The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-17


science in the hands of the local priest
Soul money, or q tax on dead people, is
levied, and paid with cheerfulness. Taxes
are raised on sin, indulgences (or permission
to SIM are bought and sold in secret, and
people taught that the wages of sin is not
death, as stated in the Scriptures, but abso-
luton and eternal life. The fact is the italian
peassntry are the great bulwark of the Church
of Rome. When these fall off the Pope may
begin to despair; but SO long as these remain
fsithful--that is to say, as long as they remain
ignorant and superstitious-th will be no
prospect of q change of tactics on the part
of the priesthood, either as regards
soul-money for the dead, or sin-money for
the living, or the worship Of
craven images throughout the length and
breadth of the land.
Among the most horrible of the supersti-
tions of the peasantry, is the belief in the
advocacy of little children-babies, wko die
as soon as they are baptized, or as soon after
baptism as is consistent with belief in their
entire innocence and purity. Children who
die young are called advocates, or avvocati,
because they are said to go to heaven without
passing into purgatory, and plead for their
parents and relations at the right hand of
God. Many old women Chiefly grand
mothers), and not few fathers and mothers,
have been convicted of comprising the
deaths of children, not wickedly or
maliciously, but in pious, God
fearing sort of way, in order to have
friends III heaven when their time
comes. Do not suppose that they murder
the children. Nothing of the sort. They
simply let them alone and keep the doctor
at distance If they are ill they say the
hand of God is upon them. If friends in
terpose, and insist on something being done,
they mutter Latin prayer, and resign them
colv 70 Tvhat thoy Y,iaaoaH 70 coll ba
wishes of the Almighty" 1 have known
cases where mothers have prayed that their
innocent little children might die during
illness, and cried bitterly when the coffin
was being carried out of doors. But such
cases are not frequent.
The peasantry of Lombardy and Venetia
are more prosperous than those of Central
Italy. At any rate, they eat and drink more
copiously, and are able to afford themselves
greater luxuries. They earn more, and they
spend more than their southern bro
theirs, and their food is not always
coarse and unpalatable. Thus, in the
central districts, among the hills of
Tuscany, Lucca, and Modena, the contadini
eat nothing but necce andspolenta, which are
the italian names for chestnut bread and
chestnut porridge. A little salt, good deal
of water, and q few handfuls of chesnut -four
thrown into a large cauldron suspended
lTOm lD0 lIblU0 Ol Out CulLuutJ DY a Cuhlu
with hook to it), form the ingredients of
their morning meal. The same mixture,
cooked in a different way-baked between
two bricks, or rolled up (and boiled) in a
towel, like a plum-p m-pudding-serves for
dinner, and provides Gin the shape of leav-
ings) for supper later in the day. The
peasantry of the Tuscan Alps rarely, if ever,
eat eat .hn meat, ,,a.n except on aha Sundays sunday
Eggs and milk are luxuries because the
poor like to sell them to the rich, and a loaf
is considered quite treat by the children of
the pessantry; nay, it is one about which
many hard-working people know nothing at
a / except by hearsay. This state of things
would be simply intolerable to the peasautry
of the north of Italy. The northern con-
tadino is accustomed to q butchers meat on
six days in the week. On Friday, as in
duty bound, he fasts; that is to say, he
eats fish, and as much miscellaneous food
as he likes, taking Fridays allowance of
meat on Sundays between mass and ves-
pers. The breakfast of the Lombard pea
Rantry consists of porridge made of Indian
corn, bakers bread, with cheese or butter,
and other simple viands, which, in some
cases, are accompanied by wine (home
made, or bought from some neighboring
FARM, to enable them to endure the fatigues
of the field. The air is keener than in the
South, and the men and women of Lom-
hardy and Venetia, being harder and more
industrious than the Italians of O softer
cline, require more food to keep them
alive.
In certain parts of Italy, principally in the
midland provinces, the young men of the
peasant classes 'emigrate for O few weeks
or months in the beginning of winter, and
repair to Corsica and Sardinia, and certain
marsh lands on the Italian coast of the
Mediterranean called Maremme, where there
is work to be done in the shape of draining
fields, cutting down trees, making and trans
porting charcoal in the forest lands, and may
hap building bridges and roads. These ''emi-
grants"-if they can be called by such name
generally take their departure in the month
of November, after the gathering of the chest
nuts The women and old men, and the we'll
to-do young men of the peasant classes, stay
at home to superintend the smoking of the
autumn fruit-the ehesnuts being placed in
a kind of loft, with holes in the floor, above
the metato, or kitchen fire, which has no
chimney or outlet of any kind except the win
dow and door-and kind of lull takes place
in the active life of the peasants. The old
women take to their distaffs the younger
women sew and knit, or resume their studies
in embroidery and straw plating; while the
Young men aforesaid make @ pretence of
looking after the fields and forests, where a
stray nymph or two is generally to be met
with drying clothes, or picking
up sticks for the kitchen fire.
Winter is season OF comparative
security for these young women, who in
summer rarely, if ever, venture out alone
not even a stones throw from their fathers
house. The ''roughs" are all away; the bois.
terous young men are hard at work in the
marshes A little friendly intercourse anG
homely affection is thus allowed to spring uE