The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-09-20
IN THE APENNINEs.
An IndianapOlitan in the Mountains-Recall-
ing Old Scenes and Faces.

PENTA, Province of Salerno, Italy, Aug. 3D.
Here l am, in a little village on the western slope
of the Apennines, as these mountains rise to the
eastward of Mount Vesuvius. We reached here
in a roundabout way from Naples, by railroad
forty miles, and by horsepower, over a fine
macadam, two miles more. I can't ommend
the horsepower. In the country parts of Italy
the gentlemen keep their own carriages, which,
with the horses, are of a good kind. But when
'poah white folks like ourselves, want to
breathe mountain air away from the railroads
and the stage-coach they still have them routes,
we must put up with the ramshackle concerns
which the peasants buy at Naples and Salerno
after the Neapolitan and Salernitan drivers have
driven all the strength, screws and springs out of
the vehicles. Nevertheless Q were glad, when we
arrived at medieval San Severino, to get into
such a rickety carriage, behind a horse equiva-
lent to some of the colored brothers Rosinantes
that draw the vehicular concerns which collect
Stops, garbage, etc, in Indianapolis. But once
here at Penta we forget any disagreeable getting
here, for the delicious fresh air, the panorama of
mountain, rising range on range, the lovely
green valleys, the hundreds of picturesque Ital-
ian towns, villages aud hamlets cleaning
on the mountain-sides or nesting in
the dales, the fine roads or the winding,
shady paths, the vineyards, the fields
of wheat, Indian corn, and other grains we wot
not Of in America; the groves of evergreen oaks,
the orchards of fruits peculiar to Italy, the
cultivated chestnut trees, the long stretches of
walnut trees, laden with their rich nuts, which
we call English walnuts;" the population
entirely rural-all these and many more things
that might mention, not forgetting the cheap
ness of living-more than repay one for coming
hither, even on a hot day.
Here 1 cannot forget indianapolis. 1 brought
hither the Herald. and, among other good
things, | read that very interesting article,
quoted from the Indianapolis Journal, on Alaska.
l was glad to see that article for two things:
first, because it was well written by some one
who knows what he is about, and conveyed in a
single column more about Alaska than / ever
got before from volumes on the subject; second,
it showed that the editor of the Herald had
good feeling toward his daily contemporary, and
manifested the proper courtesy in giving full
credit for the article to the Journal. Such
courtesy is not always kept up nowadays. But
if I had Indiana before me by the presence of
this newspaper, l only had to lift my eyes, look
out Of my window and see another scene entirely
different from anything in my native State.
From a half dozen villages / could see, peering
above the tops of the trees, the towers of old
churches and converts. From those said towers
/ could hear the musical bells peal forth the
quarters of an hour, followed every time by a
repetition of the previous hour. But these con-
vents have no longer their monkish and nunnish
jewellers. Italy wants no more the great bur-
den Of dead capital in big buildings and wide
lands owned by religious corporations of really
ignorant men and women, which are worse
than dead capital. Hence United Italy said to
all the young monks and nuns, ''Go We forth
into the world and earn your living by industry;
as to the old and inirm of your brotherhoods
and sisterhoods, they are the result of a bad,
idle system of retiring from the world instead
of being active in it; the government will give
syou a pension as long as you live, but no more
young people must enter monastical life with
the expectation that the government will
support them And so the converts and their
lands have been seeularized-that is, have with
exceptions of the large buildings) been sold, and
the money has been appropriated to the pur-
poses of education, save that portion which is
applied to the pensions of the old and decrepit
monks and nuns. The large conventional build
ingsin the cities, towns and villages, have very
appropriately been turned into colleges, high
schools, common schools, libraries, and. some
times, have become municipal buildings. Italy,
though a Roman Catholic country, in this re-
spect has followed the example of Spain, Por-
tugal, France and Belgium italy, before her
full unity was attained, by Rome becoming the
ooo;&ol ~ 1914 mo fba Ya,oeA iono "a 80 oo,Ja4ur
n Europe, except Spain and Portugal. On the
morning of Jan. !, 1872, there were found (by
the first census of United Italy, that finished the
night before) no less than 70 per cent of litter
ate people in her population, the greater portion
of whom were in the States of the Pope. the old
sKingdom of the Two Sicilies, I and in the island
of Sardinia. But there has been a small i'm
p%rovement in ten years, for, on Jan. !, 1882,
the census showed the total population Of Italy
to be %. 459, 0O0. and the illiteracy had been re-
duced by six per cent; in other words, there
were 81 per cent. who could neither read nor
write. However, even if you count out babes in
arms and children up to four years of age, and
all the weak minded and insane, this ignorance
is appalling. Just think of it-19, 149, 600 of
people out of %. 459, 900 who cannot read and
write-who have not the rudiments Of an ele-
mensary educationl Within a few years they
have passed a law rendering common school ed
ucation obligatory, and they do not find that it
works well, for, in the rural districts Of the old
States of the Pope. and of the old Kingdom of
the Two Sicilies, !" which form nearly one-half the
kingdom, the poor peasant depends very much
upon the labor of his children, even the little ones
not more than five or six years Of age,
who can tend the goats, lead a
pig to eat the acorns of the cork tree and other
evergreen oaks, or scare away the birds from
the grain 6elds-all are called to help support
the family. The fact is, in this large part of
Italy much Of the land is held by something very
Ike the old feudal tenure, and one solution of