Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-01-23
special corrtsp ondence of the Evening
MALL
Victor Emanuel and his gghirsss.

Fire seems to be the scourgc of Am
erica. but water is the element that the
Italians fear. What a pity that they
cannot make an interchange. If either
nation has the right to consider itself as
the peculiar object of Divine wrath, ii
must he the Italian, since fire comes
more naturally from Satanic headquar-
tiers, while the rain descends from heav-
en-. Of a truth, Italy has had a terrible
visitation this autumn, although most of
the crops were saved. The King has
visited many of the devastated districts
and sent suCCOr everywhere. Last week
he went in person to the houses surrOun-
ded by water near the POute NOmentanO.
He drove in a light victoria, and on
reaching the spot made the driver 90 to
the very doors, although the horses were
up to their bodies in water. The inhabi-
tants had previously escaped, so the King
gave orders to relieve their wants and re-
turned 20 the Quirinaf The bottom of
the carriage was covered with mud and
the horses looked as though CurrycOmb
and brushes were articles of foreign
manufacture, and too expensive even for
royalty. In fact, the King returned
with a dark brown carriage and horses
IIldb were DidCh wien Ilt NCuJ OUT.
This and similar acts are highly char
acterstic of the kind-hearted, generous,
blunt, and unconventional King of Italy.
He is utterly without those elegant for
malities and fastidiOus caprices so COM
mon to royalty. lie is very fussy, how
ever, about his carriage, and rides al
Mo- inyariably in a victoria, which he
mas mace TO order exactly to fit his back,
Tor which purpose Carfiare maker req
ularly takes his measure. [ was JOla ti9o
other day by an officer of his household
that he sent back new carriage because
it did not fit his back He had tried it
twice.
He always dimes in the middle of the
day and is very fond of the plainest food,
having a particularly strong liking for
onions, beets and cabbage. He never
eats at any grand dinner given in his
own palace, but of course common pol
iteness would not allow him to follow
the same rule elsewhere.
AS an example of his informally we
may recall the time when we last saw
him at grand court ball standing for
two hours in corner of the room with
both hands in his pockets. His passion
for hunting is well known, and his pri-
vate expenses in the practical worship
of Diana are perhaps larger than those
of any other sovereign. The wild boar
is his fayorite game, and his high-spirited
fearlessness has often led him in such
hot pursuit that he has come near being
gored to death.
Notwithstanding all this he finds time
every day to read a number of petitions
Some of them find their way to him
through the regular channel-that is, by
secretaries and ministers, while Others
are sent to him by private hand or
thrown into his carriage. He never
frowns on these petitioners, but hears
them all and, in answer to the deserv-
ing ones, distributes on an average from
five to six hundred francs daily.
There seems to be no hope vet of q
reconciliation between the King and the
Pope, although there has been a photo
graph made from drawing which rem
resents them standing arm in arm and
smiling graciously. Let US hope that
the artists pencil may be prophetic. I |
can only add that, to my mind, a good
New England snow storm would be in
finitely preferable to the muggy. damn.
depressing gloomy weather that we have |
had here for four weeks; during which |
time Nature has been excused for such /
unseemly conduct, because it is the