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Show list 1 Aerial View of Palermo. which lum Increased the orange and lemon yield twentyfold. Draw a line along the it-land's entire north coast to Messina, then down the whole length of the east coast, and you will have denmrked Sicily's lemon belt; and of this the richest spot is the Conea d'Oro. To turn from Palermo's wealth to Its poverty, one has but to thread Its tortuous slums, where a suspicious eye peers ut one through a sliding panel before the door is opened ; where two housewives purchase and split a small fish between them, and the street call of "I buy hair!" resounds among the crazy tenements. (Prepnred hy the National OeofrrRnhlo Society, WathlnKton, D. C.) PALEltMU, cupltul of Sicily, is u gem of a city, one of the urbau beauty spots of the world. When one approaches it from the sea. the Conca d'Oro lies lu front, that shell-like piuln, like a gigantic garden, with Monte 1'ellegrino's red crags on the right, Capo Zaffurauo's wooded heights across on the left, while Monte GrifTone's dark range Alls the background. back-ground. Modern I'ulermo is a medley of the dark old streets and wide new ones, of Moorish domes and modern marble mansions of labyrinths of alleys al-leys and a broad beautiful Marina; while no other city of its size possesses pos-sesses such splendid parks and public and private gardens. It Is a lugubrious experience to watch the hair merchant testingly finger fin-ger the magnificent braids of some growing girl; to hear the squalid bur-gaining bur-gaining over five soldi (one-fourth of a lira), more or less, before he snips the black locks Into his basket. To compute bow many similar heartbreaks heart-breaks are represented by the more, than 100 tons of human hair exported annually hy the western half of Sicily might make even a statistician weep. The most exquisite Jewel In Palermo's Paler-mo's casket is the Capella Pulatina, built at the command of IJoger, Sicily's Sic-ily's first Norman king and son of Count Roger d'Hautevlile, the Cortes and Pizarro of his time. It fs a melody mel-ody of mosaic art, this chapel In Pal- "Panormus" all harbor was the ancients' name of Palermo, which would Indicate Its Greek origin, though from earliest Inscriptions there is good authority for believing it a Chaldean colony to begin with. Whatever Its stem, its Greek, Roman, Gothic, Saracenic Sara-cenic and Norman occupations 'have left marked traces on the City of Golden Shell. Palermo has been an Important - maritime city for more than three I ) thousand years. In Phoenician dnys f 4 It occupied a small peninsula, with a wide harbor nearly surrounding It. Later the slit from the Inland mountains moun-tains filled the harbor bed which now forms a pnrt of the, foundation of modern Palermo. , The trim, white ships, of the steamship steam-ship company that transport passengers passen-gers from the Italian "boot" to Sicily usually reach Palermo shortly after dawn, but- I'ulermo appears wide-' wide-' awake. Hundreds of citizens already are on the dock shouting greetings to the newcomers or announcing their business as representative of this or that hotel. ermo's royal, palace. Not au inch of the surface-floor, walls, cupola or roof but Is gemmed with exquisite work. Its colors are softened and blended with age, until it suggests some oriental ori-ental sheik's tent of cashmere embroidery. em-broidery. Berfde the pulpit stands a Very ancient carved white candle-nbrum candle-nbrum 14 feet high, and near the choir steps swings a magnificent repousse re-pousse silver lamp, gifts of King Roger Rog-er to this Jeweled chapel his fairy wand created. The Saracenic conquerors have left their trace In the palaces of La Zly.a nnd La Cuba, and In La Cubola, the latter a pmall vaulted pavilion In the gardens of La Culm, and the most perfect Saracenic work In Sicily. The palaces are barracks now nnd their beauties have vanished, but at La Cuba It was ftiat dl Proclda found his lost love, as described by Boccaccio. Boc-caccio. Church of San Giovanni. The structure about which perhaps centers the greatest Interest Is the picturesque ruined church of San ilo-vannl ilo-vannl legll Kremite. built by King Happy and Beautiful. The passenger's first glance toward Palermo