The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-10-31
Naples and Her People.

No one who has had any acquaint-
ance with the life of the poorer classes
in Naples can wonder at the ravages
the cholera is making in that city.
Large numbers of families are there
pent up together, in high and narrow
houses, which inclose a filthy court,
with very inadequate ventilation, with
hardly water enough to slake their
thirst, and without any of the ccnve-
niences that decency seems to us to de-
mand. We have high Italian authori-
ties for saying that many parts of the
town are in worse condition than the
lowest London slums; and, from our
own inspection, we are inclined to be-
lieve that life in many of the fondaci
would be simply impossible were it not
for the geniality of the climate, which
permits so much of almost every day to
be spent in the Open air.
The tourist drives quickly through the
Mercato and the Vicaria; he has no wish
to mount the filthy stairs and glance
into the squalid and overcrowded rooms
to which they lead. Indeed, it might be
unsafe for him to do SO unless he were
accompanied by an agent of the police,
who is sure to be regarded with suspi-
cIous and hostile eyes, or by one of the
priests who have succeeded in gaining
the personal confidence of this outcast
part of their flock. 1t is not strange,
therefore, that when an epidemic
casts a fierce and sudden light on
all this misery, those who have hitherto
ignored it should gaze on it aghast. and
forget how much has been done to al
leviate it during the last ten or fifteen
years. The sanitary condition of Ma
pies is still, beyond all question, worse
than that of any English town; but no
English town has made such rapid
progress as Naples has of late done. A
large garden has been laid out on the
shore for the benefit of the poorer part
of the population; broad streets, that
let in the sunshine and the sea-breeze,
have been opened up through the most
crowded districts; and. though the fon-
daci still remains open the grotte have
been closed. The latter were caverns
followed out of the soft rock, in which
from thirty to fifty families would some
times herd together, with no division
between them but rough line drawn
or scratched upon the ground between
the beds. For this damp and dusky
accommodation rent was demanded and
paid, and it was not only the landlords
who complained when the caves were
finally closed.
Some of the modern appliances intro
duced into the town have not been en-
tirely successful. The system of drain
age, for example, has unquestionably
improved the external appearance of
the streets, and given them an air of
cleanliness they did not possess before;
but it is more doubtful whether it has
benefited the health of the city. The
outfall of the sewers is too near
the shore to render their discharge
either imperceptible or harmless in
a sea that may almost be called tideless.
| It is certain that fever has become more
! frequent since they were built, and it is
possible that they may help to carry
the cholera into districts that might
otherwise have been free from danger
To those who know nothing of South
ern Italy except what they have learned
from Liberal pamphleteers and histor-
ians, it may seem strange that the Laz-
zaroni should suspect their fellow citi-
zens of deliberate attempt to reduce
the surplus population by introducing
the disease into parts of the town that
have hitherto escaped, or even by direct
poisoning in the hospitals. Those who
are intimately acquainted with the
people will feel no surprise at such
rumors, strange and unfounded as they
are. The history of Naples for the last
century, at least, has been the history
of war between the middle and the
lower classes, in which the latter gained
many victories, the last of which was
achieved on the barricades of 1848, and
was the death-bloW to the Italian Revo-
luton. Now they are reduced to si-
Ience, but though Garibaldi, the hero
of the middle class, succeeded in firing
the feelings of the whole population for
thirty-six hours, the enthusiasm soon
passed away. and the old feud, the old
animosity, the old suspicion still re-
NAMED. Whether the policy of the
new kingdom of Italy-more especially
the way in which its taxes are levied
and employed-is calculated to allay or
to irritate this feeling is a question into
which foreigners perhaps need not in
quire. SATURDAY ReUiea0.