Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1884-11-01
AWFUL POVERTY IN NAPLES.
The Misery and Distress. to Which the
Horrors Of Epidemic Cholera arc

Cor New York Sun aH
NAPLES, Sept. 20.-The great problem with
the government now is how to disembowel
Naples, or to spread around the shores and the
neighboring hills the surplus population which
overcrowds the Easements of the city. The
basement is dirty Institution of Naples. In
single rooms on the ground floors or in the eel
lars whole families live together with donkeys,
goats, chickens, and pigs. They are so poor
they cannot pay for better quarters. 1t is not
depraved taste which makes them crowd II,
these dark and dirty holes and keep their little
ones in the gutter, it is only need. The Nea-
politans are not brntes. They like music,
bright coors. and light. How can they pay
high rents when the best wages are scarcely
one franc a day? There is no city in Italy
where wages are so low as in Naples. The best
skilled wOrkmen-the tailors, shOemakers, type
settlers, job printers. masOns. and carpenters
even in the busiest seasons scarcely get thirty
cents day, while the second-rate workingmen
must get along with ten cents day or less
1t is therefore impossible for a Neapolitan to
pay more than one dollar month for his rent.
The condition OF the women is simply dread
full. poor mother is obliged to get work out
side OF her home for her bread and for that
of the children. Hat makers, dressmakers,
and flower girls make only So or "a month.
The great majority of the women are obliged
to 90 out to service as domestcs. servant
girl gets ten francs month without any din
ner. Some have two or three houses in which
to do homework for one dollar at each house
every month. They are constantly running
from one house to another. and scolded and
threatened at each place they go. Many Of
these miserable creatures have children to
nurse when they 90 home at night, q baby,
perhaps, that has been left the whole day in
the arms of a little sister. The poor mother
going home without sufficient food and half eX-
hausted has to nurse the little one, and at 80
years of age looks as old as if she had suffered
the wear of sixty winters. How very. very
many OF them have fallen victims OF the cholera!
Children in Naples are considered sort of
buruen or hindrance. When boss takes boy
to work merely to pay him his daily bread, a
mother is happy. and when a little girl makes
five cents week by hard daily work. thu work
of regular servant girl. the mother is equally
delighted. No wonder that the government is
taking up for serious consideration the ques-
ton how to lodge little better this immense
crowd OF human beings, swarming like ants in
the filthy. dark cellars and rooms of the Nea-
politan easements.
No vegetables or fish are allowed to be exported
from the city, and the prohibition stops the
work Of many thousands of persons.
The situation, as regards the cholera has i'm
proved little, yet the figures of deaths reach
greater proportions, in comparison with the
VI tiiitil Ill Glle
OF the epidemic. The generous Israelte, Signor
SchiliZzi. who accompanied the cardinal on one
OF his visits and who has so generously con-
tributed for the cholera fund, has been attacked
by the plague. The sympathy of all Naples is
extended to him. Cardinal San Felice has Wis.,
tied him. The measure adopted by the govern
ment in regard to professions is very unpOp-
ular They have been lately dispersed by force,
and in some instances pitched battles have taken
place between the police and the people. Some
of the stOrekeepers have been ordered to close
their stores, apparently for no other reason
than that they displayed religious pictures. The
people are indignant, and in their Ignorance
actually believe that the authorities want them
to die.
These insinuations find their way among the
customers of the cellars of Piedgrotta Posilipo
and Corso, where, during Sunday, large crowds
resort to drink wine and eat melons. "We are
too many here" say the tipsy Neapolitans,
land they want to get rid of u.s. This terrible
suggestion is caught up as quickly as news by
telegraph, arousing sentiments which can easily
find vent in rebellion Such has been the case
at SpeZia, where people think that their being
isolated contributes to increase the plague and
have fought with the soldiers and the carabi-
niers, leaving some wounded and some dead on
the ground.
A penny subscription has been opened to
offer King Humbert and Amadeo, his brother,
a golden medal concentrating their visit to
Naples In the meantime the bourbon party
has. through the Marquis de Felice, opened
similar subscription for golden medal to Car
dlnal San Felce; archbishop of Naples.