New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-02-12
ITALIAN TOPICS.
r,,rrR FROM T. ADOLPHUs TRoLLOpE.

AND STATE CONFLlCI-lHE fOfE
,rRos THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF The TRIBUNE
Rour. Ian. l9-The season has been very bad
ons at Rome. 1t is indeed not yet half over but 1t
Ia already too late to hope for much amendment III
the matter A good season at Rome, it must be I'M
derstood, means q season when there are many
Americans and English there, and bad season is
caused by the absence of them. Russians "eip ~ ~
make good season. But their numbers are so small
that as an element of general prosperity 'loS "'1
unimpor,ant. OF Germans we have always eoou
many and if vonr maths lie among the learned socie
.;s Won will become aware of their presence, anu
o archives of these societies sufficiently show tha'
,ho;r rrasence has left its mark III Rome Dut To-
word the making of good season they contribute
notbinO. The French count for nothing III ei'hei
tho learned or the social world. A few may DC Iho'
Nth at the table dh6te of the Minerva, where lheS
- hooorse that celebrated and tme-honOred hos
telre is far out of the ordinary beat OF the ho'i
visitors in the regions away beyond the Ooiso n'S
have not come to Rome to see any further IMAM 'eS
ran nosslbly help IL, the crowds OF hereuc hnsio-
gaxons whose presence in the holy city is a sorro"
.nd ON ove-sore 70 them Their business lies IN eX-
,ctly the opposite direction 10 the quarter
~, rho colony of Americans and English-the dlrec-
ton of the Vatican. They are pilgrims ana 'hen
ecclesiastical leaders and though they INA means
70 "boi their peas very comfortably, they cannot
he considered 10 contribute anything toward
"oood season. in the Eternal Clty'
MOI A good season means plenty OF hnghsh
and Americans: and the hotel keepers, the
swners of apartments, the artists the DOCTORS the
bankers and all the crowds who depend on th"se'
will not he comforted because they are not. Ana III
truth the case is serious. There Is the Costanz
Hotel. perhaps the best managed establishment III
Rome. and specially frequented by Americans WIN
I,s accommodation for 100 guests, ana us stan oi
10 servants, with only 100 strangers III 1t. MS
must of course, entail very serious weekly loSS'
And i'm many other cases matters are stlIl worse
Under these circumstances, the MUNICIPALITY ms
lust come to the determination OF rceStapilSlg 'e
celebrated &" Corsa del Barber the race OF rider
Ioss borses-wb,ch was for so many generations one
of the prominent features of the lannon's h"nan Car
nival. This race was unanimously abolished
three or four years ago, on the ground
that it involved cruelty to the horses
and danger to tfe crowd Of spectators. For the
race l. run along the crowded COrso, from tle Porto
del Popolo 10 the Piazza di Nenezia, III the evening
of one of the last days of Carnival, w1en the moi
very wide street in question Is crowded TO the
utmost The people make lane, packing them
selves against the walls Of the houses on either slde
while the scared horses rush past. Ii is an exceed
lngly silly performance, and occasionally broken
bones and perhaps once in a dozen years loss OF lie
resulted from an accident. But do not think any
cruelty to the horses can be considered to have been
inflicted by their scamper for about mile at any
thing but a killing pace Nor do believe thal
either of the aforementioned causes was the real
one hich moved the 5. p. z. H. fathers to abolish
+be race. The true feeling on the subject was that
the general opinion is beginning, or rather has al
ready got on a good way in coming to the conclusion
t1,eso carnival 1oiupS remnants OF the OLD
Papal barharsm; that the Italians having become
men should put away childish things; and that, IL
fact the Carnival and all that inherits is surely,
though slowly, dying. This "Corsa de Barbeu "
was originally established some two centuries ago
an substitution for race run over the same ground
By the unhappy Roman Jews. The times We're then
becoming somewhat too civilized to permit such an
exhibition any longer, and the Jews were permitted
70 furnish horses instead of performing IN their own
persons. Now the present generation u aging Tor
the horses what their forcfathers said for the jews.
But Why then. has the "Cofsa del Barber been
reGstablshedi Why the Iiderleas horses to rush
through tie crowd again on ShrOve Tuesday tins
year,
The rerly 10 this question given by the municipal
authorities as well as by the press speaking on their
behalf il that the unprospeTOus condition of Rome
has driven them to do il. 1t is hoped that THE
Winter of our discomfort will be turned to "gor-
GUS Summer by the wild running OF half a score Of
scared Rosnantes through the crowd on Sif0Ec
Tuesday. ut is all wTetched work. We are tired
of it, and half ashamed of it," say the Romans.
"But why have we such bad season. 1t must be
because the Carnival is not what it was. These
prosperity bringing northern barbarans from be-
yond the Alps used to como 10 see the
Roman Carnival. One might have thought
that they had outgrOwn such tomiooiery, as
We have, but 1t seems they have not
The Carnival has been losing its old gores of late,
and they don't come That must be the reason Of
It, Well, then, here goes. Very tired, half
ashamed. half disguised, we must grid ~
our loins and play our old FRANKS, and
tumble on to the stage more. with
our Here we arc again? The unfayorablc condi-
tons of Rome require itw This is true account OF
the spirit in which the stupld old "Corsa de-
Barberip has been revived. And all the ndlcule
ana the humiliation Of the position has been deeply
felt by the better and more thinking part OF the
Italians :" If this is the only way in which Rome can
become prosperous" said of these the other day
In my hearing " if we can only live by making our
selves the mountebanks of the world, let starye
like men rather than earn our bread as buiioons."
But in truth all this is based a very narrow and
inadequate consideration OF the facts OF the case
Rome will not be made whit more prosperous by the
revival of the "Barberi." And though it Is indubi
table that for many years to come-peIhaps always
Rome must largely depend on the expenditure OF
foreigners attracted thther by its numerous and
mperishable Of attraction for the cultivated
the artistic, tie studous, well as the weakchested
Of all the Northern nations. it is no less true that the
real and durable prosperity Of the city mast, as the
Opnione well pointed out day OF two ag1 be sought
by other by the increase and development Of
native energy and industry.