v*\. .*< . Atrial Vmw T"'""" *' ~ - ' •'" -' /% ' ,, -i • • , " " v "" ' - - M'HENRY PLAINDEALER, THITRSDAY, DECEMBER 6,1928 - - "&§p£i&f t4 Society, Washington, D. C.) ALER.MO, capital of Sicily, Is » gem of a city, one of the urbau beauty spots of the world. When one approaches It from the cea, Conca d'Oro lies in front, that •hell-like plain, like a gigantic garden, with Monte Pellegrino'* red crags on the right, Capo ZafFarano's wooded heights across on the left, while Monte Qriffone's dark range fills the background. Modern Palermo is a medley of the dark old streets and wide new ones, of Moorish domes and modern Marble mansions of labyrinths of alloys and a broad beautiful Marina; while no other city of its size poetesses such splendid parks and public and private gardens. "Panorama"--all harbor--was the aCcients* name of Palermo, which would indicate its Greek origin, though from earliest inscriptions there Is gdod Authority for believing It a Chaldean colony to begin with. Whatever Its stem, its Greek, Roman, Gothic, Sara- .cenic and Norman occupations have toft marked traces on the City of Golden SbeU. Palermo has been an Important maritime city for more than three thousand years. In Phoenician days H occupied a small peninsula, with • wide harbor nearly surroufidlng It Later the silt from the inland mountains filled the harbor bed which ad# forms a port of the foundation of •aodern Palermo. The trim, white shlpa of the steam- Alp company that transport passenfere from the Italian "boot" to Sicily Moally reach Palermo shortly after <lawn, but Palermo appears wideawake. Hundreds of citizens already an on the dock shouting greetings to tile newcomers or announcing their Imsiness as representative of this or that hotel. Happy and Beautiful, passengers first glance toward lermo suggests the name La Felice (The Happy) that it has long borne and rightly deserves. The nj[jf"^r '--"* dty resembles the playing field of an enormous natural athletic stadium with the suburban hills, dotted wltb ^palatial villas and citrus groves, forming 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, under the Norman line of Roger and Robert d' Hautevtlle, a magnificence which still dazzles one In such kingly gems as the Palatine chapel and the cathedral at Monreale. Nowadays Palermo, with Its 400,000 tahabitants, constlt\it£S the delightful canter of Sicily's Riviera, where one may hear excellent opera, or sip aperitifs in open-air cafes, or join the fashionable promenade along treeshaded boulevards, where Paris fashions dominate, and dark, iangurous faces reveal Sicilian beauty In Its llgjver. f.. A childlike gaiety, as of an endless fjarnival week, reigns at Palermo. The «bman beams, touching his hat, over a twenty-cent fare. The many flower tellers tie their .bouquets of blossoms atop of long poles, so that one seems to see walking dumps of roses threading the crowd. Seen In the markets, the peasant's two-wheeled cart Is a splendidly colorful affair, its sides painted with chromes of the Crucifixion, ©r of medieval combats, or of pirouetting ballet girls, while the accompanying horse is decorated with a feather duster of blue and scarlet plumes and vftlfi rows of tiny mirrors, designed •*4#b frighten off the evil eye. r Each street shrine of Saint Rosalia irould rival a florist's window, and at ~ :*llne in the morning one commonly neea business men passing In line before her, to deposit their votive bouquets, en route to their offices. Saint Rosalia, by the way, having lived and died In a cave near Palermo, reappeared during a Seventeenth-century'plague. promising to abate the Scourge If her bones were given Chris- Han burial. The ceremony of conveying her relks through the streets lakes place each July, while the accompanying regattas, horse ruces, and trcprorks add a characteristic gusto. Conca d'Oro • Rich Plain. . Palermo's surroundings Include the famous "plain of Conca d'Oro, the fnotft fertile region of Sicily, where took drilling and pumping stations )*»• cTeate^aft Irrigation system / which has increased ffie orange and lemon yield twentyfold. Draw a line along the island's entire