Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-05-02

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and pearl-peddlers are nearly as plen
tiful, and equally as importunate, al
the coral-dealers. Then come the
fruit-peddlers, offering you FIVE large
sweet oranges for cent apiece, anc
a fig thrown into the bargain if yoU
hesitate. Oranges are brought into
Naples all winter, as plentifully a,
peaches and apples into Chicago in
the fall, or more so.
The street-tratfic is carried on il
three modes: First by the primitive
method of
CARRYING BURDENS ON THE HEAD.
Nearly everything weighing less
than $50 pounds is thus conveyed by
men and women-especially women.
In making excavations for buildings,
the earth is carried out in baskets on
the heads of men and wOmen-the
latter working for less than a frame a
day, and the former for a frame and
half-3O cents. Brick, stone and
mortar, for building houses, are also
carried in baskets, bags, or boxes, on
the head, up ladders, five, six or sew
en- stories high. On the head is
placed a fat piece of mating, which
eases the hard pressure on the skull,
and widens the point on which the
load rests. 1t was strange sight to
see scores of women climbing up lad
ders with heavy burdens of building
materials on their heads, and toiling
thus for few pence day.
The next mode of street convey
ance is
THE DONKEY AND THE MULE,
which step along under pack-saddle
and an enormous load, generally
with its owner on top of it. The bur
dens seem out of all proportion to
the size of those diminutive brutes.
How little donkey, scarcely larger
than a sheep, can carry load that
would seem oppressive for a horse,
and astride of the mighty burden, a
swarthy Italian, who is larger than
the donkey, is a mystery which ''no
fellow can find out. :" Nothing can
be seen of the infniteSimal beast as
it thus hobbies along, save its ears,
which are only less conspicuous than
its voice. 1t is very pleasant to hear
a few hundred donkeys conversing
with each oth,r, on the streets, in
their peculiarly dulcet tones, which
can be heard for a mile or two. The
donkey is employed to pack every
kind of commodity and thing. The
market gardeners bring in their vege-
tables OH them for ten miles around.
In the nalrowest streets, where carts
cannot pass each other, or hardly
get through single file, the donkeys
are exclusively used to pack fuel,
food, and all the commerce of the
streets, and to bear away the ashes,
street-sweepingS, night-soil and every
other refuse, out into the fields and
gardens.
THE VEHICLES FOR TRAFFIC
consist of combination of the cart
and dray-the body of the latter
mounted on the wheels of the for
mer; but the wheels are one or two
feet higher than the American cart,
and the shafts are held or fastened
to the back-saddle by peculiar ar
rangement on a level with the back
of the horse, and often higher than
the animal. l do not think there is
a wagon in Naples-perhaps not in
Italy; l have never seen any. Ev-
erything not carried on women's
heads or donkey's backs, is mounted
on the universal cart-dray. Three
horses, or combination of horse, OK,
COW, mule and donkey, are hitched
abreast to a cart, if the load is heavy.
In Rome, the custom is to hitch the
animals tandem. | have seen coming
in from the country a cart with a
couple of tons of old grapevine brush
wood, or poplar-clippings, or other
fuel, drawn by big, white, long
haired OK in the shafts, aided by
small mule on one side and its little
donkey daddy on the other. Some
times the cart may be seen rolling
along, dragged by a horse in the
shafts and a heifer for a helper ON
one side, and an ass on the other.
Very frequently it is mule and a
donkey, or COW and donkey; and
three oxen abreast furnish
the motive power. Many of the
carts are drawn by one little donkey
and an old woman, who helps it to,
pull up hill, but rides ON the load on
the down grade, AT first these sights
attract the attention of the traveller
as something curious or comical, but
in time they almost escape his atten-
ton, and scarcely cause thought or
is the leveling power of
habit. One conforms to strange
customs more readily than might be
Naples and all other Italian cit
les are amply supplied with
ONE HORSE HACKS,
or cabs, with falling top, which can
be raised if it rains or is too warm.
The usual charge is a franc for the
''course, ,"-that is, from any point in
a city to any other. Thus in Naples,
one can be conveyed , or 3 miles for
n Franc Tho natives however.
only pay II cents for the ''course;"
but a stranger never thinks of offer
ing less than a franc. or 20 cents,
which includes "pour-boire," or
drink money, as it is called in France;
but, in Italy, all gratuities go by the
name of ''maccaroni-money."
THE HORSES
of Naples and Southern Italy are
very inferior in size and appearance.
1t is true they are tough, and can en-
dure much hardship, and they are
put to the test. As
rule, they are ill-fed and badly abus-
ed creatures; and as compared with
the horses in Chicago, they are
sorry looking lot of brutes. The
cart and cab drivers of all the Ital-
ian cities which have visited shame
fully mal-treat their horses. The
English in Italy, have established
societies in the chief cities, including
Rome, Naples, Florence, Milan' anu
A y. f nt