suggests the name La Felloe (The Happy) that It has long borne and rightly deserves. The compact ly-lmllt city resembles the playing field of an enormous natural athletic stadium with the suburban hills, dotted with palatial villas and citrus groves, form Ing the elevated sides. The arena Is the Conca d'Oro. It was during the Eleventh and Twelfth centuries that Palermo reached Its height of magnificence, un der the Norman line of Itoger and -', Ifobert d' Hauteviile, a magnificence which still dazzles one In such kingly gems as the Palatine chapel and the cathedral at Monreale. Nowadays Palermo, with Its 4tK),0iNi Roger, and possibly partially constructed con-structed from pome old ninsipip, for there are five round cupolas of the same form that one sees In all Mohammedan Mo-hammedan countries. Moor and Nor man are dust and ashes and the lovely love-ly cloisters where the monks once paced and meditated are only a cur-den cur-den now Within sight of San t!lo-! t!lo-! vannl, oiuside Porta Santa Agatha, 'a an old cemetery, and Inside Its wall. the remain? of a Cistercian monastery founded by the English Archbishop Walter of the mill, grim legends tiaiini tills plnce, On Kaster Tuesday. IL'S2. while the monastery bell rang for ves pers. occurred that gory massacre known as the Sicilian vespers, the slaughter of the French. Prom. Pal ermo the fury spread over all the Island Is-land until thousands of the French were slain, and Charles of Anjou lost inhabitants, constitutes the delightful center of Sicily's Itlviera, where one may hear excellent opera, or sip aperitifs aperi-tifs in open-air cafes, or Join the fashionable promenade along tree-shaded tree-shaded boulevards, where Paris fash Inns dominate, nnd dark, languioiis faces reveal Sicilian beauty Id Its flower. A childlike gaiety, ns of an endles carnival week, reigns at Palermo. The cabman beams, touching his hat, over a twenty-cent fare. The many (lower sellers tie their bouquets of blossoms atop of long poles, so that one seems to see walking clumps of roses thread Ing the crowd. Seen In the markets, tlie peasant's two-wheeled cart Is a splendidly colorful a!Tair. Its sides painted with chrome of the Crucifixion. from his crown his "Jewel of the Mediterranean." Above the city of Palermo, on a cliff almost overhanging the Conca d'Hro, stands rhat triumph of ecclesiastic ecclesi-astic builders, the Cathedral of Man reale. Santa Marin Nuovu. the greatest great-est monument to the glory of William the !ood and his mother. Marjrherlin of Aragoii. Around the cathedral and . or or medieval n mi bats, or of pirouet ting ballet girls, while the accompany Ing horse Is decorated with a feather duster of blue and rcatlet plumes and with rows of tiny mirrors, designed to frighten off the evil eye. Each street shrine of Suini Kosnlla would rival a florist's window, ami al nine In the morning one commonly sees business men passing in line before be-fore her, to deposit their votive bou its adjoining monastery has sprung up gradually a considerable town, from whoi-e rocky heights the inhuhitantu look down upon an earthly paradise. The exterior of the cathedral I? plain and simple, giving no bint of tl glories within, dependent on no one school of art for Its magnificence.. The splendid church Is the work of Norman Sicilian artists, is Latin In shape. Hoiiian In Its colonnade. Byzantine By-zantine in its mosaics. Greek In -its sculpture. Sar.-iceiitic In Its mouldings'. Kighteen of the oriental granite col uintis were taken from Greek and I!n- man temples.. Walls, arcades and vaultings, are one solid incriisiatlnn of liyzantitie mosaic on a gold ground. quels, en route tn their offices. Saint Itosnlla, by the way. having -lived and died In a cave near Palermo. eappenred during a Seventeenth century cen-tury plague, promising to bate the peourpe if her hones were given Chris Man hutial. Tbe ceremony of conveying convey-ing her relics through the streets takes place each July, while the accompanying ac-companying regattas; horse races, and fireworks add a characteristic gusto. Conca d'Oro a Rich Plain. Palermo's surroundings Include the famous plain of ('mien d'Oro. the most fertile region of Sicily, where rock drilling and pumping stations have created an Irrigation system |