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

mendican S. Move on as rapidly a
possible, and the interesting GROVE
will clamol and yell at your heels fo
a long distance, angry and importu
nate; for, if you give to any of them
that seems to esl ablish the right o
all the other beggars in the vicinity
to demand aims, which, if refused
brings down curses and imprecation
ON your head. Several other street.
are also infested with this woeful Lu
man vermin, but none so badly. The
reason is, the street is very wide; ii
fronts on the bay; is sheltered from
the south winds from the mountains
aud is always warm in winter as ii
summer. and six days out of seven
the sun shines down upon it; besides
all strangers must pass through ii
and it is, therefore, the favOrite-
iounging-place of the idle, worthless
Ioaferdom of Naples. Travellers who
visited this city centuries ago, de-
scribe this same class of mendicant
wretches, sprawling on this same
street and importuning strangers for
money, ''for the sake of the Virgin
and all the saints" They seem to
constitute separate stratum of Nea-
politan society. They are not merIl
the dregs or residuum of hapless pov
erty and misery, which one finds in
poor-houses in other countries, but
they constitute a distinct and
TRANSMITTED CLASS.
Their fathers and mothers, and
great-grandfathers and great-grand-
mothers, were lazEaroni, and begged
for living, and their children after
them will also be loaferish mendi-
cants, if the Government continues
to permit it. All over Italy this mis-
erable, disagreeable class exists, and
has ever existed since Rome fell, and
the night of ignorance and supersti-
ton spread its dark shroud over the
old Empire. But in Naples it is
found in greatest strength and most
aggravated form. Rome is next
worse, or rather was until three years
ago. Since the Italians established
their National Capital in Rome, a
great change for the better has oc-
CURED. -Four ifths of the mendi-
cant class have disappeared, and the
visitor is no longer seriously annoy
ed, although there is still too much
street-begglng. This improvement
is ascribed to the better police regu-
lations, and the new demand for la
Dor, and opportunities for obtaining
employment; caused by establishing
the Capital in Rome. But in Naples
there has been no such incentive 10
the lazzaroni to take up their rags
and work.
1t is not only the mendicant race
who live out of doors in Naples, but
seemingly the
GREATER PART OF THE POPULATION.
All kinds of trades which can be
carried on out of doors are operated
on the sidewalks. Shoe makers, cob
blers, tailors, basket makers and fifty
other kinds of trades are conducted
along the walks, where the streets
are wide enough. Women may ev-
rywhere be seen spinning flax with
a curious little contrivance, consist
ing of distaff for holding the fax,
which is dextrously whirled round
by the fingers and thumb, and drop
ped in the air, and as it turns it twists
the thread. Thousands of women
are thus employed on the streets,
and other thousands in knitting,
sewing, washing all surrounded by
troops of dirty, ragged children,
creeping or rolling about the doors,
in the sunshine. The old crones are
generally seen employed in searching
for parasites in the heads of these
broods, and nat in vain. Fine-tooth
combs and soap seem to be unknown
among these classes of the people.
There is another form of street.-The
which is almost as annoying as the
beggars, and that is
THE PEDDLERs.
One is beset at every step to buy
something, and if you do it, you
are instantly surrounded by clam
oring troop of other peddlers, all
chattering, gesticulating and vocif-
Grating at once-one-tenth of the
words being in English, another tenth
in French, few in German and the
remainder in a queer Italian patois.
If you walk along the streets with
out a cane in one hand and as many
boquets as you can can carry in the
other, you are followed and surround
ed by fellows with an armful of canes
-clamoring for a bid. "Make me
offer!" "Take it at 1O-5-4-3-2
i franc" ''How much? make me
offer!" They will commence by in
sisting that you shall purchase a
walking-stick ''cut from the tomb of
Virgil" or stfram Pompeii,n or "Ve-
suvius," and after following you for
a long distance, will finally exclaim,
"Well, take it at l franc!" Most of
these Street-nuisances talk broken En-
glish, French and German. If you
are riding in cab, you will be beset
at every step to purchase boquets
by troops of bare-footed
FLOWFR-GTRIS.
They will offer you beautiful rose
bud or other boutonniere, or a nose
gay, for a cent; and press on you
boquet larger than your hat, and
made up artistically of a variety of
beautiful and sweet-smelling flowers,
for a franc-2O cents in deprecated
currency, such boquets cannot be
had in Chicago in winter for $40
apiece. The market-gardeners bring
into the city, every day, hundreds Of
donkey-cart-loads of flowers and
leaves, and sell them to the flower
peddlers, who make them up, with
the assistance of their mothers and
younger brothers and sisters, and
then retail them all about the city.
But the canes and flowers are only
two out of
HUNDRED KINDS OF THINGS
pressed on to the stranger by street.
peddlers. There are photographic
views of Vesuvius in grand eruption;
,,,,,It,4uJoe &c -. . 4 III