Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-29
Neapolitan's Love for His Sunny
Skies and Moonlit Bay.
A City which Lives on the Streets.
Glimpses OF Life which the Ordin-
AIRY Traveller 0verlooks.
People who are Full of Trickery and Deceit
Yet are Enamored of Poetry and Ro-
nance Different Types.
copyrighted 1890, by the Author. ]

out door life, with utter indifference to pub
Aicity, as in Naples. where the public promeu
| AIDES, streets and lanes literally swarm with
| people from early morning until late at night
| and often from late at night until early in tbs
morning. Especially is this true when the
! weather is fine and ihe moon is shining on th'
| bay, dotted with sails and flags and the tall
masts which repeat themselves in the water
| until they look like city reflected from the
depths of the sea.
Low in the social scale as a Neapolitan may
| be. he has in his nature a strong love for the
| beautiful and picturesque, and would much
| rather spend his nights beneath the soft moon
| light, looking out upon the and listening
to the plaintive songs his fellow watchers some
! times sing, than to spend them in the close,
! dark quarters he calls his home, and which is
| often little better than cave scooped in the
| hillside. In these dens or holes am told that
men, women and children frequently crawl
promiscously with their dogs and donkeys, ii
| they hold such property, just as the wild Arabs
of the Upper Nile crowd into the tombs which
they have plundered and made their habitations.
And from these and similar places they emerge
In the morning, unwashed and unoombed, and it
would seem at times undressed, but quite ready
for the business of the day.
In the Toledo, or Via Roma, which intersects
the city from north and south strange medley
of people is seen, which increases in size and
strangeness as the day goes on, and reaches its
climax near midnight Here. and in the side
streets, peddlers of all kinds found, thrust
ing upon your notice their wares. and asking
get. Coral ornaments of q very inferior quality
bits of lava which Vesuyius never saw; shell
combs, which are not shell at all, and which,
II you are foolish enough to buy them, either
break the first time you use them, or cling to
your hair with a pertinacity OF which shell is
never guilty; fans and baskets for which they
ask five francs and are glad to get one;
horns and canes and photographs, with
every kind of Iruit which grows in that tropical
tattered trousers, their bare feet, and bright,
shrewd faces, which stamp them as experts in
their business. And when the days traffic is
over and darkness has settled in the corners of
the streets, you will see moving here and there
Ike great fire flies the lanterns of the Trovatnri
who are out on their night mission, hunting for
ends of cigars or whatever else may have been
thrown away or dropped accidentally, and with
which, when arranged upon a tray or board they
expect to drive 4 Furnishing trade the following
day, and earn, perhaps, franc, which makes
them for the time persons Of wealth and impor-
lance.
on Mondays and Fridays some of the streets
in the old part OF the town presents most curl
Gus nd animated appearance. A rag fair is in
progress, and after an infinite amount of bag
Cling and gesticulating and frequently quarrel
ling, great quantity of old clothes change
hands, the style and quality OF the garments
VARYING according to the grade OF the first own
ers There. held high at arms length the bet
ter to display its beauties, is, perhaps a faded
pink satin gown which, in the days of its fresh
ness. was trailed across the boards of San Carlo,
but which has fallen so low to be offered for
sale in the street, while side by side with it is a
battered stove pipe hat bearing inside the name
of some american manufacturer; and if you stay
long enough in this vicinity you may recognize
the old bonnet which you gave your chamber
maid few days ago, and which has found its
way to this market for goods.
Foil owing the broad quay of the Strada Nuo-
va, with its plats of grass and iowe-s, you come
to pretty garden near the Sea, where there is
quite as animated q scene as that presented at
the Rag Fair, although entirely different. Here
in the afternoon public readers may be found
reciting and expounding passages from Tasso
and Dante and Virgil and other poets to a mixed
class of people, who listen with as much interest
as if they had never gathered cigar in the
streets by night or sold gowns and bonnets BY
tans, full Of trickery and deceit, and full, too
OF enthusiasm and love of poetry and romance.
and from the scanty profits of the morning they
gladly pay in the evening few centessmi for
the privilege of listening to extracts from the
poets dead long ago, 'but of whom they are very
proud.