north coast to Messina, then down the whole length of the east coast, and you will have demarked Sicily's lemon belt; and of this the richest spot Is the Conca d'Oro. To turn from Palermo's Waith to Its poverty, one has but to thread Its tortuous slums, where a suspicious eye peers at 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. It Is a lugubrious experience to /jvatch the hair merchant testingiy finger the magnificent braids of some growing girl; to hear the squalid bar gaining over five soldi (one-fourth of a lira), more or less, before he snips J"- the black locks Into his basket. To compute how many similar heartbreaks are represented by the more than 100 tons of human hair exported annually by the western half of Sicily might make even a statistician weep. The moat exquisite Jewel In Palermo's casket is the Capella Palatlnav built at the command of Roger, Sicily's first Norman king and son of Count Roger d'Hautevllle, the Cortez and Pizarro of his time. It is h melody of mosaic art, this chapel in Palermo's royal palace. Not an 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 ori- "ental sheik's tent of cashmere em broidery. Beside the pulpit stands a very ancient carved white candle-1» abrum 14 feet high, and near the choir steps swings a magnificent repousse silver lamp, gifts of King Roger to this Jeweled chapel his fairy wand created. The Saracenic conquerors have left their trace In the palaces of La Ziza and La Cuba, and in La Cubola, the latter a small vaulted pavilion in the gardens of La Cuba, and the most perfect Saracenic work In Sicily. The palaces are barracks now and their. beauties have vanished, but at La % Cuba it was that dl Proclda found his lost love, «• described Boccaccio. Church of San Giovanni. ~ The structure about which perhaps centers the greatest interest Is the picturesque ruined church of San Gio- f[I va&ni Degli Eremite, built by King Roger, and possibly nnrtlgMy constructed from some old mosque, for there are five round cupolas of- the same form that one sees in all Mo hammedan countries. Moor and Norman are dust and ashes and the lovely cloisters where the monks once paced and meditated are only a garden now. Within sight of San Giovanni, outside Porta Santa Agatha, is an old cemetery, and inside Its walls the remains of a Cistercian monastery founded by the English Archbishop Walter of the mill, grim legends haunt this place. On Easter Tuesday, 1282, while the monastery bell rang for vespers, occurred that gory massacre known as the Sicilian vespers, the slaughter of the Frejich. From Palermo the fury spread over all the Island until thousands of the French were slain, and Charles of Anjou Ion from his crown his "Jewel of the Mediterranean." Above the city of Palermo, on a cliff almost overhanging the Conca d'Oro, stands that triumph of ecclesiastic builders, the Cathedral of Monreale. Santa Maria Nuova, the greatest monument to the glory of William the Good and his mother, Marglu.rllaf of Aragon. Around the cathedral and' Its adjoining monastery has sprung up gradually a considerable town, from whose rocky heights the Inhabitants look down upon an eurtlily paradise. The exterior of the cathedral lc plain and simple, giving no hint of tli* glories within, dependent on no one school of art for Its magnificence The splendid church is the work oil Normari Sicilian artists, !s Latin Int shape, Roman In Its colonnade. By1 zatitine In Its mosaics, Greek In it«y sculpture, Sarncentlc Hi its moulding": Eighteen of the oriental granite coir tiii'ti* .were taken from Greek and lloH •Jir.n temples. Wails, arcades an.? vaultings, are on* solid t||«*ruKiMtl«nrt •>f CyxHtuui* moggie on * told ground ' BLOCUtf'S LAKE Willard Darrell was a business caller at Waukegan Saturday, Mr. and Mrs. Ray Dowell and daughter, Dorothy, land Rollin and Alma Dowell were at Waukegan last Friday. Roy Passfield was a business caller at Volo Saturday. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Converse were business callers at McHenry last Wednesday. