Muscatine weekly journal. [volume] (Muscatine, Iowa) 185?-1890, 1859-07-29

The PLAINS OF LoMBARDY-.4 Bat
tie Field for Centuries.-The plains
Of Lombardy, whereon the battle of
the Elnperors is now being waged, have
been tho theatre Of fierce ravages and
bloody wars long before Marengo, Lo-
di, Arcola, or Montebello had added to
the glories of the First Napoleon
these fertile plains attracted tho atten-
ton. of the savage Teutons. From the
time that Alboin descended from the
Alps with the entire nation of the LON
bards, five centuries after the Christian
era, to the present, when they tremble
beneath the tramp of contending bat
tallions, and are canopied with the dun
smoke of battle, they have been the
arena of the most savage and bloody
conflicts. Nearly eight hundred years
ago, Frederic Barbarossai descended
upon them from the Alps, at the request
of the prosecuted citizens of Lodi, and
opened with great ceremony, IN the
neighborhood of Piacenza, on the plains
of Koneaglia, near the river Pc, the
Feudal Assembly Of the Lombard
States, to hear their grievances. Hav-
ing heard them he dissolved their Diet,
and swept with fire and sword the sur
rounding country, laid siege to Milan,
and having taken it, RACED it to its
foundations, so that scarcely one stone
vas left upon another, then made his
triumphal entry into Pavia, and there
received the crown of Lombardy. Then
came the domestic strifes Of the Middle
Ages, when every house was a fortress
and every village fortified town, the
wars Of the League, the wars of Bona
parte, bloody and severe, and then the
struggle of 1848, between Austria and
Sardinia. And now again the red flag
of slaughter is waving, and the famil-
lar names of Como, Pavia, Vercilli,
Novara, and Milan. are in mems
mouths as the actual or expected scenes
of fearfully bloody struggles. Who
can say, but what, like another Barba-
rosa, but without his cruelty and in
justice, the Emperor Napoleon may yet
assemble on the plains of Roncaglia,
the Lombard towns, to hear their
grievances and redress their wrol gs :?
ITALIAN .GIRLs.-The idea of a girl
in Italy is indissolubly connected with a
being devoid CT all moral sense, infal-
libby preferring wrong to right, and
who can only be kept from harm and
evil by the most incessant watchful-
ness. A mothers whole paternal du-
ty toward her daughte. seems consider
ed in Italy to be comprehended in the
one act Of vigilance: "My daughter
has never been, since she was nine
years old, for more than twenty min
utes at time out Of my sight," said
an Italian Countess, boastfully and by
this declaration she appeared to think
that she merited to take rank in the
worlds esteem, with the mother Of the
Gracchi. A girl belonging to the up
per ranks in life in Italy, is practically
q prisoner until she marries. Into So
ciety she must not enter-neither in
the morning fste, nor in the evening
dance, is she permitted to display her
charms and graces. An occasional
walk with her father, or brother, or
mother is permitted but she must not
60 outside the house, unless accompa-
MED by her nearest kindred. To be
seen alone, even but few yards from
her fathers door, would entail upon
her the deepest disgrace and heaviest
censure. Kept under perpetual sur
veillance, every line she writes, and
every line she receives, are subjected to
rigid scrutiny.-Life IN Tuscany.
DEFINITIoNs.--Zouaves-The latest
edition Of Webster's quarto dictionary
gives it the following definition: "The
name Of an active and hardy body of
soldiers in the French service, origin
ally Arabs, but now Frenchmen who
wear the Arab dress. 1t is derived
from the Arabic word Zouaous,
confederacy of the Arabic tribes who
lived on the mountains back of the
Algiers."
Magyar-Is the name of people
who in the ninth century invaded and
overrun Hungary, previously settled by
the Huns. The Magyars are still the
dominant race in Hungary.
Coolses, or Cooyl, or KuN-Is
Hindostan word, and means day labor
er. The Europeans in China have
adopted it to designate Chinese day.
laborers. The term is, therefore, ap-
nlied to the day-lahorers both in India