Wherever there is crowd the quack doctor
appears, proclaiming the virtues of his nos
trums. which he generally manages to SELL and |
If he chances to be extractor of teeth free of
charge and without pain, his customers are le-
gion, and each customer buys a bottle of some /
kind of drug, for which he pays more than a |
regular dentist would have charged to extract |
the aching tooth.
But it is, after all, on the broad quay of st. |
Lucia and in the narrow streets diverging from !
lection. Here the petty tradesmen bring ont |
and festoon the sides of their dingy little shops
with heterogeneous mass of dry goods and |
other commodities-boot jacks and masks and /
spoons, table spreads, aprons and curtains un- |
I'll the street reminds you of 6 bazaar in AIexan-
iria, which, it is said; must be seen to be be-
ieved in, and cannot always be believed in
when seen. Near the open door-the only
means of admitting light to the shop-sits the
,hopkeeper; frequently woman. with a seal
UMBRELLA over her head il it is summer And
lot far from her another woman has brought her
gashtub to the front and is doing the months
Fashing, which will soon be hang to dry ON
ines fastened from window to window above the
'urtains and aprons and table spreads, on which
~ Inf ta cts 1r,E Ifrkw,
ON duclve to the good looks of the articles
ripped upon.
Further on third old woman has set up her
tove preparatory to bake or broil, and the |,
unes OF fish and meat and maccaroni soon fIls9l
he air and drive you on to where other women.k4
alter risers than the cooks and the laundrfss
nd shopkeeper, are making their own and c{5l-
ren's toliettes, with an utter getfulnes sSor
disregard of the eyes which may be watc1Ag
hem. One curious thing you will notieeA
his toilette making is the absence of soap af3aax
later, of whose use this class know SO little ~
ne comb, however. is absolutely necessary, if
hey would keep their heads from running
way, and You turn with disgust from this eroun
D the clean-looking, pleasant-faced old woman
n the other side OF the quay, nearest the sea-
uts to the ice boy, who. with his two tubs filed
-ith Ice in which to cool the water, treats hor
return TO lemonade, one lemon serving for
everai glasses, for each of which he gets five -
or one cent OF our money -
mllkman next goes by, not with rafting ca}f
nd horse trained to stop in the same placaAt
ne same hour, but with his COW or cows. as3be
ase may be, led by rope. while with his olfber |
and he rings bell to announce his apprdach |
his customers, who come out with tbeirx6iot !
quart cups and wait while the desired an5b1t /
MIXED into them, when the COWS anC ff{eir
Yner move on to the next house where they nfssias
ne. This is novel way OF selling milk bni =
ne In which there can be no cheating or water
e of the fluid.
Approaching in the distance is what locke | .
Ike good sized straw stack, and you wonder to |
% 1t moving with no visible means of locomo- ,
on. until you hear the sharp crv of a bow he
md 1t and see beneath il four little wlsiI<atz
oofs. and know that under the straw stac1Sfs a
'or little donkey not tenth partsas ,.4sfRe az
e burden he carries, and you long foS4 Rergh
you are always longing for him IL Naples
I'd especially when there comes from the |
untry cart iosded with ten or twl We peonie
Id drawn by one small horse win however
OTIS along cheerfully, If content AyIth the ! /
alton of life in which he was born.
1t is strange life the Napoiitars fe5k<9rzaz3tz
~ are never tired of watching it, or them In I
cir faDcitul costumes, their red kerchieFs |
ound their head, their blue bodices and white !
eeves, their gayly-striped skirts and scarlet
ockings, the whole making a picture which
u leave rather unwiilingly for the newer nor !
on of the town. with its hotels and tardens
ID broad promenades and streets and hand
me villas which overlook the sea- Here the ;,
per classes spend their days and sometimes =;
cir nights. On the fiat roofs Of their honses =
Iich are covered with awnings and filled viii,
re SHRUBS and flowers, making a delightful re- a.
II for the family when the sun overhead is hot =
d the breeze comes cool from the bay The =
n mud L. a.