Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-05-08
ITALIAN HOME LIfA.
Lack of Firesldc Joys and Comforts
Queer Social Customs Fictfons
About the IneOnstancy OF Women
The Round Of the Day-A Family
Gathering.

/ Gathering.
With us of Saxon or Celtic origin
the fireslde is the sanctuary of home.
1t is the embodiment of the sanctity
and love of hume Upon the heart
Ike the tables of the Mosaic law re-
posing in the ark of the covenant
rests the blessed and mellowing as
sociations of home, fast and secure.
Father, mother, brotkers aud sisters
gathered thereabout are the angels
of our tabernacle, while mutual love
and its accessory kindnesses and cour-
tesies are the fire and incense of ob-
| legation to the divinity of the family.
Hence, writes a correspondent to The
| San Francisco Chronicle, We do not
conceive the idea OF family without
the fireside By the freside and heart
stone is not here meant the material
| fireplace, in which the burning los S
crackle merr1ly or the Goals glow red
and warm. The prevalence of the
mlsanthropic register and radiator
precludes the disposition to poetize
about the literal freside. The home
idea is what is here denoted, the dear
est and pleasantest spot upon earth,
the sacred refuge of life," of which
the Italian home is almost the anti
thesis.
A description of one days life in
the family of an italian gentleman
will give the reader an adeq late notion
of Italian home life. Our pleasant
breakfast table and the family gather
ed thereat, presided over by the help
full mother, in her crisp white cap and
elegant wrapper, are unknown in
Italy. A cup of coffee, with a roll, is
the only sustenance partaken of in
the morning, and this is taken in
formally at 10 fixed hour The mother
is not 10 be seen. She is either taking
her coffee in bed or off to an early
mass. Shades of Vesuvius can these
two slatt ernly creatures in deshabiile
and Gathering slippers be the graceful
sylphs admired and raved about on
the promenade of yesterday EVENING"
It is even they, and they will remain
in that same scant and unasthetic
costume until it is time TO bedeck
themselves for the evening passeggiata
on the Corso. Meanwhile they are
not idle. It is considered beneath
them TO do housework, but they ply
the needle assiRuously and knit de-
vot sdly. The traditional profanity
over neglected shirt buttons and
undarned socks has mo raison d'etre in
the land of cerulean skies.
The family met for the first time at
dinner, which takes place at or after
noon. Before taking their seats at
the table, the children G write of a
particular family of father, mother, a
grown-up son, employed in the muni-
cipal office, and two daughters, also
grown up), reverently kissed the hand
OF father and mother, who usually
discourses upon one of three topics
her bodily ailments, of which she is a
scrupulous devotee, and her uncle,
the aristocratic bishop of Arezzo, who
succumbed ages ago to the great di-
vorcer-death. She used to chatter
considerably about her ghostly advis>
er, until one day her eldest>born son
kicked his reverence downstairs, and
is now living under double excom-
munication from home and church.
The soup is disposed of noisily, the
young ladies contributing literally to
the supplying noise, with proportion
ate disenchantment to deponent
There are two kinds of VINE on the
table, baptized of water and unbaptiz-
ed-this for the children, that for the
parents. Toward the end of the meal
the father pushed the unbaptized de-
canter to his son, in difference to his
superiority over the girls. H. drinks
bumper, lights suicidal cigar.
kisses the hand Of each parent, and
departs for his office, where he dis
charges affairs of state-to- wit, the
registering of marriages, births, and
deaths until p. m.
The old folks retire for siesta, and
the girls betake themselves each to
her own window, whesce they indulge
in half~hours ocular Irritation with
some young blood who happens to be
at a neighhoring window, or whose
business makes it necessary for him to
pass and repass IN the street below,
until an admonitory cough from be
hind apprises them that the old nurse
and chaperone has dined, and that
''tims's up" Let me remark, par
enthetically, that were young man
to walk to and fro before given house
in our country, gazing rapturously
the while at certain window, the
probability is that he would be arrest
ed, either as crank or dangerous sub
ject. But in Italy, bless you, the
police remain out of sight of such
goings on. as assiduouslv as do the
''old folks" in America when M'fiar''
has her best young man in the front
| parlor. l have in mind now very
funny incident which occurred during
my residence in Peru.ia, and which
illustrates the spirit of unobtrusive-
ness which actuates the guardian Of
| the public safety in matters pertain
ing to the tender passion. One dark
night guard observed a figure NOV.
ing sIealthily along the back roof of
certain house Thinking him bur
glar, he secured ladder. and caught
the man by the leg just as he was
screwing himself into small dormer
window. The spur on the boot and
the red stripe on tke trousers revealed
an officer of the garrison. "What are
you doing herea' asked the policeman.
An affair of the heart said the off
Ger. "OhlI beg your pardon, and
wish you success" said the amiabie
custodian of the law, as he bowed
himself toward his ladder.
| At5p. m. our adolescent statesman
emerges from the municipal palace
with the conscious dignity of man
who has laoored for his country and
done some business on bis own ac-
count-tne consideration being $50 a
month. minus Is per cent. income
tax. Does he go home to read good
books and '.store his mind with useful
knowledge7" No, for the good rea-
son that he has no home He eats,
drinks, sleeps, and has his washing
done in a certain house, of which his
father is the present and he himself
the prospective owner. But he lives
between his and his favorite cafe, o,
wine house. He may not frequent the
same cafe as his father. Politics
divide men socially in Italy. They
are either liberals or clericats. Ne
matter how small the town or village,
there is a cafe and apothecary shop
where the liberals congregate to gos-
sip; a cafe and anotkecary shop where
the clericals meet and discass the for
lorn hope OF the restoration OF the
temporal sovereignty. of the pope. To
one or other OF these resorts, accord