The New York herald., 1868-10-31
ITALY AT WORK.

NJ"
IFS Pcruiauon, Resources, Manufactures, Iu-
dustry, Products, Educational Statistics,
Railroads and TeleEraphs, Provincial and
nIunicipnl Regulations.
writer In the Revue des Deur Monies, who has
recently made tpur OF Italy and who has had ac-
cess TO the latest and best OF Information.
supplies to that Periodical very interesting review
or the resources, population Industrial pursuits and
state OF education OF the people OF the Italian penin
suia. In many respects he gives much more
favorable accoun! OF the people and OF their indus
trial character than has been generally credited to
them. We win summarize hs statement. r
The last census pf the kingdom Of Italy. taken on
the slst OF December 1891, and OF veneta, taken in
1857, showed population OF from 4O00,00O TO
25,oOO.0oo divided up among sixtv-eight provinces
and s,5o2 commlnes. The increase Of population
from 1858 to the beginning Of 1862 was
considerable In all the large cities, Naples
alone having m that time gained nearly 10000.
The statistics Of 1865 make Italy the most
nuptial country Of Europe. Its natural rate OF
increase would alow IL 10 double its population
In eighty years, while France, to perform the sam
feat would require 1sS years. and Austria would re-
quire 2l7 years. In spite OF all its sufern2s from
bad governments, plaques, fanines, foreign wars,
civil wars. emigrations and prescriptions, Italy is
to-day more populated than 1t was, even under
the Romans. And Its people are all Italians. The
number OF resident foreigners much smaller than is
generally supposed, the showing 1t to be only
some ss,0O0 But even foreigners become after lit
tie while Italians That is, they adopt the language
and manners OF the country, eat pies, drink sui
phurated water enjoy the slesta, trinkets love
music and hate walking Though Italy has been
often conquered and occupied by the conquerors
these. whether Gaul5 Germans or Spaniards, have
taken footing there. They have merely noated
along the surface OF society, leaving no more
trace behind them than the ship which floats ON the
trackess ocean. Milan and Venice remained Italian
under the Austrians, and Rome renamed Roman
unaer the French. Making allowance for some tri-
hing variations of dialect and which are disappear
lug since the formation OF kingdom, the Italian
people have but one language; and making like
allowance for some 10, 600 Jews, mostly IN Tuscany
and Tor 81, 600 Protestants, including the Wal
denses, they have but one religion.
One third OF the population OF Italy (m0re than
eight miions) is attached to agriculture The peas
ants maintain good health by their active and frugal
liIe have large families and attain good old age.
But few OF them, however, are owners OF the soil.
The cultivation Of rice s one OF the richest resources
OF Lombardy and Piedmont where, In certain places,
particularly In the valley OF the PO, the traveller
Central Italy they adopt the system which Is there
called the qnezzeY'5d-in France the fnetdydge-that
is the proprietor furnishes the land and buildings
and the farmer furnishes the labor and care tho pro-
duct being equally divided. The cotton raised at the
foot OF Mount vesuvius called the Castellamare cot
ton, from the name OF the shipping port Is only
surpassed by the island cotton OF South Carolina
The cultivation Of cotton is carried on extensively in
the plains OF Salernia in Calabra and In the low val
leys Of Sardinia and OF Sicily so that during our late
war the product reached $12,00o, 900 year.
All the industries appertaining to agriculture are
their hops into the French market across Mount
Gents. and the sausage meats OF Bologna, Prsto,
Florence Verona, Ferrara and Modena md an In
creasng market everywhere The pies OF Naples
and Genoa are more and more exported; the oils OF
the Pouiles are preferred to the best French oils
bardy with tho milk Of 30 coo Swiss cows, brings In
on an average from $4,000, 900 to $s0oo,0 900 year.
Adding to all this the products Of the rice fields OF
the cotton plantations, OF the mulberry trees OF ax
and hemp and OF the Vineyards 1t s evident that the
development OF the agricultural interest VIII make
As to manufactures on grand scale Italy need not
aspire to that Among other elements OF success IN
self does not adapted for the work OF machines
Dry and nervous, very sober, Impatient active and
e has o te srs ~ the ode
who, we'll nOurished great eater and imperturable
In his way, can go on all his life performing the
Nevertheless, the Italian works and more than he
generally gets credit for. The term "do nothing
employed in the sulphur mines where the ore Is car
ried out on the backs Of men. The Neapolitan pro-
CONVEX convent furnished r in 1851 $4,000 artisans three
nfths Of the whole number which all Italy counted.
the o l make Spse se aae strings
shell, lava and coral that are justly celebrated In
the farm houses OF Lombardy there are some
llnen and thereby earning about three cents day.
They like the work because they can attend to 1t In
the intervals OF their housekeeping business.
In Tuscany agriculture and manufacture 60 hand
and hand. Before harvest time the women collect
the long green stalks OF oats and barley expose them
to the to be whitened and subject them to vari
Gus processes until they finally become those hand
some Tuscan straw hats which are worn by the
fashionable since women have taken to the
queer style OF exhibiting on their own heads
NJ ho Nnae nf IN mt =
"a $3.50. Twelve thousand workers, principally
women and children, still employed in this bust
made Of willow bark, which are known in the market
az rice straw hats.
Nevertheless In TUSCANY as in the rest Of Italy,
connected with art Florence proves this by her
mosaics, no less than ten manufactures being In
that city engaged In that business, for which they
use silicsous paste, by which greater variety OF
c0ors Is obtained than could be by the use OF tho
cacareous stones formerly employed for that pur.
bird stung aud ornaments in plaster are the sort OF
works In which the Italians excel. Genoa and Turn
frames. The furniture made In Milan In OF rare ele
gance. and even the humble chairs OF Chiayart are
Maddsena (so called from street in Genosl, in the
shape OF handsome little boxes and other
small objects oa the Vanished q, shed W. wood OF
The artisans OF Sorrento are famous for their de-
cate chiselling OF the woods OF the olive and ctron
trees IN which they eet small mosaics representing
laZzaruni, fishermen DC. But Sienna still carries on
the palm for carvings II did three and four centu
ries ago. Tpen come the manufactures OF chinawsre
and the other productions OF the ceramic art, which
prosper in Florence and all over the peninsula and
which give employment 10 more than 1000 per-
sons. Naples floors the chambers or her houses In
painted and vanished bricks and supplies the for
egn market with superb Etruscan vases. The
Scilian artists mould In clay figures representing
national types and costumes, while the moulders OF
Lucca cast cheap statuettes.
The Italian excels In everything relating to art.
lie caryes lava and coral He Is q born jeweler and
goldsmith. Every one knows the hligree work Of
gold and silver supplied by the workshops OF Genoa
and Turin, the gtwork OF Sauces and Of Asti-larpe
golden pearls strung into necklaces for peasant
girls, the pretty little chains OF gold plated at
Venice and bearing the name OF Manln, and the
enormous Jewels which to-day, as I'm the time 6f
Juyenai lengthen the Of the Neapolitan women.
Venice for the last two centuries and more, has
supplied silk Isces for the robes OF the clergy masks
for all places where the carnival exists, and gold
and silver brocades for the East. Its manufactures
OF mirrors and glassware were for a long time It's
wealth and is PRIDE The old government of the
republic called that industry the apple OF its eve,