The Nevada journal., 1857-04-17
WHOLE NUMBER 361.
Neapontan Sketches No. III.
THE LADIEs OF MAPLE

THE LADIES OF NAPLES.
Italian parents have seldom the am
bition that their daughters should excel
in any art, and it would be considered
disgrace for a lady, under the pressure
of misfortune, to make use of her talents
or knowledge as means of gaining a
Livelihood; the cheap masters of very
inferior class are therefore esteemed as
quite adequate to the task of their in
struction. The most precious years of
female childhood are passed in acquir-
ing smattering of French, in learning
to sing few airs with an Indifferent &C.
compartment on the piano or guitar, and
in embrodering virgins in silk, and 9TH
er articles for the churches. Naturally
imaginative and impassioned, as woman
hood approaches, poetry adds fuel to
the flame, and the sole accomplishment
in which young ladies usually attain to
any real excellence is the recitation of
verses.
"Nor is it only in externals that the
education of females in the higher class
es is deficient. Dress, pleasure and in
trigue are their only objects in life, and
very slight discipline is necessary to
give that relish and charm to the man
ner which are necessary to success in
such pursuits. The formation of the
mind and the strengthening of the moral
feelings by sound principles and early
moral instruction, are totally out of the
question. Their only religion is sa.
perstition that tends to deaden all other
faculties, without encouraging either
sympathy with their fellow-creatures or
requiring virtuous conduct as a proof OF
piety. The most bigoted women are
neither better mothers nor more faithful
wives; they are only the n ost exact
observers of forms, and dew ted slaves
of the priests to the utmc st point of obe--
dience, often thus procuring the indul-
gence they require from their confessor
for their intrigues. ldleness is their
first besetting sin, and extends its bane-
full influence over their whole existence.
The love of pleasure, encouraged by
their instructors for their own purposes.
follows next, till the passions, thus en-
couraged and cherished by luxury, US
urp entire dominion at an early age over
the daughters of the great"
In this miserable state of affairs, the
police authorities constitute the only re-
ally vigorous department of government;
and society is haunted by their spies to
such an extent that it would be the ut
most folly of any man to trust his neigh
Dor, or even his intimate friends:
HThey haunt the theatres, the coffee
houses, and the promenades they insin-
uate themselves, Ia every disguise, into
the houses of rich and poor. The SER
wants who waits at your table, the art
ist who gives your children instructions,
are frequently both spies; spies tempt
youth in its ardor to pour out its indig-
nat feelings, that they may profit by its
punishment; they form infamous in
trigues that they may draw from the lips
of the wife the secrets of the unsuspect-
ing husband; they have tickets free, at
all times, for every place of public a.
musement; and under the title of nobil-
ity, penetrate into reunions the mcst
select"
"The connection of this abominable
class with the police affords its members
I'M munity for numerous crimes, but in
no way are they more dangerous, or less
suspected by strangers, than as masters
of lodging houses, when, with the assis-
tance of their servants, they keep the
closest watch upon their tenants.
1--WE had reason to know that in one
apartment, the landlord of which, styl-
ing himself count, was in the service
of the police, every word uttered by his
lodgers was reported to him by his do
mestic, who, fawning and specious,
might well have been mistaken for one
of the most honest and simple of human
beings.
Books, papers and every object in
the apartment were daily examined du-
ring the absence of its occupants, who
foi and it expedient most carefully to con-
ce al their manuscripts. Even in cases
of most daring robbery, the conductor
of lodging houses, when connected with
the police, are exempt from all punish
ment."
The Central American States