River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1882-07-20
GARIBaLDPs IDIOT.
The story of One of the Italian Pa
tri0ts wards.

trt0t W ardS.
Luca Spano was an idiot. One day
Manotti Garibaldi and Achille Fazzari
met with the unhappy youth ut Mad
daleDa-a youth OF Is years, an orphan,
naked, furnished, ugly, and trembling
with cold. They had compassion and
took him to Capera, where the general
fed him, warmed him at a good fire,
and offered him home Luca was
delighted. He remained in the gen.
erals house, washed the plates, and
took care OF the geese and goats. With
the geese he was on capital terms.
They followed him about like dogs,
and pecked his hands in friendly
manner In winter they pressed close
ly round him to keep him warm, and
he and they understood each other SO
we'll that they seemed like animals of
the same species. As said, Luca ar
rived at Caprera almost naked, and
cold was intense. Garibaldi possessed
only one pair of trousers and one pom
cho, and his sons and guests were no
richer than himself. What was to be
done? Garibaldi had preserved his old
uniform in memory of the glorious
campaign of 1859. Having nothing
else, he gaveit to Luca, not because he
despised it, but from pure kindness of
heart, and because he thought that To
clothe the naked was better than to
keep memento of military glory. So
Luca, clad in in generals uniform,
with silver stripes on his trousers, herd
ed the goats and washed the dishes.
Luca was a cretin, net in the scien-
tific senee of the word, but i'll our
sense-that Is, he was obtuse, obstinate,
and idiolic. But still the general was
determined to teach him, and said that
by dint of patience and perseverance
he would make the impossible possible.
So Mt IL o'clock every morning Luca
went to the general and received an
hours lesson. 1t W never missed,
and Luca could not scape it. To him
it was torture, and wnen the hour ar
rived he was always in bad temper,
and kissed and said good.by to his
geese as if ne was on the way to the
guillotine. Then pale, and trembling,
| he went to the general. Garibaldi en-
ployed the first half hour in teaching
Luca to read and write, the other in
arithnseti All went pretty well in the
reading lesson; in eight months Luca
had conquered it. There was also some
| hope to the writing; the progress made
was such that it seemed possible that
| Luca would be able to write decently
after about ten years steady persever-
ance. But the case was desperate with
the arithmetic. 'Never mind" Carl
baldi said to Luca, 81 will still make a
mathematician of you" General"
replied poor Luca, in melancholy
voice, "if you do not actually open my
head and put the book in it, shall
never make anything of these figures"
Then came the war of 1866, and the
general was on the point of leaving the
island in the cutter, when he saw Luca
crying. "Why do you weep Luca?"
Because | want to go, too Well,
come then-but perhaps we go to die"
$50 much the better, general; in para
disc we shall not nj ed to study figures"
The general laughed, and made Luca
come on board. Luca became soldier.
The mountain of Tyrol were terrible.
A battalion with two cannon repulsed
an army in one of the ravines, and
Garibaldi advanced Then came the
day Of Monte Suello. In the evening,
after the bloody battle, the roll was
called and Luca Spano was missing.
The day after, on visiting the field of
battle, Menotti Garibaldi and Archille
Fazzari saw Garabaldan soldier and
a Tyroiese lying dead almost in an en-
brace, for each was pierced through by
the others bayonet. The Garibaldian
was Luca Spano. His dead face wore
the same idiotic smile that was wont to
appear ON the living countenance when
Luca came down from the generals
room, rid Of the burden of the lesson
Just finished. Now Luca was freed
from arithmetic forever. When Men
otti told his father how he bad found
Luca on the field of battle the general
bent his head and remained silent for a
space. When the list of those soldiers
OF the LIST regimentof the Tyrolean army
to whom it was proposed to give medal
was presented for approval to Garibaldi
he silently took his pen and added the
single name -Luca Spano. The medal
was sent to the dead soldiers sister, and
she q servant maid, still preserves it,
and asks whether lit was really her
brother who died fighting with exemp-
plary valor in the ravines of Tyrol.