a crimson halo and its
crater every few seconds belching out flames and lava. Arriving at the
station we were met by Messrs. Spalding and Lynch, who had come on from
Brindisi one train in advance of us, and here Martin Sullivan, who had
playfully filched the horn of a guard while en route, was taken into
custody by half a score of gendarmes. It took the services of three
interpreters and some fifteen minutes of time to straighten this affair
out, after which we proceeded to the Hotel Vesuve, where we were to put
up during our stay in Naples. That night we were too tired for
sightseeing and contented ourselves with gazing from the windows at the
beautiful Bay of Naples, which lay flashing beneath us in the moonlight.

As no arrangements had been made to play a game until the fourth day
after our arrival we had ample time for sightseeing, and this we turned
to the best account. The view from the balconies of the hotel was in
itself a grand one, and one of which we never tired. Vesuvius, with its
smoke-crowned summit, was in plain sight, while the view of the bay and
the beautiful islands of Capri and Ischia, that lay directly in front of
the hotel, presented as pretty and enticing a picture as could be found
anywhere. That afternoon we drove all about old Naples, visiting many of
the quaint and handsome old cathedrals and palaces, and that night we
went to hear "Lucretia Borgia," at the San Carlos, which is one of the
most magnificent theaters to be found in all Europe. The next day we
spent among the ruins of Pompeii and, though a third of the original
city at the time of our visit still lay buried beneath the ashes and
lava, we were enabled to obtain a pretty fair idea of what the whole
city was like, and of the manners and customs of the unfortunate people
who had been overwhelmed by the eruption. Many of the most interesting
relics found are now in the National Museum at Naples, among them being
the casts of bodies that were taken from the ashes. The museums and
cathedrals at Naples are rich in relics and you might spend days in
looking at them and still not see half of what is to be shown.

My wife and I were both anxious to make the ascent of Vesuvius, but the
dangers incurred by some of the other members of the party who had
attempted the feat deterred us from making the attempt.

Our first game of ball in Naples and the first of our trip on European
soil was played in the Campo de Mart, or "Field of Mars," Febru