Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-05-04

tenor had to follow. and when the crisis
of the plot was reached, it was
not SO much mental agony as
those legs which nearly drove
him distracted; they carried him here
and there with such fearful energy, with
such long, eonvulsive jerks that we trem-
bled for the safety of his body. The
most awful thing about the affiiction,
however, was that it seemed to be con-
tagious. The father and the white ruffied
man began to be spasmodically jerked
around, and finally the lady of the Came
lias herself was taken so violently that
there is no question but that she died of
it. The blue haze of tobacco smoke
rising from many cigars in the audience
(even the gentlemen smoked who were
with ladies' deepened as the play pro-
crossed, SO that the last act was rather
obscure. The singing throughout was
sweet and true, and thoroughly enjoya-
BILE. These Italians cannot help singing
well.
At Pisa we began to fully realize that
pest of Italian travelling, guides. You
brandish your red Baedeoker III their
faces and shout no; but when you have
fought them off in front, they steal up
behind, they whisper words of informa-
ton, they soliloquize valuable facts IN bad
French to draw your attention. You
rush from them up into the leaning
tower and 10, when you are breathing
your first free breath and enjoying the
view, there is voice,
SMELL OF GARLIC
behind from some poor old wretch who
has concealed himself in the tower and
YOU resign yourself to having things
pointed out. 1t is bad enough to be
obliged to travel with guide book, but
to be trotted around and made to look at
this and that; to yield your free will of
sight, to follow dirty forefinger. This
is to have all the freshness and pleasure
taken out of sightseeing. One wants to
discover, to recognize for oneself, and
moreover, my idea of travelling is not to
collect little bits of specific knowledge
about specific things, or TO be perpetually
taking mental photographs of pic
lures and statues, but rather to
take IN large and general impressions OF
nations and peoples and arts, and it is
this purpose that the guide utterly de-
feats. 1 sympathize with the dyspeptio
Englishman we met the other day who
shifted at Baedecker, swore at guides
and stoutly refused going to see anything
that was a sight. "I've been to Rome
nine times, he declared, ''I've spent
two whole winters there, and I've never
been nthe Appian Way yet and I swear
l never will. -
The eabmen are as officious as the
guides. "Nol mol not we shouted in
chorus to the fellow at Pisa who was pur-
suing US with his horse and carriage.
We went in one building after another
q nd - - en-
waiting for US at the door, and we finally
yielded and got in at the end of an hour.
These eabmen along the Riviera have
a clever little
SCHEME OF INvEIGLNG
YOU into q carriage by charge of
two or three francs an honr; two francs
is the ordinary charge for an hours
drive in France and Italy. The cabman
takes you through very Interesting
streets out to some point of view where
he stops his horse and says: s'Wouldn t
you like that beautiful road you see
there? Finest views on the Riviera. -
Certainly - you say, delighted.
Well, but there's 6 little extra charge
for that road. IN take you back to the
station the same way we came
for two francs, but to go
by that road costs six and he will
flourish in your eyes hugo printed tariff
with all his frauds committed to plain
letters. he thinks he has got you and
Baedecker, too, with that printed sheet.
Though we submitted to it msekly, yet
think it would yield TO bargaining, as
most Italian prices do. You can only go
to the places you don t want to go for
the regular rate per hour; every street
that has any interest ID put up
TO FANCY PRICE.
Pisa is one of the most strongly midi
vidual places we have seen. Il is not
only that weird, leaning clock tower,
nor its marble cathedral. nor any one