Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-14
FOGS OF FLORENCE.
hurat Halstead Has q Surprise in a
Fair City of Sunny Italy.
1T WASA REGULAR LONDONER, TOO.
The Cool Stone Houses an Improvement
Over Our 0verheated Ones.
VISIT 70 TIE OPERA HOUSE
ftwRITTEN FOR THE DIsPArcH.l

Florence in one particular. The TACT in the
case seems 80 out of character as to be
wholly unreasonable. During the afternoon
of my appearance in the city noticed that
there was mistiness in the air We took q
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 expected. To be
sure, there was the Duomo, and the Cam
panile, 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 in6iction Of capital, Punishment. l
would have remarked, if at home and show
ing stranger the beauties of city, that
one of our fogs was coming up; but did
not think of accusing Florence of fog
That I should have regarded as profane
recklessness.
The next morning the appearance Of day
light was delayed in manner that was for
time puzzle. struck match and lit a
candle, and there was something wrong if
the clock was not ahead of time. I pulled
aside the voluminous curtains, and there
was such fog it was impossible to see
across 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. L was so astonished that
1 came near ordering three eggs for break
fast, and as two are the regular allowance,
might have had to reproach myself for the
needless invitation of serious consequences
Where Were Italy's Sunny Skie.?
But who would have thought of finding .
London 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 and soda. My
view of duty when the two eggs were con-
sumed-and 1 had the courage to order q
chop in addition and partake of that also
was that it was good morning to see 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 baptized" and thus
sought to shake my faith in my local knowl-
edge. 1 shouldn't be surprised if the man
did not believe that Dante ever was bap-
tized or ever was in Florence. The next
thing he will be denying that there was any
Dante. What would you think of q guide
at Stratford-o d-on-tne-Avon with doubts about
Shakespeare and springing his skepticism
on strangers?
I desire to say, and may as we'll say it
here as anywhere, good word for an 1tal-
ian institution-or shall call it custom,
habit, fashion or ornecessity?--mucha abused and
misunderstood - the 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, be-
cause the old stone houses were so cold, and
there were no fires, and the Italian people
have been most disrespectfully spoken of in
that connection.
Where Italy Is Ahead OF Us.
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 America. do not know
the public building, from any one of the
departments in Washington to the hotels,
great and small, West and East, that is not
horribly over-heated, and the remark may
be safely extended to the majority of the
private houses. We use fuel with frightful
and wasteful profusion that is one of the
most scandalous profigacies in the uni
verse. We Steamboat ourselves at home,
in the churches (when they are not red-hot
air furnaces),' in the cars, day and night, in
our offices, until we are fast in the fierce
clutches of the pneumonia
Overheating everything is one Of our
national denominations. We should live in
a temperature not to exceed by artificial
means $50, and we are not content with less
than from 700 to 75o. The comfortable,
luxurious GOODNESS of the Italian hotels
struck me at once. When you wanted
fire you did not summon fierce furnace.
When you entered hall you did not have
to face whitening blast. Neither at Genoa,
Pisa, Rome nor Florence did 1 require 4
fire.
Fire That so Cents Will Buy.
Those who did paid so cents for box of
fuel-a rare assortment of the crookedest
sticks and the most complicated knots that
ever grew where trees are taught to yield
crops of branches, and resent the harvest by
twisting themselves into marvellous shapes.
Sixty cents worth of knots and twigs will
make fine fire for several hours; indeed,
it will cover two days with due attention
and decent economy. People who talk of
have lived in overheated apartments until
they are demoralized, and their very hides
are unwholesome. They do not have many
coal fires in the Vatican-for instance, for
the artists who are copying pictures to
work by-but the braziers of Goals are COM
forting. I would recommend His Holiness
to put in electric lights, but not steam
heating apparatus or superheated furnaces.
The continental Europeans have strange
notions about the breadth of beds. 1t is
funny to see two thrones erected in do
nestle apartment, but the grand old En-
glishman understands thing or two. There
Is room for him in the world night and day,
md his bed is as broad as it is long. If he
goes to bed along he can lie crosswise, and
kick without exposing his toes He knows
how to eat, too, and as for drinking, he
does as the pupils of the singing masters are
instructed to do-he opens his mouth and
there is freedom in the flow of the beverage.
whether it is brandy and soda or bitter beer,
or dry champagne.
OVERRIDING the Ceiling Decoration.
have not as yet heard any of my Amer |
ing of the absence of patent rope ladders at |
,he windows of their rooms in the italian |
hotels. They all had to say they felt q |
reasonable assurance of safety in houses |
whose inner as well as outer walls and stair |
gays were stone-'rocks that resist the bill |
ows and the sky" 1 did, though, hear a |
reasonable complaint in a Florence hotel by |
IN American citizen. While at table d'hote |
,e glanced upward, and growing pensive
,aid he had seen enough ceilings decorated |
oy old masters during the day without be-
ng called upon to dine under one that COM
,ined the zodiac with zoology, mythology !
-
ceiling was excessive for hotel.
The Italian troops make an impression, |