Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-02
STUNNING In ITALY.
TALL TENEMENT HOUSES IN THE
NARROW ALLEYS OF GENOA.
CROWDED HOMES OF The POOR
Paper Scraps Too Valuable to Find
Their Way Into Street-Litter--
Penalties One Pays when Discover
ed 10 BE an American.

Genoa Correspondence New York Times.l
The strange old quarter OF Genoa that
1 shall try to give some idea Of Is a hard
place TO describe accurately to American
readers, for there is nothing In the least
like il in our part of the world. Even
in this older world i have seen nothing
like it before, The ancient parts Of Lon
don and rural England show their aga
very frankly, and in the south Of France
and in Germany there Is much to remind
us Of times that are more than old. But
here is part of an ancient city that, be-
sides venerable. gives indications Of an
| entirely different manner Of living from
any that we are acquainted with.
| You must try to picture II you please,
! street OF ordinary width say as wide
| as one Of our cross streets in New York,
| running parallel with the harbor. but
not always Immediately on the water
front. The land side is built up sight
with tall buildings of stone that would
be said TO tower into the sky IL we were
Lot acquainted with the modern Office
buildings-houses from six 10 eight stories
high solid as forts, but often out OF
plumb, bullying, or drawing In their sides
as il ia pain. on the water side the
scene changes az you advance along the
street. At one place is row OF tall
buildings shutting out ali signs Of the
water. Then the bay apparently makes
an inward curve. and the street runs for
a block or two directly along the water.
with a lining of sailing ships steamers.
fishng-boats, and al kinds of craft that
would be something ike our South street
II the style OF rigging were little more
familiar. But the upper works Of ships
here 90 not look at all natural. All the
styles OF rigging that We read about in
Robinson Crusoe' ana the 'Adyen-
lures OF the Algerne Pirates" may be
found here, besides Ipany strange styles
that a western sailor would find 1t hard
to describe. Then the shore line runs
outward again and there are more build
ings. then another stretch OF wharvcs,
followed by a large stone building stand
ing alone and parity over the water, the
watch tower on the roof showing 1t 10
be, as it subsequently proves. the head
quarters of the officers in charge Of the
harbor Then more wharyes, more rows
Of buildings. and so on for several miles.
STREET LITTER WITHOUT PAPER.
The street Itself Is dirtier than any
clean city for Southern Europe, with a
paving under the mud and nth Of large
and uneven blocks of stOne-nOt at all
on the plan OF our Belgian blocks, but
unequal in size and entirely accidental
as TO shape, square, triangular round,
ragged. Just as Ii happens. sometimes
foot long and WIDE sometimes yard,
And what | could not help noticing in
the litter OF the street was the almost
entire absence Of scraps Of paper Pa
per makes no showing i'm the litter #
European streets, for IL is not the cheap
commodity here that II is with us. Even
in London the smaller shopkeepers treat
it as something TO be used with care; but
in Southern Europe 1t is much too valua-
bic to be thrown into the street. When
YOU make purchase at the butchers
or grocers and insist upon having it
wrapped up. he generally runs out to
some mysterious place and buys sheet /
OF coarse paper. So, while in this strange |
street of Genoa there is an abundance |
of dirt. there is no avalanche II paper /
scraps
QUAINT STREETS OF AN OLD CITY. !
1t is a busy street, full Of odd-shaped |
wagons and horses wearing impossible /
styles OF harness. with cabs, some pri- |
yate coaches hand-carts, donkey-carts,
rateiy under the most trying circum-
stances. and not single vehicle built
i'm the light but strong style Of the
United States. Everything on wheels Is
heavy and cumbersome, and looks dis
tinctly foreign. On the landward side
walk are crowds of people. mostly men
and boys, who seem to oe waiting for
- turn UP, without much
hope for anything beyond few CEN
times for the purchase of meal The
men are decently clad, with gaudy sashes
al the waist and gaudy scarfs at the
neck often without coats, and invariably
with an unwashed appearance.
This is the side Of the street the land
side. that offers attractions TO a stran-
ger. though il Is not put down in the
suide-boCks as one of the sights. The
sidewalk is sometimes open to the sky,
)ut FOR long stretches ii is an arcade
'Ormed by the overhanging upper stories,
on immense stone pillars. So
hick are the pillars, and so close to-
,ether 70 hold the great weight of the
owering walls, that beneath them all is
lark as an inner room. In one place,
ghere there is no such arcade. the lower
,art OF the front walls Of a row OF build
ngs has been cut away, and immense
imbers like oak trees put in for tenn
,orary supports. And this ragged cut
lives a good idea Of the structure OF
hese ancient buildings, which have stood
or centuries-perhaps since the days
when Columbus was one OF the dark
knned little boys Of Genoa. To look at
he undisturbed walls, one has almost
o debate in his mind whether they were
ctually built with hands or were carved
nj of rock Their color is exactly the
olor of long-eXposed rock, and except I'm
he windows they offer hardly any signs |
{ the builders handiwork. AS nearly as
can make out from the cut portions,
hey are built OF stones OF irregular
hapes and sizes laid, in broad beds Of
work, / think. is what
MODERN masons call it-and The builders
we're not sparing in the use of materials.
he great weight of the seven or eight
tories must be well supported. and the
over walls are in many places from 4
D feet thick.
branching inward landward from this
yaterside street, are the narrow streets
r lanes of which | made some mention
ist week; streets sometimes three feet
tide. sometimes four, leading to dark
nd mysterious places within and twist
lg so that the end Is rarely visible.
TRANCE as they look from the wider
treet without, their outlets give little
lea of the odd section of the world TO be
by exploring them. There are,
think. four or five of these narrow
avs emptying into the waterside street;
ut they are only the outlets of maze
{ similar openings lying further back.
What strikes me at first glance is the
lct that these narrow cuts are not mere
penings between high buildings, but
omplete streets in everything except a
,adWay. There is barely room for two
eople TO pass in them, but still they are