vegetation. This bald
ness, which extends even to the
mountains, is the reason for the
intermittent flooding and drying up
IT the many short rivers. 1t also
explains why a moderate rainfall
produces seas of mud.
Noticeable to the nature-loving
Yank is the absence of birds and
their singing. Such forests as
exist are. quiet in daytime. But at
night the cicadas and other insects
set up their shrill repetitive drone.
Also heard in the night are mando-
Inns and soft singing, or the more
boisterous music of the tarentella
dance of southern Italy
"a lovers quarrel and reconcilia-
ton set to the dance.
Ageless marionette and Punch
and-Judy shows abound in both
Sicilies. Puppet-hero of Naples is
5caramuccia, quarrelsome, cow
ardly braggart. Live actors take
part in the many town festivals.
Background Of most of these cele-
brations is religious. Delicacies
are eaten, wine is drunk, and men
and older women dance in the
streets. Girls and young married
women never dance.
Italians like to live in big town
or city. Though the average ele-
walton is LOO feet, most of the
people live at, or near, sea-level.
Naples, Palermo, Catania, Bari.
Messina are all ports. Along the
generally rocky coasts are many
smaller ports, several resorts
Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi, Mondel-
.o-and numerous fishing villages
whose inhabitants live on "frutta
di mare'-fruit of the sea.
Caltanissetta, with about $4,000
population and Foggia, with 81, 900,
are the areas largest inland towns.
Sicily is about the size of Yer
mont. Italy, south of Rome, is
more than three times as large
approximating the area of Maine.
Nearly all the interior is occupied
by jumbled hills and patternless
mountains. Many villages are
perched on Almost inaccessible
slopes and crags. Some lowland
coastal regions are malarial
swamps. For centuries Italy, di-
vided by its geographical barriers,
remained split up in small war
ring states, prey to foreign con-
querors.
Through twenty-five centuries ma
tllre has We'd with man in keep
ing Italy and Sicily turbulent. We
suvius and Etna, two of the world
most active volcanoes, continual
ly threaten Naples, Catania and a
kost of villages built within range
OF their craters. Buried Pompeii
IS evidence of what might happen
to them. Earthquakes have wreck
ed Catania, Messinas Reggie Gala
bria and many other towns as
warfare has never done.
At least one-eighth of the Two