Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-03-17
STREET LIFE IN NAPLES.

No other city is SO emphstically the city
of the populace as Naples no other popu-
lace is at once so degraded and 30 ubiqui.
tous, so low in the social scale, yet so ire
pressible and all pervading in its numbers.
The dividing line between rags and re-
spectability is here non-existent, and the
people are everywhere en- eGidence. sharing
equally with their betters in the smiles of
the universal benefactor, the sun, who
cheers their poverty and giids their tatters.
1t is this continual irruption of the lower
orders, disgorged from their noisome dens
to swarm in the principal thoroughfares,
that gives the streets of Naples their char
acteristic aspect of bizarre animation. A
great European city, overrun by horde of
gypsies or barbarians, might present such
spectacle as these teeming highways in
undated by vast proletariat in whose
overwhelming preponderance the upper
classes are completely swamped. The aris-
tecracy and upper bourgeoise rarely go
about on foot, and if conventional bon
net and fashionable costume are seen
among the white kerchiefs and gay print
skirts of the plebian crowd, they are sure
to belong to some foreign tourist on an ex.
petition to the ilk-mercers of the Guantai
NuoVi, or the lava and coral shops of Santa
Lucia. The horrors of the poorest quar-
tiers of Naples have often been descanted
on by philanthropists, and by none more
eloquentlY than by learned and benevo-
lent Italian professor, who described his
experience in the writer's presence. Amid
the accumulated miseries he witnessed, his
compassion was especially aroused by one
case, that of widow, who with two chill.
dren, boy and girl, slept in dark and
noisome cellar, so infested by rats that
large stone had to be kept within reach at
night to repel their approaches. The prin.
cipal sustenanoe OF the family consisted of
water in which ohesnuts had been boiled,
with some miscellaneous scraps; their
clothing matched their food and lodging.
From this wretchedness they were res
cued by the Professor, by whose exertions,
after having been washed aud decently
clad, they were placed in school, where
the children were taught, and the mother
employed as charwoman. At the end Of
two months she threw up her situation to
go back, with her children, to the old den.
They were irreclaimable, and could not
bear the restraints of civilization. But in
mitigation of the misery of the Neapolitan
rookeries, it must be said that they are
mere lairs, resorted to for sleep alone,
while the remaining business of life is car
ried on out of doors, in the most equally
benign climate in the world. The back
streets and blind alleys of Naples are the
scene of a perpetual picnic, recalling the
al: fresco housekeeping OF a gypsy camp.
Fire is rarely lit within doors, and culinary
operations are carried on in the streets,
over circular braziers in the shape of a
warming pan, the charcoal in which is
famed to glowing heat with disk of
plated straw. the invariable substitute for
bellows. These movable hearths in win.
ter become centers of attraction to passers.
by, and the groups of loungers gathered
round them form conspicuous feature of
Nespolitsn outdoor life. The street, which
has served as kitchen, is transformed into
8 banquet hall, where. about noon, the in.
habitants may be seen seated In front of
their houses eating boiled chestnuts, or
slabs of yellow meal polenta mscaroni,
since the introduction OF the grist tax, hav-
ing become rather an article of festive lux
ury than of daily diet. In the street, too,
are performed all save the most elementary
operations toilet, and hair. dressing in all
phases invites the attention of the public,
who are gratifed with the sight of long
black tresses in every stage Of dishevel
ment. The lava pavement in front OF the
doors is furnished in the afternoon Sc