Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-10-16
The Misericordia.

Those who have been in Florence
have often seen, crossing the narrow
streets at night, long funeral process
sion moving slowly toward the Porta
Pinta; and no one can have seen it
without feeling akin to awe. The
flickering torches with their lurid light
are borne by men shrouded in black
from head 10 foot Their faces are
concealed under black masks, and they
carry on their shoulders n coffin, COW
cred with black pail. The idlers in
the street make way respectfully and
m urmur: lit is the Misericordia
That measured tread, those ghastly
masks, those shroud-like dresses, the
strange, uncertain light of the torches,
the fantastic procession-all powerful
ly impress the mind of the passer-by
who sees that solemn show for tine first
time. and. ne involuntarily asks.
what does all this meanp Why are
all those men so closely masked? Why
do the people make way so respectful
lyP"
Sometimes one meets the same pro-
cession in the daytime, but now the
coffin is replaced by litter, the black
cloth of which is lifted up ON one side.
Here again the bearers are the Miseri-
cordia, carrying some invalid from his
home to the hospital.
In deep silence the men carry their
suffering burden with pace so steady
and hand SO firm. that scarce any
motion of the litter is perceptible.
Long practice and careful training
have made them adopts in the art of
nursing; and there are no better Or
ganizers or executants of ambulance
service than they.
After having successfully struggled
against the greatest scourge of human
ity-plague-the Misericordia UNDER
took the treatment of that new foe that
presented itself in the nineteenth GEN.
tury-that was almost as deadly-chol-
era.
When this m alady first appeared in
Florence, it found all the brothers
at their posts ready for the
fearful battle. Other towns of
Italy prove to us that not every one
considered it his duty to lay down his
life for his neighbor. But such are the
force of habit and tradition that, while
our cities lost heart and were distract
ed, the brothers of the Misericordia
calmly went on in the way traced out
for them by those six preceding GEN.
turies of patient and enduring self alb
negation. In the beginning the habit
ual signal-bell was used for assembling
In m hntsc hut of ct11I n Int1
death became daily more frequent, and
as the lugubrious sound contributed to
the general feeling of uneasiness, it
was decided to put an end to it. Un-
happily lack of work was never felt
Sometimes seventy-seven litters were
in use at one time, without speaking of
cases of ordinary illness, which aver
aged seventeen daily. The brothers
were always found to be in sufficient
numbers: four to carry the litter,
while four others followed to relieve
them. Now in rich palaces, but more
often in miserable novels, the brothers
went up three or four stories of dirty
stairs, entered the infectious room of
the dying-dying, not on bed or on a
mattress, but on q foul heap of straw;
with their tender and well-trained
hands, they lifted up the sick man, and
putting him upon their shoulders, in
all his repulsive hideousness, they went
down those often dangerous stairs,
through dark, narrow passages, and
then gently deposited their charge on
the litter that awaited them below.
During the intense heats, when the
thermometer marked ninety degrees in
the shade, and every Florentine shell
tered himself behind the thick walls of
his palace against the scorching rays
of the sun, the charitable procession,
crossing the deserted streets, might he
seen at the hottest hours of the day.
Atla Bakoatnine, IN the Manhattan.