The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1891-03-13
FAIRFIELD.
SUNDAY WITH THE ITALIANS

To those who have read of the Italian
and his life in sunny Italy, with its high
ly colored picturesqueness and the beau
ty of its men and women, I would sug-
gest that they spend few hours at the
Fairfield quarry, where, if they find that
the Fairfield Italian does not come up to
their former view, he will at least inter
est them for brief space. There are
generally about $50 men at the quarry
all of whom are virtually under the rule
of one man, Leonardo Shinto. The rail
road, Mr. Shinto, or both, it would be a
difficult matter to tell which, owns the
two long buildings or shanties, as they
are called, for which the Italian laborel
pays 81 per month to sleep in. Their
groceries they are also compelled to buy
of Mr. Shinto. This fact, with the i'm
proper heating of their sleeping room
has caused a great deal of dissatisfaction
during the past Winter and has led tC
numerous law suits, in all of which the
point to be gained was to make MI
Shinto step down and out. In this, they
have made complete failure and King
Leonardo still sits on the throne with all
the golden harvest to be reaped from
such a position as his. Yet it is not a
very enviable one, for he is alone and Ii
able at any time, when trouble arises, to
be stabbed or shot by one of these re-
the grocery store, Mr. Shinto also runs a
saloon and, as he does not care to get our
energetic prosecuting attorney after him,
he has informed all the men that, under
no circumstances, will he sell anything
on Sunday. Saturday night, the men
form clubs of four or five and buy a case
of beer. On this case, Mr. Shinto places
tag with the name of the buyer and,
very conspicuously, the date of purchase,
thus complying with the law and still
furnishing the men with their Sunday
beverage. In the building where the
men sleep and cook their food, the hunks
are arranged as on board ship, one above
the other, on both sides of the building
There is an almost total absence of bed
ding in their hunks aud, with the excep-
ton of a blanket here and there, most OF
the men use their clothing to sleep on
At a stove in the center of the shanty
from which was issuing dense smoke
the chef was preparing the dinner which
consisted of maccaroni and Italian cheese
boiled together. This cheese, which is
made from goats milk, is probably the
most expensive article of food the Ital.
ian INDUCES in it costs 34c per pound
| cannot imagine what prevents disease
among these people, who are as filthy il
their living as the Indian, unless it be
the smoke they constantly live in. AnC
although they come from Il warmer eli
mate, l have never seen an overcoat OF
an Italian laborer and rarely do the WON
en- wear a covering for the head. There
is only one woman in this colony anC
that is Leonardo Shinto's wife.-TT.
Mrs III. |. Flint is again out with a flint
horse bought from the stable of Willard
Raymond, Bridgeport. The horse Mrs
Flint formerly drove became unmanage
=
horsewoman, Mr. Flint considered hin
unsafe. The horse is now handled by
Mr. Raymond.
Though E. w. 5. Pickett is not very
talkative in regard to his future, prefer
ring to carefully study any enlargement
of his business before giving publicity tt
it, yet he admitted in conversation, som'
days ago, that his business for the pas
year had been so much greater than h'
expected that he would be obliged tt
build an addition in order to accommo
date his increasing patronage and also tt
make room for a number of differen
compelled him to leave out of the alread,
large assortment on hand. Mr. Picket
had when he started out for himself ant
still retains the good wishes of all VIII
knew him and, for young man, has
widespread reputation for business in
tegrity.-[T 7.
Mr. Hutchins, pupil at Prof Brewer
academy, has brought from Maine al
arithmetical problem which puzzles tn
wisest. In Maine is an irregularly shap
ed piece of land. whose two longest side
are parallel and whose Dimensions are a
follows; Length of longer side, 100 feet
length of shorter side, 100 feet; lengtl
of shorter end-line (Which forms an acut
angle at its juncture with the shorte
side-line and an oblique angle at it's junct
ure with the longer side line) 80 feet
length of the opposite end-line (whos
oblique and acute angle are DIAGONAL
opposite those on the other end) of 5
feet. The only method, of course, is b
triangulation, but it will be seen that
is not easy to triangle such crank
piece of land as this. Several schoo
masters have worked at this Git has bee
put on a slate at Betts's store) for hours
and then 60 home with the remark tina
they really couldn't spend time to wor
it out just then.
The Bridgeport Morning News report
the sudden death of Charles Thorpe
Wednesday evening, of congestion of tn
brain,at about 81 years of age. He wa
Grand Army man and leaves a widoy
and three children.
The stone cutters at French's crossin,
have taken their departure, some of then
leaving unpaid board bills.
STRATFIELD.