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Dowell and daughter, Dorothy, were business callers at McHeiiry last Wednesday Evening. Mr. and Mrs. Harry Matthews and son, Robert, were business callers at Crystal Lake Saturday. Mrs. Matthews and son remained until Sunday evening at the home of Mr. and Mrs. LaDoyt Miat thews. Chesney Brooks was a business caller at Crystal Lake Friday morning. Mr. and Mrs; Roy Passfield and children were Sunday dinner guests at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George Dowell. Mr; and Mrs. Ray Dowell and daughter visited at the home of Mr. and Wis. Leslie Davis at Volo Thursday evening. r Mr. and Mrs. Willard Darrell were business callers at McHenry Monday morning. Misses Myrna and Beulah Bacon spent a few days last week at the hjotne Mils. Elizabeth Bacon at Roseville. Mildred Hoffman enjoyed Thanksgiving Day with relatives at Richmond. Darwin Brown and daughter, Orissa, Althea Coss and H. L. Brooks spent Thanksgiving at the home of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Brooks. r. and Mrs. Will Davis and daughter, Frances, and Mr. and Mrs. Ray Dowell and daughter, Dorothy, t enjoyed Thanksgiving at the home of Mb*. and Mrs. Earl Converse. John Groth of phicago is spending a week with his brother, Iner Groth, at the Blomgren home, before leaving for Sweden. John Blomgren, .Mrs. Sigrid Blomgren, and Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Lusk were entertained at the Peter Anderson home at Algonquin Thanksgiving Day. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Bacon and family spent Thanksgiving Day at the home of Mrs. E. Bacon at Roseville. Monday evening callers at the W. E. Brooks home were Wilbur Cook, Ira Cook and son, Russel, of Wauconda, and Frank Meyer and eon of McHenry. • Thanksgiving Day guests at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Matthews were Mr. and Mrs. Willard Darrell and son, William, and daughter, Myrtle, Mr. and Mrs. LaDoyt Matthews of Crystal Lake, and Elmer Esping of Moline. * Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Thorough and family, and Charles Tegtmeier of Crystal Lake spent Wednesday evening at the home of Mr. and Mirs. Wayne Bacon. John Blomgren and Sigrid Blomgren, Iner Groth and John Groth were guests at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Peterson in Chicago Monday. Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Eddy and daughter, Marjorie, of Grayslake were Sunday supper guests at the Roy Passfield home. Mrs. H. L. Brooks and Mrs. Lucile Rohman of Chicago spent Thanksgiving Day and until Monday at the home of Mir. and Mrs. John Quartel at Plymouth, Mich. Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Grantham of Cary visited at the 0, W. Grantham home last Thursday and Friday. :»«-• < S-V,- "If" BOOK CHRISTMAS for your Boys andGi$>r • 'Sfe 25c - 35c - 50P 75c - $1.00 Mr. and Mrs. Earl Converse were Sunday dinner guests at the heme of Mr. and Mrs. Ray Dowell. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Lusk moved to the farm owned by L. V. Lusk near Round Lake, Saturday. Mr. and Mrs. O. W. Grantham and guests, Mr. and Mrs. R. H. Grantham, enjoyed Thanksgiving at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Winkler, Jr., at Waukegan. Mr. and Mrs. Wayne Bacon Mid chH» dren spent Sunday at Elgin. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Dowell and family spent Thanksgiving Day at the home of Mr. and Mrs. M. W. Baseley at Wauconda. Mr. and Mrs. Lynn Kelley and children of Elgin spent the week-end at the O. W. Grantham home. Harry Matthews and Joe Dowell ac* companied Ray Paddock of Wanconda and William Fink to Chicago Tuesday, where they attended a Pure Milk as eociation meeting at the Morrison hotel. Mr. and Mrs. Frank Ensign and Mr. R^nolds of McHenry were Monday evening guests at the home of Mr. and Mrs. WSayne Bacon. Mr. and Mrs. Ray Dowell and daughter, Dorothy, spent last Saturday evening at the home of Mir. and Mrs. Will Davis. Miss Vinnie Bacgn and mother, Elizabeth Bacon, visited at the Wayne Bacon home last Tuesday afternoon. > Gift goods and toys gatae it Erfelnon's Store. . . * " (To the editor of the personal inquiry column): "I have lost threfe husbands, and now have the offer of another," said the writer. "Shall I accept him?" "If you've lost three husbands" was the reply "I should say you are much too careless to be trusted with a fourth."