The Postmistress thinks that every little reader will be interested in the letter from Alberto Dal M., who tells about a visit to Naples. She is very much pleased to hear from little travellers as well as from little stay-at-homes. The poem entitled "A Pansy Show" is the first attempt of the youthful writer. Our Post-office Box is quite sparkling this lovely summer day, with its letters, rhymes, and bits of information. Let nobody fail to read the amusing description of the wedding outfit of a Hindoo bride under the head of C. Y. P. R. U. After a long silence, we are pleased to receive another letter from Mrs. Richardson, of Woodside. We have not forgotten Uncle Pete and his Ida, nor the little school among the pines.
Venice, Italy.
This time I will tell the readers of Young People about my visit to Naples. From our rooms I could see the lovely bay, and in the distance the island of Capri, where there is a beautiful grotto. One morning at seven o'clock I started for Vesuvius in a carriage that had three horses for the mountain roads, and arrived at the Observatory at about half past eleven. I would like to have gone up by the railroad to the crater, but it was considered too dangerous, as there had been an accident a short time before my visit. I went into the Observatory, where visitors are not usually admitted. There I saw many electric wires, one of which showed when Vesuvius was throwing out stones. Even the slightest movement of the mountain could be felt by this wire, which without it would be unnoticed; another showed in which direction the movement was, whether east, west, north, or south; and still another told when the temperature changed.
There were many specimens of the different minerals thrown from Vesuvius. Some were crystallized sulphur, some iron, some salt, and some magnesia. Some of the lava when broken contained in the centre a white substance which had the form of a flower, another piece looked like a butterfly, and there were also some long white sticks which resembled macaroni. I saw the instruments with which they take up the hot lava; one was a kind of shovel, another a long pair of pincers. All that I saw here interested me very much. The view from the Observatory was magnificent. In the distance one could see the whole city of Naples, and the mountain looked like a desert of burnt wood. The lava which had been thrown out from different eruptions covered the ground everywhere, and was in some places heaped up very high in many curious forms. Some of the lava was gray, some red, and some brown. I picked up several pieces to carry home, also a few flowers which I found growing among the lava.
A few days after, I went to visit the ruined city of Pompeii. After passing through one of the old gates of the city, I went into a small museum, where I saw a few petrifactions and other things, but most of the curiosities are at Naples, in the National Museum. The streets of Pompeii are very narrow, paved with large blocks of stone, and I could see the ruts made by the wagons before the city was destroyed. I went into what was once a barber's shop, where there was still a block of marble which had been used as a seat. I saw a shelf there, and was told that a razor, a comb, and pomade were found on it. In a baker's shop I saw an oven where loaves of bread had been found. The houses were but one story high, and each house opened into a court, from which it received its light, as the rooms had no windows. Some of the frescoes on the walls were still fresh.