EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AN INDUSTRY 



1035 



ing their worldly all in huge 

 bundles as they went. 



"Pronti! Pronti!" 

 shouted the conductor, and 

 the doors were banged shut 

 again as mothers, wives, 

 sisters, or daughters stood 

 weeping and clinging to the 

 ones they loved. 



The capo di stasione 

 sounded his bell, the engi- 

 neer answered with a toot 

 of the whistle, "Pronti ! 

 Pronti !" roared the con- 

 ductor again, and the train 

 was off, leaving in a cloud 

 of dust the miserable group 

 of women huddled in front 

 of the forlorn station 

 whence the stronger ones 

 had departed to return — 

 who knows? 



Let us leave this desolate 

 sulphur region and climb 

 the heights to Castrogio- 

 vanui, a town of 25,000 in- 

 habitants, on the flat top of 

 a hill half a mile above 

 the valley below. It and 

 Calascibetta, a twin city on 

 a corresponding peak a cou- 

 ple of miles across the val- 

 ley, are two of the most 

 picturesque places on the 

 island. To protect them- 

 selves from the fog and 

 cold of the high altitude the 

 men of Castrogiovanni, like 

 those of other mountain 

 towns in Sicily, wear 

 hooded cloaks, resembling 

 the Moorish gelab, prob- 

 ably a survival of Saracen 

 days in Sicily. They are a 

 clear-eyed, clean-skinned people, honest 

 and courteous in their dealings, and un- 

 spoiled by tourists or contact with the 

 world beyond. Scarcely among such can 

 one find the criminals and depraved that 

 he has heard of as springing from Sicily. 



On my first afternoon in Castrogio- 

 vanni, while strolling down the main 

 street I was accosted in good English by 



IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE 



Photo by Arthur H. Warner 

 CASTROGIOVANNI, SICILY 



The hooded cloaks are probably a survival of the Moorish 

 gelab of Saracen days 



a man who recognized my nationality and 

 told me that he had lately come back 

 from America, after working there two 

 years as a barber. His mother's health 

 had gone to pieces and the doctor had 

 advised him to return to Sicily with her, 

 although he was doing well in America 

 financially. 



"Money is money," he said, somewhat 



