The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1896-06-24
EUROPEAN LETTER.


land or Dutch hOusekeeper say OF Ma
pies? This city stands pre-eminent inbac-
TARA and microbe manufacturing indus
tries. This is not meanttO bederogatOryto
Naples at all for the interest Of the place
is largely referable to the picturesque
dirt. The true NeapOlitan face is not
characterized so much by black eyes and
rosy lips as by dirt, and one always
thinks when looking at the children Oh
Charles Lambs remark, 'If dirt were
trumps what hands they would hold"
In rainy weather the streets are covered
with thin, black batter OF mud, and
the carefully dressed American, and the
daily dubbed" Englishman find them
selves after few hours sight seeing re-
duced to the real Neapolitan state.
The streets here are painfully narrow,
in fact. just wide enough to allow car
riages to pass. On the numerous holidays
two long professions Of carriages block
the business streets from end to end, and
the man who has not yet been so infu-
enced by the climate as not to care
whether he reaches the bank today or
next week, finds this slow moving pro-
cession sore trial to his patience. The
sidewalks are even worse. On the prin-
cipal shopping street they are about two
feet wide. At one point in this street we
saw a man the other day, who nonchal-
emily lead a goat out of gate opening
on the pavement, and quietly sat down
to milk her. The pedestrians respected
his energy and the entire mass moved
off the sidewalk so as not to disturb him.
The Italians are a good natured people.
The beggars are innumerable. They
conduct business everywhere and there
seems to be between them and the gen.
darms who are almost as numerous,
kind of understanding that one will not
disturb the ether. There is magnih-
cent arcade in the city called the Gal
leria Vittorio Emmanuel, but the pleas
ure to walk through it is spoiled by the
little beggars who turn handsprings and
somersaults in front of you through the
entire place in hope Of penny. A lit
tie girl conducts business of this kind in
the Galleria and reaps large rewards, a
shop keeper told me, for doing 1t so
"modestly." A man, smOkinglis follow
ed any distance, until he drops the stub
of his cigar, when struggle for its pos
session ensues. In the streets that lead
up to the hill the poorer classes reside,
and the sights these streets afford are
werth crossing the ocean and all its at
tendant sea-sickness to see. Many Of
them are only long flights of stairs and
others are so steep that land slides in the
city are of common occurrence. OF
course horses cannot go on these inclines
so the whole domestic economy Of the
families is exhibited on the street. They
live almost altogether out Of doors and it
is no uncommon thing to see children
washed and dressed and other domestic
SCIENCES of more or less delicate charac-
ter enacted in the open air. But all of
these things do not interfere with the
charm of these picturesque, tOrtuOus
streets and alleys. In fact they constitute
its charm, and the scene that in America
would make you hasten for policeman,
forms here the subject of your snapshot,
1t is something in the setting of the
picture-the tall pink and yellow houses
with their dirty windows and broken
walls, the blue, blue sky overhead, the
black streets below; in the distance across
the brilliant bay, Vesuvius smoking his
daily pipe-all these are the cause, and
though you talk loudly about the advan.
tage of American thrift and progressive.
ness, you long to linger here where
"mere passive existence is itself 8
Lethe.".
The schools, so far as | can learn, are
very good. Attendance is compulsory
and the normal instruction for the teach
ers very careful. In all the grades Eng
lish, German and French are taught
The fact that the people have enjoyed
freedom and good schools for less thai
one generation is apparent in the su
periOr intelligence of the younger mem
bers of the households. The older per
sons speak a soft, abbreviated Italian
and one always thinks Of them as a pee
pie whose energy has been expended fO
| euphQny, but the children show quick
ness of perception and an intelligenc
that is surprising. Many of the peOpl
are complaining that the public school
are undermining not only parental, br
} church authority, which sprObably tru,
and will be the cause in few generI
. tiOns Of better days for Italy. An
speaking of the churches, l have see
= nothing that so well characterized Il
ultramOntane view as performance
a cafe chantant a few nights since, wht
> a Franciscan monk was caricahlred
l. the drollest and most irreverent manne
y while the audience applauded and encC
Is ed again and again.