Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-10-03
The Importance of Passport in Italy.

y recent case illustrated in a yerV
forcible way the ill-treatment To which
incautious Englishmen may be sub
jected in Italy. DIR. Giles, the Vice
Rector of the English College in Rome,
got out at a roadside station between
Rome aud Naples in search of new
scenes To draw or paint. He was strong
in the innocence of an artist and
priest, but he was inSufficiently provi-
ded with papers of indentificatiOn. He
slept at village inn, and at midnight
was awakened by a brigadier of car
Diners, who requested To be ut once in
formed who the strange visitor might
be. As it happened, DR.. Giles had
passport, but it bore the date of 1870,
and this would not do for the briga-
dier. DIR. Giles also produced his
priests permission to celebrate mass.
But the brigadier was as illiterate as
4 brigadier could be. He could make
nothing ofthe passport or of the priestly
document, and he got hopelessly con-
fused between the William of the pass
port and the Guglielmo which DIR.
Giles said was his name. and between
the Cardinal who issued the permission
and the priest who produced it. The
Englishman suggested blandly that the
brigadier's superior officer might un-
derstand the documents. but the brig
adler proudly replied that he was the
superior officer: 81 there was no help
in that direction. DIR. Giles was locked
up for the night in the guard-house.
and when morning came and he asked
to be allowed to telegraph TO his friends,
the brigadier SIMPLY pOcketed the tele-
gram. In the afternoon he vas taken
TO SOra, where Sub-prefect resides,
and after a short time of further deten-
tion he was released with a simple
message of regret from the sub-prefect
that a mistake had been made. But
this was not all. After spending a week
at SOra, DIR. Giles made a further tour,
and at another little village was asked
by another brigadier for his papers.
Again the ancient date of the passport
puzzled the official. who told him that
he must stay where he was until the
prefect of the district had examined
his papers. DIR. Giles insisted on going
with his papers and the brigadier to
the town where the prefect lived. The
prefect saw him. and immediately re-
leased him. but said that the brigadier
had only done his duty, and pointed
Dut that it was very imprudent to travel
without proper papers. IL was in vain
that DIR. Giles urged "a AN EngliShman
ne did not need a passport. The project
was insisting on a distinction which
seemed To him so natural and obvious
hat no one could fail To understand il
,r need to have il explained To him. \
passport in the sense of permission TO
riSit the outside of Italian life in the
,eaten track of tourists is not necessary;
put every stranger intruding into the
nner Italian life of country districts
where tourists are unknown must have
his papers of Identification. All the
officials understood the duties of ad-
in this sense. The two
riga diers acted "a in the course o
heir duty. They had no notion that
hey could take any course hut detain Il
tranger who had not his papers in
rider. The sub-prefect and the prefect
hought that it was quite right he
hould have been 50 detained. They
we're heartily sorry that DIR. Giles had
'een subjected 10 Inconvenience, but
hey did not for one moment allow that
nything had been done, So far rs the
injury he had sustained was one of
rovisiOnal detention until his identity
al been tablishvd.-.Sdtltrjdg Reriet7.