The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-11-07 00:00:00

EMIGRATION from SOUTHERN ITALY

The following letter, on emigration from Italy, is from the
Correspondent of The Times at Naples
The tide of emigration is again setting in, and many
persons are leaving this country for South America.
At the beginning of the month 33 families (upwards Of
50 persons, including men, women, and children) left
Potenza to embark at Genoa for Brazil, and it is satis-
factory to observe that the remonstrances of the Preen
have compelled those who are interested in promoting
the movement to adopt a better system of organization.
An agent accompanied the emigrants to Eboli, from
which the course is clear to Genoa, and a physician is
attnehed to the vessel whmh conveys them Co their
destination. They had little or no money, but, ac-
cording to the contract, their voyage was paid to
BraziL Fa-d was guaranteed for eight months, and a
piece of land and tools were to be given to them on
their arrival, the value of which was to be repaid
during the five years of obligatory residence. Another
agent of the same Emigration Company despatched
in a short interval 200 families to Brazil from Poteuza,
and from 300 to 400 families have been added to the
number from the Abruzzi. The Government, which
has already suffered in a pecuniary point of view
from having to give a free passage back to disap-
pointed emigrants, lass taken some precautions, i
as passports are not given unless the expenses of
return are guaranteed. The Basilicata and the
Abruzzi, then are the provinces in Southern
• Italy which send out the largest number
of emigrants, and it is not difficult to ascertain the
motive for leaving. Love of enterprise it certainly is
not, for no man is more attached to his country than
the Italian, who, whether grinding his organ or sing-
ing 'Santa Lucia" in the streets of London, or
mending kettles on the other side of the Atlantic,
dreams of the homestead, dirty though it be, uhich
he has left behind him, and looks forward to the time
when he can retina) and live on his hard-earned
savings. And hundreds do return every year, many
of them with a sum sufficient to make their latter
lisp comfortable. It is a hard necessity which
r drives the Italian horn his native village. He cannot
live there in the altered condition of the country.
The price of provisions has altered enormously, but '
the price of labour not in the same proportion.
Eighteen sous for a day's work of fifteen hours are
scarcely sufficient to keep body and soul together.
Women are paid five sous a day, with bread and pulse
or vegetables. The results are filth and misery, and
it is no wonder when they see the carefully-stored gold
pieces which the returned emigrant had brought with
him that they should listen to the voice of the charmer
andeush to the Land of Promise. These remarks are •
applicable, as I have already said, more particularly
to the Basilicata and the Abruzzi. From Corati, in ,
Puglia, on the contrary, a correspondent sends me a
very different and much brighter picture. He says :
fisre we have no emigrants and no internationalists.
The labourer is well paid and the landlord is never in want
of hands The day's work is somewhat longer than that at !
which the well-fed And well-paid Englishman grumbles, as it
begins at sunrise and ends at sunset. In the summer months
.4. repose of one holm and a half is allowed. For this the
labourer in Puglia receives, during the vintage, two lire a
day (instead of, as formerly, el centisimi) and the following
rations :—ln the morning a dish of beans, at midday either
cheese or pease with pasta, in the evening beans and good
wise. During the harvest wine and bread are given ad
Mitsui At nye o'clock in the morning Mead mot cheese are
distributed at eight o'clock a dish of beans, at midday bread
and meat, at four o'clock a salad, and at eight o'clock beans
again."
This is tolerably good feeding, and I have generally
found that the master prefers to give plenty of food
to raising the day's wage, as he calculates on getting
more work out of a full stomach. However this may
be, the Puglia labourer is well off, and does not emi-
grate, while he of the Basilcata and the Abruzzi
leaves his native land almost from compulsion.
Capital and machinery are. both wanting in these
Provinces, and these will not be forthcoming till good
roads open up communication with the markets of the
world. The Italian emigrant often returns, I have
said, bringing with him a tolerably well-filled purse,
and it is worthy the observation of the working.classes
of our countries or of another country that this is to be
attributed in a great measure to his temperate habits.
Frugal in his mode of living, and free from the vice
so common in more northern countries, he economizes
and saves every sou, so that he can calculate almost to
a certainty on returning after a certain number of
years to the land of his birth. Drunkenness, in-
deed, which is the ruin of thousands in England, is
scarcely known here, except through the disgraceful
exhibitions of it which are occasionally presented by
ships' crews and others from the North, and the
emigrant from Italy takes his habits with him and
realises the dream of Ids returning. Re may be a
had colonist, but he is true to his native land. and,
•in the majority id cases, thanks to his temperance
and frugality, after wandering for many years in
other lands, spends his last moments near the place of
his birth.