Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1885-05-14
ITALIAN HOME LIFE.

The Round of the Day-A Family
Gathering.
With US of Saxon or Celtic origin
the fireside is the sanctuary of home.
1t is the embodiment of the sanctity
and love of home Upon the heart
like 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, brothers and 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 OBJ
legation to the divinity Of the family.
Hence, writes q 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 logs
crackle merrlly or the Goals glow red
and warm. The prevalence of the
misanthropic register and radiator
precludes the disposition to pOetiZo
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 qaate 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 roll, is
the only sustenance partaken of in
the morning, and this is taken in
formally at no 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 slatternly creatures IN deshabille
and Gathering slippers be the graceful
sylphs I admired and raved about on
the promenade of yesterday evening?
1t is even they, and they will remain
IN that same Scaat and un4Sthetlc
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 assiauously and knit de-
votedly. The traditional profanity
over neglected shirt buttons and
undarne3 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 Ct 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 che meal
the father pushed the unbaptized de-
canter to his son, in deference to his
superiority over the girls. He drinks
bumper, lights a 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 5 p. m.
The old folks retire for a siesta, and
the girls betake themselves each to
her own window, whence they indulge
in half~hour's ocular Irritation with
some young blood who happens to be
at neighboring 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 oldsnurse
and chaperone has dined, and that
''timG'S up." Let me remark, par
enthetically, that were young man
to walk to and fro before a given house
IN our country, gazing rapturOusly
the while at a certain window, the
probability is that he would be arrest
ed, either as a crank or dangerous sub
ject. But in Italy, bless you, the
police remain out of sight OF such
goings on, as assiduousIy as do the
''old folks" ia America when ''M' 'fiar"
has her best young man in the front
parlor. have In mind now very
funny incident which occurred during
my residence in Perugia, 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 figure NOV
ing stealthily along the back roof of
a 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 the trousers revealed