Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1860-07-20
Visit to Gariba1di.

The Palermo correspondent ofthe BCst0n
Courier thus describes an interview with Ga
ribaldi.s M bs
"Garibaldi had apparently just finishes his
dinner, and was sitting at a corner window
talking with four or five visitors, gentlemen
and ladies of Palermo. He rose as we came
in, and came forward shaking hands with
each of the party as we were introduced
He had plain red shirt on, precisely like
a fireman, and no mark of authority. His
manner is, as you know of course, very kind
and off,hand, without being vulgar or dema-
gogic. He talked with each of US, and talk
ed perfectly naturally; no stump oratory and
no sham. just as an instance Of his manner,
there was one little action Of his that struck
me. saw seated next to him, and as the
head Of our party remarked that had come
all the way from Naples in order to see him,
he turned round and took my hand, thanking
me as if | had done him favor. This is the
way he draws people. He talked mostly in
French, for his English is not very good
As for what he said, is Of no particular inter-
est to anyone, at least as far as it was said
to me. The others can report the converse
ton if they think it worth while to report
what was not meant to be reported.
"But this was only half the scene At a
round table in the middle Of the room, a party
Of six or eight men were taking dinner. These
were real heroes of romance. Two or three
had the red shirts on; others were in civil
costume one had dirty, faded, huzzar-iac
ct on; one was priest in his black robes
They were eating and drinking without re-
gard to us, and as if they were hungry. Es-
pecially the priest was Furnishing his dinner.
He is a fine fellow, this priest, a slave to Ga
ribaldi, and glorious specimen of the church
militant. have met him several times, rush
ing about the streets with a great black cross
in his hands, He has strange, restless face,
all passion and impulse. The others were
Garibaldi's famous captains-a fine set of
heads, full of energy and action.
tHere | was at last, then, face to face with
one of the great events of our day. 1t was
all perfect: there was Palermo, the insurgent
Sician city, with its barricades, and its ruin
ed streets, with all the marks of war. There
was that armed and bowling mob in the
square below and the music of the national
hymn and the five revolutionary cannon
There were the guerrilla captains who had
risked their lives and fortunes for something
that the worst envy could not selfish. And
there was the great, Dictator, who when your
and my little hopes and ambitions shall have
lain in our graves a few centuries with us,
will be honored as hero, and perhaps half
worshipped-who knows for a God.
And yet Heaven knows why he, of all
men, has been selected for immortality. /,
for one, think that Cavour is much the great
er man of the two but practically the future
Italy will probably adore Garibaldis memory,
and only respect Cavour's.
6 As he sat there, laughing, and chatter
ing, and wagging his red-gray beard, and
putting away at his cigar, it seems to me that
one might feel for him all the respect and
admiration that his best friends ask and yet,
at the same time, enter protest against fate.
As we came away, he shook hands with
us again, and took leave of us with the great
est kindness. As we made our way through
the crowd across the square, we stopped a
minute to take last look at him. He was
leaning on the railing of the balcony before
his window, quietly smoking his cigar and
watching the restless, yelling crowd below.
He seemed hardly to be conscious of the noise
and confusion, and looked in his red shirt
like the very essence and genius Of revolu-
ton, as he is"