--Wall Street Journal. THOMAS P. B0LGER Phone 40 'The McHenry DragfristM Green Street & No. 6 of a Series on Metropolitan Chica why Metropolitan Chicago has every possibility of becoming the world's foremost center - in population as well as in trade importance--and that in a day relatively near authorities predict fifteen million population for Metropolitan Chicago within a lifetime. iiTiinl '. I "So your new husband Is lasy, is %e, Mandy?" "Lazy? AhU say he's lazy. Dat an's been out back of de bahn sawin' ood all die mawnin' jes to get out 4b goin' to de stoah to get me a loaf «ft> bread."--Sample Case. Teacher: "Robert, give me a sence using the word 'satiate.' " Bobby; "I took Mamie Jones to a enie last summer/and 111 say she e a lot."--Sample Case. "In the country when I spent mf vacation they gave me one of those three-season beds." "Never heard of them. What art they?" « "No spring."--The Railroad Temperance Lecturer: "Well, m)r friends, drink iB a curse. If all the public houses were at the bottom of the sea what would be the result?" / Voice From the Crowd: "A lot of people would be fawned."--Tid-Bits. '"--A" - IT FOR FERTILITY OF THE LAND" said Pere Jacques Marquette, the early explorer, in speaking of theJterHtory in this vicinity. ' lr: • |REAT GLACIERS that once covered the northern portions of the United States played anl important part in establishing"1 'Metropolitan Chicago as "The Bread Basket of the Nation". Rich soil a was carried to the Middle West by these ! glaciers. And this soil -- plus an ideal , climate and abundant rainfall--has made this section the most ^ productive agricultural area of its size to the yorli; Agriculture must have a market. And Metro* politan Chicago--with its central location and unequalled transportation facilities -- offers that market to all of the Middle We*s ; Within a nights train ride of Metropolitan Chicago are produced nearly one-half of the food-crop values of the entire country. Metropolitan Chicago forms # .f * More than 500 miles to the west of Metropolitan Chicago there comes what s known as the twenty-inch rainfall deade, which marks the western margin of profitable agriculture without irrigation. Metropolitan Chicago Is located in the neart of the well-watered eastern half of the country .'The territory close to Chicago enioys an average rainfall of thirty-four inches •--,70 per cent above what is considered the minimum for profit crop production! W i f . Wi&tn a 3WMn<l« radius of ^ th« centers of ( 1 ) p o p u l a t i o n . ( 2 ) farm valuts, (3) cereal Jiroductton (4) corn Production, \ The farmer sends his crops to Metropolitan Chicago. He gets his money from here. Then he spends his money for products that are made here, or sold here either at wholesale or retail. Hence he plays a two-fold part in the growth and prosperity of Metropolitan Chicago* h ,1 the largest center of merchandising adv&n- ri No other gre&t metropolitan center is so ^ tage for this enormous crop production.;., favorably located as Chicago with respect N The food products handled in Metropoli- to agriculture* Yet agriculture is only tan Chicaaggeo within a year represent, in ^ne of several factors contributing to money vraalilu e, one-fourth of our fivebillion- dollar wholesale trade! The soil has helped Chicagc shine has helped Chicago>. 7E o. The sun-; ven the rain •tt.TSr? o's present greatness and future Advancement --only one of several factors which give Metropolitan Chicago very possibility of becoming the world's oremost metropolitan center. I' of (he Jive advertisementi%fiich hove by addressing Public Srrvice Company of Northern PUBLIC SERVICE ^ OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS 72 W. Adams SL, Chicag^ x > '"i .V SSupplying Electricity and Gas to 6,000 square miles, including % Metropolitan Ana into which Chicago is growing. \ \ ' ' Chk«|« includes the City of Ckics|« ««4 tHe territory t»ithi* 5^l» 75 mil A of the Chicago City H«|. IT ST Mi-V