The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-03-10
Country Life in Italy.

A lady living in O country village in
Italy writes, in the CUrnhW Magazine,
OF her neighbors and their habits. She
says
II is amazing how smart the very
poorest lady who has any ~pretentions
to being such will turn out on occa-
sions, however dilspidated her home
attire, Two young ladies belonging to
an old but utterly ruined family, whose
parents were too poor to keep a servant,
would dress themselves for their even
ing walk in the most fashionable hats
and costumes, with their fans, smelling
bottles, lace handkerchiefs and gloves.
all complete. In order to obtain these
dresses the young ladies had to con-
descend 80 far as to work for h peas
ants, who paid them for the
manufacture Of the smart stays
and chemises they YEA on feast
days. The attempts st being high
ly fashionable. combined with an an
tire ignorance OF the ways Of the
fashionable world, produce sometimee
the strangest incongruities. The laos
veil Is now almost confined to the class
called artisti"-that is, s~hopkeepers
and skilled workpeople; but q few OF
the old. fashioned ladies still keep to 1t.
Curious specimens Of decsyed nobility
are to be found in these remote villages
people benring grand m and re-
tanning considerable pride in their an
Client Lineage, whom generations OF idle
ness and unthriftiness have reduced to
extreme poverty. They are not
educated for any profession, and
when starvation stares them 10
the face they have nc resource
but to earn their bread by manual labor.
One noble count Of my acquaintance Is
q carpenter /; another q brlcklayer. I
have seen the grauddaughters Of .
countess working In the fields. With
their fortunes, their manners deteri-
crate, until nothing but a remnant Of
pride remains to distinguish them from
the peasants between whose GLASS and
theirs so great a gulf was nce fixed. I
remember nothing more melancholy
than the s~ssemblsge of these poverty
stricken mobiles I once met at the
house OF the rich man Of o village.
We were ct supper; and " one
ragged and dirty old man after
another came stumbling in, each
in turn was, to my great sur.
prise, introduced as the descendant Of
an ancient and noble family, but fallen
-"caduto"-added my host, with q
gesture of compassion. The old man
would then bow his head In mslan-
choly acquiescence, and casting q rueful
glance at his shabby cloak with the
faded green lining, would stink into q
chair at the far end of the table. One
Of these fallen mobiles, who had taken to
house-painting, we thought 1t only
charitable to employ for the decoration
Of our ceiling. ] was prepared to feel
quite q romantic interest in this I'M.
fortunate nobleman, and to be en-
chanted with his artistic genius; but
he was so uncommonly dirty,
and his manners were 80 little removed
from those OF q peasant, that
my illusions were dispelled at once
Neither did his style Of decoration ex-
aotly come mp to my ideal, although II
was ambitious enough. A basket Of
flowers soon adorned each corner OF oul
ceiling, and in the center, from amid
clouds and wreaths of roses, Q rather
shapeless Cupid began to be delineated.
In the middle Of the work the artist,
whose temper was short and whose
feelings were sensitive, took offense (as
we supposedly at some unintentional
slight on our part. Without the. slight.
est explanation he departed one day,
leaving the Cupid minus n leg and
one arm, and returned no more. Pool
Cupid !