The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-11-11
VENICE.
Condition of the People.

Correspondence Of the London DaiLy NelyS.
The INDECENT poor Of this city are very
proud. They are as lazy as Turks, and as
Ignorant as the Tyrolese peasantry. They
like to sit in the sun, or by the brink of the
sea, and dream about the poor devils who
are obliged to work from morning to night.
Their mission is to beg, but they will not
steal unless they can do so with certainty
that their families will not be dishonored.
The great ambition of the low-born Venetian
is to become q lazy man about town, a
policeman, or municipal guard, or should
the worst come to the worst, a sweet
stuff-seller with basket of preserved fruit
under his arm, and the cry of Caramel.
Fine caramel" on his lips. His wife, if she
has lame or siclily children, takes to begging
and his grown-up daughter, if she is ambitious
and intelligent, becomes a flower girl. If
very pretty she may make q considerable for
tune by giving away flowers (for she never
asks for payment), but beauty is an essential
item of her stock in trade. The other girls
turn singers, beggars, household drudges mot
servants), and the hangers-on and drones of
society-a burden to themselves and to their
friends, and sometimes fall as low as pretty
girls, and even children, of fourteen and fif-
teen years of age, may fall in any Italian city
with homes, OF, more properly speaking
''harems, ready to receive them-not sup
pressed, but licensed by the Government. by
virtue, or rather by vice, of woman
tax. Hardly a single domestic SER
want Of Venetian origin is to be
found in Venice. They all come from Friuli,
Trieste, Treviso, and other parts of Italy and
Austria. Even the water -carriers-young
women dressed like the peasants of the Bas
Valle-come from the country. A Venetian
girl, however poor, would consider herself
dishonored if she had to carry water in the
streets. But she will beg indirectly be
burden to her poor struggling parents; she
will dress like lady or even vie with ladies'
maids in her apparel on Sunday and fete days,
and dance and sing in carnival, and idle away
her time, and do far worse than that sooner
than become a domestic servant. MANY
honest and industrious needle women and
shop girls are exceptions to this rule, but the
rule remains the same. ''Why should we
wOrk?' say the people. "We are Venetians!
We are the salt of the earth.'
If we turn from the lower to the upper and
middle classes of society, we find almost as
much Incidence, with more show of it; we
find noblemen with historical names making
themselves the pillars of the cafe and young
men, who ought to be at work, lounging in
the plaza from morning to night Who does
the work of these drones, these would-be
dandies, most of whom are poor? Somebody
works, L suppose. Exactly. Somebody
works. But somebody is a very lazy fellow,
and very cunning fellow, and won't work
moment longer than he can help. He won't
play either if the game requires much bodily
exertion. Who ever heard of an Italian gem
tieman playing at cricket? He has been told
that Italy is the Garden of Europe, and he
thinks it is the Garden of Eden. 1t is land
OF lotus-eaters, and coffee-houses, and
picture galleries. land where all things
always seem the same, and where every
person you meet is a Rip Van Winile
or an Alascar, who fell asleep
at the breaking up of the Roman Empire and
has been dreaming about Rome ever since.