St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1892-01-30
A PICTURESQUE SOCIETY.
The Origin or the Compagnis Della 1liserl
cordia Of FlOrence.

The Origin Of the Comp.gnis Della Sliseri-
cordia Of Florence.
One of the oldest charitable societies
In Europe is the celebrated ''COmpagnla
della Misericordia," and no one who
has ever visited Florence need be told
that the Misericoriia still exists there,
rs the melancholy looking professions
peculiar to that institution are strik-
ing feature of the city, and impress the
stranger too forcibly ever to be for
gotten.
The circumstances to which this so
ciety is indebted for its foundation are
extremely curious. and singularly IL
Illustrative of the Florentine life Of that
time. As early as the beginning OF the
thirteenth century the citizens of Flor
ence were busily engaged in the
manufacture Of cloths which, by rea-
son of their excellence, soon became
celebrated in every city of Europe.
The demand for these cloths at last be-
came SO great that the Florentines
found it necessary to hold two annual
fairs, one at St. Simon's and one at
Martinmas, which were patrOnized by
all the richest merchants of those
times. The ancient chroniclers tell rs
that at each fair sales were made to the
amount of from fifteen to sixteen mill
lion florins. of course, all this vast
woolen trade made business very live
~ in Florence, and gave employment
to a great number of porters, who all
this time, in the year 1910. were in the
habit of congregating in the prin cipal
square of the city. which at that period
was the one surrounding the old bap-
tistry 1.-THE present Piazza del Duomo)
this being the place assigned to them
by the city.
In this square there was . cellar
which always stood open ON account of
its having been flooded by one of the
inundations of the Arno. so when the
weather was rainy or the searching
winds from the Apennines blew cold
and chill, the porters would resort to
this cellar. taking possession in quite y
matter-of-fact way, building fire and
making themselves generally comforta-
BILE, and in the rare intervals when
work was slack they would amuse
themselves by playing at dice. Upon
such occasions they were very jovial.
and their jests were more forcible than
elegant.
The director of this band was an ell
derly man named Piero di Luca Borsi.
who must have been rather a superior
person for his position. 1t seems that
he was very grievously annoyed by the
bad language and blasphemy that he
frequently heard among the men. 80
determining in some way to put . stop
70 il he persuaded them all to agree
that every man who should Be found
guilty of using any blasphemous ex-
pressions should be required to deposit
. craxia, now equal to two-thirds OF an
English penny, into q box which would
be provided for that purpose. When .
considerable sum had been collected old
Piero proposed that the money be in
vested in providing six litters, one for
each ward of the city, and that twelve
of their number should be appointed
every week, two men to each litter. for
the purpose Of carrying poor sick per
sons to the hospitals. or those who met
with accidents, or were killed in the
etroeta
Those twelve men must have soon
been insufficient for the work required
Of them. but they kept bravely to their
sclf-imposed tasks and in the following
years when the party spirit which
lacerated Florence ut last burst forth
with ferocity and bitterness scarcely
equaled in history-when the war cry
rang from one end Of the city 70 the
other and citizen fought against citi-
sen, and no man went ont in the morn
ing With any certainty of Tsturning at