The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-17
LIFE IN AN ITALIAN HOME.
Queer Social Customs that Prevail in
the Land of Dante and Petrarch.
A Lack of Fireside Joys and Comforts-Fic-
lions About the Inconsistency Of Women
The Round Of the Day.
Daniel Paul. in San Francisco Chronicle.

Ing Lneir seats at the table the children Ii Write
Of a particular family of father, mother, a
grown-up son employed in the municipal Office.
and two daughters, also grown-up) reverently
kiss the hand of father and mother. But little
is said. and that by the mother, who usually dis
courses upon one of three topics-her bodily all
ments, of which she has an imaginary variety;
her religion, of which she is q scrupulous
devotee, and her uncle. the aristocratic Bishop
of Arezzo, who succumbed ages ago to the great
divorcer-death She used to chatter con-
siderably about her ghostly adviser, until one
day her eldest-born son kicked his reverence
down stairs, and is now living under double tx
communication from home and church. The
soup is disposed of noisily. the young ladies con-
tributing literally to supplying the noise, with
proportionate disenchantment to deponent.
There are two kinds of wine on the table, bap-
tized of water and unbaptized-this for the
children, that for the parents. Towards the
end of the meal the father pushes the unbap-
tized decanter to his son, in Difference to his SUI
periority over the girls. He drinks a 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. NJ.
The old folks retire for a siesta, and the girls
betake themselves each to her own window,
whence they indulge in a half-hours ocular fir
tation with some young blood. who happens to
be at a neighboring window, or whose business
makes it necessary for him to pass and repass in
the street below, until an admonitory cough
from behind apprises them that the old nurse
and ~chaperon has dined, and that times up"
Let me remark, parenthetically, that were a
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 arrested, either as a crank or
dangerous subject. But in Italy, bless you,
the police remain out of sight of such
goings-on, as assiduously as do the "old
folks in America, when "M'riar" has Der best
young man in the front parlor. | have in mind
now a very funny incident which occurred dur
ing my residence in Portugal, and which illus
trates the spirit of unobtrusiveness which actu-
ates the guardian of the public safety in matters
pertaining to the tender passion. One dark
night a guard observed a figure moving stealth
ing him q burglar, he secured a. ladder, and
caught the man by the leg just as he was screw
ing himself into a small dormer window. The
spur on the boot and the red stripe on the trous-
ers revealed an officer of the garrison. What
are you doing heref" asked the policeman. IAN
affair OF the heart" said the officer. ''Oh! / beg
your pardon, and wish you success" said the
amiabie custodian of the law, as 10 bowed him
self towards his ladder.
At 5 p. NJ. our adoiescent statesman energies
from the municipal palace with the conscious
dignity of a man who has labored for his coun-
try and done some business on his own account
the consideration being $40 a month, minus Ii
per cent. income tax. Does he go home to read
good books and ''store his mind with useful
knowledgeg" No, for the good reason that he
has no home. He eats, drinks, sleeps and has
ais washing done in a certain house. of which
his father is the present and he himself the pros
pective owner. But he lives between his office
and his favorite cafe. or wine-house.. He may
not frequent the same cafe as his father. Poll
tics divide men socially in Italy. They are
either Liberals or Clericals. No matter how small
the own or village, there is a cafe and apothe-
cary shop where the Liberals congregate to Cos
sip; a cafe and apothecary shop where
the Clericals meet and discuss the for
lorn hope of the restoration of the
temporal sovereignty of the Pope. To one or
other of these resorts, according to his political
convictions and the secondary demands of his
inner man, the scion of the family of which I
write repairs, where he refreshes himself with a
cup of black coffee, or a stoup Of wine, while
shutting the cards at baccarat or tre-s settle. Ii
it be winter he INDUCES in harmless punch.
But he never drinks TO excess. Indeed, it is
proper to observe that of the many vices to
which the Italian gentleman may be subject,
that of intemperance is not one. Nor Is it often
that you see one of the lower classes intoxicated.
If a man have a sick headache in Italy, he is not
asked by his friends if he drank too much on the
| previous day, but the question is, did he eat too
much. The necessity in America and the Brit
ish isles of temperance societies is a subject of
astonishment and amusement to the Italians,
their usual observation being "Che bestieW
what beasts).
If the weather is fine. and the municipal or
military band be playing III the principal square
of the city or town (every Italian city has band
music in the EVENING" he promenades to and fro
in the Corso. Should he meet his sisters or
other lady acquaintance after shutdown, he may
not salute them. That is against etiquette. /
have asked several well-informed gentlemen the
e ~ IL ~ --..Is
give me none. At the cafe, then, or mayhap at
a club, OF in q theater, our friend passes his
time until towards midnight. His father like
wise. Meanwhile his sisters array themselves
in their best, about an hour before sundown,
and, with the everlasting mother, or chaperon,
go out to take the air, and, if possible, make a
conquest, or establish one already begun. Going
out alone is absolutely against social laws.
Shopping, in the American sense, and the delight
of American ladies, is unknown. The mother,
or chaperon, does the selecting and buying. The
~dress-maker always works at the house of her
customer and it is but recently that milliners
have begun to work in their own shops. Young
women have but one ambition in life, one mis-
sion, and that is to marry and be free. The be-
ing free does not amount to much, beyond the
liberty of going out alone to church, or to do her
own shopping.
had read in books that every married lady
in Italy has her c~avaliere servente knight at
service), or, in one word, a lover, who is in con-
StauL anu duOfluG dLL6HQduc6 uDOu Q6T, eED6-
cially in places of public amusement. Along resi-
dence in the land and experience with the differ
ent classes, both high and low, bear me out in
denying the prevalence of the custom, and in as
serting that the troth of the Italian women is as
steadfast in the main as that of their transalpiDe
sisters, despite the fact that many Of the
marriages-yes, most of them-are made by
parents and relatives, love being a secondary
consideration. Formerly-and / speak of fifteen
years back in the Papal States and of twenty
five years ago in northern and southern Italv-
if a young woman failed to get married before
she was twenty-five years Of age she took her
dover and entered a convent-nolens volens-
and hence there were very few spinisters. The
vents and monasteries from receiving novices.
And. though political and religious liberalism
has introduced into Italy many elements that are
not good, it has brought with it not a few bless