Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1880-10-15

MAKE bOOut tWO W SAASC' ANY
. better chance than the men with
stands, as they can follow trade and do
not have to wait for it. One man who
sells popcorn candy at the Battery
sometimes makes eight and ten dollars
per day with his basket. The rag
pickers make still more, taking the
year around, and sometimes they find
very valuable articles. They will pick
up anything on earth, it seems, except
the very cobblestones, and somehow
seem to turn everything into money.
They spend NO money on excursions
nor fine clothes, like the INHABITANTS OF
other countries, and the greatest ex'
travsgance they ever exhibit is in the
little affairs and religious prints that the
poorest of them have. The women and
children are like birds of prey, pounc.
ing on every bit of coal or splinter OF
wood in the streets, or rag or nail. In
fact, everything is fish for their nets.
They do not seem to search work from
outside as do tho Irish and colored
poor, but manage to live and seem to
do nothing beyond going about the
streets searching. West. some OF the
Italians work on farms. and in Califor-
mia, where there are great many, they
do q large business. catching fish,
raising and peddling fruit and vegeta'
bles. They are several grades above
these denizens of tenement holes in
every sense, and some are quite rio b,
and life seems to mean something moro
than squalor and filth.
It is safe to say that there is not one
italian who has been here q year but
has money in some savings bank or
other, and they will actually almost
starve themselves to add to it day by
day. They do not care what they eat,
nor how little, so that they may save
their money. In this country of abun.
dance one would think they would pay
more attention to the demands of appe.
tite, but scrap of bread and little
stale fruit is enough for them. On fete
days they will Indulge in macaroni,
and, by the way that dish is prepared,
you can tell from what part of Italy the
party halls. The Genoese make dry
gravy with much onion or garlic in it,
and the Neapolitsns, instead of that
highly seasoned and greasy dish, pre-
pare theirs SO that it is pleasing to all,
that is il one does not see it cooked.
The macsroni is boiled in beef stock
till tender and then grated cheese is
heaped on it, and this again covered
with tomato sauce, making delicious
and nourishing dish. The Sicilians
prepare it still differently. and so on.
In Italy, that and bresd and cheese and
fruit are the staple articles of food, but
hers they Buy up the leavings OF the
markets and eat almost ANYTHING.
The dirt in these italian dens, for
they are little else, is 80 much beyond
description that it is useless to try to
describe it. The children seem to revel
in it and the women to accept it as o
normal condition, and never try to get
clean. If one had never been in Italy
and seen the better class of italian
women, one might believe that all the
stories ofdark-eyed beauties we're false,
for it is hard to think it possible when
one might look in vain in all the italian
colony for that tabled beauty. Here
and there, though. you will see child's
face like one Of Rsphael's angels; but
the lives of abandon and privation, dirt
and impure air. soon destroy any traces
Of youthful freshness. The rising gen.
Grafton will be . grade in advance of
their parents. and 80 on, until at.last it
is to be hoped they will become use-
full and valuable citizens. There is
much that is good in the italian char.
acter. In their loves, il jealous, they
are ct least sincere, but they are nei.
or domestic nor faithful to domestic
obligations. They are very suspicious,
being forced into that by dealings with
sharpers Of all grades; but once gain
their confidence and you have it with.
out limit. They are sober, and it is
rare to find drunkard; but this comes
more from avarioe than principle.
Love OF Money is the incentive to the
most Of their crimes; jealousy next. Re-
vengs for injuries is strong. love for
children or human consideration for
women is something they seem to have
NO idea Of. Money is their all, and the
little boys who are bookt-blacks or who
work in any way are looked upon only
- means Of gain. The women love
their children devetedly. Very few,
comparatively, Of the women here,
mothers Of families too, are really mar
ried, the lower class Of Italians seeming
very lax about those things. They
have . superstitious reverence for the
priest and bits of the true CROSS" and
attribute almost all the cures in sick
ness 10 their virtue.
The Italians seem to realize that their
nation is in bad odor here, and they
will try to pass themselves off as
French if possible. They are rarely
thieves, however, and very few will
steal. Whenever they do it is to make
Q big haul. They cannot be called
thrifty - colony here, because there
isnone Of that cleanliness thahfqAn &C.
COMPLIMENT Of thrift, but they are at
least independent, or would be if they
did not love lsxiuess so we'll that they
prefer to beg than to work.
In tenement-house life they will live
in more crowded state than will even
the lowest Irish, and are scarcely
eQualled by the Chinese or negroes,
and some of the houses at night have
the floors literally packed with a swell.
tering mass Of humanity. They will get
along with one-tenth the furniture that
would do otner nations, and as to wash.
tubs, etc., they never seem to need