The Arizona champion., 1891-02-14
SUNNY ITALY,
CraWford's Notes of a Trip
 Through Italy.
4 MISTAKEN IDEA ABOUT THE CLIMATE.
Snow and Cold Instead of Balmy Sun.
 shine.

sunny Italy. l have now been away from London a week and have found no place where the climate was as mild and even as in the city of London itself. The further south have gone the more snow and cold have found. When 1 reached the border of sunny Italy, where my i'm agination had pictured an atmosphere of tropical warmth, was confronted with a tremendous snow storm, which blocked the trains, made me miss my connections, and lost twenty-four hours en route.
 The trains from Paris south are run with great rapidity. The Paris-Lyons and Mediterranean express really merits the name of being rapid train. It makes no stops for eating, and on the line of the route taken by me, via Modane, there was nothing offered during this long journey at any of the stations by any hawkers, in spite of the fact that the train was crowded from end to end with people nearly as famished as wolves, who would have been ready to pay almost any price for something to eat. The hideous dis comfort of night travel on the Conti- mental trains is something beyond descrip- tion. It needs to be actually experienced in order to be fully realized. If had not been warned by friend of some of the possibilities in taking trip south at this time of year, should undoubtedly have suffered much more than did. But fol lowing his instructions had made nearly the same preparations that would If I had been going to join an Arctic eXpedi- tion. had a thick woolen rug, cardi- gan jacket over my waistcoat, and over all a heavy English box coat, much tIoy I hoy fOun1 sary to wear in any climate in the United States With all of this bundling up have just managed te keep warm in my visit to sunny Italy up to the present time, when the weather has shown some sign of moderating.
 It was not until the Alpine country was reached that I really saw snow. Every thing before that was a mere play in com parison. In the neighborhood of the Mont Cenis tunnel the snow fell in great white feathery masses, piling up in the most fantastic way. In some places the snow was at least thirty or forty feet deep on the heights. The trees were shrouded as if in blankets. The mountain chalets were covered with enough weight to almost break in the roofs. Yet it was considerably warmer in the mountains in the midst of this tremendous pile of snow than in Paris, as the air was much dryer. The track had been cleared that morning, but the train proceeded very slowly through the mountains, although it ran with great rapidity through the famous Mont Cenis tunnel. 1 have heard this tunnel designated as one of perfect horror, so far as the discomforts of passing through it are concerned. Imaginative travellers have described it as a place where passengers run almost the risk of suffocation. The train passed through this tunnel in thirty-fve minutes. At no time was there the slightest discomfort in breathing. The air was much better than on the underground railroad in the city in London. The only disagreeable feature connected with the passage was the in tense cold, which came into the loosely built cars, giving one the sensation for the time of being confined in an ice chest The little foot warmers filled with hot water which were put into the carriage from time to time made but little impression in contending with the cold, which constantly sifted in through the loose Joints of the cars.
 The Italian government controls the railroads of this country. Slower and more maddening trains it would be hard to find in any country in the world. l took local train from Turin to Milan in order to make a connection for Venice, and I was over five hours going a dis tance of sixty miles. The train always started out with great reluctance and began stopping as soon as the station was remotely visible, slowing down so grad ually in order not to jar the nerves of this never hurrying people that you could hardly tell when the train came to a stop. The most irritating part of the travel was the long wait at each station. The guards would visit with the officials at the va rious stations and walk up and down and gossip until they felt inclined to start the train once more on its headlong career to- ward another station about half a mile away,
 The starting of train in Italy is very l interesting sight to @ stranger. The ! guards wear military uniforms. Their caps are round with @ low visor. Red ! bands encircle these caps. Their great 1 coats are black, with cowl like capes ! hanging down their backs. These coats are ornamented with brass buttons. ! When the train stops the guards rush up and down calling out in the most sonor- ous and musical of voices the name of the stazione. This sounds exactly as if they were chanting. When the train stops the facchinos or porters, in blue blouses, come running up to assist passengers to alight and to carry their baggage for them. No matter how small your pack age you are not permitted >o carry 1t. You must employ facchino or fight I'm posing looking gendarmes, with the same cooked hats worn by similar French officials and muffled up in a long black cloaks, stand about exactly as upon stage scene in an opera. No one ever saw them | do anything except pose.
 Men in gray cloaks and huge fur collars stalk about talking, chattering, smoking. News vendors, with the Italian papers, run LID and down outside of the train call ing their wares under the windows. Many of these news vendors are women. They carry books, novels and newspapers in a tray in front of them, and in little leather
 satchels upon their hips, for the private
 reading of travellers, lively little books
 which MT. Comstock would not permit to
 be sold in New York. Finally, after an
 endless amount of singsong chanting, up,
 roar and moving to and fro, a solemn
 looking official comes out from the station
 and blows penny fish horn, such as we
 hear in the United States on Christmas
 day from the small boy in the streets
 This is the signal for the train to depart
 but you are not to be suddenly moved
 There is a further wait of five minutes tC
 prepare you for the shock of departure
 and then the engine gives a responsive
 screech, the doors of the coaches art
 banged, and at last you are off for fiji
 teen or twenty minutes crawl to anothe
 station.-T. c. Crawford in New Yorl World.