The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-11-03
MARIETTA'S IDEAL.

NxM,AARIETTA POLLI stood at the cor
EINsS ner of one of the side streets of
gsS4S Naples, past which the great post
road IRON Gaeta to Policrasta ran. She had
her small, rough table near by, and she
played her guitar, singing the while to her
accompaniment Her entire property con-
sisted of the already mentioned rough and
rudely painted table, colored saucer that
stood upon it, and in which the passers by
now and then dropped a coin, and her guitar
for by profession she was street singer.
Every morning found Marietta at her
stand. She placed the empty saucer upon
the table, and taking the guitar sang, from
Z until o'clock, sacred songs, from s
until 10 o'clock songs from the beSt-known
operas, then from noon until evening
national love songs During the evening
she sang a miscellaneous collection of char
acter songs. As soon as it grew dark a
small lamp with a red shade was lighted
| and placed upon the table near the saucer.
As the clock struck the hour of II Marietta
blew out her light, drew the strap of her
guitar over her ShOelder, emptled the saucer
| of its contents into her pocket, and hanging
the lamp on a bracket fastened in the wall
above her stand raised the table TO the top
of her head and walked off. Her nights
were spent in the hall of a house which was
regularly closed at II O'Clock. In this hall
| a Shoe-mender kept his working bench, and
it was upon this bench that Marietta made
her bed. Marietta was one OF family.
Her mother made her living by selling
| pocket handkerchiefs, Opera-g lasses, cigars,
spectacles and any other such things which
her lght-fngered boys picked from the
pockets of strangers and residents alike.
Nine. Polli understood the business well,
and knew how to keep the boys at work.
DAVIS trade not good and tnan
they had TO go hungry Once week they
all met at the grand promenade" ground.
Then Marietta gave each boy an orange and
some chestnuts and to the mother some
money. Soon she would leave them and
disappear among the crowd. The boys
passed their nights in boxes, under baskets,
or on tie ships in the harbor. AT noon they
always joined their mother in one of the
"macarnni Kitchens" where they delivered
their wares and fed themselves upon maca-
rOni cooked in oil, stewed apples and fried
fish, all of which they REQUIRED for so CEN
tesimi, and if business had been brisk they
would Spend 60 or 20 centeslmi. l hen they
left, parting each for his place of business.
So lived this family of Polli, whether 1t
was right or wrong, making tne most OF
their talents.
Marietta was the most respectable of them
all, for she dressed well, spent her nights
regularly upon her bench and also earned
quite q sum OF money. Her brothers reck-
oned she must make as much as three llres
day during some parts OF the year. and
they often wondered whether 1t could be
that she carried the money and what be-
came of it, This was question which puz-
zled both mother aud brothers, but only in
times of great needs were calls made upon
Marietta's bounty, and then she gave spar
ingly, but yet enough.
Marietta's beauty was we'll known. From
her father, who by birth was Roman, she
inherited her wonderfully fine figure, her
clear, broad forehead, and her beautiful
eyes. From her Sicilian mother, her hand
some nose, the small, firm mouth and the
wealth Of black curly hair, which blew
about her when she threw back her head In
the act of singing, and the melancholy look
which came into her eyes as she sang, but
which changed into a smile II by chance
some passer-by favored her with bit OF
money.
HWith men in general she had little to say,
yet, rs she passed along IN her singing, her
neighb0r upon the corner (who sat all day
behind basket of dried pumpkin seeds,
across the top of which was arranged
board upon which were displayed the seeds
would stop moment now and then TO talk.
The profession of street singer had even
among her class certain social standing
and she was thought to be good girl and
had the respect Of all, many wealthy
family helping her by gift of clothes. Even
the old principal Dorand,' as he passed
her stand each morning upon his way TO the
PalaZZo used to speak to her and he lett her
at his death ten hundred Tires.
Marietta demanded q grealdeal Of respect,
and strangers who dared to smile upon her
received only cold looks and scornful
frowns. Even the most fattering remarks
| upon her beauty were without avail. A
| sutton from the Hotel de Rome with his
| gold braided coat was dismissed with
| great deal of contempt. This was occasioned
what-by Marietta ideal. Her great wish
| and that which possessed both heart aud mind
of the Neapolitans of her standing, WAS that
| of being a proprietor of one-h0rse coach,
| which can be driven through the entire city
| and which both rich and poor alike might
| use. Marietta not only dreamed of some
| one who might own one, but Sunday after
| moons, when she did not sing, she, dressed
| in her light blue holiday dress, with the pale
| yellow kerchief and red gold hoops in her
| pink, shell-like ears, would pay one lire for
| drive from one end of the city to the other
| and back, being the entire course.
SO great was her happiness in this ride
| that as she rode along she gazed out as proud
as a queen her eyes sparkling, and she us
| joyous as ii it were her very own. Many
| were the young men who were pleased with
| Marietta, and many were the offers which
| she rejected on all sides, for none possessed
| the one thing necessary. Whether all coach
| men came into the world married was a
| question Marietta often asked herself. She
| displayed great deal OF tact with these car
riage-urivers, for no sooner mad she taken
| her seat in the carriage than she ascertained
| whether they were married, and she was in
great desp air in not being able to find one
| unmarried.
! So time passed on, but no driver came in
| Marietta'S way who wanted to make her his
| wife. The much dreaded ive-aud-twenty
years crept nearer. At this age Italian
women begin to lose their beauty, and Mari
eta thought with horror that she could not
| hope - be an exception. She knew that
when another year came she could no long
| er stand at the street corners without being
laughed at. The profession belonged to
youth and beauty alone, and she had no 9TH
er way by which to earn her bread. When
should she do? AT school she had never
been, and she was not rapid enough with
her hands to procure an engagement iu fac
| tory. Then, too, in Naples there are not so
many such places to be had, and what there
were, were filled by undergrad girls To be
! water-carrier was the only thing left, and
yet in every second house could be found
many doing the same thing, and the
| business was almost oyerruu ANYWAY by
boys. To do as her mother did she could
not, for she knew what was right and
| prided herself upon her honesty, There
came an idea to her. From friend who had
travelled she learned that in Switzerland
| there were women doctors and women tele-
graph operators, and the friend, after tell
ing her of several other positions held by
women, ended by saying:
|
| stations"
| Now Marietta thought that if all these
places were filled by women, and as no
coachman came for her. why should not she
offer herself as a coachwoman? 1t would
be a perfectly respectable vocation, and no
one could say her nay. Then, too, one would
have the pleasure of riding all the long day
through, and all the while receive pay for
doing it. Then, as first coachwoman in
Naples. she would be very much more ad-
lrnd hnr n n Gfr tctv
time she could give up and live upon the
interest of the money that she had earned.
This was the conclusion to which Marietta
came, after hours spent in deep and earnest
thought. 1t was not anything strange
to her. street singer; so when she had ar
ranged it clearly in her mind she was very
happy. She took her handbook to the wife
of the shoe-mender to reckon her interest
for her, and she f0und-a fact which Mari
eta well remembered-tha she had $50 Tires
that she had saved from the money gathered
on the street, and which was held in safe
| keeping for her at the National Rank