The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-14
THE TRAITS OF ITALY.
Murat Halstead Finds a London
Fog in Florence.
GOODNESS OF THE HOUSES.
Everybody Uses the Telephone, and the
Electric Car Il in vogue-Popular
Love of Music.

wholly unreasonable. During the after
noon of my appearance in the city no
ticed that there was a mistiness in the air.
We took drive into the country to find
hill from which the city could be seen in
its whole extent, and when we got there
the city did not show up exactly as ex-
pected. To be sure, there was the Duomo,
and the Campanile, and the huge old
tower of the town hall, and half dozen
domes and spires that one may forget to
name without demand for the inhiction
of capital punishment. l would have re-
marked, if at home and showing stranger
the beauties of city, that one of our
fogs was coming up; but / did not
think of accusing Florence of fog. That
l should have regarded as profane reckless
ness. The next morning the appearance
of daylight was delayed in a manner that
was for time a puzzle. l struck match
and lit candle, and there was something
wrong if the watch was not ahead of time
/ pulled aside. the voluminous curtains,
and there was such fog it was impossible
to see across a small square in front of our
house. A statue in the center of the
square could be seen like ghost, but the
further houses were undiscoverable. 1 was
so astonished that 1 came near ordering
three eggs for breakfast, and as two are the
regular allowance, l might have had to
reproach myself for the needless invita-
ton of serious consequences. But who
would have thought of finding q Lon
don fog in Florence? 1t is proper to
say that the man who took it hardest was
from London, and he was so discouraged
as to begin the day with brandy
nd Nv Of Inf vbay, no rur
eggs were consumed-and l had the cour-
age to order a chop in addition and partake
of that also-was that it was a good morn
ing to see a few churches and study the
frescoes that one must see, and that are so
indistinct when the sun is shining that it
is a vanity and vexation to throw oneself
into the attitude of doing them. We
entered the Baptistry a second time, and
the guide repeated an offensive sentence
this: Here is where you say Dante was
baptised." and thus sought to shake my
faith in my local knowledge. l shouldn't
be surprised if the man did not believe
Dante ever was baptised or ever was in
Florence. The next thing he will be deny
ing that there was any Dante. What
would you think of guide at Stratford-
on-the-Avon with doubts about Shake
speare and springing his skepticism on
strangers.
dare to say. and may as we'll say it
here as anywhere, good word for an Ital-
ian lnstitution-or shall [ call it custom,
habit, fashion or necessityy-much abused
and misunderstood-th low temperature
| of their houses in winter. 1t has been i'm
| pressed upon me many times that Italy
was a dreadful country in the winter time,
| hecousa tho 0iG stope b0usns yara CO ,ol1
and there were no fires, and the Italian
| people have been most disrespectfully
| spoken of in that connection. l want to
say, with full understanding of the breadth
of the impudence and the height of the
audacity of the assertion, that the Italians
| are far wiser about the temperature of their
houses than are the people of the United
| States of North America. do not know the
| public building, from any one of the de-
| partments in Washington City to the
| hotels, great and small, West and East,
| that is not horribly overheated, and the
| remark may be safely extended to the ma
| Jority of the private houses. We use fuel
| with frightful and wasteful profusion that
| is one of the most scandalous protligacies
| in the universe. We Steamboat ourselves
| at home, in the churches (when there are
not red-hot air furnaces), in the cars, day
! in the fierce clutches of the pneumonia.
| Overheating everything is one of our ma
| tlonal denominations. We should live in
| temperature not to exceed by artificial
| means 60 degs.. and we are not content
with less than from 20 to 10 dogs. There
| was howl before | left home
| that the Brooklyn bridge cars were
not heated, and some chilly people wrote
| agueish letters about the cold and clammy
| outrage to the newspapers, and these
were classified as public complaints"
| Other citizens are shocked because they
are exposed to the air in climbing to eIe-
| waited cars. and they seem 10 have no con-
! ception what a luxury and convenience
| those cars are. The comfortable, luxuri-
| Gus GOODNESS of the Italian hotels struck
me ut once. When you wanted fire YOU
| did not summon herce furnace. When
| you entered hall you did not have to
| face whitening blast. Neither at Genoa
| Pisa, Rome nor Florence did | REQUIRE n
hre. Those who did paid 60 cents for a
| boX OF fuel-a rare assortment of the
| crookedest sticks and the most conpli-
| Gated knots that ever grew where
| trees are taught TO yield crops OF branches,
! and resent the harvest by twisting
| themselves into marvellous shapes. Sky
/ cents worth of knots and twigs will make
| G Tine hre tor several hours; indeed, it will
| cover two days with due attention and de-
| cent economy People,who talk of shfyer.
| ing IN the old palaces are those who have
! hved IN overheated apartments until they
! are demorallZed, and their very hides are
/ unwholesome. They do not have many
| coal fires IN the NatIcan-for instance. for
the artists who are copying pictures to
| work by-but the braZiers of Goals are com
/ iorting. would recommend his holiness
| to put in electric lights, bat not steam
| heating apparatus or superheated fur
| naces. 1t seems disconsolate to 90
4 and go to bed on an iron bedstead
/ so narrow that it is series of rnercies
! that the clothing. however YOU NAV wind
/ II about your form. does NOS all slide ON
/ the door At first, as il generally does at
1 last; but you can have beautiful light if
/ you send Tor lamp, aud Of course YOU
ma the lamp IN the bill, rs YOU do the
| soap and candies. and the salt and small
radishes. aud the number Of eggs you eat.
I European Bookkeeping is i matter OF de-
/ tails that excite varied emotions. Sneak
/ ing OF beds, the continental Europeaus
| have strange notions about the breadth of
I beds. IL is funny to see two thrones
| erected in domestic apartment.
( but the grand ola Englishman understands
( a thing OF two. There is room for him in
[ the world night and day, and his bed Is as
! broad as u IS long. II he goes to bed atone
/ he can lie cross wise, and Kick without ex-
/ posing his toes. lie knows how to eat
too, ana IS Tor drinking, he does rs the
| pRplls OF the singing masters are instructed
| 70 do-he opens his mouth and there il
freedom IN the dow of the beverage.
whether II Is brandy and soda or hitter
beer, or dry champagne. | have not as
yet heard any of my American fellow citi-
Gems and travellers complaining Of the an
sence OF patent rope ladders at the win
dows oi their rooms in the Italian
hotels. They all had 10 saw tbey
ieit q reasonable assu-sncA -.