Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-11-01
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Celibacy in Italy.

h>S Ia Asf.t.'
For the immense majority of the
wretched placemen and place hunters, the
first of all Injuries TO he renounced is that
of domestic establishment. Nowhere in
the world is celibacy more generally the
order of the day than among the Italian
middle classes. ii is law for the clergy,
a arule Of discipline Tor the land and sea
forces necessity for the mob of minor
public tunctionaries and professional men ;
finally, matter of fashion for the golden
youth to whose natural inclinati0ns poverty
need be no hindrance. 1t would be super
tiuous to dwell on the complication OF social
disorders to which this anomalous condi-
tion of inteISeXual relations must needs
give rise-especially in country where
passions, owing to Il variety of causes, are
allowed to run riot, and domestic affections
have the strongest hold on mems hearts.
An Italian who, owing to his narrow
circumstances, only marries late in life
if he marries at all-and Is seldom
guilty of a love match--is likely enough
to turn out an Indifferent husband.
bat he has been, as rule, dutiful son,
and will probably show himself fond and
even indulgent father. Indeed, the pa
rents tenderness for their offspring is only
too generally carried to the extremes of a
fault, and nowhere are children more
merciIessly and more hopelessly spoiled
than in Italy. And here, also, it is to
poverty that the evil is mainly to be re-
ferred, for that same want of means which
depriyes a middle-class Italian of the bless
ings of happy-wedded home compels him
also to dispense with a nursery-an insti-
tuition which may be looked upon as al
most utterly unknown in that country. In
deed, the social vices by which that other
wise highIy-gifted Italian race may be said
to be tainted have all their source in the
faulty training of the young. The best ol
Italian parents take pride in making them
selves the indiyisible companions of their
progeny. From the moment child is
taken from the breast it is made to keep
the late hours, to share the diet, to join
the talk Of grown up people. From that
moment "Hn'y a Plus Feqyaats" Italian
children grow up pale and puny, but pre-
cociously wise and knowing, the nerves all
developed at the expense Of the muscles
ingeniousness awakened to the detriment
Of iHgenuousness And that same selfish
unreasoning love which deals with child
as with a hothouse plant from the cradle
equally stunts its growth at every stage Of
its rearing. There are hardly any boarding
schools, hardly any collegiate institutions
south of the Alps. An Italian mother
calls in private tutor, mostly 4 priest
for her son, so long as she can afford it
and when too poor, she sends him to th(
tho Iy-coY1,,, .
where she resides, and where the organZa
tion is always on the plan of day school
To combine the advantages of a home
with those Of college and university life
seems TO the Italians the most plausible
arrangement. But the result, to 4 great
extent, is to tie a youth to his mother.
apron-strings, to deprive him of every
chance of learning that good se!f-rclimce
that regard for Others, that give-and-tak,
sense of mutual duties which make a mar
of Il boarding school-boy, inure him to ;
hard but wholesome discipline, cure hin
Of conceit, and prepare him 10 take tn,
place that awaits him i'll the world Al
Italian mother never seems to understand
that
Home me-keeping youth have ever homcly wits >
She is always too sure that there is ;
contamination in all youthful intercourse
Home for her boys and a nunnery for hel
girls are her ideal of a perfect family man
agement, and the consequence is that hen
daughter not unfrequently comes back Il
her from her convent frivolous bigot
and her son goes forth into the world 3
miIksop, "mufl,' and a coxcomb, unfit to
avoid pitfalls and resist temptations, un.
able to fight the battles of life l. Gal
lenga, in the National Review.