The daily herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1892-1897, 1895-02-14
CORSICA AND ITS PEOPLE.
Tie Mea Were Endowed With Courage
and Other Primitive Virtues.

tie Mea We're Endowed With Courage
and Other Primitive Virtues.
A lofty mountain ridge divides the
island into eastern and western dis
tricts. The former is gentler in its
slopes and more fertile. Looking as
it does toward Italy, it was in the
middle ages closely bound in inter-
course with that peninsula. Richer
in its resources than the other part,
it was more open to outside inhu-
e1 ces and for this reason freer in its
institutions. The rugged western
division had come more completely
under the yoke of feudalism, having
close affinity in sympathy and some
relation in blood with the Greek,
Roman, Saracenic and Teutonic race
elements in France and Spain. The
communal administration of the
eastern slope, however, prevailed
eventually in the western as well,
and the differences of origin, wealth
and occupation, though at times oc-
casioning intestine discord, were as
nothing compared with the common
characteristics which knit the people
of the entire island into one national
organization, as much unit as was
their territory by reason of its in
sular situation and in spite of its
mountain spine.
The people of this small common
wealth were in the main of Italian
blood. Some slight connection with
the mother land thcy still main
-tt ai.'e< in the> relations of commerce.
and by the education of their pro-
fessional men at Italian schools
While comparatively few support
ed themselves as tradssmen or sea-
fsrers, the mass of the population
was dependent for livelihood upon
agriculture. as q nation, therefore,
they had long ceased to follow the
course of general European develop
ment They had been successfully
the subjects of Greece, Rome and
the caliphate of the emperor and of
the republic of Pisa. Their latest
master was the Genoese republic,
which had now degenerated into an
Enthusiastically oligarchy.
United to that state originally by
terms which gave the island al
speaker, or advocate, in the Geno.
csc senate and recognized the most
cherished habits of hardy, natural
minded and primitive people, they
had little by little been left prey
to their own faults in order that
their unworthy mistress might rulo
thereby with less exertion. Agricul. |
ture languished, and the minute sub.
division of arabic land finally rem.
dered it proftless. Among a people |
who are isolated not only as island.
ers, but also as mountaineers, old in
situations arc particularly tenacious
of life. That of the vendetta or of |
blood revenge, with its accompany
ing clanship, never disappeared from
Corsica. In the centuries of Genoese
rule the carrying of arms WIS wink
ed at quarrels became rife, and of
ten family considerations, embrac-
ing considerable part of the coun-
try, were arrayed one against the
other in lawless violence. The feu-
dial nobility, few in number, werc
unreeognized and failed to cultivate
the industrial arts in the security Of
costly strongholds, as their class did
elsewhere, while the fairest portions
of Land not yet held by them were
gradually absorbed by the monster
les, which the Genoese favored as
likely TO render easier the govern
ment of turbulent people. The
human animal, however, throve. OF
medium stature and powerful mold,
with black hair and piercing eyes,
with we'll formed, agile and s;newy
limbs, endowed with courage and
other primitive virtues, the Corsican
was everywhere sought as soldier
and could be found in all the armies
of the southern continental states.
New Life Of Napoleon" in Cen.
tI1rv