The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-09-25

seem mere shabby boys in cbmparit on
with these men. The "Dago" Who
emigrates to America is avery poor
representative of his race.
~
have spoken with number ofmen
whom 1 thought might give an in
telligent opinion in regard to the New
Orleans affair and italian sentiment
on the subject. They agree in saying
that there was a very bitter feeling
among all the people, and one or two
suggested that the great distance was
the only thing that saved the United
States from terrible licking. They
thought it was pretty tough that men
who had been tried and acquitted
should afterwards be shot to death.
The fee':ng has all died away now,
however, and one never hears the sub
ject mentioned unless he calls It w.
himself.
~
Taxes are frightfully high, as might
be expected. could not get what 1
considered reliable figures anywhere
but in Rome. There the income tax
is 1925 per cent, and the property tax
Is per cent, making the total nearly
80 per cent. l presume the rates are
approximately the same all over the
kingdom. Wages are as low as taxes
are high. Ordinary laborers on the
street get $500 a month and "find"
themselves. Bricklayers and carpen-
tiers get from 60 cents to a dollar
day. The girls who work in the lace
factories at Venice-a trade which re-
quires much natural skill and long APP
prenticeship-get IA cents day.
Glass workers-the most skillful in
the world-and wood carvers, get
from 60 to so cents day. The cost of
living, with the exception of rents
which are very low, is about the same
as during the summer months i'm Kan
sas.
-
1t was an Englishman who was not
accustomed to seeing clear sky more
than once or twice a month, who gave
the "blue Italian sky" its reputation.
1t is blue and clear,-but Kansas
man would never notice it until his
attention was called to it. The eli
mate of Italy must be very delightful,
however. This is the very height of
the warm season, and yet as far south
as Naples am sure it is no warmer
than in Kansas, while frost in winter
is almost unknown there. In Venice
which if I remember my geography
Alright lies about as far north as Port
land, Mel found a blanket very
comfortable at night, while the resi-
dents say that there are only few
winter mornings when one needs O
light overcoat.
~
There is no architectural variety
whatever in italian houses. They are
all built after the same dreary fashion,
of rough stone plastered over inside
and out and rooted with tiles, with no
attempt anywhere at lightness or Or
namentation. have not seen frame
house in Italy and doubt If there is
one. There are occasional little iron
or stone balconies extending out from
one or two windows in some of the
more modern houses. But there is
not sign of porch or a bay window.
The walls are all straight, white in
the new houses and yellow in the old.
1t is strange indeed that a country
which has produced and still produces
some of the finest artists in the world,
and which has so general and dis
eliminating an appreciation of the
beautiful, should not have developed
a more pleasing style of house archi-
lecture. But it has not. The houses
now building are the same in material
and design as the houses that were
built two thousand years ago,-and
they are the ugliest in the world and
the most inconveniently arranged.
~
On the whole 1 think more of Italy |
and the Italians than 1 did before 1
came. The cities are not pretty to
American eyes, because the architec-
ture is so monotouous and the streets
are so marrow and crooked. But they
seem without exception to be increas-
ing in population and business rather
than diminishing, and they are as
clean as it is possible for cities built
as they are to be kept. The country
south of Rome seems poor and worn
out, but nearly all the northern por-
ton is still fertile and is well farmed.
And there is no sign of physical or
mental degeneration in the people
they will bear watching, as
has been indicated. But they are af-
fable and courteous, they work hard,
and they are in the main intelligent,
fine looking and serious people.
When the day comes-as come itmust
in which school teachers shall be as
thick as priests are now and school
houses as numerous as churches are
now. Italy will be found climbing
close to her old rank among the ma